Tootfinder

Chinese virologist who was first to share #COVID-19 genome sleeps on street after Chinese government shuts his lab
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01293-0

Virologist who was first to share COVID genome is shut out of lab in China
Zhang Yongzhen shared the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 with the world, speeding the development of vaccines.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.00264 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Playing With Friends -- The Importance of Social Play During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In early 2020, the virus SARS-CoV-2 evolved into a new pandemic, forcing governments worldwide to establish social distancing measures. Consequently, people had to switch to online media, such as social networks or videotelephony, to keep in touch with friends and family. In this context, online games, combining entertainment with social interactions, also experienced a notable growth. In our work, we focused on the potential of games as a replacement for social contacts in the COVID-19 crisis.…

The WHO issued a report that transforms how the world understands spread of respiratory infections like #COVID-19, #influenza, & #measles: 🙄😷 “However, a committee advising the CDC appears poised to…

WHO Overturns Dogma on Airborne Disease Spread. The CDC Might Not Act on It.
The report 'is a complete U-turn,' according to one expert

Chip Roy unveils bill to let Americans sue COVID-19 vaccine makers over injury, negative effects (Elizabeth Elkind/Fox News)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chip-roy-unveils-bill-americans-sue-covid-19-vaccine-makers-injury-negative-effects
http://www.memeorandum.com/240305/p74#a240305p74

Still positive.
#CovidIsNotOver

"Germany is the only country where the largest number of people select immigration as the issue that most concerns them; .."
Migration wird, zeigen weitere Tabellen, jeweils von den ältesten Altergruppen und denen mit der geringsten Bildung als Problem empfunden.
Bitter, dass Bildung in Deutschland so vernachlässigt wird.

good rant on public health
From Julia Doubleday back in January:
"... demanding clean air and clean water is not “living in fear” but simply expecting the bare minimum of a democratic society to which we pay taxes...
"Zero public health projects in the history of ever have had a stated goal of “ignore it because we have to live life.” It’s fundamentally antithetical to the very concept of public health."
#covid #health #AirQuality

Hangovers suddenly worse? Researchers think #COVID could be the cause
https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_med…

Hangovers suddenly worse? Researchers think COVID could be the cause
Can’t handle your booze like you used to? You might have COVID-19 to blame, according to researchers at Stanford University.

How many Fediverse polls have you seen asking how many times you have been infected with COVID-19?
#polls #poll #mastodonpolls

No, get away!

Ich bin baff, wie weit diese aktiv forcierte Verweigerungshaltung geht.
Beispiel Corona: Als Konsequenz hat man in den US mit positivem COVID19 Befund bereits bislang lebenslang maximal 14 Tage bezahlte Isolation, mit der Änderung der CDC Policy einer 5tägigen Isolation bald 0.
Ähnlich erlebe ich die Klimakrise, wo die Eskalation der gewalttätigen Bauernproteste die Ungleichbehandlung der friedlichen Klima-Proteste aufzeigt.
"Es kann nicht sein, was nicht sein darf.&qu…

Legendary pilot, educator and adventurer
Dick Rutan died Friday.
He was 85.
Rutan, best known for the record-setting non-stop unrefueled circumnavigation he and Jeana Yeager accomplished in 1986,
was surrounded by family when he died in Kootenai Hospital in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho in the early evening from complications resulting from a year-long bout with Long COVID according to family friends

Dick Rutan Dies At 85 - AVweb
Legendary pilot, educator and adventurer Dick Rutan died Friday according to a press release issued on behalf of the family. (full text follows). He was 85. Rutan, best known for the record-setting non-stop unrefueled circumnavigation he and Jeana Yeager accomplished in 1986, was surrounded by family when he died in Kootenai Hospital in Coeur d’ […]

Even fully recovered survivors of mild COVID can lose IQ points, study suggests:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/even-fully-recovered-survivors-mild-covid-can-lose-iq-points-study-suggests

Conference essentials ✅
#covid #distribits

The Boston-area Covid sewage RNA counts have not improved in a year
I've been copying the Covid RNA-in-sewage measurements from the MWRA's website for a few years now, mostly so I could replot it on a log scale, but also to answer (vaguely, sort of, with caveats) questions about how we are doing.  The short answer is we are not doing any better than we were last year, and have been behind more or less since mid-December.

The Boston-area Covid sewage RNA counts have not improved in a year
I’ve been copying the Covid RNA-in-sewage measurements from the MWRA’s website for a few years now, mostly so I could replot it on a log scale, but also to answer (vaguely, sort of, wit…

"COVID-19 poses a serious risk to brain health, even in mild cases, and the effects are now being revealed at the population level," clinical epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly said
https://people.com/covid-linked-lower-iq-poor-m…

COVID Linked to Lower IQ, Poor Memory and Other Negative Impacts on Brain Health
Mounting scientific evidence reveals that being infected with SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID — profoundly impacts brain health in many ways.

Impact of COVID-19 on Exchange rate volatility of Bangladesh: Evidence through GARCH model
Rizwanul Karim
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02560 https://<…

Impact of COVID-19 on Exchange rate volatility of Bangladesh: Evidence through GARCH model
This study uses the GARCH (1,1) model to examine the impact of COVID-19 cases (log value) on the volatility of the Exchange rate return of Bangladeshi taka (BDT) over the US dollar (USD), Japanese Yen (JPY), and Swedish Krona (SEK). The result shows that an increase in the number of COVID-19-affected cases in Bangladesh has a significant and positive impact on the volatility of exchange rates BDT/USD, BDT/JPY, and BDT/SEK.

Scientists found the two disjunct [!] neuron switches in mice that control inflammation status and communication concerning immune responses in the body!
This is currently shared by many accounts here and yes, it deserves ALL of the attention. I fully agree with this quote from the linked summary below [which is very good!]:
"But overall, this discovery should blow us away."

Scientists Just Made A Stunning Biological Discovery
Sometimes something happens that takes your breath away, in a good way. Those who read my stuff know I’m not someone who gets carried away by optimism, to say the least. But a new paper by scientists at Columbia has blown me away. Researchers have made a discovery, which, if it holds up, has the potential to transform treatments for autoimmune diseases and post-viral illness like long covid and myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Lea Den Broeder and Annemarie Wagemakers on lessons learned from COVID on #citizenscience in community health promotion. Including lessons the “Citizen Science 4 Health” community collected at our conference.
Stresses accessibility of approaches and places, focusing on people’s needs and connecting the community. #ecsa2024

🚥 Chemists develop method to confirm mRNA vaccine stability
#medicine

Chemists develop method to confirm mRNA vaccine stability
University at Albany researchers at the RNA Institute have developed a new method to test COVID-19 vaccine integrity that could allow anyone with basic skills in vaccine handling to detect expired vaccines quickly and effectively, without specialized lab equipment.

Serum samples from the fall of 2023 indicate a rise in protective antibodies in the youngest...This suggests that the children have regained some of protection lost after the pandemic. It also reflects the high prevalence of infection in the 2022/2023 season.

What Went Wrong with a Highly Publicized #COVID Mask Analysis?
The Cochrane Library, a trusted source of health information, misled the public by prioritizing rigor over reality
https…

What Went Wrong with a Highly Publicized COVID Mask Analysis?
The Cochrane Library, a trusted source of health information, misled the public by prioritizing rigor over reality

Mark’s Covid Chicken:
1. Have someone else provide a roasted 1/2 chicken.
2. Put on rubber gloves. Make cat nervous because the last time someone put rubber gloves on around him he didn’t like it.
3. Pull chicken off the bone.
4. Microwave chicken for 3 minutes.
5. Go into the refrigerator to get arugula and pull out kale instead because when I took cooking class in Middle School we had lettuce and not all of these bourgeois greens.
1/2

Even fully recovered survivors of mild COVID can lose IQ points, study suggests:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/even-fully-recovered-survivors-mild-covid-can-lose-iq-points-study-suggests

The next dot-com bubble… #AI #AIHype https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68439120

As I’ve said, RFK jr is a grifter who is a danger to public health. He needs to be stopped. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/02/21/covid-misinformation-earnings/

Tax records reveal the lucrative world of covid misinformation
The influx of pandemic cash enabled organizations to deepen their influence in statehouses, courtrooms and communities across the country.

Latest COVID shot done ✅

"COVID-19 poses a serious risk to brain health, even in mild cases, and the effects are now being revealed at the population level," clinical epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly said
https://people.com/covid-linked-lower-iq-poor-m…

COVID Linked to Lower IQ, Poor Memory and Other Negative Impacts on Brain Health
Mounting scientific evidence reveals that being infected with SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID — profoundly impacts brain health in many ways.

‘Like a Bill Cosby biography that ends in 2014’
Seth Meyers scoffed:
“He’s doing that thing again where he pretends the last year of his presidency didn’t happen, like a Bill Cosby biography that ends in 2014. I can’t believe I have to say this, but Covid happened and it was bad. The economy crashed and people were locked in their homes.
Stephen Colbert on Truth Social: “No one has seen a loss this big since the Trump Taj Mahal, the Trump Hotel, Trump steaks, Trump airlines,…

when "masks don't work"
What I was thinking about this morning:
Any intervention depends on both
• the tech itself
and
• people understanding how to use it.
If you don't know that covid is airborne and floats in the air like smoke... then you aren't going to know at what points a respi mask would be protective.
This explains a lot of the research where masks allegedly "don't work" against covid.
#masks #covid #stats

I get that 'P&O cruises' becomes 'pando cruises' when converted to a username, but given the role of cruise ships in spreading COVID back in the day, maybe try a different variation? #pando #cruises

Weber: EU soll Munition nur noch für die Ukraine produzieren
Der Vorsitzende der Europäischen Volkspartei, Manfred Weber, will die Munitionsproduktion der Europäischen Union (EU) ausschließlich auf die Ukraine ausrichten. "Der ukrainischen Armee geht mehr und mehr die Munition aus. Wie in der Covid-Pandemie muss jetzt in einem Kraftakt die gesamte EU-Produktion gebündelt und in die Ukraine geliefert werden", sagt Weber den Zei…
📑

Ukraine-Liveblog: ++ Russland rückt weiter um Awdijiwka vor ++
Ukrainischen Angaben zufolge rückt Russland weiter um Awdijiwka vor. EVP-Chef Weber fordert, die EU solle Munition nur noch für die Ukraine produzieren. Alle Entwicklungen im Liveblog.

#Covid #Wastewater #Fecal_shedding
Looking from the Swiss data and its correlation to independent measurements of incidence, I would recommend caution in the interpretation of these shedding data, …

Covid is revolution insurance.
Within the next 10-12 years climate change is going to hit the point where the rich will retreat to their bunkers and leave the rest of us to die.
10 years from now ppl with no immune systems left will be dying of paper cuts. Covid will ensure the angry masses don't tear their bunkers apart brick by brick.

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
"As pet ownership soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, private equity followed close behind. The pandemic years of 2020-2022 were 'the peak years for private equity acquisitions of veterinary services and practices' [...]

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — About a year ago, veterinarian Melissa Ezell started noticing subtle changes at the midsized animal clinic in Huntsville, Alabama, where she works. Hollowed Out This story is one in a series examining private equity’s impact on health care and the ways that states are responding.

The kids have been through school shootings, ignorance of COVID (putting their lives behind “academic success”), a violent coup attempt trying to overthrow democracy by the Republican Party for which there weren’t any repercussions, not doing anything about climate change and now incessant murdering of babies with American bombs…
…do the “authorities” think they’ll just stop protesting because “it’s not nice”?

An absolute must watch: (58 min)
Dr. Michael Greger, an infectious diseases expert on pandemic prevention | infectious diseases, Aids, Influenza, Coronavirus.
This video is a 2008 speech covering the cause of infectious diseases and the likelihood of a pandemic almost identical to the coronavirus (Covid-19).
#covid #CovidIsNotOver
Please boost if you feel it would be of interest to others. #EllieKPosts @…
@… @…

Von 2021: #Covid, #Göttingen https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1413823527111864320.htm…

Thread by @zineworkshop on Thread Reader App
Thread by @zineworkshop: Covid? Letzes Jahr im Juni: Zwangsquarantäne in #Göttingen in der Groner Landstr. 9. Solidarische bringen Verpflegung. @threadreaderapp unroll

Trinity team discovers underlying cause of "brain fog" linked with Long COVID
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2024/trinity-team-discovers-underlying-cause-of-brain-fog-linked-with-long-covid/

Yes, it;s clear that there were major problems in the response to Covid. But we also learned a lot, including how to mitigate impacts so we might not need to close schools.
Now will there be a follow up article on mitigation measures - improving ventilation & indoor air quality, developing PPE in children's sizes, etc - that can be in place; how will that be funded, etc?
Calling out a problem without also pointing out there are known mitigations is great for fostering …

What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later
The more time students spent in remote instruction, the further they fell behind. And, experts say, extended closures did little to stop the spread of Covid.

Yes, it;s clear that there were major problems in the response to Covid. But we also learned a lot, including how to mitigate impacts so we might not need to close schools.
Now will there be a follow up article on mitigation measures - improving ventilation & indoor air quality, developing PPE in children's sizes, etc - that can be in place; how will that be funded, etc?
Calling out a problem without also pointing out there are known mitigations is great for fostering …

What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later
The more time students spent in remote instruction, the further they fell behind. And, experts say, extended closures did little to stop the spread of Covid.

A #Covid personal success story to report tonight:
My partner went to a family event over the long weekend, and her dad volunteered to take a RAT when the person who brought the infection interstate wouldn’t. Thank you!
Instead of complaining that we have to be lonely for a week, I’m grateful that I didn’t get infected today after she tested positive this morning. She was supposed t…

From sewage to safety: Hospital wastewater surveillance as a beacon for defense against H5N1 #BirdFlu
https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/01/h5n1-bir…

From sewage to safety: Hospital wastewater surveillance as a beacon for defense against H5N1 bird flu
Wastewater surveillance, which demonstrated great potential during the Covid-19 pandemic, remains vastly under-leveraged for H5N1 bird flu at this precarious moment.

Return to Office and the Tenure Distribution
David Van Dijcke, Florian Gunsilius, Austin Wright
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04352 https://

Return to Office and the Tenure Distribution
With the official end of the COVID-19 pandemic, debates about the return to office have taken center stage among companies and employees. Despite their ubiquity, the economic implications of return to office policies are not fully understood. Using 260 million resumes matched to company data, we analyze the causal effects of such policies on employees' tenure and seniority levels at three of the largest US tech companies: Microsoft, SpaceX, and Apple. Our estimation procedure is nonparametric a…

Serum samples from the fall of 2023 indicate a rise in protective antibodies in the youngest...This suggests that the children have regained some of protection lost after the pandemic. It also reflects the high prevalence of infection in the 2022/2023 season.

Joni Mitchell's music returns to Spotify after she removed it in 2022 in protest of what she called "lies" about vaccines on the platform, following Neil Young (Ben Sisario/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/arts/music/joni-mi…

Joni Mitchell, Following Neil Young, Returns to Spotify After Protest
Her music has quietly reappeared on the streaming service, two years after a departure over what she called “lies” about Covid-19 vaccines in podcasts.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.10580 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Towards Secure Virtual Elections: Multiparty Computation of Order Based Voting Rules
Electronic voting systems are essential for holding virtual elections, and the need for such systems increases due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing that it mandates. One of the main challenges in e-voting systems is to secure the voting process: namely, to certify that the computed results are consistent with the cast ballots, and that the privacy of the voters is preserved. We propose herein a secure voting protocol for elections that are governed by order-based voting rules.…

we have a global Cholera ‘surge’ & scarce vaccine
we have a Measles outbreaks in the N.A. Canada is short on vaccine.
we have Covid killing people every day
we have incipient famine brewing across the Sahel, complicated by Ethiopia’s turmoil, multiple military coups, & the destruction of regionally critical Internet infrastructure
The Russians are doing their best to end the power infrastructure of Ukraine
🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥
🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 This is fi…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.14876 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Stochastic COVID-19 Model Influenced by Non-Gaussian Noise
Natural fluctuations have played a crucial role in affecting the dynamics of pervasive diseases such as the coronavirus. Examining the effects of irregular unsettling disturbances on epidemic models is important for understanding these dynamics. In this study, we introduce a mathematical model for the SIR (Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered) dynamics of the coronavirus, incorporating perturbations in the contact rate through Levy noise. The utilization of the Levy process is essential for the pro…

Wenn jetzt ÄrztInnen auf #Bewährung "freigesprochen" werden, die in über 4000 Fällen falsche #Covid-Bescheinigungen jedweder Art ausgestellt haben und das nicht fraglich ist, wie sehr wird dann bei der nächsten

It's only Tuesday, but this week is already shaping up to be a real grind. My poor wife tested positive for COVID this morning. I'd like to be home taking care of her, but instead I'm back at the car dealership for a second consecutive day so they can fix whatever they bungled on her car yesterday. Despite all the pantomimed assurances of communications to the proper parties yesterday, nobody today had any idea why I am here. I'm tired. Tired of incompetence. Tired of clearly…

States that lean Republican report more COVID vaccine-related adverse events, study finds:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/states-lean-republican-report-more-covid-vaccine-related-adverse-events-study-finds

Weil die #UDV gerade Horrorszenarien um 0 schwer verletzte und 0 getötete Kinder, die in Lastenrädern transportiert wurden, aufbaut, hier: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemi…

“I also don’t think we’ve mourned the loss of the more than seven million lives—that we know of. [The figure is] probably three times higher. This virus has touched every single person and family, and it’s changed the trajectory of people’s lives. People who were forced to remain home and in violent situations, children who were out of school, some of whom will never go back, especially young girls who were married off or have children now—this has changed futures. People are resilient, but …

If anyone had any remaining doubts that RealClear is a rightwing Republican outfit (it has always been), check this out.
Jay Bhattacharya of COVID-falsehood Hoover Inst fame just got an award from them, along with Matt Taibbi.
The modern right is truly built on lies.

On Monday we discussed the topic of platform trials with the discussion anchored by the PROTECT-V trial
Touching upon #COVID #PlatformTrials and #Renalism
This was the

cognitive framing of covid risks
You know when people are like "you have to live your life", and it means acting as if covid doesn't exist?
I was thinking, it's as if they have covid risks conceptualised as a one-dimensional measurement spectrum like so:
{No fun, no risk} ............... {Fun and risk}
For me, it isn't like that: there's a quadrant which is "highly rewarding and little or no risk".
#covid #CovidCareful

A new framework for calibrating COVID-19 SEIR models with spatial-/time-varying coefficients using genetic and sliding window algorithms
Huan Zhou, Ralf Schneider, Sebastian Kl\"usener, Andreas Backhaus
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08524

A new framework for calibrating COVID-19 SEIR models with spatial-/time-varying coefficients using genetic and sliding window algorithms
A susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model assumes spatial-/time-varying coefficients to model the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the regional and temporal distribution of COVID-19 disease epidemics. A significant challenge in using such model is their fast and accurate calibration to observed data from geo-referenced hospitalized data, i.e., efficient estimation of the spatial-/time-varying parameters. In this work, a new calibration framework is proposed towards…

Those who follow PhysicsGirl (https://www.youtube.com/@physicsgirl) and have wondered about her debilitating long-COVID-related ME/CFS, may be interested to read new NIH sponsored research on the condition.
NIH researchers "have found differences in the brains and immune systems of …

Findings, published Jan. 17 in Cell Stem Cell, show that dopamine neurons infected with SARS-CoV-2 stop working and send out chemical signals that cause inflammation.
Normally, these neurons produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in feelings of pleasure, motivation, memory, sleep and movement.
Damage to these neurons is also connected to Parkinson’s disease.
“This project started out to investigate how various types of cells in different organs respond to …

SARS-CoV-2 infection causes dopaminergic neuron senescence
Yang and colleagues demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 can infect hPSC-derived midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons and induce cellular senescence. Several drug candidates were identified to rescue SARS-CoV-2 infection and DA neuron senescence. Inflammation and cellular senescence were also identified in substantia nigra tissue of COVID-19 patients.

States that lean Republican report more COVID vaccine-related adverse events, study finds:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/states-lean-republican-report-more-covid-vaccine-related-adverse-events-study-finds

Swarming Secrets: Bat ‘Nightclubs’ Hold the Key to Preventing Future Viral Outbreaks
https://scitechdaily.com/swarming-secrets-bat-nightclubs-hold-the-key-to-preventing-future-viral-outbreaks/

Swarming Secrets: Bat ‘Nightclubs’ Hold the Key to Preventing Future Viral Outbreaks
The evolution of viral tolerance in Myotis bats may help scientists prevent future pandemics, say researchers at Texas A&M. Bats carry some of the deadliest zoonotic diseases that can infect both humans and animals, such as Ebola and COVID-19. In a recently published article in the journal

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
"As pet ownership soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, private equity followed close behind. The pandemic years of 2020-2022 were 'the peak years for private equity acquisitions of veterinary services and practices' [...]

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — About a year ago, veterinarian Melissa Ezell started noticing subtle changes at the midsized animal clinic in Huntsville, Alabama, where she works. Hollowed Out This story is one in a series examining private equity’s impact on health care and the ways that states are responding.

“To engage with the reality of [the #COVID] crisis, we need to understand how adopting an individualist approach to public health is destroying decades of labor activism, human rights progress, and hard-won protections.” #SARSCoV2

Was just in a Lee Valley store in Halifax where one employee was the only one wearing a mask. A decent one, too. We chose to be served by him. I thanked him for wearing it, and he replied, "It's the sensible thing to do. " We agreed and said that we still haven't had covid. He said he hasn't either. I wonder why? Ha!
Ŵe were the only ones masked, anywhere.
#dontLiveDangerously

A harsh truth: The world economy never recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic (John Rapley/Globe and Mail)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-global-economy-covid-19-pandemic/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240218/p33#a240218p33

CDC recommends older adults get 2nd updated coronavirus shot
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Wednesday that people 65 and older get a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine made available last fall because they are at higher risk for severe disease from the virus.
“Most covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people 65 years and older. An additional vaccine dose can provide added protection that may have decreased over time for those at highes…

CDC recommends older adults get 2nd updated coronavirus shot
People over 65 should get a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine because they are at higher risk for severe disease from the virus, CDC says.

Researchers identify mechanism behind brain fog in long COVID:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/researchers-identify-mechanism-behind-brain-fog-long-covid

Wenn jetzt ÄrztInnen auf #Bewährung "freigesprochen" werden, die in über 4000 Fällen falsche #Covid-Bescheinigungen jedweder Art ausgestellt haben und das nicht fraglich ist, wie sehr wird dann bei der nächsten

If anyone had any remaining doubts that RealClear is a rightwing Republican outfit (it has always been), check this out.
Jay Bhattacharya of COVID-falsehood Hoover Inst fame just got an award from them, along with Matt Taibbi.
The modern right is truly built on lies.

Guardian covid erasure (again)
This morning, the Guardian gives us a whole article about the increasing rate of strokes in the UK - somehow failing to mention the word "covid" at all.
Instead of a link to their denialtastic article, here's some actual research on covid, strokes etc:
"People who survived the first 30 d of COVID-19 exhibited increased risk of stroke (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.52 (1.43, 1.62)"
#stroke #CovidErasure #Guardian

#Covid
Schätzung für Zürich aufgrund Kalibration der Abwasserprävalenzen Werdhölzli, Daten bis 17. März:
Inzidenz ~300.
Ca. jede 330. Person infiziert sich pro Woche.
Läuft parallel mit SentiSurv RLP, wie letzten Sommer.

This grifter is a colossal threat to public health. https://mstdn.social/@tracingcovid/111976431869647610

Researchers identify mechanism behind brain fog in long COVID:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/researchers-identify-mechanism-behind-brain-fog-long-covid

COVID aid changed the way schools can help homeless kids. What happens now? - Chalkbeat
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/03/14/how-covid-aid-ushered-in-ability-to-give-homeless-students-more-direct-h…

Grocery cards and car repairs: How COVID aid changed the way schools can help homeless kids
Grocery cards and car repairs: How COVID aid changed the way schools can help homeless kids

Those who follow PhysicsGirl (https://www.youtube.com/@physicsgirl) and have wondered about her debilitating long-COVID-related ME/CFS, may be interested to read new NIH sponsored research on the condition.
NIH researchers "have found differences in the brains and immune systems of …

And did you know that you are eligible for a COVID booster if it's 4 months or more since your last one and you are over 65 or immunocompromised? (Medicare covers it)
Just got mine, absolutely painless and fast, because people are not in a rush. which puzzles me, but 🤷‍♂️
https://www.cdc.gov…

Coronavirus Disease 2019
CDC provides credible COVID-19 health information to the U.S.

Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and Challenges
Jingjin Li, Jiajing Guo, Gilly Leshed
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.13992

Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and Challenges
Mindfulness practice has many mental and physical well-being benefits. With the increased popularity of live stream technologies and the impact of COVID-19, many people have turned to live stream tools to participate in online meditation sessions. To better understand the practices, challenges, and opportunities in live-stream meditation, we conducted a three-month autoethnographic study, during which two researchers participated in live-stream meditation sessions as the audience. Then we condu…

Understanding the genetic mechanism fueling SARS-CoV-2's ability to generate variants can go a long way in keeping COVID at bay.
In this study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions developed a new technology called
tARC-seq that revealed a genetic mechanism affecting SARS-CoV-2 divergence
and enabled the team to calculate SARS-CoV-2's mutation rate.
Using tARC-seq, the researchers also capt…

Study discovers hidden mechanism behind rapid COVID variants
The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID has the unsettling ability of often generating variants of itself. Other viruses also mutate, but as SARS-CoV-2 quickly spread throughout the entire human population during the pandemic, killing millions, the virus' dynamic evolution posed a serious problem: it repeatedly challenged our bodies' immune response fighting the virus and hindered the process of getting updated vaccines ready.

Are You Better Off Than Four Years Ago? OMG You Have Got to Be Kidding Me. – Mother Jones
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/trump-covid-coronavirus-response-biden-four-years-video/

Are you better off than four years ago? OMG you have got to be kidding me.
Our horror show video catalogues Trump's dangerous coronavirus denial—four years ago this month.

Of course tea fixes everything: Can a Cup of Tea Keep COVID Away? Study Finds 99.9% Virus Reduction
https://scitechdaily.com/can-a-cup-of-tea-keep-covid-away-study-finds-99-9-virus-reduction/

Can a Cup of Tea Keep COVID Away? Study Finds 99.9% Virus Reduction
New research from the University of Georgia suggests that something as simple as a cup of tea can help in the fight against COVID-19. Tea has been renowned globally for its many health benefits, and Malak Esseili, a virologist with the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in the College o

#Covid
Repräsentative Stichprobe SentiSurv RLP per 20. März:
7d-Inzidenz 264 [171-390]
Etwa jede 380. Person infiziert sich pro Woche. Kumulative Inzidenz 2023: ~57%. Seit Inzidenzminimum und Start Phase 2 bis 20.03.: ~40%.

The main driver of wealth gains last year was from the stock market hitting record highs.
While wages are increasing for average Americans, the top 1% is gaining wealth at a much faster pace.
The wealth of U.S. #billionaires is currently at $5.5 trillion, 🔸which is up 88% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.🔸
The nation's rich accruing so much wealth in recent years has renew…

Wealth of the top 1% in U.S. hits all-time high of $45 trillion
Data released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday shows the top 1% of Americans are the richest they've ever been.The new data reveals that at the end of the fourth quarter last year they had a record $44.6 trillion in wealth. That's up from $30 trillion in 2020.The main driver of wealth gains last y...

good pointy article about long covid minimisation/denial
... in particular, that shoddy unreviewed paper and its press release timed deliberately for Long Covid Awareness Day.
"Articles like these aren’t simply insulting or offensive; they have material impacts. ...
"There is a deliberate, highly successful effort to misinform the public that COVID cannot harm them."
#LongCovid #denial #LongCovidAwarenessDay

Study shows 43% to 58% lower prevalence of long COVID among vaccinated people:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/study-shows-43-58-lower-prevalence-long-covid-among-vaccinated-people

Alcohol intolerance may be linked to long COVID, specifically the post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) type.
Long COVID refers to persistent symptoms that occur more than three weeks after the initial COVID-19 infection.
According to several anecdotal reports, alcohol intolerance, which is characterized by reactions like nausea, low blood pressure, fatigue, and dizziness when consuming alcohol, may be a unique symptom of long COVID.

Alcohol Intolerance After COVID: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment
Alcohol intolerance is not a common side effect of long COVID, but people have reported it happening to them.

Study shows 43% to 58% lower prevalence of long COVID among vaccinated people:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/study-shows-43-58-lower-prevalence-long-covid-among-vaccinated-people

Long Covid stats & me
Considering whether I would still say my own activities were limited "a lot"... I think it depends on what you're looking at.
The main specific thing I notice still not being able to do is particular bike rides, because the mileage I'm capable of dropped precipitously & is coming back very slowly.
But that very measurable limitation is probably indicative of stamina overall. So in that sense, yeah, "a lot", even though I can do most things to _some_ extent again now.

How everything became a ‘psyop’ for conservative media
Lately, it’s become popular in conservative media circles to brand certain things as a psychological operation, or “#psyop.”

Climate change, for example. Or covid. Or the media coverage of Donald Trump. Or even the prosecution of Hunter Biden.

Technically, “psyop” is a U.S. military term, referring to various kinds of campaigns to ge…

How everything became a ‘psyop’ for conservative media
Right-wing pundits are calling climate change, Taylor Swift, covid a ‘psyop,’ though the conspiracy-tinged phrase is losing its grip on an actual definition.

By 2022, COVID pandemic had shaved 1.6 years from global life expectancy, research reveals:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/2022-covid-pandemic-had-shaved-16-years-global-life-expectancy-research-reveals

By 2022, COVID pandemic had shaved 1.6 years from global life expectancy, research reveals:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/2022-covid-pandemic-had-shaved-16-years-global-life-expectancy-research-reveals