Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Women are more susceptible to long Covid, but will we listen to them? | Life and style | The Guardian

On day 16, Helene finally woke up with energy. “I did this long walk. I came back, and I was in the garden, lying in the sun. And then I felt I was getting a migraine.” At first she thought nothing of it, putting it down to spring pollen causing hay fever. But then it got worse. “I developed this sinus pain and then it turned into nausea, and my whole body ached. So I went to bed. I don’t think I was ever the same after that.”

Helene was recounting this story to me in August 2020, five months after contracting Covid-19. Her story is not unusual. Her description of feeling better and then getting even sicker after exercise has a medical name: post-exertional malaise. It is common in patients with post-viral fatigue and is a hallmark of chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and some other overlapping chronic pain conditions.

For the first few months of 2020, as the world was just beginning to comprehend what Covid-19 was, World Health Organization guidelines suggested people generally recovered from Covid-19 in two weeks.

By April, studies from Italy and China were documenting “a significant symptom burden in Covid-19 survivors including anxiety, sleep disorders, fatigue, limited exercise tolerance, and memory and executive function impairment”.

Source: Women are more susceptible to long Covid, but will we listen to them? | Life and style | The Guardian

The McConnell filibuster is not the same as the Jim Crow filibuster – it’s much worse | US politics | The Guardian

To understand how the filibuster became essential, first to southern Democrats and then later to nearly all Republicans, we have to start a little more than 100 years ago. Until 1917, the filibuster allowed any group of legislators, no matter how small, to pass speaking privileges among themselves, holding the Senate floor and indefinitely delaying any bill. But when Senate obstruction threatened to derail America’s military buildup ahead of the first world war, lawmakers changed the rules, allowing a supermajority of senators to break a filibuster and force a vote. Source: The McConnell filibuster is not the same as the Jim Crow filibuster – it’s much worse | US politics | The Guardian

ASIA/MYANMAR – Appeal to young people from the Archbishop of Yangon – Agenzia Fides

“Follow the non-violent path against violent means”: this is the exhortation addressed to young Burmese by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, who, in a statement published on 23 March and sent to the Agenzia Fides, recognizes “the wonderful historical contribution” and the sacrifice of the young people of Myanmar for the progress and improvement of the country. Cardinal Bo notes that the peaceful struggle of the youth movement for democratic values, fairness and unity in Myanmar has met with respect and worldwide recognition thanks to its “spontaneity, creativity, massive organization and non-violent approach”. The non-violent modalities, the Cardinal remarked, “will prevail over violent oppression and decrease the death toll among demonstrators”.
The message affirms that it empathically understands and recognizes the challenges facing young people in Myanmar today: surviving in the midst of severe hardship, resisting brutal violence, which causes pain, anger, frustration and anguish. At the same time, the text renews the call for the “only use of peaceful means” and to remain strong and disciplined in the non-violent response, in order to avoid further bloodshed and more victims in the process. of the confrontation. Source: ASIA/MYANMAR – Appeal to young people from the Archbishop of Yangon – Agenzia Fides

Mississippi GOP senator says it’s wrong to vote on Sunday for religious reasons | TheHill (Me: But pro football, baseball, basketball, lottery, beer and booze after 12:30 PM is OK) 

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Wednesday said she believed it’s wrong to hold voting events on Sunday due to religious reasons.

Source: Mississippi GOP senator says it’s wrong to vote on Sunday for religious reasons | TheHill

Risk of COVID very low in vaccinated medical workers: study | CIDRAP

COVID-19 infection was very low in a cohort of vaccinated California healthcare workers (HCWs) amid a surge of new cases, according to a research letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

University of California researchers evaluated COVID-19 infection rates in 36,659 HCWs on the San Diego and Los Angeles campuses vaccinated with at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from Dec 16, 2020, to Feb 9, 2021. In that timeframe, 28,184 (77%) received the second dose of vaccine.

Of the 36,659 vaccinated HCWs, 379 (1.0%) tested positive for COVID-19 1 or more days after vaccination, 71% of them within the first 2 weeks after the first dose. Of the 28,184 HCWs who received their second dose, 37 (0.1%) tested positive, 22 of them 1 to 7 days later. Eight tested positive 8 to 14 days later, and 7 did so at least 15 days later.

Source: Risk of COVID very low in vaccinated medical workers: study | CIDRAP

Environmental Activist Juan Carlos Cerros Killed in Honduras – Havana Times

In Honduras, another Indigenous Lenca environmental activist has been assassinated. Forty-one-year-old Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante…

In Honduras, another Indigenous Lenca environmental activist has been assassinated. Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante, 41, was fighting against a hydroelectric dam in northwestern Honduras. He was reportedly shot to death in front of his children.

At least 12 environmental activists and land and water defenders were killed in Honduras last year. Violence has skyrocketed in the country since the U.S.-backed 2009 coup and under President Juan Orlando Hernández, a key U.S. ally.

Source: Environmental Activist Juan Carlos Cerros Killed in Honduras – Havana Times

Michigan, Minnesota see COVID-19 variant increases | CIDRAP

Today Minnesota confirmed the variant us now widespread in the state, accounting for more than half of the viruses in a sample selected for genetic sequencing. So far the state has detected 479 cases caused by B117.

Across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tracked 7,501 B117 cases in 51 jurisdictions; that number is likely a gross underestimate, as it’s based only on a samples selected for genomic surveillance.

Officials from the White House and CDC have said in recent weeks that B117 likely represents 30% of COVID-19 cases in the country, and it will become the dominant strain by April.

Source: Michigan, Minnesota see COVID-19 variant increases | CIDRAP