Category Archives: Viva!

‘Ding dong, it’s time’: dancing tarantulas emerge in droves to mate in western US

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Males have begun their walkabout seeking a mate (and hoping not to get eaten) – and this year has seen a big turnout

Gaggles of tarantulas are emerging from their burrows across the western US on a quest to mate, hunting for love in prairies, foothills and a garage belonging to Kim Kardashian West.

From August to October, the eight-legged crawlers go on a walkabout for a once-in-a-lifetime foray to find a partner. The phenomenon is now occurring on a unusually large scale from northern California to Colorado and Texas, shining a light on the arachnids’ remarkable mating behavior, which can involve dancing and cannibalism.

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Long-awaited Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange takes place

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Each country releases 35 prisoners in biggest exchange since start of Crimea conflict

Kyiv and Moscow have exchanged dozens of prisoners in a dramatic operation that resulted in freedom for 24 Ukrainian sailors taken captive by Russia, as well as a potential suspect and key witness in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was on the tarmac at Kyiv’s Boryspil airport to greet the prisoners released by Russia on Saturday morning. There were emotional scenes as family members were reunited on the runway.

Oleg Sentsov, a film-maker sentenced to 20 years by Russia on hotly disputed “terrorism” charges, was also among those released.

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Could Measles virus and Ebola virus be working together in the DRC?

Oops! Anti-Vaxers endanger us more than we thought!?!

Measles, resulting from measles virus (MeV) infection can cause immune suppression and “immune amnesia”. MeV infection most often affects non-immune children but can occur in any age group. Immune amnesia is a result of MeV infection. Key cells that remember past infections and produce responses to prevent disease if you get infected again are drastically reduced in number. There’s a lot of measles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) right now. Know what else there is there? Ebola virus. In kids. Could Measles virus and Ebola virus be working together in the DRC?

While the ongoing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the DRC attracts most of the infectious disease media attention, there is also a huge surge in easily transmitted MeV infections happing at the same time, in the same region of the DRC.[1] To confuse matters, some of the signs and symptoms of EVD – fever, redness around the eyes, diarrhoea – are virtually indistinguishable from those experienced when suffering measles, malaria or cholera.[2,5]

Even more alarming is that there have been more deaths attributed to MeV (2,758 from Jan to late Aug 2019) in the DRC, than to EVD (2,052 reported since Jul 20918) in 2019.[3]

The young have been hit harder by EVD

A particularly unwanted feature of the unwanted 2018-19 DRC EVD outbreak has been the high number of children diagnosed compared to previous EVD outbreaks.[4,7,9,10,13]

Women and children have been disproportionately affected by EVD in the DRC.
Source: United Nations photo.

Of 1,994 deaths to 26th of August this year, 801 (40%) have been children.[6] Children also bear the brunt of disease and death due to MeV infection.[8]

The impact of EVD in children during the ongoing outbreak is unprecedented so what might be different about this outbreak compared to the previous ones? Some things to consider include:

  • are infections occurring when children are inadvertently exposed to the Ebola virus during visits to clinics for other infections such as measles or malaria?[13,15]
  • is infection control among traditional healers, hospitals and health centres worse now than in past outbreaks?
  • are there more infections via breastfeeding – an area that is in desperate need of more research [11]?
  • could there be less shielding of children from their infected family members than in previous outbreaks?
  • is nutrition – and its impact on a healthy immune response – an issue here when it hasn’t been previously?
  • are children somehow being even more affected by dehydration due to vomiting, diarrhoea and blood loss than is usual for EVD? [12]
  • are children being better identified in this outbreak?
  • are more deaths among children due to carers waiting longer because of what initially looks like a “normal” childhood infection before presenting for the specialized medical care needed for paediatric EVD cases?[14]
  • are children being made to work in outbreak-related roles more than has been usual in the past?

Measles virus infection does more than produce measles

It’s been known for over 100 years that MeV infection is immunosuppressive [16,17]; it silences the effective immune response to other infections. Measles also reduces immune memory for 2 to 3 years and can result in increased deaths over this period compared to MeV-immune people.[20]

The mechanism for suppression and amnesia revolves around which cells MeV infects and destroys.[20] You guessed it. It kills off the immune memory blood cells that hold the ability to rapidly respond – with antibodies and killer and control immune cells – to the return of a multitude of viral and bacterial nemeses from days gone past.

These memory B cells and memory T cells are a precious asset to our ongoing health.

After recovery from MeV infection, cell numbers return to normal levels, but we now lack the strength and spectrum of our immune memory. Ironically for MeV, measles doesn’t stop us mounting a good immune response to it though. It resets the clock and restocking our immune pantry with anti-MeV responses. And not much else. We’ve forgotten our infectious enemies.

Restarting the clock on all those accrued immune memories that help you to fend off disease from infections you’ve previously had…thanks a lot, measles virus!

Despite this being known for decades, we don’t hear a lot about it. Which is really strange. Especially in these times of worldwide measles-palooza.

Do you know something that effectively protects us from measles without ablating our immune memory and giving us immune amnesia? The answer to that would be measles-containing vaccines. Not only does a measles vaccine dramatically reduce the risk of serious outcomes like encephalitis and death, but this safe vaccine also lets us keep all our happy immune memories intact.

How does measles make us forget previous infections?

MeV uses CD150, molecules on the surface of our immune cells, as a receptor. It can infect these and hitch a ride to travel all over our body. It also kills these cells.

In one well-observed introduction of MeV to the isolated, immunologically naive island of Rotuma, more than half of the children in the 1910 and 1911 birth-year cohorts died during their first two years of life.[19] Overall, 13% of the population died due to causes attributed to measles. Measles-related deaths occurred at a higher rate among Rotuman women in 1911. As well as children, women have also been over-represented among fatal EVD cases during this latest outbreak. Gastrointestinal complications were the main feature among fatal cases on Rotuma. Tuberculosis-related death rates were also higher among those studied in 1911 than among eth same group in any of the following 50 years. These were impacts attributed to measles.

Could measles be an important cofactor for EVD?

Could measles be paving the way for more EVD cases, and more severe outcomes, among children and women in the DRC? I don’t have an answer and I haven’t seen any data that rule it out or in.

This seems like a question that should be asked and investigated if it hasn’t already been.

Laboratory investigations could shed light on the role of MeV infection preceding Ebola virus disease.
Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

This entire MeV story is yet another reason why vaccination programs are such an essential part of a healthy population. The measles outbreaks we are seeing in countries all over the world – apart from being worrying and expensive to contain – indicate that immunity has lapsed in pockets and is absent in entire countries.

Getting measles from MeV infection is only the first step on a path to poor health in the ensuing years. #Vaccineswork in more than just the most obvious ways.

References

  1. Measles vaccination begins in Ebola-hit Congo amid fears of ‘massive loss of life’
    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/12/measles-vaccination-begins-in-ebola-hit-congo-amid-fears-of-massive-loss-of-life
  2. Mass measles vaccination campaign begins in Ebola-hit DR Congo province
    https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/07/1042221
  3. Measles has killed more people in DR Congo this year than Ebola epidemic, MSF says
    https://www.france24.com/en/20190817-drcongo-measles-killed-more-ebola-epidemic-msf-vaccine
  4. https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/262262737/one-in-five-ebola-fatalities-in-past-year-have-been-children
  5. https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/ebola
  6. https://www.unicef.org/drcongo/en/what-we-do/emergency-response/ebola-outbreak
  7. https://www.unicef.org.uk/press-releases/protecting-children-and-engaging-communities-key-to-ending-ebola-outbreak-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-as-deaths-pass-2000/
  8. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles
  9. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/an-ebola-outbreak-presents-a-new-mystery-involving-children
  10. https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2019-press-releases/ebola-spike-in-democratic-republic-of-congo
  11. Ebola virus disease and breastfeeding: time for attention
    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32005-7/fulltext
  12. https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/Children-and-Disasters/Pages/ebola_faqs.aspx
  13. An Ebola outbreak presents a new mystery involving children
    https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/19/ebola-outbreak-new-mystery-children/
  14. https://www.voanews.com/africa/children-hardest-hit-ebola-epidemic-dr-congo
  15. Ebola detectives race to identify hidden sources of infection as outbreak spreads
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07618-0
  16. Natural measles causes prolonged suppression of interleukin-12 production
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11398102
  17. Measles Virus-Mononuclear Cell Interactions.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7789164
  18. https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-83-6-1431#tab2
  19. Extreme Mortality After First Introduction of Measles Virus to the Polynesian Island of Rotuma, 1911
    https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/173/10/1211/184695
  20. Long-term measles-induced immunomodulation increases overall childhood infectious disease mortality
    https://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6235/694

Hits: 7

The post Could Measles virus and Ebola virus be working together in the DRC? appeared first on Virology Down Under.

Why No One Wants to Talk About the Booming Economy

Here are some facts about the American economy.

  • Jobs have grown for 106 consecutive months, the longest streak on record.
  • At 121 months, this is the longest bull market in American history.
  • The unemployment rate has been at 4 percent or under for 16 consecutive months, the longest such streak in 50 years.
  • Inequality remains a crucial problem, but wages are now growing the fastest among the lowest-wage industries, thanks to state-by-state increases in the minimum wage and the effects of low unemployment.
  • Consumer sentiment, as measured by the University of Michigan, has hovered at more than 90 for more than four years, something that hasn’t happened since the 1990s.
  • Latino unemployment has fallen to its lowest rate on record.
  • Black unemployment, too, has fallen to its lowest rate on record, and, as the investor and Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen points out, the unemployment rate for black teenagers, which peaked at 48.9 percent in 2010, has plunged to yet another record low in 2019.

To list these facts is not to claim “Mission accomplished” in labor or racial equality, but rather to mark history, because—despite some evidence of a recent slowdown—economic history is being made. By all accounts, this has been a strong recovery. A historically strong recovery.

But you’re not going to hear either party say much about why.

For Democrats, the reason is pretty simple: Partisans are loath to cheer economic growth for fear of implicitly praising the president. There is far more political advantage in focusing on the (very real!) persistent dark spots of the economy, whether it’s high medical and child-care costs, the burdens of student debt, racial and gender disparities, or the socioeconomic indignity of low-wage and no-wage service-sector work.

For the GOP, the situation is slightly more complicated. Both the White House and congressional Republicans claim full credit for the economy all the time—a dubious argument, which elides the role Barack Obama’s administration played in setting the economy on its trajectory. Yet Republicans don’t like to admit the biggest policy-based reason why the economy surged in 2018 and into 2019, which is this: President Donald Trump secured the very stimulus that Republicans spent years denying President Obama.

Throughout his term, Obama tried repeatedly to get Republicans to sign on to additional spending and tax cuts for the middle and lower classes, which would have increased the deficit. The GOP repeatedly refused to go along with this, arguing that higher deficits were philosophically unacceptable and financially ruinous. In 2016, with the economy slowing down, the Obama administration again proposed a moderate stimulus plan that would have targeted infrastructure, but congressional Republicans refused to budge.

But under Trump, something odd has happened: The GOP has presided over the largest two-year-deficit increase in American history, outside of a recession. The party paired higher spending with a massive corporate tax cut, which sweetened a long-term marginal-rate cut on corporate income with a short-term tax benefit for households.

Thanks to this infusion of deficit-financed stimulus, job growth and GDP accelerated throughout 2018, and both continue to grow steadily today, despite the wobbliness of global markets and the president’s imbecilic decision to wage a trade war against the world’s second-biggest economy.

The upshot is that neither side has much to gain from speaking frankly about the economy: Partisan Democrats are unlikely to praise its accomplishments, lest they undercut their 2020 nominee; and conservative Republicans are unlikely to explain its basis, lest they sound like hypocrites—or, even worse, closet Keynesians. They’ll talk about the tax cut while ignoring the indisputable fact that they jump-started the economy with the very stimulus tools they decried as unacceptable under Obama—even as millions of families struggled with unemployment.

Fiscal policy—that is, how a government taxes and spends—is crucially important to the lives of typical workers. It helps determine how many people can get work, what they’re paid, and what they can afford with their income. Nearly 100 years ago, John Maynard Keynes argued that fighting through a demand-constrained economy with deficit-financed stimulus is necessary and prudent. The Trump tax cut helped the economy in precisely this way: Government spending went up, federal tax rates went down, deficits rose, households spent the cash, and growth accelerated.

There is no question that the Trump deficits are an unprecedented live experiment with sky-high deficits in a non-recession and non-war economy. Permanent trillion-dollar shortfalls would be an economic gamble. But this is a strange and nervous period in economic history, with the entire developed world experiencing pitifully low inflation, low interest rates, and chilly growth, despite years of dovish monetary policy. It may simply be the case that old-fashioned fears of high deficit spending are no longer appropriate for a global landscape with more aging, automation, and other economic factors that may permanently constrain inflation.

But that’s all speculation. Here’s what we know for sure: The Trump tax cut, despite its extremely poor long-term design, clearly helped the economy in the short run. And neither side will talk honestly about why. This should be a triumphant moment for Keynesianism and its defenders, who were right about the benefits of spending “beyond our means.” They should proclaim their victory from the rooftops. By staying quiet, they may find it harder to defend themselves when a Democrat becomes president, and Republicans suddenly rediscover the sanctity of balanced budgets.

We Dodged A Bullet

Closing Thought–03Sep19

By “We” I mean the country…..looks like Hurricane Dorian will spare the US this time from a direct hit…….a grazing blow is far better than a direct hit….says a survivor of Katrina.

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I wish I could say that the Bahamas were as fortunate as we…..

Then there is the coverage of this storm by the MSM…..we should get very little interaction with this storm and yet the MSM in their disappointment still reports that there is little wind, sparse on rain and storm surge is negligible….but that all should be prepared for the rush of water that will precede the storm….these “reporters” seem to be making up anything that could go wrong and then would make them the star of the show.

Those brave people for the weather channel…where were they when the Bahamas got hit?

But the most disturbing story so far is the one of the American president…..

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In what President Trump’s critics are calling “Sharpie-gate” the president delivered a Hurricane Dorian update Wednesday in front of a map that had been doctored to back up his claim that the storm had been expected to hit Alabama. The NOAA forecast map from Aug. 29 had been altered with a Sharpie to include a loop around the state, the BBC reports. When Trump was asked about the change later Wednesday, he said “I don’t know” three times, adding: “I know Alabama was in the original forecast, they thought it would get a piece of it.” White House deputy press secretary J. Hogan Gidley confirmed in a tweet that the map had been altered with a marker, but slammed the media for going “ballistic” over it, the Washington Post reports. White House photos show that Trump was presented with the correct map on Aug. 29.

It’s not clear whether the president himself altered the map, but whoever is responsible may have broken a law against knowingly issuing or publishing “any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service,”which is punishable by up to 90 days in jail, Politico reports. Trump’s warning Sunday that Alabama was in Dorian’s path was quickly denied by the National Weather Service, but he has continued to insist, incorrectly, that the storm was widely forecast to hit the state. On Wednesday night, he tweeted an Aug. 28 forecast map that showed a few possible paths including Alabama, saying: “As you can see, almost all models predicted it to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama. I accept the Fake News apologies!

This from a person that continuously bitches about fake news….and is the greatest spreader of said news.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Trump’s Plan to Host the G-7 Revives the Issue of Emoluments

What I really wonder about is how he and family may be profiting off of advance notice of what he will tweet and the tweet’s probable impact on the market – lots of folks have gone to jail for insider trading!!!

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Jeffrey Toobin writes about how Congress and the courts have failed to hold President Trump accountable for the financial gain he has sought while in office.