All posts by nedhamson

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

Pandemics: A History

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Title: Pandemics: A History

Author: Elvidge, Alex

Publisher: Golden Meteorite Press

Language: English

Subjects: Non Fiction, Medicine

Collection: History

Description: If there has been one constant throughout the history of human life, it’s disease.

Disease-causing pathogens have always been present in our world and will undoubtedly continue to exist for the foreseeable future. This book examines the history of major plagues and pandemics from the 5th century CE to the present-day COVID-19 crisis. Each chapter tackles an individual pandemic and examines its causes, scope, and impact. Denial, prejudice, and scapegoating are societal patterns that consistently recur in response to the threat of disease. However, necessity breads innovation, and past pandemics have spurred us to develop new technology, medical advancements, improved public health policies, and more practical infrastructure. Misinformation, however, is the enemy of progress, and learning how our predecessors responded when confronted with similar events helps us both understand and better prepare for present and future crises. COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic that humanity will experience. History demonstrates that we have overcome outbreaks of disease time and time again, and we will continue to do so using the lessons we have learned from our past. There will always be infectious diseases present in our world, but the casualties and scale of future pandemics will depend entirely on how well we can learn from our previous mistakes.

Hilary Swank Is Suing SAG-AFTRA After Being Denied Coverage For Malignant Ovarian Cysts

I’m truly exhausted by the way women’s ovarian and cyclical health issues continue to be treated by healthcare insurance companies. I have experienced it in my own life, and I continually read about it across social media and in the press. Their policies are antiquated, barbaric and primarily view the role of women’s organs solely as a means for procreation.

My hope is to create change for all woman suffering from women’s health issues that have to battle with insurance companies who diminish the significance of their problems, don’t believe the patient (or their doctor’s) explanations surrounding their suffering, and severely preclude coverage to only incredibly limited services and procedures.

Source: Hilary Swank Is Suing SAG-AFTRA After Being Denied Coverage For Malignant Ovarian Cysts

Employees Say Cal State’s COVID-19 Policies Are Falling Short

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Kim Neal, right, is chair of the California State University Employees Union at CSU Los Angeles. The union represents clerical and IT workers, custodial staff and others at all 23 CSU campues. (Courtesy Kim Neal)

Following a surge of coronavirus outbreaks at California State University campuses in Chico and San Diego, employees of Cal State campuses in the L.A. area are expressing concerns that COVID-19 protocols are inconsistent and could lead to further spread

The protocols currently in place give the presidents of each of the 23 Cal State campuses the authority to develop their own pandemic guidelines. While the university system argues that campus-specific protocols allow for more flexibility to respond to different conditions at different schools, critics say a systemwide policy would send a stronger message.

“A lot of our members are very concerned about exposure to COVID-19 while they’re working on campus,” said Cal State Los Angeles employee Kim Neal, the school’s chapter chair of the California State University Employees Union. The union represents 16,000 clerical workers, custodians, IT workers and other employees in the CSU system.

“Right now there’s no measuring of temperatures. There’s no self-checks,” said Neal, an instructional support technician in CSLA’s Department of Television and Film. “There’s no arrival checks, there’s nothing of that in place that we’re aware of.”

A directive from the chancellor’s office to the campuses, she said, would reduce the risk of virus exposure to her members.

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Pete Rauch, Vice President of Organizing with the California State University Employees Union, at a public hearing in 2019. (Courtesy Pete Rauch)

The union’s vice president, Pete Rauch, said COVID-19 guidelines issued by Cal State Chancellor Tim White should have been a mandate for each campus, rather than suggestions.

“If you’re going to return students to San Francisco State and you’re going to return students and staff to San Diego State, what’s the difference?” he asked.

“Let’s just say that I show up on a campus and then it turns out a couple days later, I was infected,” Rauch said. “And while I was walking around on the campus, you know, I went to two or three different buildings. I don’t think that there’s a uniformity in how that’s reported, not to the campus and not back to the employees either.”

The outbreaks at Chico and San Diego led both campuses to cancel their few remaining in-person classes, and Chico cleared its dorms last week.

As of Thursday, Chico State’s tally of student and employee COVID-19 cases totaled 156. As of the same day, San Diego State said it had counted 440 confirmed cases related to employees.

GAPS IN COVID PROTOCOLS

The way different campuses check for COVID-19 symptoms among people on campus underlines the variations in protocols and deadlines.

At Cal Poly Pomona, approximately 500 employees and students are on the campus on a given weekday. Only a fraction of on-campus housing has been opened and most employees have been asked to work from home, said Leticia Gutierrez-Lopez, the university’s Associate Vice President for Student Health and Well-being.

“I think we started very cautiously,” she said.

Cal Poly Pomona’s protocols require students and employees who need to be on campus to fill out a web-based symptoms checker. The university will be moving to an app soon called #CampusClear, Gutierrez-Lopez said.

“I think we’ve been able to manage so far by using the screening and also by using safety training for students and staff,” she said.

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The app-based symptom checker for students and employees who will be at the CSU Dominguez Hills campus. (screenshot)

At the opposite end of Los Angeles County, CSU Dominguez Hills, which has about 200 staff and students on campus on an average weekday, reopened without a similar symptom checker in place, but this week officials rolled out a symptom screener on its iToro app. Students who will be on campus, in the dorms or to attend the few in-person classes are required to use the app to answer questions regarding virus symptoms.

Not all campuses post tallies of campus-related cases. Dominguez Hills posts it’s count here. Cal Poly Pomona added new cases on Thursday to its count here.

Still, employees are not required to answer those same questions. The university says it’s talking to the employee unions for sign off.

“We’re just trying to make sure that we understand who our audience is, and that we’re asking the right questions,” said Mike Williams, the environmental health and safety manager at Dominguez Hills.

CSULA’s COVID-19 plan outlines various cleaning and sanitizing methods to take place on campus, and says students will be instructed to carry out self-checks but the plan does not describe any mandatory checks for people on campus.

“Since March, Cal State L.A. has sent repeated communications to students and employees regarding COVID-19, including preventative measures and signs and symptoms of the disease,” CSULA’s communications office said in an email.

“The university has also provided information on self-screening, which can be found on this webpage. Employees and students have also been instructed on what to do if they are diagnosed with coronavirus or have been exposed to others who have been diagnosed with the disease. Signage has been posted on buildings across campus and placed along walkways and other open areas,” the office said.

AUTONOMY AND CENTRALIZED DIRECTION

Critics question whether that’s enough.

Audrey Dow, vice president at the Campaign for College Opportunity, says autonomy serves campuses well when it comes to setting curriculum to address local educational needs — but it hasn’t served the campuses well during the pandemic.

“Students really need to have a consistent strong message coming from the Chancellor’s Office,” Dow said. “We’re not sending a strong message to students about what they need to do in terms of precautions once they get onto campus.” That could lead to outbreaks at different campuses.

The Cal State Chancellor’s Office said autonomy is meant to address campuses’ regional needs.

The office sent campuses an 18-page guide to protocols as the fall semester began. In a memo sent last week, the Chancellor’s office urged campuses to report and investigate new cases.

“Each of the campuses has developed its own repopulation plan and there are differences in each plan related to the variance in enrollment, programs, facilities, etc. across the campuses,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesman for Chancellor White.

He said the chancellor’s office is not keeping an official tally of COVID-19 cases at the 23 campuses.

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The 4 Minneapolis Cops Who Arrested George Floyd Are Scrambling to Throw Each Other Under the Bus for His Death

All four former Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd are scheduled to appear in court Friday, where they will request four separate trials because each officer’s version of events—and their interpretation of who was in charge at the scene—differ so greatly, reports the Washington Post.

“There are very likely going to be antagonistic defenses presented at the trial,” wrote lawyer Earl Gray, representing former officer Thomas K. Lane, in a legal motion filed in Minneapolis earlier this week. “It is plausible that all officers have a different version of what happened and officers place blame on one another.”

 

Source: The 4 Minneapolis Cops Who Arrested George Floyd Are Scrambling to Throw Each Other Under the Bus for His Death

‘Farewell, United Russia’ Nominal opposition parties join forces to take on Russia’s ruling party in the town of Shuya — Meduza

The coalition’s members are worried about election fraud, especially since voting will be spread out over three days (September 11–13). “It’s very expensive to organize monitoring,” Mastrakov mentions. Sergey Shestukhin has other worries: “Now [voters] often say: ‘And what will you change in the elections? Only the street can make a difference.”

Source: ‘Farewell, United Russia’ Nominal opposition parties join forces to take on Russia’s ruling party in the town of Shuya — Meduza

France urged to act as resurgent disease runs rampant

France’s national scientific council is urging leaders to act now to counter the spread of the disease, which saw 10,000 new cases in a single day on Thursday. However, questions remains whether the French will be willing to heed new restrictions.

France’s national scientific council is urging leaders to act now to counter the spread of the disease, which saw 10,000 new cases in a single day on Thursday. However, questions remains whether the French will be willing to heed new restrictions.

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Jill posts some more food for thought with statistics: No Longer The Country We Think We Are — Filosofa’s Word

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

Nicholas Kristof’s column in the New York Times today speaks for itself … ‘We’re No. 28! And Dropping!’ A measure of social progress finds that the quality of life has dropped in America over the last decade, even as it has risen almost everywhere else. By Nicholas Kristof Opinion Columnist This should be a wake-up […]

No Longer The Country We Think We Are — Filosofa’s Word

View original post

I’m more in fear for my country now than I EVER was during 9/11. — The Chatty Introvert

Strange how I just realized the date’s tomorrow. 19 years ago. I remember telling some folks back when Dump was running for office that I’m far more afraid of my neighbors than any foreign terrorist. That goes double these days. Not my immediate neighbors, perhaps, but the area in general. I live deep in Dump […]

I’m more in fear for my country now than I EVER was during 9/11. — The Chatty Introvert
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