Cell Phones and Cigarettes

I have some concerns with the new rules for schools as reported by the CBC. The biggest concern is that the funding cuts came Friday, but yet another cell phone ban is the big news, and no money is left for cleaning the air. 

As a teacher, both cell phones and cigarettes being accepted without question and without boundaries is a problem. Well, students aren't officially allowed to smoke on the property, but we created a nice space for them, kids as young as 13, to smoke just on the other side of the property line out back to keep them from loitering on public property at the front of the school, which wouldn't look good. The same thing happened as a student in the 80s. It's still perfectly legal for children to smoke -- it's just illegal to give them cigarettes. That law comes from legislators unduly affected by tobacco lobbying.

What is University For - Part 1

In case you've missed it, many students on university campuses have been protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

The police have been heavy-handed -- or outright violent -- with some of the students. Yet one prof wrote about his primary concerns in the NY Times: that the constant noise disrupts his class and the protests are upsetting for Jewish students.

Imagine If Goliath Won

A group of scientists backed by years of solid science couldn't sway the mighty World Health Organization from their path of destruction, and we've all paid the price.  

I'm just highlighting Julia Doubleday's latest article on the airborne fiasco here. Her piece in The Gauntlet: "The WHO's claim that COVID wasn't airborne cost millions of lives. Now, they're changing the definition of airborne.

"After two years of argument and discussion, [the WHO] has officially rebranded airborne viral transmission as "through the air" transmission. Airborne particles aren't aerosol anymore; they're "Infectious Respiratory Particles," or IRPs. . . . The correspondence [between the WHO and the aerosol expert petitioners in 2020] shows that the WHO either failed to grasp or represented themselves as failing to grasp the points made by the aerosol experts. Multiple times, they repeat false claims about how sure they are that COVID is spread via 'droplets', that respirator-style masks only need to be worn during AGPs (aerosol-generating procedures, an incorrect claim that is still repeated by medical practitioners today). . . . They cite no studies to shore up their claims that COVID must be spread via droplets, but sneeringly point out that the aerosol scientists have not produced 'peer reviewed' studies demonstrating airborne spread. In April 2020, of course, it was impossible for any peer review to have been completed concerning a virus that was then a few months old. 

Another School Came Around - Not Soon Enough

Slides from Yale School of Public Health, one of the oldest school in Public Health and Epidemiology:

On Psychosomatic Illness

I don't know anything about Fibromyalgia, yet I wince when someone says it's psychosomatic. I wonder about almost any conditioned considered psychosomatic now.

I realize I'm using the term in the vernacular to mean "it's all in your head". That's how it is largely understood even though, technically, psychosomatic illness can refer to anything without a medical explanation. People communicating with the public have to understand the common usage of the term as it's being heard.

Jane Brody wrote about the concern with this label almost a decade ago (in full at the very bottom):

"When I was given a diagnosis of breast cancer in February 1999, many friends and readers wondered: 'Why did you get breast cancer? You take such good care of yourself!' . . . It seems that many people believe that if you do everything 'right', bad things won't happen. But bad things can and do happen. And they happen to the 'best' and the 'worst' of us. . . . If you're blessed with good health, you can say, 'I did it.' But if you lose your health, you know that external forces beyond your control can get in your way. Healthy people tend to act as if beneath every sick person is a healthy person trying to come out. . . . 

Wasn't it Susan Sontag who pointed out that whenever the cause of an illness is mysterious, it's assumed to come from psychological problems or a moral weakness? And once science finally figures out the medical root of the illness, that assumption disappears. Will we one day have a better -- that is, more scientific -- understanding of ailments like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Gulf War syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities or any of the other current 'wastebasket' diagnoses that many medical and lay people consider psychosomatic? 

Canada's Healthcare Crisis

A major backbone of Canada is falling apart, and much of it is from poor policy decisions that has led to a serious doctor shortage. 

Mary Fernando, MD, wrote about it. 

"A personal post in two parts: 1. Someone I love needs a specialist but wait times are dangerously long because of our specialist shortage. 2. As a doctor who resisted large money offers from the US to stay in Canada, I've lost something more important than money: my family's safety. 

Hostility Creating Isolation

A recent study found that older adults are spending less time in public due to hostility against people in masks. 

"The study comes amid what the U.S. Surgeon General recently called an 'epidemic of loneliness' in which older adults - especially those who are immune compromised or have disabilities - are particularly vulnerable. . . . 60% of respondents said they spend more time in their home while 75% said they dine out less. Some 62% said they visit cultural and arts venues less, adn more than half said they attend church or the gym less than before the pandemic. . . . 80% of respondents reported that there are some places they are reluctant to visit in person anymore. 'The thought of going inside a gym with lots of people breathing heavily and sweating is not something I can see myself ever doing again,' said one 72-year-old male. Those who said they still go to public places like grocery stores reported that they ducked in and out quickly and skipped casual chitchat. . . . 

Many respondents reported that they were afraid of getting infected with a virus or infecting young or immune-compromised loved ones, and said they felt 'irresponsible' for being around a lot of people. Some reported getting dirty looks or rude comments when wearing masks or asking others to keep their distance - interpersonal exchanges that reinforced their inclination to stay home. . . . The loss of spontaneous interactions in what sociologists call 'third places' could have serious health consequences. . . . 

Finlay hopes that her work can encourage policymakers to create spaces more amenable to people of all ages who are now more cautious about getting sick - things like outdoor dining spaces, ventilated concert halls or masked or hybrid events. She also hopes that people will give those still wearing masks or keeping distance some grace."

What's Good for the King is Good for the Kids

We KNOW that Covid makes kids sick, which affects attendance, and we KNOW cleaning the air will help (since so many have been convince not to wear masks to class), but we'll still only implement solutions for the wealthiest 1%. 

Back in June 2020, the New York Times reported how Covid short-circuits the immune system: 

"In many patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, the immune system is threatened by a depletion of certain essential cells, suggesting eerie parallels with H.I.V. . . . and hints that a cocktail of drugs may be needed to bring the coronavirus under control. . . . Ordinarily, IP10 levels are only briefly elevated while T cells are dispatched. But in Covid-19 patients--as was the case in patients with SARS and MERS, also caused by coronaviruses--IP10 levels go up and stay up. That may create chaotic signaling int he body: It's like Usain Bolt hearing the starting gun and starting to run. Then someone keeps firing the starting gun over and over. What would he do? He'd stop, confused and disoriented. The result is that the body may be signaling T cells almost at random, confusing the immune response."

But then, unfortunately, "aerosol physicists were essentially ignored in favour of medical dogma when attempting to advise the WHO at the start of the pandemic. Many lives would have been saved had public health institutions focused on mitigating airborne transmission." 

No Ragrets

The frustrating experiences that linger with me the longest are the times I was able to make a difference in my tiny corner of the world or have some kind of effect or even have the potential to have an effect, and then it was derailed, often by a well-meaning person whose perception of their abilities might have been  greater than the reality. 

I have a far easier time coping with my own mistakes and inane decisions than watching someone else decimate my efforts. Maybe it's because I have more faith in myself to correct my own path than I have in others who seem more willing to let things fall to the wayside. 

This is just a personal rant as I try to work on disattachment from it all. I have some regrets; when someone takes over a project, from a small task to a political portfolio, it's somehow still ours to mourn or celebrate despite not having any agency to affect it. 

Avian Flu and You

Avian flu has jumped to cows and a person, which is a little bit bigger deal than just avoiding soft boiled eggs. 

H5N1 was contracted by someone in Texas who was in contact with dairy cattle. His only symptom is eye inflammation, and he's doing fine on Tamiflu. He was isolated, and it doesn't appear to have spread further. In cows, the virus doesn't kill them, but lowers milk production, and means we should really avoid non-pasteurized milk. BUT it's a concern that cows are getting it; they're not the type of animal typically expected to catch this virus. And now baby goats are getting it and dying from it!! This is the first time goats have contracted the virus, and they seem less equipped to fight it off. 

A big problem is that it's virtually impossible to keep wild birds out of barns or away from animals and feed.