8,835 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2021
    1. But we would need to intentionally center care and well-being as a primary condition of learning and be willing to set our obsession with achievement -- gently, even if momentarily -- aside.

      post-pandemic pedagogy

    1. Defined as excess death, meaning “the number of persons who have died from all causes, in excess of the expected number of deaths for a given place and time,” the CDC said an estimated 299,028 excess deaths have occurred in the United States from late January through October 3, 2020, with two thirds of these attributed to COVID-19. (As of October 15, 216,025 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in the United States, according to the CDC)

      Excess death

  2. Dec 2020
    1. The medical community took the primary responsibility for disease mitigation, as one might expect. It was widely assumed that diseases require medical not political responses. 

      We may have gotten dumber.

    1. Bu Experts {@BU Experts} (2020) How can we navigate daily life during the pandemic? #Publichealth expert & epidemiologist @EpiEllie will be on @reddit_AMA this Thursday (8/27) at 12pm ET to answer all of your #COVID19-related questions. She'll discuss how to safely see friends and family, travel & more. @BUSPH. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/BUexperts/status/1297932614909792258

    1. Emily. J. Miller. - FDA {@FDASpox} (2020) Convalescent plasma has shown to be beneficial for 35% of patients. This risk reduction figure - shown in chart below - is from @MayoClinic data from expanded access program that was analyzed by FDAA for the emergency use authorization announced today. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/FDASpox/status/1297706985039835136

    1. Po świątecznym spadku statystyki znowu skoczyły do góry. Minionej doby zmarło ponad 307 osób z koronawiursem. Nowych zakażeń jest 7914.

      Bzdura. 28.12.2020 przetestowane 16 000 29.12.2020 przetestowane 33 000 https://www.termedia.pl/mz/Ile-dziennie-wykonuje-sie-testow-na-koronawirusa-,39038.html Dlatego rodzaj wzrostu. Jeśli spojrzysz na wyniki testów (liczba i ile testów jest pozytywnych), możesz dostrzec cykliczność. Zawsze w sobotę-poniedziałek mniej, potem wtorek-środa znowu wzrost. Wynika to najprawdopodobniej z metodologii testowania i zbierania informacji, ale nie ma to nic wspólnego z samą epidemią.

    1. When our memories become incapacitated we soon find ourselves mired in what might be called the non-binding normativity of now, a condition where the beliefs we dignify as true today place no constraints on what we believe tomorrow.

      “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” - George Orwell

    1. has developed novel bioinformatics software called OliVar, which allows researchers and assay developers to automate and design assays that target regions of the virus genome that have the lowest frequency of mutation
    1. mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate, manufactured by Moderna, encodes the S-2P antigen, consisting of the SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein with a transmembrane anchor and an intact S1–S2 cleavage site. S-2P is stabilized in its prefusion conformation by two consecutive proline substitutions at amino acid positions 986 and 987, at the top of the central helix in the S2 subunit
    1. In some commercial assays, the cut-off is determined individually for each run based on the amplification curve and Ct value of the positive control.

      This seems like it would more accurate than just about any other test.

    2. The risk of false positive results increases as the pretest probability of COVID-19 decreases, such as in instances of low prevalence

      Samples that should have have resulted in a negative registered a false positive. However, an appropriately taken sample was likely to give a positive.

    1. We report the preclinical development of BNT162b2, a lipid-nanoparticle (LNP) formulated N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1Ψ) nucleoside-modified mRNA (modRNA) vaccine candidate that encodes P2 S with a native furin cleavage site resulting in the S1 and S2 cleavage fragments
    2. To generate the template for RNA synthesis, a DNA fragment encoding the SARS-CoV-2 P2 279 S protein (based on GenBank: MN908947), including the amino acid exchanges K986P and 280 V987P, was cloned into a starting plasmid vector with backbone sequence elements for 281 improved RNA stability and translational efficiency19,34

      BNT162b2

    1. Why with the animals 13wanderest thou on the plain?

      When thinking of Gilgamesh, he himself is the king of Uruk. This rich and giving lifestyle is highlighted as part of humanity. To be civilized with shelter, colonies and living within cities is a normal created by societies around this time. and the people in Uruk have established themselves into this style of domesticated living. With Enkidu coming in the world from gods and automatically gravitating towards wild animals and roaming the plains eating grass and what the earth naturally grows, it is seen as weird or unnatural when in fact it is more natural than what the people of Uruk are doing. However with the people from this time, I am unsure if they knew about cave people and how they lived while on earth. Then sending in a priestess, who was called "Hierodule" (A slave or prostitute) to domesticate Enkidu by covering him with garments and introducing him to the way the people of Uruk live and the discovered feelings of people. These gestures and judgement of ones other lifestyle is one of the first ancient instances of "othering." This proves that humans have a natural instinct to not be accepting towards another persons way of life.

      CC-BY-SA

    2. I saw him and was astounded. 33I loved him as a woman, 34falling upon him in embrace. 35I took him and made him 36my brother.” 37The mother of Gilgamish she that knows all things 38[said unto Gilgamish:—] ................................... [213] COL. II 1that he may join with thee in endeavor.” 2(Thus) Gilgamish solves (his) dream. 3Enkidu sitting before the hierodule

      In the time period the translation, you can tell that they had just begun to create labels on relationships, people etc to understand what they were feeling or to just recognize different people. In the text chosen, there are many different area's in the highlighted portion and throughout the text, where Gilgamesh uses labels which created for a clear story. It is however conflicting because of the translators and them maybe having included different sections so that the story makes sense. Nonetheless, when he said that he loved him like he would a woman, that shows how the language at the time was advanced, closer to the current 21st century, enough to realize that Gilgamesh had romantic feelings for Enkidu. Also with the piece when the translators described him as sitting near the hierodule. The slave, prostitute (both) was able to be identified no matter of the gender. Looking back at the time, it is still demeaning when thinking in our 21st century mindset and what we consider normal. However looking back, it is interesting to see how advanced the ancient Iraq civilization operated. It is also amazing seeing where the women of this country came from as in today's world the women now being able to be involved with the government, they are making it a mission so Iraqi women know their rights (Calabrese, John, et al).

      CC BY-SA

      Calabrese, John, et al. “Constitutional and Legal Rights of Iraqi Women.” Middle East Institute, 8 Dec. 2020, mei.edu/publications/constitutional-and-legal-rights-iraqi-women.

    1. Joseph finds great fortune with Potiphar, but his promotion through Potiphar’s household attracts the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who repeatedly tries to seduce him. When her attempts fail, she accuses Joseph of rape, which lands him in prison.

      In this version, the details are told from a different point of view. and because of this point of view, a lot of the drama from what was said and how the woman was depicted falling for him and him referencing God and how she was a sinner. This version does not show the interaction, and because of this does not show the dynamic between this man and woman.

    1.     But Soudabeh, when she had so far accomplished her longing that she had gotten him within the house, desired that he should speak with her alone. But Siawosh resisted her wish. And three times did Soudabeh entice him behind the curtains of the house, and three times was Siawosh cold unto her yearning. Then Soudabeh was wroth, and she made complaint unto the King, and she slandered the fair fame of Siawosh, and she spread evil reports of him throughout the land, and she inflamed the heart of Kay-Kavous against his son. Now the King was angered beyond measure, and it availed nought unto Siawosh to defend himself, for Kay-Kavous was filled with the love of Soudabeh, and he listened only unto her voice. And he remembered how she had borne his captivity in Hamavaran, and he knew not of her evil deceits. And when she said that Siawosh had done her great wrong, Kay-Kavous was troubled in his spirit, and he resolved how he should act, for his heart went out also unto his son, and he feared that guile lurked in these things

      In this moment, Soudabeh as a character is being used as point of confliction between the two men. In this story, she is being depicted as a liar and a bitter individual due to her rejection of the main character. Despite this, later on Siyavash decides to grant her mercy. in this situation with her he felt the need to protect her. In context to what she does to Kay-Kavous and his son, it shows how men are willing to either to take her words as truth or be able to defend her even if her word cant be proven as truth. In most patriarchal societies, the man protecting the women or coming to her defense is no new concept, however it shows the issues that comes in patriarchy, because of the savior complex. This tends to make individuals, primarily men protect women because of how women are viewed as defenseless, or that they're need even if they are the antagonists of the story.

  3. yenisehir.fandom.com yenisehir.fandom.com
    1. Sudabeh sent Hirbad to tell Siâvash that she was even ready to kill her husband so that he might marry her lawfully, but Siâvash denied his request. Her repeated advances being repulsed, she finally attempted compulsion; still failing, she brought a false accusation against him before her husband. The Shah, on hearing that Siâvash had preferred his wife, thought that death alone could expiate his crime. He first smelt the hands of Siâvash, which had the scent of rose water ; and then he took the garments of Sudabeh, which, on the contrary, had a strong flavour of wine. Upon this discovery, the king resolved on the death of Sudabeh, being convinced of The falsehood of the accusation she had made against his son

      While this is the same scene, in this version, the wife Sudabeh was willing to kill her husband in order to marry him. Another difference, is that the king, Siyavash's father did not show feelings of confliction when it came to choosing between his wife and his son. this versions show less details concerning how the character were affected and is more curt. it also shows less of how empathetic the men were to soudabeh and how her husband felt agony through trying yo choose.

    1. She in whose house he was living tried to seduce him. She shut the doors, and said, “I am yours.” He said, “God forbid! He is my Lord. He has given me a good home. Sinners never succeed.”

      This women is being depicted in a negative way that shows her a women who is not able to control herself. This is sometimes seen in depictions that are meant to uplift men, showing that they are being the voice or reason while the women is unable to control herself. This also displaces her as a bad or sinful person instead of just being a person with human emotions. Ultimately, this is an instance of how in some stories women are seen as emotional while the men are seen as strong willed or virtuous.

    1. Ed Yong [@edyong209] (2020). One amazing way to do this would be to control the pandemic; Venmo me. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/edyong209/status/1300588785634340864

    2. Stuaert Rtchie [@StuartJRitchie] (2020) This encapsulates the problem nicely. Sure, there’s a paper. But actually read it & what do you find? p-values mostly juuuust under .05 (a red flag) and a sample size that’s FAR less than “25m”. If you think this is in any way compelling evidence, you’ve totally been sold a pup. Twitter. Retrieved from:https://twitter.com/StuartJRitchie/status/1305963050302877697

    1. KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) @KFF (2020) RT @KFF @DrewAltman discusses two fundamental policy decisions made by the Trump administration that set the U.S. on the controversial an…

    1. ReconfigBehSci @SciBeh (2020) For those who might think this issue isn't settled yet, the piece include below has further graphs indicating just how much "protecting the economy" is associated with "keeping the virus under control" Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1306216113722871808

    1. ReconfigBehSci {@SciBeh} (2020) The pandemic proves we all should know ‘psychological first aid.’ Here are the basics. /lifestyle/wellness/pandemic-psychological-first-aid-anxiety/2020/09/21/7c68d746-fc23-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html?tid=ss_tw. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1308461925785837573

    1. ReconfigBehSci {@SciBeh} (2020) sadly squares with my own impression of social media 'debate' - as someone who works on both argumentation and belief formation across social networks, this strikes me as every bit as big a problem as the spread of conspiracy. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1308341816333340672

    1. The MHRA urgently seeks an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tool to process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs) and ensure that no details from the ADRs’ reaction text are missed.

      Is this expectation higher than for other coronavirus vaccines? MHRA: Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

    1. What our silenced population was not thinking about during the fearful spring of 2020 was the fact that alleged insidious, non-disprovable “abilities to harm” have been used as political tools for centuries.

      Fear as a political tool.

    2. the government made a bald, difficult-to-disprove assertion — “Together, we can stop death” — and built-in a dissent-silencing mechanism: “We are trying to save lives, so anyone who disagrees with us is a killer.”

      Classic us against them. No winners in this scenario.

    1. In the COVID debate, there is a mainstream, “popular” narrative, and a competing, “unpopular” narrative — a “fringe.” The former exploits the common, mediocre desire to be “popular.”

      Is it simply a desire to be popular?

    1. Voysey, M., Clemens, S. A. C., Madhi, S. A., Weckx, L. Y., Folegatti, P. M., Aley, P. K., Angus, B., Baillie, V. L., Barnabas, S. L., Bhorat, Q. E., Bibi, S., Briner, C., Cicconi, P., Collins, A. M., Colin-Jones, R., Cutland, C. L., Darton, T. C., Dheda, K., Duncan, C. J. A., … Zuidewind, P. (2020). Safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-CoV-2: An interim analysis of four randomised controlled trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK. The Lancet, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32661-1

    1. The testing data represents data reported to IDPH through Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR) only.  It is based on the date results are reported into the ELR. It excludes testing data that are received from sites that have not implemented ELR. This excludes 3-5% of test data. Weekly test positivity = [County positive tests for 7 days] / [County total tests for same 7 days] x 100 Minimal:  Test positivity is <5% Moderate: Test positivity is >5% and <8% Substantial

      We've been above 8% for months. I wonder how much the mandatory random testing at NIU is lowering that rate, too.

    1. A new study that found traces of coronavirus in US blood samples from December last year is adding to the growing evidence that the virus was circulating for months before China announced its existence, casting more shadows over the truth about the pandemic and fuelling suspicions of a cover-up by Beijing. 

      We know nothing about covid.

    1. As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e.  the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity. 

      In case anyone is wondering vaccines provide herd immunity.

    2. Adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19.

      Public health departments world wide are failing.

    3. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.

      The cure is worse than the disease.

    1. My COVID coping strategy is stats. They are my feeble way of trying to control, or at least comprehend, the uncontrollable. If you follow me on Twitter, you know this. I cannot shut up about the numbers.

      My same strategy

    1. People undergoing centralized quarantine have higher levels of anxiety. Unexpectedly, longer durations of quarantine did not lead to a significant increase in anxiety level.
  4. Nov 2020
    1. these trials are intended to pass the lowest possible barrier of success. As this is being written, the FDA is poised to announce tougher standards for a Covid-19 vaccine in the near future. It is my hope that these new standards for an EUA will at a minimum include requirements for protections from infection itself, protections from severe virus-related disease leading to hospitalization, and a significant improvement in Covid-19 related mortality.
    2. all the pharmaceutical companies assume that the vaccine will never prevent infection. Their criteria for approval is the difference in symptoms
    3. These trials all clearly focus on eliminating symptoms of Covid-19, and not infections themselves. Asymptomatic infection is listed as a secondary objective in these trials when they should be of critical importance. 
    4. Vaccine efficacy is typically proved by large clinical trials over several years. The pharmaceutical companies intend to do trials ranging from thirty thousand to sixty thousand participants. This scale of study would be sufficient for testing vaccine efficacy. The first surprise found upon a closer reading of the protocols reveals that each study intends to complete interim and primary analyses that at most include 164 participants. 
    5. Three of the vaccine protocols—Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca—do not require that their vaccine prevent serious disease only that they prevent moderate symptoms which may be as mild as cough, or headache.
    1. confirming that these high Ct values are mostly correlated with low viral loads

      This is to be noted too

    2. It can be observed that at Ct = 25, up to 70% of patients remain positive in culture and that at Ct = 30 this value drops to 20%. At Ct = 35, the value we used to report a positive result for PCR, <3% of cultures are positive.

      Main observation

    1. Generally it takes a week or two after a person has been infected before they start to produce IgG, and with covid, you’re generally only infectious for about a week after you start to have symptoms, so antibody tests are not designed to find active infections. Instead the purpose is to see if you have had an infection in the past.

      It takes a week or two for an infected person to start producing the antibody IgG which is the type of antibody that typically gets tested for.

      [[Z: Antibody tests are only useful to see if you had an infection in the past]]

    2. In most clinical settings (including the one I work in), all the doctor is provided with is a positive or negative result. No mention is made of the number of cycles used to produce the positive result.

      [[Z: The number of PCR cycles has not been standardized, and is usually not even mentioned to the doctor]]

    3. If you get a positive PCR test and you want to be sure that what you’re finding is a true positive, then you have to perform a viral culture. What this means is that you take the sample, add it to respiratory cells in a petri dish, and see if you can get those cells to start producing new virus particles. If they do, then you know you have a true positive result. For this reason, viral culture is considered the “gold standard” method for diagnosis of viral infections. However, this method is rarely used in clinical practice, which means that in reality, a diagnosis is often made based entirely on the PCR test.

      [[Z: A positive PCR should be followed by a viral culture test to see if you're dealing with a live infection]]

      After a positive PCR test, you don't know if the virus is alive or not. To find this out you can add it to respiratory cells (in the case of a respiratory virus) and see if they start producing virus particles).

      [[Z: Viral culture tests are rarely used in clinical practice]]

      Positive diagnoses of COVID-19 are done base on PCR only.

    4. One thing that’s important to understand at this point is that PCR is only detecting sequences of the viral genome, it is not able to detect whole viral particles, so it is not able to tell you whether what you are finding is live virus, or just non-infectious fragments of viral genome.

      PCR only tells you if you're detecting sequences of the viral genome. It doesn't tell you that what you're finding is live virus or not.

    1. “Let’s say a trial is listed and I have to cross examine a witness,” he said. “Now, what is the guarantee that the witness would be willing to go all the way to the court in such a time?” If witnesses do not appear, then the matter would merely be adjourned.

      access to justice

    1. 3. They're fighting misinformation.

      Agree or disagree with how they obtained info and what that means for digital rights; how much the Chinese government informed or not their people - this is what China did in terms of alerting their population of covid cases.

    1. I don’t think that what we are seeing is a “second wave”. I think we are seeing a seasonal effect. It’s important to keep some perspective. As I explained earlier in this article, cases are a very poor way to determine how active the virus is in the population. In Sweden, the number of tests being carried out is now eight times higher than in the spring. That is why we should instead be looking at hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths.

      Sebastian Rushworth MD. believes that what we're seeing in Sweden is not a second wave, but simply the seasonal effects of COVID.

    2. I think it’ll probably be a few years before we know the full extent to which people were harmed by this. As an example, the hospital in Uppsala experienced 50% fewer admissions due to cardiac infarctions (“heart attacks”) during the peak period, while the hospitals in Stockholm experienced 40% fewer admissions. We know that people who have a cardiac infarction and don’t get emergency treatment have a significantly increased risk of dying in the immediate future, and also have a greater risk of developing long term complications such as heart failure.

      A hospital in Uppsala saw 50% fewer cases of heart attacks during the peak COVID-19 period. The author posits that people might have been avoiding the emergency room out of fear or out of consideration. This might lead to more deaths later, however, as not getting treatment after a heart attack leads to higher chances of developing long-term complications.

    3. The Swedish Public Health authority has never admitted that the goal of their chosen strategy is to reach herd immunity. However, from an epidemiological stand point, all strategies depend on reaching herd immunity in one way or another. A vaccination based strategy also builds on getting to herd immunity, it just chooses a different way to reach it. At some point in the relatively near future, every country on Earth will have developed herd immunity to covid, either by letting the disease spread until that point is reached, or by vaccinating enough people to reach that point.

      All pandemic strategies end up reaching herd immunity.

    1. October 29

      There's been some question about whether or not the executive session that led to Lutz's ouster was born of a regular meeting, and thus subject to the requirement that 'the presiding officer of a governing body shall publicly announce the purpose for excluding the public from the meeting place' (RCW 42.30.110(2)).

      The Internet Archive's snapshots of https://srhd.org/programs-and-services/board-of-health/meetings on

      contain references to, respectively, the regular meetings of

      (For that matter, the next meeting is currently listed as a regular meeting.)

      While no snapshots were taken between 2020-09-25 and 2020-10-28, it seems that, indeed, Thursday's meeting was initially public.

  5. Oct 2020