January 31, 2022

What causes long Covid? Scientists are zeroing in on the answer.

Even as the number of new Covid-19 cases in the US is dropping, hundreds of thousands of Americans are still testing positive every day. More than 28 million new cases have been reported since Omicron emerged in the US just two months ago, and the variant now drives 99.9 percent of cases, as of January 22, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thanks to vaccines, boosters, and increasingly available treatments, most people who get infected today won’t end up in the hospital or die. A big question, however, looms over the survivors: What about long Covid?

Long Covid is a condition that arises after acute infection and often includes shortness of breath, fatigue, and “brain fog” but can also involve a wide range of debilitating problems in the heart, brain, lungs, gut, and other organs. According to the World Health Organization’s working definition, long Covid usually occurs three months after symptomatic Covid-19 begins and lasts for at least two months. Sometimes, the symptoms just never go away after the initial infection. Occasionally, they appear months after recovery or after an asymptomatic case. This means that if you’ve recovered from Covid-19, you’re not necessarily in the clear.

No one knows exactly how many people have or had long Covid. Estimates so far are “wildly disparate” in part because researchers define the condition differently and because the people seeking care may only be a small portion of those affected, said Nahid Bhadelia, an associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine. Studies on the conservative end have found that 10 to 20 percent of Covid-19 survivors get long Covid, while others report 50 percent.

https://www.vox.com/22906853/omicron-long-covid-vaccinated-symptoms-cause
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The teenage daughter of one of my other-daughters had "long Covid" including POTS that lasted almost a year. She seems to have finally come out of it though.

January 31, 2022

The science behind the omicron wave's sharp peak and rapid decline

The omicron variant of Covid-19 was discovered less than three months ago, but it rocketed case numbers to record highs. Yet almost as rapidly as they rose, new infections plummeted in countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, and now the United States.

Omicron caused some of the pandemic’s tallest, sharpest spikes in Covid-19 infections as it overtook previous variants like delta, but several waves triggered by earlier variants followed a remarkably similar pattern. Almost as steeply as cases rose, they fell.

Why did this happen? Why didn’t omicron cases rise and fall slowly — or level out at a high or moderate level?

“I think you may get different answers from different experts,” said Eleanor Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University, in an email. This isn’t just a curiosity: Researchers are trying to tease out the reasons in the hope of flattening peaks in the future.

Understanding why cases are rising and falling is crucial for figuring out what kinds of public health strategies are working. It’s also important for anticipating what comes next and how to deploy resources like medical workers, hospital beds, vaccines, and treatments.

https://www.vox.com/22905020/omicron-wave-surge-covid-19-cases-vaccines
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Doesn't mean it's over, means things are changing. Again.

January 30, 2022

Police discover 100 bags of fentanyl at home of deceased Connecticut 13-year-old

About 100 bags of fentanyl were found at the home of a 13-year-old Hartford boy who overdosed on the drug at school, police said.

The fentanyl found at the teenager’s home was packaged in the same manner as the bags of fentanyl found at his school after he overdosed and had the same identifying stamp, Hartford police said in a news release Tuesday following a search of the home.

“We can confidently say that the fentanyl that caused the overdose was the same fentanyl that was located in the juvenile’s bedroom,” police said. “At this time, we have found no evidence that anyone other than the deceased juvenile brought the fentanyl to school.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/police-discover-100-bags-fentanyl-home-deceased-connecticut-13-year-ol-rcna14135
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Someone was using this kid. He did not do this by himself. And now he is dead.

January 29, 2022

My cats have traded personalities

I've been "down in my back" for a couple of months and pretty much unable to do a lot of my usual chores, one of which is feeding the outdoor kitties morning and night. My husband has been doing it for me, and I suppose his methods are a little different from mine. I resumed yesterday and noticed something odd. The ladies, as I refer to them, have switched personalities, or so it seems. Winnie, my little bundle of tortitetude, who has always been my buddy, has turned skittish and when I come out to feed them, cusses me and my ancestors back several generations. All she wants is the food. Vicky, on the other hand, who up until now has been the skittish one, is now the affectionate purr-baby and wants to be petted and spoken to. I don't get it. Vicky also has very acute hearing and if I talk to her from the kitchen window (which is tightly closed against the cold!) she will meow back from as far as 10 feet away.

January 29, 2022

Remarkable photos of Black America 100 years ago

The celebration of Black history in the U.S. has a long history itself. President Gerald Ford may be credited for officially recognizing the tradition in 1976, but a month-long celebration of Black American achievement goes back decades earlier. Black communities have held special events in February — the birth month of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln — since the late 19th century.

1926 was a banner year, thanks to historian Carter G. Woodson's declaration of a Black history week. The first collegiate institution to celebrate Black History Month is thought to be Kent State University, in 1970.

Here's a look at what many facets of Black American life looked like roughly a century ago. This photo shows a woman wearing a pearl necklace and earrings, circa 1925. The image is from a collection of photo postcards from the period.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/black-america-100-years-ago/
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amazing, nostalgic, poignant.....

January 29, 2022

This may be the largest case of sex abuse by a single person in the US.

This may be the largest case of sex abuse by a single person in the US. A former NFL player wants victims' stories to be heard

Throughout the bitter winter, during rain and snow, Jon Vaughn has alternated between sleeping in a tent or a campervan outside former University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel's house.

A former University of Michigan and NFL football player, Vaughn is one of more than 1,000 people --- mostly men -- who says they were abused by athletics doctor Robert Anderson, who worked for the university from 1966 to 2003 treating students across sports including football, track, and wrestling.
Anderson, who died in 2008, subjected students, 90% of whom were men, to "sexually abusive conduct" and invasive exams, including unnecessary genital and rectal examinations, according to a 2021 independent report commissioned by the university.  Many of Anderson's victims were Black -- and survivors say this has played a part in why the abuse was allowed to continue for decades.
In his roles at the university, including director of its health service, team physician for the athletic department and a clinical instructor at the university's medical school, Anderson abused men and women from different racial backgrounds, undergraduate and graduate students, student athletes -- including a two-time Super Bowl champion and former world-class wrestler -- and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community, the report found.

The university missed numerous opportunities to stop him over his 37 year long career, it concluded.
This month the university announced a $490 million settlement with over a thousand victims of Anderson's alleged sexual abuse, pending approval by the Michigan Board of Regents and the claimants.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/29/sport/university-of-michigan-robert-anderson-victims-intl-spt/index.html
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"Tragic misconduct" my sainted Aunt Matilda! Willful neglect by the University of Michigan!

January 29, 2022

As surely as night follows day.....these book ban advocates *tsk tsk*

A Gladstone man, who recently spoke in support of banning books from North Kansas City School District libraries that depicted sexual acts, is facing a felony charge of second-degree child molestation and a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree domestic assault.

Ryan Utterback, 29, is also facing a misdemeanor charge of furnishing pornographic material or attempting to furnish to a minor in a separate case.

Utterback did not answer questions about the charges from KMBC 9 Investigates on Thursday as he showed up to the Clay County Courthouse for a hearing. Utterback's attorney, David Bell, declined to comment about the charges.

In the first case, a probable cause statement alleges Utterback laid down on a bed with a child less than 12 and fondled the child in December of 2020. The child told investigators Utterback placed the child on his lap, where he proceeded to move the child’s body against his while touching the child’s thighs, according to the probable cause statement. In the same case, but in a separate incident in September of 2020, Utterback stuck his finger through a ripped hole in a teenager’s jeans and started rubbing on the teenager’s leg, according to the probable cause statement. The teenager told investigators it felt uncomfortable, and that the teenager “didn't like it at all,” the probable cause statement said.

A separate case alleges Utterback started showing videos sexual in nature on his cellphone to a young child around the time the child was 4 years old, according to a probable cause statement.

https://www.kmbc.com/article/northland-school-book-ban-advocate-ryan-utterback-child-molestation-charge/

January 29, 2022

Alabama town's traffic ticketing scandal leads to police chief's resignation

Brookside, Alabama, a former mining community of about 1,250 with a median household income less than $40,000, has no traffic lights and only a handful of two-lane roads, yet it raked in so much revenue from traffic fines and forfeitures in 2020, it amounted to almost half of its $1.2 million municipal budget.

The curious case of the financial income of the town, on the outskirts of Birmingham, exploded into a scandal following a local news report on AL.com last week. It resulted in Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones resigning Tuesday on the same day Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth requested a state audit, and amid calls for state and federal investigations.

"This city is a ticking, ticking time bomb waiting to explode," state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who has called for other town officials to resign, told the NBC affiliate WVTM in Birmingham. "It's the wild, Wild West, and they created their own wild, Wild West."

As Brookside's earnings draw further scrutiny, with Givan planning a town hall Tuesday to allow people who say they've been exploited by the police force to come forward, advocacy organizations are emphasizing that it is no outlier and highlights how across the country, traffic fines and related fees are being used to fill municipal coffers at the expense of people who are often financially struggling and from communities of color.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-towns-traffic-ticketing-scandal-leads-police-chiefs-resignatio-rcna13801]

January 29, 2022

Fire that damaged home of California politicians was arson, authorities conclude

A fire that damaged the home of two California politicians earlier this month was purposefully set, authorities said Friday.

Former state legislator Lorena Gonzalez and San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher, both Democrats, were not injured, but the fire caused an estimated $36,000 in damage, authorities said.

San Diego police Lt. Adam Sharki said Friday that investigators have concluded the fire early on Jan. 12 was arson, but said he could not provide details.

The day of the fire, police Lt. Christian Sharp told NBC San Diego that neighbors called authorities around 4:20 a.m.

Fletcher said at the time that the couple were awoken by their smoke alarms and were able to safely evacuate, according to the station.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fire-damaged-home-california-politicians-was-arson-authorities-conclud-rcna14041
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(Just for fun, can you spot the grammar mistakes in this story?)

January 29, 2022

Man charged with threatening Biden said he was 'coming to the White House,' Secret Service alleges

A Kansas man is facing charges after he allegedly threatened to harm President Joe Biden, according to court documents released Friday.

Scott Ryan Merryman, first called a police department in Independence, Kansas on Tuesday and told officers that he was on his way to Washington, D.C. to see the president, a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint.

Agents located and interviewed Merryman on Wednesday in a parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Hagerstown, Maryland. Following a search, the man was found in possession of three rounds of ammunition and a spotting scope, but no weapons, the agent said.

Merryman then called the White House Switchboard on Thursday and made threats against Biden, saying he was “coming to the White House, and was going to cut off the head of the snake/anti-Christ,” the agent alleged.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/man-charged-threatening-biden-said-was-coming-white-house-secret-servi-rcna14066
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That boy ain't right