May 31, 2022

Vaccines offer little protection against long Covid, study finds

The Covid vaccines, while holding up strong against hospitalization and death, offer little protection against long Covid, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature Medicine. 

The findings are disappointing, if not surprising, to researchers who were once hopeful that vaccination could significantly reduce the risk of long Covid. 

Compared to an unvaccinated individual, the risk of long Covid in a fully vaccinated individual was cut by only about 15 percent, the study found.

“The vaccines are miraculous at doing what they were designed to do” — that is, prevent hospitalization and death, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and the lead author of the study. But they “offer very modest protection against long Covid,” he said.   

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/vaccines-offer-little-protection-long-covid-study-finds-rcna30467

May 26, 2022

Cruz storms off after being asked why mass shootings happen 'only in America'

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1529729614309900290

As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) attended a vigil Wednesday for the victims of the massacre in Uvalde, Tex., he stormed away from an interview after he was asked by a British journalist why mass shootings happen “only in America.”

Cruz joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and other local and state leaders at a vigil for the 19 children and two adults killed in the Tuesday mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Cruz, who is among the Republicans vehemently opposed to proposals from Democrats on expanding background checks on gun sales, has called for increased safety in schools and has condemned “political posturing” in the aftermath of the attack. He is also the lawmaker whose campaigns or political action committees have accepted the most money from the gun rights lobby, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets.

During an interview with British Sky News reporter Mark Stone, Cruz, who was seen hugging and meeting with those at the vigil, was asked whether this was the moment to reform gun laws. Cruz responded by saying, “You know, it’s easy to go to politics.”
...
“Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it’s the freest, most prosperous, safest country on Earth,” the senator said. “Stop being a propagandist.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/26/ted-cruz-uvalde-shooting-america-guns/

May 26, 2022

The GOP's Only Answer to School Shootings Didn't Help in Uvalde

The line has gone from crisis PR spin to Republican Party dogma. But while the “good guy with a gun” mantra has the ring of tough guy common sense, the empirical evidence suggests armed cops and civilians do less than nothing to deter mass shooters.

Of course, this is Texas. It’s not like potential good guys with guns were thin on the ground in Uvalde. Law enforcement actually engaged the shooter before he got into the elementary school. Indeed, as the Austin American-Statesman reported, it was actually a school guard—a good guy with a gun—who confronted and failed to prevent the shooter’s entry. For years, though, Texas has encouraged teachers to pack heat. In the wake of a 2018 shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that encouraged schools to do exactly what Ken Paxton now demands. It mattered little back then that Abbott was responding to killings at a school that already had two armed guards and a plan to put guns in the hands of teachers.

Last year, a group of public health scholars published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association examining 133 school shootings from 1980 to 2019. An armed guard was present in about a quarter of the incidents in the study. Those schools actually suffered death rates nearly three times higher than schools without armed guards. Similarly, a 2020 review of gun policy research by the RAND Corporation think tank found no evidence that the presence of more guns had any effect on gun violence. Criminologists at Texas State University found that unarmed staff or the shooters themselves are far more likely to bring a school shooting to an end than someone with a gun returning fire.So-called good guys with guns fail to effectively deter or end mass shootings for a variety of tactical and psychological reasons.

So-called good guys with guns fail to effectively deter or end mass shootings for a variety tactical and psychological reasons. For one thing, it’s actually very hard to shoot straight in a situation like a mass shooting. RAND analysts have found that even highly trained NYPD officers only hit their intended target in 19 percent of gunfire exchanges. Winning a gunfight with a shooter only becomes more difficult when the perpetrator carries a semi-automatic rifle like an AR-15, as the Uvalde suspect and many others have done. These weapons have a much longer range and are far more accurate than the kinds of pistols typically used by police and civilian concealed carriers, allowing shooters to keep responders far enough away that their own weapons will be of little use. The Uvalde gunman, for instance, managed to overpower two officers whom he encountered on his way to the elementary school.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/gop-school-uvalde-shooting-response-guys-with-guns.html

May 9, 2022

Abortion bans increase deaths from childbirth, in addition to deaths from unsafe abortions.

In their peer-reviewed study “Unsafe Abortion: Unnecessary Maternal Mortality,” researchers at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, explained the correlation between outlawed abortion and an increase in female mortality during live births, citing Romanian laws banning the procedure in the 1960s and its reversal in the 1980s. Researchers say deaths per 100,000 ballooned from 20 to 148. Within only a year of the reversal, researchers say the number dropped to 68 deaths per 100,000 live births. The ratio was down to nine deaths per 100,000 by 2002, they write.

A blanket ban of abortion in the U.S. would lead to a 21% increase of pregnancy-related deaths overall, a study from the University of Colorado Boulder found. Researchers only included numbers related to the actual pregnancy and delivery, saying: “Any increased death due to unsafe abortions or attempted abortions would be in addition to these estimates.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently estimates about 700 U.S. women die from pregnancy-related deaths each year. The CDC explains carrying a pregnancy to full term is 33 times more dangerous than having an abortion.

Advocates of legal abortion argue that ending Roe won’t affect the number of abortions performed, only the number of safe abortions performed. Guttmacher Institute reports abortion rates in illegal-abortion countries are 37 per 1,000, while rates in legal-abortion countries are 34 per 1,000.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/how-many-women-die-from-unsafe-abortions/

May 7, 2022

My Great-Grandpa Killed My Great-Grandma Giving Her An Abortion On Their Kitchen Table

In 1919, my 7-year-old grandmother was startled awake in the early hours by her father. “Come say goodbye to your mother,” he told her. He brought her and her siblings into the kitchen, where their mother lay dying on the kitchen table. The room, table, and her mother’s lower half were awash with her blood. This is the only memory my grandmother had of her mother. Any positive memories were shocked from her system in that moment.

My grandmother’s father killed her mother performing an illegal abortion. He was never charged with a crime. After the death of his wife, he kept his younger daughter and his young boys with him. He sent my grandmother to work as a farmhand for a relative. To him, the abortion was a necessary risk. They already had too many kids.
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My adult child has never had sex without contraceptives. Currently, my child is wild with fear after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion indicating a plan to overturn Roe. Their health and life is too complicated to successfully manage a pregnancy or a child. This gentle soul is in a state of panic on behalf of all fertile people with uteruses. In speaking with my offspring, I had to promise that if Roe is overturned, I would form a pipeline to help people make their way to a country where abortion is legal. My kid can’t sleep for worrying about those who will fall through the cracks — those who will die due to unsafe abortions. My child knows the story of my great-grandmother.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/great-grandma-killed-illegal-abortion_n_62754440e4b046ad0d7ba081

May 3, 2022

Google searches for 'abortion pill' skyrocket

Searches on Google for abortion medication, including the terms "abortion pill, "Mifepristone," and "Misoprostol" all increased following Politico's report about the Supreme Court's draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade.

Mifepristone and Misoprostol are both medications that come in pill form that can be used for abortions. According to a 2020 survey from the Guttmacher Institute, over half of the abortions done in the US involve the use of pills.

In the last several years, as some state restrictions on abortion have become tighter and the Supreme Court was benched with Trump appointees, abortion pills have become a way for people to side-step state restrictions on abortion. As reported by The Atlantic, some people have also pro-actively attained abortion pills in preparation for a potential repeal of Roe v Wade.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-decision-overturn-leaked-rcna27067#rcrd1352

May 3, 2022

Dems now have a 1% polling advantage; the GOP fell 6 points since November.

Per ABC News:
Looking to November, registered voters divide essentially evenly between Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress, 46-45%. That’s a comedown for the GOP from its lead of 7 points in February and 10 points last November -- the latter, the largest Republican midterm advantage in ABC/Post polls back 40 years. The change is led by a close contest among political independents, swing voters in most national elections, from a 50-32% Republican lead in November to an even 42-42% now.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gop-strong-crime-boosted-trust-inflation-poll/story?id=84403842


I wonder how much tonight's news will accelerate the GOP slide?