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starshineyellow · 6 months

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Hey Americans, it’s fall 2023 and the adult Covid vaccines are STILL FREE at certain pharmacies. Even if you have no health insurance. Even if you have health insurance but the insurance company likes to whine about CVS being “out of network” for vaccinations.

Find out more FAQ stuff from the CDC here:

And find your local locations with free vaccines below. Once you’ve put in your zip code and hit “go”, on the next page, make sure to click the checkbox that says “BRIDGE Access Participant” so you know these locations have the free shots.

#text post #Covid #covid19 #covid 19 #covid vaccine #covid pandemic #pandemic #vaccine #signal boost #boost #please boost #vaccination #covid-19 #I am just putting as many tags that I can think of on this post to help it get to people #because I was unaware that the government was continuing to fund free vaccines #because the national health emergency ended in May #so finding out I could still get it for free even if my insurance wanted to be annoying was a relief #and I want to make sure others know it too

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2bpoliticallycurious · 10 months

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Republicans celebrate their successful deception of voters

“The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background.”

--Christopher Wray, FBI Director

"Good for [FBI Director Christopher Wray]. But here’s what’s especially insane, absurd and ludicrous: No matter how many refutations Wray and others provide, Republicans are persuading people to believe their lies — and they are proud of the deception."

--Dana Milbank, opinion columnist for The Washington Post

Dana Milbank knocks it out of the ballpark in describing how House Republicans are convincing many people that the FBI is targeting "conservatives," despite refutations by people like lifelong Republican FBI Director Christopher Wray. This is an important summary of all the conspiracy theories that the GOP flung at Wray during their "inquisition" of him. Consequently, the above link is a gift link 🎁so you can read the entire column, even if you do not subscribe to The Washington Post.

After looking at the Wray interrogation, Milbank also discusses the GOP clown show that was a hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

In addition, Milbank goes on to talk about how Gal Luft, the "star 'whistleblower' behind the allegations of corruption against President Biden and his family, was indicted on a charge of acting as an illegal arms broker and an unregistered agent for China."

Finally, Milbank talks about all the conspiratorially based amendments the GOP have added to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Below are some excerpts from his column:

An honest man visited the House of lies this week. He did not like what he found there. “Insane.” “Absurd.” “Ludicrous.” Those are the actual words FBI Director Christopher Wray used to describe House Republicans’ crackpot conspiracy theories. “The American people fully understand,” Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) informed Wray at Wednesday’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, “… that you have personally worked to weaponize the FBI against conservatives.” Right. Hageman, the election denier who ousted Liz Cheney in a primary, would have you believe that Wray — senior political appointee in the George W. Bush Justice Department, clerk to a noted conservative judge, contributor to the Federalist Society, Donald Trump-appointed head of the FBI — is part of a conspiracy to persecute conservatives. “The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” he replied. [...] Good for him. But here’s what’s especially insane, absurd and ludicrous: No matter how many refutations Wray and others provide, Republicans are persuading people to believe their lies — and they are proud of the deception. Johnson, the leadoff questioner at Wednesday’s hearing, told Wray about a recent NBC News poll, in which “only 37 percent of registered voters now view the FBI positively,” down from 52 percent in 2018. “That’s a serious decline in the people’s faith, and it’s on your watch,” he told Wray.

#gop house committees #fbi conspiracies #pandemic conspriacies #christopher wray #republicans #national defense authorization act #dana milbank #the washington post #gift link

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shallanspren · 2 years

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Hadestown National Tour, Salt Lake City Sunday August 7, 2022 (Matinee) NFT

Eurydice (Morgan Siobhan Green), Orpheus (Chibueze Ihuoma), Persephone (Kimberly Marable), Hades (Kevyn Morrow), Hermes (Levi Kreis), Fate 1/Violin (Belén Moyano), Fate 2/Tambourine (Bex Odorisio), Fate 3/Accordian (Shea Renne). Workers/Chorus: Jordan Bollwerk, Lindsey Hailes, Courtney Lauster, Eddie Noel Rodríguez, Marquis Wood.

Notes: NOT FOR TRADE, contact the master (shallanspren/mirabellamistbane) for audio. Matinee. Recorded from the orchestra. Tracked by auctumnitas. Tracking includes both individual song tracks, and edits of just acts one and two.

DO NOT POST ANYWHERE OUTSIDE OF TUMBLR. DO NOT REPOST SONGS ANYWHERE. DO NOT SHARE LINKS.

#hadestown #chibueze ihuoma #levi kreis #belén moyano #bex odorisio #shea renne #hadestown first national tour #My master #yeah sorry guys i am making my audios NFT #too many people reposted my shit pre-pandemic #so i'm protecting myself more this time around #come to me if you want the audio

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sage3m5 · 10 months

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I hope all you older folks are real fucked up about us post-9/11 babies becoming old enough to drink. I hope every time my ID gets checked, you point this fact out like it means anything to me.

#haha imagine participating in a national shared trauma. couldnt be me.#<- lying.#<- got their transitional years between highschool and college fucked up by the pandemic.#<- is one day going to be just as weird about post-pandemic babies. just you wait.

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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The White House on Monday blasted comments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about COVID-19 as “vile” amid broader condemnation of the Democratic presidential candidate’s claim that the virus was manipulated to target white and Black people.

The firestorm began after The New York Post reported Kennedy Jr.’s comments, in which he said during an event last week that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to attack those groups of people while avoiding Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews.

“The claims made on that tape is false, it is vile, and they put our fellow Americans in danger,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing with reporters. “If you think about the racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories that come out of saying those types of things. It is an attack on our fellow citizens, our fellow Americans. And so it is important that we essentially speak out when we hear those claims made more broadly.”

Democratic officials and anti-discrimination leaders immediately challenged the veracity of Kennedy’s claims, which he sought to backtrack by saying in part he didn’t think the virus was “deliberately engineered.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a statement saying the environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist should be prevented from serving as an elected official.

Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also called the comments “deeply troubling,” tweeting that “they do not represent the views of the Democratic Party.”

#us politics #news #the hill #2023 #Democrats #president joe biden #biden administration #Robert F. Kennedy Jr.#covidー19 #coronavirus #coronavirus pandemic #xenophobia #stop aapi hate #antisemitism #The New York Post #Karine Jean-Pierre #Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee #Democratic National Committee #Jaime Harrison

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thoughtportal · 1 year

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When Raymond Schinazi was a boy in Egypt, life got chaotic.

He watched his mother nearly die. His family became refugees.

But the seeds were sown for his life's work.

His science — and the drugs from it — have saved millions of lives.

Meet two virus busters. They took on HIV and now they have COVID-19 in their sights.

So how do viruses wreak so much havoc in our body, and why are they so hard to cure?

Beyond vaccines, can history help us quash this coronavirus?

#cell biology #ABC Radio National #Coronavirus #virus #COVID-19 #pandemic #podcast #Raymond Schinazi #medical history #medical news #science news #science #biology #science history #history

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usnatarchives · 2 years

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Project registration application for Watermelon Wine, 1901, NARA ID 74579031.

WWI "Prisoners eating watermelon", POW Internment Camp, Fort McPherson, GA, NARA ID 31479441.

SUMMER SERIES: WATERMELON! By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

WWI Melon Party!

"Convalescent Soldiers at Melon Party" July 1918, NARA ID 45497973.

WWI Watermelon - Red Cross Canteen Service hut "built by the people of Raleigh, NC," July 1918, NARA ID 20801882.

Gerald Ford with brother Tom and cousins Gardner and Adele, 1922, NARA ID 186929.

Louis Kobuchi, miner, buying watermelon from Mrs. Pearl Stevenson, clerk at company store. Pittsburgh Coal Company, Westland Mine, Westland, PA. 6/12/1946. NARA ID 540256.

#watermelon #summer #pandemic #refreshing #beattheheat #ford library #ilovewatermelon #national watermelon day #watermelonlover #fruit #summer treats #dessert

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mumblelard · 2 years

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happy new calendar day imaginary constructs or i admit i paused for a moment to acknowledge the twinge of skepticism that our society would survive long enough for me to use this calendar. i am not saying that it was an act of radical optimism or anything like that, but i did pause though

#the thing about harry #morning light #calendars #grabbing onto the weeds to keep from falling of the edge of the world #national parks #how i rose from the dead in my spare time and you can too #daily bread #desks #the thing about dying that no one ever talks about #twenty twenty-three #pandemic era #third winter #the omnicrisis #borosilicate omens #omegaverse #o my heart #end of message

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theculturedmarxist · 11 months

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

On May 25 of this year, JAMA published Development of a Definition of Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection (“Definition”), an “original investigation” whose authors were drawn from the RECOVER Consortium, an initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)[1]. This was an initially welcome development for Long Covid sufferers and activists, since questions had arisen about what exactly patients were getting for the billion dollars RECOVER was appropriated. From STAT:

The federal government has burned through more than $1 billion to study long Covid, an effort to help the millions of Americans who experience brain fog, fatigue, and other symptoms after recovering from a coronavirus infection.

There’s basically nothing to show for it.

The National Institutes of Health hasn’t signed up a single patient to test any potential treatments — despite a clear mandate from Congress to study them.

Instead, the NIH spent the majority of its money on broader, observational research that won’t directly bring relief to patients. But it still hasn’t published any findings from the patients who joined that study, almost two years after it started.

(The STAT article, NC hot take here on April 20, is worth reading in full.) Perhaps unfairly to NIH — one is tempted to say that the mountain has labored, and brought forth a coprolite — a CERN-level headcount may explain both RECOVER’s glacial pace, and its high cost:

That’s a lot of violin lessons for a lot of little Madisons!

“Definition” falls resoundingly into the research (and not treatment) bucket. In this post, I will first look at the public relations debacle (if debacle it was) that immediately followed its release; then I will look at its problematic methodology, and briefly conclude. (Please note that I feel qualified to speak on public relations and institutional issues; very much less so on research methodology, which actually involves (dread word) statistics. So I hope readers will bear with me and correct where necessary.)

The Public Relations Debacle

Our famously free press instantly framed “Definition” as a checklist of Long Covid (LC) symptoms. Here are the headlines. For the common reader:

12 key symptoms define long Covid, new study shows, bringing treatments closer CNN Long COVID is defined by these 12 symptoms, new study finds CBS Scientists Identify 12 Major Symptoms of Long Covid Smithsonian These 12 symptoms may define long COVID, new study finds PBS News Hour These Are the 12 Major Symptoms of Long COVID Daily Beast

(We will get to the actual so-called “12[2] Symptoms” when we look at methodology.) And for readers in the health industry:

For the first time, researchers identify 12 symptoms of long covid Chief Healthcare Executive 12 symptoms of long COVID, FDA Paxlovid approval & mpox vaccines with Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH AMA Update Finally! These 12 symptoms define long COVID, say researchers ALM Benefits Pro

With these last three, we can easily see the CEO handing a copy of their “12 symptoms” article to a doctor, the doctor double-checking that headline against the AMA Update’s headline, and incorporating the NIH-branded 12-point checklist into their case notes going forward, and the medical coders at the insurance company (I love that word, “benefits”) nodding approvingly. At last, the clinicians have a checklist! They know what to do!

We’ll see why the whole notion of a checklist with twelve items is wrong and off-point for what “Definition” was actually, or at least putatively, trying to do, but for now it’s easy to see why the press went down this path (or over this cliff). Here is the press release from NIH that accompanied “Definition”‘s publication in JAMA:

Researchers examined data from 9,764 adults, including 8,646 who had COVID-19 and 1,118 who did not have COVID-19. They assessed more than 30 symptoms across multiple body areas and organs and applied statistical analyses that identified 12 symptoms that most set apart those with and without long COVID: post-exertional malaise, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, gastrointestinal symptoms, heart palpitations, issues with sexual desire or capacity, loss of smell or taste, thirst, chronic cough, chest pain, and abnormal movements.

They then established a scoring system based on patient-reported symptoms. By assigning points to each of the 12 symptoms, the team gave each patient a score based on symptom combinations. With these scores in hand, researchers identified a meaningful threshold for identifying participants with long COVID. They also found that certain symptoms occurred together and defined four subgroups or “clusters” with a range of impacts on health

So there are 12 symptoms, right? Just like the headline says? Certainly, that’s what a normal reader would take away. And if a temporally pressed reporter goes to the JAMA original and searches on “12”, they find this:

Using the full cohort, LASSO identified 12 symptoms with corresponding scores ranging from 1 to 8 (Table 2). The optimal PASC score threshold used was 12 or greater

And if the reporter goes further and finds Table 2 (we’ll get there when we look at methodology), they will see, yes, 12 symptoms (in rank order identified by something called LASSO).

So it’s easy to see how the headlines were written as they were written, and how the newsroom wrote the stories as they did. The wee problem: The twelve symptoms are not meant to be used clinically, for diagnosis.[3], Lisa McCorkell was the patient representative[4] for the paper, and has this to say:

Nevertheless, the “12 symptoms” are out of the barn and in the next county, and as a result, you get search results like this:

It’s very easy to imagine a harried ER room nurse hearing “12 Symptoms” on the TV news[5], doublechecking with a Google search, and then making clinical decisions based on a checklist not fit for purpose. Or, for that matter, a doctor.

Now, to be fair to the authors, once one grasps the idea that symptoms, even clusters of symptoms, can exist, and still not be suitable for diagnosis by a clinician, the careful language of “Definition” is clear, starting with the title: “Development of a Definition.” And in the Meaning section of the Abstract:

A framework for identifying PASC cases based on symptoms is a first step to defining PASC as a new condition. These findings require iterative refinement that further incorporates clinical features to arrive at actionable definitions of PASC.

Well and good, but do you see “framework” in the headlines? “Iterative”? “First step”? No? Now, I’d like to exonerate the authors of “Definitions” — “They’re just scientists!” — for that debacle, but I cannot, completely. The authors are well-compensated, sophisticated, and aware professionals; PMC, in fact. I cannot believe that the Cochrane “fools gold” antimask study debacle went unobserved at NIH, especially in the press office. How was it possible that “Definitions” was simply… printed as it was, and no strategic consideration given to shaping the likely coverage?[6] One obvious precautionary measure would have been a preprint, but for reasons unknown to me, NIH did not do that. A second obvious precautionary measure would have been to have the patient representative approve the press release. Ditto. Now let us turn to methodology.

The Problematic Methodology

First, I will look at issues with Table 2, which presents the key twelve-point checklist, and names the algorithm (although without explaining it). After that, I will branch out to a few larger issues. Again I issue a caveat that I’m not a Long Covid maven or a statistics maven, and I hope readers will correct and clarify where needed.

Here is Table 2:

First, some copy editing trifles (highlighted). On “PASC”: As WebMD says: “You might know this as ‘long COVID.’ Experts have coined a new term for it: post-acute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).” Those lovable scamps, always inventing impenetrable jargon! (Bourdieu would chuckle at this.) On “Dizzines”: Come on. A serious journal doesn’t let a typo like that slip through (maybe they’re accustomed to fixing the preprints?). On “Supplement 3”: The text is highlighted as a link, but clicking it brings up the image, and doesn’t take you to the Supplement. These small errors are important[7], because they indicate that no editor took more than a cursory look at the most important table in the paper. On “LASSO,” hold that thought.

Second, the Covid Action Network points out that some obvious, and serious, symptoms are missing from the list:

[T]he next attempts at diagnostic criteria should take into account existing literature that shows more specifically defined symptoms for Long Covid, from objective findings. (E.g. PoTS, Vestibular issues, migraine, vs more vague symptoms like “headache” or “dizziness.) [The Long Covid Action Project (LCAP)] noticed that while [Post-Extertional Malaise (PEM)] was used as a specific symptom with a high score to produce PASC-positive results, other suites of symptoms, like those in the neurologic category, could have produced an equal or higher score than PEM if questionnaires had not separated neuro-symptoms into multiple subtypes and reduced their total scores. This alone could have created a more scientifically accurate picture of the Long Covid population.

Third, these symptoms — missing, from the patient perspective; to be iterated from the researcher’s perspective, at least one would hope — are the result of “Definition”‘s methodology:

Fourth, I would argue focus on the “most clearly provable effects” — as opposed to organ damage — is a result of the “LASSO” algorithm named in Table 2. I did a good deal of searching on LASSO, and discovered that most of the examples I could find, even the “real world” ones, were examples of how to run LASSO programs, as opposed to selecting the LASSO algorithm as opposed to others. So that was discouraging. I believe — reinforcing the caveats, plural, given above — that I literally searched on “LASSO” “child of five” (“Explain it to me like I’m five”) to finally come up with this:

Lasso Regression is an essential variable selection technique for eliminating unnecessary variables from your model.

This method can be highly advantageous when some variables do not contribute any variance (predictability) to the model. Lasso Regression will automatically set their coefficients to zero in situations like this, excluding them from the analysis. For example, let’s say you have a skiing dataset and are building a model to see how fast someone goes down the mountain. This dataset has a variable referencing the user’s ability to make basketball shots. This obviously does not contribute any variance to the model – Lasso Regression will quickly identify this and eliminate these variables.

Since variables are being eliminated with Lasso Regression, the model becomes more interpretable and less complex.

Even more important than the model’s complexity is the shrinking of the subspace of your dataset. Since we eliminate these variables, our dataset shrinks in size (dimensionality). This is insanely advantageous for most machine learning models and has been shown to increase model accuracy in things like linear regression and least squares.

Since LC is said to have over 200 candidates for symptoms, you can see why a scientist trying to get their arms around the problem would be very happy to shrink those candidates to 12. But is that true to the disease?

Because LASSO (caveats, caveats) has one problem. From the same source:

One crucial aspect to consider is that Lasso Regression does not handle multicollinearity well. Multicollinearity occurs when two or more highly correlated predictor variables make it difficult to determine their individual contributions to the model.

Amplifying:

Lasso can be sensitive to multicollinearity, which is when two or more predictors are highly correlated. In this case, Lasso may select one of the correlated predictors and exclude the other [“set their coefficients to zero”], even if both are important for predicting the target variable.

As Ted Nelson wrote, “Everything is deeply intertwingled” (i.e., multicollinear), and if there’s one thing we know about LC, it’s that it’s a disease of the whole body taken as a system, and not of a single organ:

There are some who seek to downplay Long Covid by saying the list of 200 possible symptoms makes it impossible to accurately diagnose and that it could be encompassing illnesses people might have gone on to develop anyway, but there are sound biological reasons for this condition to affect the body in so many different ways.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme receptor 2 (ACE2) is the socket SARS-CoV-2 plugs into to infect human cells. The virus can use other mechanisms to enter cells=, but ACE2 is the most common method. ACE2 is widely expressed in the human body, with highest levels of expression in small intestine, testis, kidneys, heart, thyroid, and adipose (fat) tissue, but it is found almost everywhere, including the blood, spleen, bone marrow, brain, blood vessels, muscle, lungs, colon, liver, bladder, and adrenal gland

Given how common the ACE2 receptor is, it is unsurprising SARS-CoV-2 can cause a very wide range of symptoms.

In other words, multicollinearity everywhere. Not basketball players vs. skiiers at all.

So is LASSO even the right algorithm to handle entwinglement, like ACE2 receptors in every organ? Are there statistics mavens in the readership who can clarify? With that, I will leave the shaky ground of statistics and Table II, and raise two other issues.

First, it’s clear that the population selected for “Definitions” is unrepresentative of the LC population as a whole:

If the patients in “Definition” are not so ill, that might also account for Table 2’s missing symptoms.

Second, “Definition”‘s questionnaires should include measures of severity, and don’t:

Conclusion

The Long Covid Action Project (materials here) is running a letter writing campaign: “Request for NIH to Retract RECOVER Study Regarding 12 Symptom PASC Score For Long Covid.” As of this writing, “only 3,082 more until our goal of 25,600.” You might consider dropping them a line.

Back to the checklist for one moment. One way to look at the checklist is — we’re talking [drumroll] the PMC here — as a set of complex eligibility requirements, whose function is, as usual, gatekeeping and denial:

what they did is create basically a means test to figure out a dx but for smthg that is still not fully understood. it's premature and rly limited, & this will only further aid ppl already dismissive of lc — Wendi Muse (@MuseWendi) June 3, 2023

If you score 12, HappyVille! If you score 11, Pain City! And no consideration given to the actual organ damage in your body. And after the last three years following CDC, I find it really, really difficult to give NIH the benefit of the doubt. If one believed that NIH was acting in bad faith, one would see “Definition” as a way to keep the funding gravy train rolling, and the “12 Symptoms” headlines as having the immediate and happy outcome of denying care to the unfit. Stay safe out there, and let’s save some lives!

NOTES

[1] Oddly, the JAMA paper is not yet listed on RECOVER’s publications page.

[2] “12” is such a clickbait-worthy brainworm. “12 Days of Christmas,” “12 apostles,” “12 steps,” “12 months,” “12 signs of the zodiac,” etc. One might wonder where if the number had been “9” or “14” the uptake would have been so instant.

[3] To be fair to the sources, most of them mention this: Not CBS, Chief Health Care Executive, or the Daily Beast, but CNN in paragraph 51, Smithsonian (9), PBS (20), AMA Update (10), and Benefits Pro (17).

[4] There was only one patient representative for the paper:

One seems low, especially given the headcount for the project.

[5] I was not able to find a nursing journal that covered the story.

[6] Unless it was, of course.

[7] Samuel Johnson: “When I take up the end of a web, and find it packthread, I do not expect, by looking further, to find embroidery.”

#long covid #naked capitalism #lambert strether #national institutes of health #covid pandemic #covid 19 #long covid action project #long covid awareness day

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panicinthestudio · 1 year

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