Monday, November 21, 2022

And another day of RSV anti-vaxxers claiming a hoax, Iran’s security forces using rape to quell protests, Brett Favre and welfare money, a possible strike for rail workers, and more than half of infectious diseases affected by climate change comes to a close:

“It’s impossible to overstate the enormity of the damage caused by Fox News.” -- Andrew Weinsten

Deaths

US: 1,102,915

World: 6,627,666

Cases

US: 100,251,354

World: 643,446,090

Hospitals Are Full of Kids Sick With RSV—And Anti-Vaxxers Think It’s a Hoax. Pfizer’s RSV vaccine, which is given to pregnant women before delivery so that they can pass antibodies on to the developing fetus, was hailed by pediatricians as a major accomplishment. Yet it didn’t take long before anti-vaccine activists began to distort the facts about this vaccine and others in the pipeline. Some of the most prominent have suggested that pharmaceutical companies are exploiting the current RSV surge in order to create a market for their forthcoming shots. — Such evil people. 

How Iran's security forces use rape to quell protests. Covert testimonies reveal sexual assaults on male and female activists as a women-led uprising spreads. “I’m not trying to spread fear and horror,” wrote one medic from Imam Ali hospital in a social media post. “But this is the truth. A crime is happening and I can’t remain silent.” -- Such evil shit humans do to each other. Just pure fucking evil. And this shit is not unique to Iran.

Women’s protests overshadow Iran’s World Cup loss. Iran’s players didn’t sing their national anthem and didn’t celebrate their goals. In the stands, many Iranian fans showed solidarity with the protest movement that has roiled the country for months. Iran’s World Cup opener Monday against England was not just about soccer, but the political struggles gripping the Islamic Republic. And for some Iranian women, barred from attending men’s soccer matches at home, it was a precious first chance to see the national team live.

BBC identifies young people killed in Iran’s protests. These are some of the schoolchildren and young people killed in protests sweeping across Iran - the boldest challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment, in 1979.

Maricopa County elections official moved to 'undisclosed location' for his safety following social media threat. Bill Gates, a Republican, has repeatedly pushed back against baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

Brett Favre helped an experimental drug maker get $2M in welfare money. Experts doubt the drug can work. Four years ago, Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre joined forces with a Florida neuroscientist to promote an experimental drug — a nasal spray designed to quickly treat brain injuries from a concussion. Favre, a major investor in the company, touted the substance on podcasts, radio interviews and national television, including on NBC. And he did more than evangelize, court records show — he successfully lobbied Mississippi state officials who granted the company $2.1 million in federal welfare money that was intended to help poor families. The payment was illegal, state officials allege in a lawsuit — part of a huge Mississippi welfare misspending scandal that has tarnished Favre’s reputation. -- Brett Favre is a shitty human.

Freight rail workers at the biggest unions are split on a contract deal, raising the specter of a strike. Workers at two of the country's biggest rail unions split over a tentative contract their leaders had hashed out with freight rail companies — leaving open the possibility of a debilitating rail strike in the middle of the holiday season.

Study suggests that HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol is less beneficial than previously thought, especially for Black adults. High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol – often referred to as the “good” cholesterol – may not be as useful in predicting the risk of heart disease and protecting against it as previously thought, according to new researched funded by the National Institutes of Health.

More than half of infectious diseases may be aggravated by climate change. Warmer temperatures, changes in precipitation, and extreme weather can all shift the distribution and risk of disease, researchers find. His team reviewed tens of thousands of scientific papers to identify cases in which heat waves, floods, droughts, and other climate hazards have made diseases worse. For example, warmer temperatures and heavy rain can allow some pathogens — like West Nile virus and Vibrio — to thrive and reproduce more rapidly. Changing climate conditions can enable mosquitoes, bats, and other animals — and the pathogens they carry — to move into places closer to humans. And droughts and extreme weather can contribute to malnutrition, which reduces people’s ability to fend off disease. The study shows that climate change has grave, far-reaching implications for human health.

Expect more fungal infections as their geographic ranges expand, experts warn. Many fungal infections are found outside areas where the pathogens are thought to be endemic, a new paper says. Climate change may be to blame.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.