Everything about COVID-19 is subject to scrutiny by informed and ill-informed media, by experts, by eminence. Booster shots are the latest in the communication apocalypse. Do we need them? Pick your data; there is a great deal to choose from.
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Storytelling in science, finding the narrative. The simultaneous rise of literacy and misogyny, heavy metal harp, the mushroom mind, and a Twitter Ivermectin thread and media bias
The constant barrage of news, cloaked in attention-getting words and images, is playing havoc with instinctual behavior that is millions of years old. There is, for me, a direct connection between fight or flee, chronic stress, and how we have chosen to use the medium of digital communication. Digital media is an out-of-control fear machine.
With the school year underway, teacher vaccine mandates, and mask mandates in partial or full effect, have we made our children safer? That we cannot say, at least as yet, but a new study can tell us something about how COVID-19 can and does spread.
A confession, climate change, how to read a book, and it is truly Autumn in New York
Most COVID-19 concerns have focused on daily infections and their accumulated impacts. Relatively little attention has been given to the lingering symptoms known as “long-haul COVID,” even though it comprises some 30% of cases. The available data are spotty but amenable to the same kinds of population analysis that has been applied to daily cases.
I was driving to my favorite bagel shop when I noticed a bright green plant nestled in the bare branches of a tall tree. It piqued my curiosity, so my husband asked one of his bagel buddies, knowledgeable about a myriad of topics, what the plant is. “Why, mistletoe, of course,” was his response. “Didn’t you know that mistletoe is a parasitic plant that is always attached to its host tree?”
A new take on sin taxes, Wordle and the Internet, who is an expert, and the return of human sacrifices?
There is a tussle between those that believe that our COVID vaccines are net beneficial and those that argue that there are too many adverse side effects. The combatants cite data from varying sources, always pointing out that their opponents’ data are, as Mark Twain states, “lies, damn lies, and statistics.” A new paper from JAMA Network Open puts some context to the numbers.
I became most interested in the two reports on lead we ran in Dispatch last week. I had looked at this topic a few years ago, and at the time I was concerned that ACSH had on its website some older commentaries that seemed to downplay the danger of lower blood levels. Now, let me share some of my thoughts.
AI and healthcare, murder or malpractice, call centers, and should we get rid of scientific journals?
When does Elsie, the Borden cow, go from being an icon to being a Big Mac? When do children and adults decide which animals are pets, and which are eligible to be eaten? A new study suggests these decisions begin when we are tweens.
COVID-19 may remain in our communities for the foreseeable future, and we are told to live with as yet to be defined “new normal.” By and large, this pandemic has been fought on an individual level, one case, mask, and vaccination at a time. Alternatively, environmental risk analysis involves three levels of specificity: community, local, and individual, comprising a “3-legged stool”. Understanding the first two legs is required to benefit the third.
Caviar, especially from Beluga sturgeon, is an acquired and expensive taste. With changing geopolitics, would it surprise you that China now produces a third of the global supply? Much of that supply is farm-raised, 500-fold more than wild-caught.
Disparities in COVID-19 outcomes by race or ethnicity have often been reported, deplored, and attributed to socioeconomic factors. It’s clear that vaccination is the main tool for slowing the spreading of the virus; here we examine disparate vaccination rates by race and ethnicity. However, among such disparities, there is an important distinction between equality (sameness) and equity (fairness).
The effectiveness of vaccines against COVID infection has been well established. Vaccine coverage has been steadily increasing, concurrently with the spreading of the Omicron virus variant. Recent data on children in New York State provide an opportunity to examine these trends.
In trying to make sense of the pandemic as new virus variants emerged and vaccines became available, we found that cyclical patterns don’t conform to seasons, deaths lag behind cases by varying degrees, cases and subsequent deaths vary by 10 to 15-fold, regional trends may shift, and case counts may be subject to reporting errors.
How can we anticipate the future if we can’t understand the past?
“Modern food production, be it field cultivations of crops or the capture of wild marine species, is a peculiar hybrid dependent on two different kinds of energy. The first and most obvious is the Sun. But we also need the now indispensable input of fossil fuels and the electricity produced and generated by humans.”
Joan Mitchell returns to the stage.
Is robotic automation making us safer?
Should we end aging?
The regulatory capture of the USDA
Is the climate crisis a population problem or a poverty problem?
Are you more disabled as a composer if you are blind or deaf?
A Dutch pastime - Uitwaaien
Medicare can negotiate prices; what might go wrong?
We've been told for decades that less is more when it comes to salt in the diet. Recent research has thrown that conclusion into doubt. Can we identify children who may be at risk for SIDS before it suddenly and tragically strikes?
When it comes to assaults, firearms get much attention, although there are many other means of mayhem. That includes knives in stabbings and using blunt objects, including fists; guns are just the most efficient at causing injury and death. A new study looks at the healthcare costs for assaults. Why should you care? Because in the world of city budgets, we should at least consider these expenses when we redefine where policing policies are directed.
The EPA’s model for assessing the rise of carcinogenesis from chemicals and their dose-response models remains controversial. Is the EPA “following the science” or making assumptions?
Catastrophism in the media and our lives
Friendship and politics
Why do Americans own so many guns
The Big Oyster and the Black Oyster King
Can Prohibition teach us about lockdowns and the opioid crisis?
When narrative overwhelms facts
Lessons from a child and a thief
Pagination
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