Climate Poison Pills in Congress
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/14/climate-poison-pills-in-congress
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Republican lawmakers have armed themselves with a plethora of “climate poison pills” inserted into spending proposals. They hope to trim the budget by hammering climate funding.
They want to stop Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act) & climate change is a prime target for massive cuts, to hell with global warming.
#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #RepublicanParty
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The Meaning of Jenin
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/07/the-meaning-of-jenin
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Using language similar to Putin’s description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Benjamin Netanyahu labeled the attack on one of the world’s most defenseless & impoverished areas as a “special operation,” a targeted raid against alleged terrorists
In the most brutal assault on the West Bank in decades the IDF targeted Jenin’s entire population & the fragile infrastructure the camp depends on for its survival:
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...Addendae, cont'd
The Meaning of Jenin
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/07/the-meaning-of-jenin
nostr:npub1vk828mhlvhwte0cch8kd7pdyun7fmgeyu9sjvv70r9veutjdfxlspeky4c
Using language similar to Putin’s description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Benjamin Netanyahu labeled the attack on one of the world’s most defenseless & impoverished areas as a “special operation,” a targeted raid against alleged terrorists
In the most brutal assault on the West Bank in decades the IDF targeted Jenin’s entire population & the fragile infrastructure the camp depends on for its survival:
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... Addendae (cont'd)
Trump Says DeSantis Has No Path to Victory
Trump taunted Ron DeSantis (R-FL), his chief Republican rival, for absence @ conservative Turning Point Action Conference
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/16/us/politics/trump-turning-point-desantis.html
Trump, who leads DeSantis by ~30% points in national polls, dismissed DeSantis’ early momentum
https://persagen.com >> "Turning Point Action"
#2024USElections #RonDeSantis #2024PresidentialCandidates #TurningPointAction #neofascism #CultureWars #RepublicanParty #DonaldTrump
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Pro-Trump Crowd, Sensing Disloyalty, Drowns Out Dissent
Day after Trump headlined Turning Point conference in Florida, 2 of his Republican opponents booed/heckled at same event
With 1000s of pro-Trump activists in attendance, jeers flew at the mention of Fox media mogul Rupert Murdoch as well as Speaker Kevin McCarthy
#RupertMurdoch #KevinMcCarthy #RonDeSantis #2024PresidentialCandidates #TurningPointAction #neofascism #CultureWars #RepublicanParty #DonaldTrump #FoxNews
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Aside: at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic my concern increased exponentially when I learned the SARS-CoV-2 enters human cells by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a membrane protein found on most tissue types (not only lung) - making it far more dangerous than the common flu.
Tissue distribution of ACE2 protein, the functional receptor for SARS coronavirus. A first step in understanding SARS pathogenesis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7167720/
#SARScov2 #COVID19 #ACE2
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The public health resources required to help will be astronomical. It behooves us to study long COVID now.
Aside:
760,000,000 * 0.2 = 15,200,000 long COVID cases, conservative estimate).
8 billion * 0.2 = 160 million potential long COVID cases.
Long COVID (post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_COVID
Unexplained post-acute infection syndromes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35585196/
[PubMed, reviews] post-acute infection syndromes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=post-acute+infection+syndromes&filter=pubt.review
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#COVID19 #COVID #SARScov2 #LongCOVID #1918flu #PublicHealth #pandemics #LongFlu #SpanishFlu #PAIS #PostAcuteInfectionSyndrome #RiskAvoidance #RiskAversion #EllsbergParadox #amyloids #neurobiology #LewyBody #LewyBodies #neurodegradation #CellBiology #ParkinsonsDisease #parkinsonism #ProteinMisfolding #alphaSynuclein #synucleinopathy #synucleinopathies #DreamEnactmentSleepDisorder #SleepDisorders
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The public health resources required to help will be astronomical. It behooves us to study long COVID now.
Aside:
760,000,000 * 0.2 = 15,200,000 long COVID cases, conservative estimate).
8 billion * 0.2 = 160 million potential long COVID cases.
Long COVID (post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_COVID
Unexplained post-acute infection syndromes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35585196/
[PubMed, reviews] post-acute infection syndromes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=post-acute+infection+syndromes&filter=pubt.review
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It is crucial that we address the long COVID public health emergency promptly.
There have been >760 million globally documented cases of COVID-19 with the real number of cases presumably much higher.
Long COVID is occurring in 20-30% of these cases, meaning that hundreds of millions of people could be at higher risk of developing Parkinson's / other neurodegenerative issues later in life.
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Dr. Smeyne elaborated on the seriousness of these findings, telling Salon, "Our studies in mice predict a 30-50% increase in Parkinson's risk for those moderately to severely infected with the Alpha variant.
While on an individual basis this only changes a person's risk from 2% to 3% for developing Parkinson's, over the whole of the population we would expect to see millions more develop Parkinson's disease than would have if not for their COVID infection."
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So how does all of this connect? Basically, if dream-enactment sleep disorder is more common in those who have had COVID, and the vast majority of those who suffer from this kind of sleep disorder ultimately develop neurological diseases like Parkinson's, then COVID-19 could lead to an explosion of these diseases in the coming years.
This is not mere speculation; animal models further substantiate these claims.
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Over 80% of patients with dream-enactment sleep disorder go on to develop a Parkinson's-like disease within two decades.
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And what can cause alpha-synuclein misfolding? Genetic mutations, exposure to certain toxins, & infections.
COVID-19 may be one such infection, meaning long COVID symptoms may be a reflection of a developing neurological disorder.
Alarmingly, two studies published by the Mayo Clinic and the Medical University Innsbruck corroborate the findings in the Nature articles, recording signs of dream-enactment sleep disorder among one-third of patients after being infected with COVID-19.
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When misfolding of a protein named "alpha-synuclein" in the nervous system occurs, the amyloid buildup this causes in a neuron can lead to the formation of what is known as a "Lewy body," which is resistant to breakdown and clearance.
The scariest thing about this? Misfolded alpha-synuclein is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia, multiple system atrophy, and pure autonomic failure - all neurodegenerative diseases collectively known as synucleinopathies.
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The threat here is not that far off - which is why it is of grave importance that we push for an explanatory theory of long COVID (& post-acute infection syndrome) that can fully account for the totality of symptoms observed after an initial infection with SARS-CoV-2 despite no clinical findings of active infection
ASIDE: see my earlier post re: human psychology & deferred risk / risk aversion:
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110707507862338608
Why people struggle to understand climate risk
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THE SCIENCE BEHIND LONG COVID
Multiple studies published in the journal Nature Communications (one published last year and one published in February of this year) explain how COVID-19 has the ability to trigger the aggregation of proteins within the human body.
The research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 can cause normal proteins to abnormally misfold.
These misfolded proteins are known as "amyloids," which are toxic to cells when they build up.
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The threat here is not that far off - which is why it is of grave importance that we push for an explanatory theory of long COVID (& post-acute infection syndrome) that can fully account for the totality of symptoms observed after an initial infection with SARS-CoV-2 despite no clinical findings of active infection
ASIDE: see my earlier post re: human psychology & deferred risk / risk aversion:
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110707507862338608
Why people struggle to understand climate risk
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As a result, there is a real danger that a broad-scale investigation into the origin of long COVID is postponed or neglected by funding agencies and the medical establishment.
While the initial pandemic forced governments to organize a response to the sudden crisis, an epidemic of chronic illness may not raise alarms that spur us into immediate action.
Like climate change, a gradually-evolving threat, especially one perceived to be far away, is much harder to address.
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Long COVID is affecting more people than we likely know.
And it eerily parallels other post-acute infection syndrome scenarios throughout history, including those potentially linked to epidemics of Parkinsonism. Hence, the threat of long COVID could lead to a future public health catastrophe, much as the "long" effects of the Spanish Flu did a hundred years ago.j
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The medical establishment calls this condition post-acute infection syndrome (PAIS).
We now have a plethora of information suggesting that COVID-19 is the latest addition to the list of infections spawning post-acute infection syndrome; that is, "long COVID."
According to the CDC, in June 2022, almost one in five American adults who had COVID-19 still had long COVID.
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#SundayMorningRead
Must-read! 🤔 😯 Likely the most important article you'll read today: long-term public health, societal implications, concerns.
Why long COVID could be a ticking time bomb for public health
Long COVID isn't novel: Other viruses in history have had similar "long" arcs - with devastating repercussions
Great article by Philip Finkelstein | https://philipfinkelstein.com
Cites leading peer-reviewed, primary research (Nature Communications; Mayo Clinic; ...)
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The 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish Flu) infected one-third (500 million) of the world's population (then 1.8 billion) & killed 50 million.
With such a high mortality rate this acute infectious disease took its toll, erasing from existence nearly 3% of all people on Earth.
This "long flu," an echo of sorts of the Spanish Flu epidemic itself, has its parallel in long COVID today - a similar cluster of symptoms that persist in those who were previously infected with COVID-19.
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