All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Avian Flu Diary: Through A Scanner Darkly

Yesterday, the CEO of Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville addressed the Hernando County County Commission, and reported:

  • They have 133 COVID-positive patients out of our 309 total patients in the hospital
  • They’ve had to dedicate five nursing units to COVID.
  • They are close to having their ICU being filled with COVID patients.
  • That 25 patients in the ICU have COVID-19. 17 are on ventilators, ages from 25-75
  • Of the patients on ventilators, 14 are under the age of 65.
  • Only one had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Admittedly, this is but one small microcosm, nestled in a semi-rural region of Florida, but it probably represents much of the United States right now. Hospitals are overrun with COVID patients, with healthcare workers overworked, exhausted, and at high risk of infection themselves.

Importantly,  this is August –  traditionally the nadir of respiratory illness season – and yet hospitals are barely coping. Things could get really dicey if influenza, RSV, and other winter ailments return this winter alongside COVID.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: Through A Scanner Darkly

US Marines arrive in Kabul to evacuate embassy staff while other countries close embassies as Taliban onslaught continues

Joevic Africa

U.S Marines on Friday, August 13 arrived in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, to help evacuate embassy staff as the Taliban continued its offensive sweep through the country..   The battalions are expected to be fully in place by the end of the weekend, and will be capable of supporting the evacuation of several thousand people a…

US Marines arrive in Kabul to evacuate embassy staff while other countries close embassies as Taliban onslaught continues

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Captain Seeks a Sea-Going Cat to Sign on for a Trip Around the World, New York Times (1922)

Content Catnip

Captain Edwin Dyason, master of the freighter Woodfield will welcome any ablebodied seafaring cat wishing to join the crew of his vessel, sailing today for Manila and China. “We missed the ship’s cat shortly after we put into port here,” said the Captain. “Her name was Cleopatra. She joined on in Fremantle, Australia and did one voyage with us. Now she has left us flat.”

One of the party offered to give the Captain a fine angora kitten, but he refused the gift saying “It would be useless to try and keep it onboard. Only seagoing cats are any use on a vessel.”

“Joking aside, sea cats are a race in themselves. Why a land-lubber cat wouldn’t know how to take care of itself in a rough sea. But a sailor cat knows just what pile of ropes to hide under. It stays there and waits for fair weather before…

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Sacred Study Saturdays, Torah Portion Judges, or Shoftim, and Community

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

Parashat Shoftim / פרשתשׁוֹפְטִים

Read in the Diaspora on 14 August 2021 (6 Elul 5781).

Please accept my apologies as I am not feeling well this week, so the next few days posts will be rather brief.

I taught a class on Parashat Shoftim and Community with a follow up on this the next year in last week’s parashah at the DC Beit Midrash, some years ago.

Given the fact that one is not allowed to live in a place with no court, we are all part of a society in which a system of justice must be looked after. The existing justice system must become more fully inclusive for all of us.

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources related to this week’s section of the Bible, or, if you prefer, to the Holocene Epoch and to the Holocene Calendar.

2.) Share them with…

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Metabolism and Age

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

New research changes what we thought we knew about calorie consumption. The analysis is based on combining data from a large number of studies, and covers people between infancy and age 95.

The fundamental finding is that the metabolic rate doesn’t change linearly with age. Instead, there are four distinct phases:

  • There’s infancy, up until age 1, when calorie burning is at its peak, accelerating until it is 50 percent above the adult rate.
  • Then, from age 1 to about age 20, metabolism gradually slows by about 3 percent a year.
  • From age 20 to 60, it holds steady.
  • And, after age 60, it declines by about 0.7 percent a year.(1)

Thus, middle age gut (the fat ring around the abdomen often found in people in their late 30s or 40s) is due to changes in activity rather than changes in metabolism.

The “freshman five” — weight gain associated with…

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Child COVID-19 hospital rates lower in California than U.S. – Los Angeles Times

Public health officials have said that California has taken steps to ensure children can go back to school safely, including requiring masks in indoor school settings and regular testing for unvaccinated workers. They also believe higher-than-average levels of vaccination in the state will help protect children.

“Parents should feel reassured that case rates are still very low amongst children; serious illnesses still remains relatively rare,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “And if we all are doing our part, we’re hopeful that schools are going to open with a lot of safety and without a lot of increased risk.”

Weekly rate of hospitalization per 100,000 by age category for pediatric patients

Still, schools are reopening at a fraught moment.

Earlier this summer, there were so few children suffering from COVID-19 at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego that medical staff decided they no longer needed a special unit to isolate young patients with the virus. Only four children were admitted with the coronavirus during the month of June.

“We were all congratulating each other that COVID was gone,” said Dr. John Bradley, Division of Infectious Diseases director at Rady. “A little prematurely, it turns out.”

Earlier this week, there were four children hospitalized with COVID-19 at the San Diego hospital. That increase has been disappointing but still far below last winter, when there were three to four times as many on a typical day, Bradley said.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles said it had 14 hospitalized patients with the coronavirus as of Thursday — triple the number in the previous week — and half of them are showing symptoms that could be related to COVID-19, according to hospital officials.

Source: Child COVID-19 hospital rates lower in California than U.S. – Los Angeles Times