News for week of 2023-01-23 (all current event convos go here).

Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 22, 2023

News

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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Pakistan in nationwide black out today…220 million in the dark. Will be interesting to see how a “modern” society of that size reacts.  In other news….the gas stove debate. I’ll give up my gas stove when they pry my cold dead frozen hands off the knobs and wheel it out with a hand truck. It’s a good resource when there isn’t power in OUR country. 

 

The real reason people are freaking out about gas stoves (and why it’s silly) https://www.themanual.com/food-and-drink/gas-stove-controversy-explained/

Edit to add: The house we have lived in for the past years only has an electric stove (no choice from us). We keep a few camping stoves as a backup, in case of emergency. No big deal.

 

This issue is overblown but also real. And the solution doesn’t require replacing the stove.

Gas stoves typically have a ventilation hood. The ventilation fan should be turned on while the stove is on so that air pollution from cooking is removed from your house.

 

I find most ventilation hoods aren’t worth their weight – they don’t actually ventilate outside the house. In cases where you cannot vent outside an exterior wall (or it would require construction or reconfiguration to do so), replacing the stove is the solution.

 

“most ventilation hoods aren’t worth their weight – they don’t actually ventilate outside the house”

That’s weird. Where else would ventilation go besides outside the house? It doesn’t even meet the definition of “ventilation” if it doesn’t exchange air with outdoors. I’ve got a pipe sticking out of the roof right above my stove.

”Ventilation is the intentional introduction of outdoor air into a space.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventilation_(architecture)

 

Anyone who gets infected with corona more often runs the risk of developing an incurable immune deficiency, according to German Health Minister. https://www-n–tv-de.translate.goog/politik/Lauterbach-warnt-vor-unheilbarer-Immunschwaeche-durch-Corona-article23860527.html

 

Hmm, I’d like to see more detail about this if we find any.

 

FDA planning to offer updated COVID-19 vaccines every year in the fall, similar to current process with flu vaccines. Most people will be allowed one shot per year. People with greater medical need will be allowed two shots per year. None of this is final yet.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/102770

 

Shortage of diabetes medication because it recently became popular for weight loss. This is especially relevant for anyone who needs these drugs. It’s also relevant for anyone concerned about future shortages of other drugs because the article talks about how patients are dealing with the situation.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/102773

 

“King County health officials checking on potential exposure to measles at two sites”

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/king-county-woman-diagnosed-with-first-measles-in-wa-this-year/

 

Signs that deadly H5N1 bird flu strain starting to adapt to spread in mammals – could trigger pandemic.

https://www.science.org/content/article/incredibly-concerning-bird-flu-outbreak-spanish-mink-farm-triggers-pandemic-fears

 

Sign that H5N1 is specifically adapting to humans – Ecuador confirms first human bird flu infection in 9-year-old girl

At this point it probably doesn’t spread well from one human to another. But we don’t actually know that. And also that can change fast.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuador-confirms-first-human-bird-flu-infection-9-year-old-girl-2023-01-11/

 

Microclots as possible cause of long COVID – this is a promising research direction, not a certainty.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02286-7

COVID causes an increase in the number of microclots. People with long COVID have much higher levels of microclots. If these microclots are the cause of long COVID, then anticoagulants could work as a treatment.

 

I worked with someone with clots after recovering from the original COVID. It is not an easy or assured recovery. He had them in his legs, then his arms and now his lungs. Blood thinners and extensive treatment has not lead to recovery. AND HE IS ONLY 36.

 

Major clots are one of the big risks during initial infection. Breathing problems are more well known, and are also a problem of course, but it’s more often the clots that kill.

What’s less known is why so many people, even after apparently minor initial infections, end up with a variety of long term health issues. The idea in this article is that it might be from many tiny clots. Each tiny clot does an unnoticeably small amount of damage, but it all adds up so that various organs don’t perform as well as we need them to.

“Blood thinners and extensive treatment has not lead to recovery.”

Your coworker continued getting more clots after taking the blood thinners? That sounds very scary.

 

It’s mentioned in the article, the proteins that usually make up clots are misformed and make abnormal clots that are harder to break down.

There’s possibilities of viral reservoirs in bones or the brain, that keep messing with everything and throwing out spike proteins that continue to cause the abnormal clotting.

Then there’s the MCAS/cytokine storm that keeps a tendency to clot.

Affecting the vascular system really throws everything out of whack

Hopefully there’s more research that comes along

 

High doses of the enzymes nattokinase and serrapeptase are helping a lot of people. I’m following the Twitter account of Hannah Davis on her research into treatment of long Covid. Study by Pretorius. A blood test for microclots blocking oxygen from getting to capillaries is available in some countries, but difficult to get in the US.

 

Hi, Cia. Haven’t seen you here in a while.

How effective are those treatments? Is there a relevant study we can review?

 

https://www.webmd.com/covid/news/20221207/microclots-may-explain-long-covid-symptoms

i’ll put up Pretorius’ study next. The article above references Hannah Davis and shows the microclots in her blood test, discusses the concepts.

 

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1205453/v1

Pretorius and Kell, South Africa

 

https://medhelpclinics.com/post/long-covid-treatment-news-2022-09-09

Good discussion, several studies at end.

 

One of many comments on Twitter and Reddit by people with long Covid discussing dosage of nattokinase, with testimonials of how well it’s working for them. https://twitter.com/montnicole/status/1586536070526619648?s=12&t=_HSMZwoafmlVg8lgQbLHjw

i’ve been in extremely bad shape for three years now with breathlessness at any movement at all, gasping for breath, constantly exhausted beyond words. I’ve taken one 400 IU capsule of nattokinase four mornings this week, and I’m feeling a lot better, more alive, as though I have a future. I don’t know if it will continue or if I’ll get well, but this is hopeful. 

 

I just saw this: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/17/5405

 

Reporting from a week ago, among experts at Davos:  “91% of respondents said they believe a far-reaching and catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely in the next two years. . . This concern has been raised particularly around critical infrastructure sectors like energy, public transportation and manufacturing.”

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/cybersecurity-storm-2023-experts-davos23/

 

The cybersecurity topic reminded me to share this:

If you use the LastPass password manager, change all your passwords immediately. And consider switching to a different password manager – then changing all of them again. LastPass had a major security breach last year, and lots of customer information (including passwords) was stolen.

https://www.wired.com/story/lastpass-breach-vaults-password-managers/amp

 

A topic from the bbc on fungal infection (obviously linked to The last of us). Interesting because it features survivor testimonials. 

BBC News – Could a fungal pandemic turn us all into zombies? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64402102