What's killing us this week?

[Pyrrho]

Link: https://twitter.com/drg1985/status/1216319853734375424

[Bruce]

My body is well buffered.

That's right.

I'm buff.

[Witness]

The FDA Announces Two More Antacid Recalls Due to Cancer Risk

Two more companies recalled their ranitidine drugs, generic forms of Zantac, over concerns they may contain a carcinogenic substance.

That burning feeling in your chest after you eat a heavy meal could be heartburn. Or it could be worry over the drugs you’ve taken to treat that heartburn. Among the top medical stories of 2019 was the discovery of contaminants in common medicines, and ranitidine—best known as Zantac—took up a large share of those headlines. A cancer-causing substance known as NDMA has been repeatedly found in one of the most popular antacid drugs in the United States.

The scary news continues in 2020. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced voluntary recalls of prescription forms of ranitidine by two generic drug companies, Appco Pharma and Northwind Pharmaceuticals, bringing the total number of ranitidine recalls to 14 in the past five months. The agency also reported that Mylan Pharmaceuticals recalled three lots of Nizatidine (Axid), a similar drug, again because of NDMA.

This week’s recalls are a new cause for alarm for the 15 million Americans who take ranitidine at prescription levels, and the millions more who regularly take lower-dose, over-the-counter versions. More than 60 million Americans experience heartburn at least once a month. Zantac was once the best-selling drug in the world.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-fda-ann ... popular4-1

[Witness]

America's most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain [in mice]

New UC Riverside research shows soybean oil not only leads to obesity and diabetes, but could also affect neurological conditions like autism, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, and depression.

Used for fast food frying, added to packaged foods, and fed to livestock, soybean oil is by far the most widely produced and consumed edible oil in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In all likelihood, it is not healthy for humans.

It certainly is not good for mice. The new study, published this month in the journal Endocrinology, compared mice fed three different diets high in fat: soybean oil, soybean oil modified to be low in linoleic acid, and coconut oil.

The same UCR research team found in 2015 that soybean oil induces obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and fatty liver in mice. Then in a 2017 study, the same group learned that if soybean oil is engineered to be low in linoleic acid, it induces less obesity and insulin resistance.

However, in the study released this month, researchers did not find any difference between the modified and unmodified soybean oil's effects on the brain. Specifically, the scientists found pronounced effects of the oil on the hypothalamus, where a number of critical processes take place.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases ... 011620.php



I'm good, only ever olive oil.

[sparks]

What? No mention of Avocado oil?

[Rob Lister]

I don't think I've ever bought a bottle of soybean oil. I suspect processed food makers use it though.

[Anaxagoras]

I'm good, only ever olive oil.

I would have thought that olive oil would be more popular than that.

I realize it's more expensive than some others though. When we buy oil at the supermarket over here, it's usually olive oil, although my wife sometimes uses other oils.

[Anaxagoras]

Oh, there seems to be a new kind of coronavirus:

China coronavirus: Fear grips Wuhan as lockdown begins

[Witness]

Food market at centre of deadly coronavirus outbreak admits selling live koalas, snakes, rats and wolves

The Chinese food market at the centre of the deadly Sars-like virus outbreak has claimed they sold live koalas, snakes, rats and wolf pups to locals to eat.

The Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan in China is under investigation with officials believing the coronavirus originated from a wild animal that was sold at the venue.

So far the highly-contagious virus has killed 17 people and infected hundreds around Asia.

According to the South China Morning Post, the market's advertising board had live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines and koalas.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/a ... d=12302979

[Anaxagoras]

Koalas??

[Witness]

China spent the crucial first days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak arresting people who posted about it online and threatening journalists

• In the early days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Chinese officials arrested citizens they accused of spreading rumors about the illness online.
• Journalists have also reported being detained and threatened by Chinese authorities while covering the outbreak.
• Experts are now faulting the Chinese government for its harsh crackdown on the flow of information about the virus.

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-i ... ?r=US&IR=T


And in other news:
3 suspected cases of coronavirus being tested in Washtenaw, Macomb counties
France confirms first three cases of coronavirus in Europe
Two possible coronavirus cases in northern Finland
China coronavirus: Incident team to deal with Scottish threat

&c.

[Anaxagoras]

I wonder if it's worse that a typical flu virus. Just how concerned should we really be about it?

The new coronavirus appears to cause symptoms like fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms. It causes severe illness in around a quarter of cases, and can be deadly. Public health officials are working to understand how dangerous this virus is, how fast it’s spreading, and how to contain it. As that work continues, the virus is causing anxiety around the world.

I guess that means they're still trying to determine that. I know there have been deaths from this, but lots of people die every year from the flu too.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/24/2108 ... cdc-spread

[Rob Lister]

UN Pleads for Help Amid 'Devastating' Locust Invasion
Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya all overtaken; UN says locust numbers could grow 500 times by June

(Newser) – Last month, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization reported on the plague of locusts that had overtaken Somalia and Ethiopia, and now a new East African nation is being beleaguered by the bugs. The FAO says Kenya is also dealing with an "unprecedented" and "devastating" number of desert locusts, which are devouring crops and imperiling farmers' livelihoods, per the BBC. And they're hungry critters: An FAO fact sheet notes that each adult locust can scarf down its own weight in food each day, adding that a Paris-sized swarm would be able to eat the same amount in one day as half of the entire population of France. There hasn't been an infestation like this in Somalia and Ethiopia in 25 years, while Kenya hasn't been so beset by the bugs in 70 years, and the FAO is afraid the numbers could grow to 500 times what they are now by summer.

https://www.newser.com/story/286038/un- ... asion.html

[Pyrrho]

Bugs. Always the Bugs.

[Pyrrho]

I wonder if it's worse that a typical flu virus. Just how concerned should we really be about it?

The new coronavirus appears to cause symptoms like fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms. It causes severe illness in around a quarter of cases, and can be deadly. Public health officials are working to understand how dangerous this virus is, how fast it’s spreading, and how to contain it. As that work continues, the virus is causing anxiety around the world.

I guess that means they're still trying to determine that. I know there have been deaths from this, but lots of people die every year from the flu too.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/24/2108 ... cdc-spread

A new coronavirus that has spread to almost 2,000 people is infectious in its incubation period - before symptoms show - making it harder to contain, Chinese officials say.

Some 56 people have died from the virus. Health minister Ma Xiaowei told reporters the ability of the virus to spread appeared to be strengthening.

Several Chinese cities have imposed significant travel restrictions.

Wuhan in Hubei, the source of the outbreak, is in effective lockdown.

[shuize]

I wonder if it's worse that a typical flu virus. Just how concerned should we really be about it?

The new coronavirus appears to cause symptoms like fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms. It causes severe illness in around a quarter of cases, and can be deadly. Public health officials are working to understand how dangerous this virus is, how fast it’s spreading, and how to contain it. As that work continues, the virus is causing anxiety around the world.

I guess that means they're still trying to determine that. I know there have been deaths from this, but lots of people die every year from the flu too.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/24/2108 ... cdc-spread

My question as well.

I’m not usually too worried about these things. But I just read that China is trying to quarantine something like 40 million people in the Wuhan region. WTF? That sounds kind of serious. (Ha. Ha.)

This comes of course right in the middle of final exams and, even worse, entrance exam season where I’m supposed to walk all around among these coughing disease vectors, university revenue generators applicants.

Also, I’d sort of like to get on a plane when it’s all done.

Just the “media” pumping another “Summer of the Shark” type of story or is it really serious, stay away from airports at all costs?

If I suddenly stop posting, I guess we’ll know it was serious after all. Ha. Ha.

By the way, the Olympics are coming to Japan this summer. Ha. Ha.


ETA: This article now says 56 million in quarantine.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10817933/ ... own-china/

[Witness]

ETA: This article now says 56 million in quarantine.

Piffle, they already quarantined ~ 1 million Uyghurs till they become good little Hans just as warm up; and I wouldn't be astonished if Xi found it a useful test for very different scenarios…

[Bruce]

I read that the Chinese were monitoring people with thermal imaging in airports and detaining those who had an elevated temperature. Good thing I won't be traveling in China. I'm always hot and so is my son. When we were at the Boston Science Museum, our skin glowed white on the thermal imaging camera, even our eyes and fingertips, and we weren't even sick. In China, we would be chucked into a flu pit.

[Skeeve]

Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research

As China attempts to contain the spread of a new coronavirus that has left more than 100 people dead, rumors and disinformation have spread amid the scramble for answers.

Some of the speculation has centered on a virology institute in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began. One fringe theory holds that the disaster could be the accidental result of biological weapons research.

But in conversations with The Washington Post, experts rejected the idea that the virus could be man-made.

“Based on the virus genome and properties there is no indication whatsoever that it was an engineered virus,” said Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University.

Tim Trevan, a biological safety expert based in Maryland, said most countries had largely abandoned their bioweapons research after years of work proved fruitless.

“The vast majority of new, nasty diseases ... come from nature,” he said.

The British newspaper Daily Mail was among the first to suggest the possibility of a link between the newly spreading virus and the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, reporting last week that the lab, which opened in 2014 and is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had been the subject of safety concerns in the past.

A separate article published by the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper in Washington, took the theories a step further, suggesting in a headline that the “Coronavirus may have originated in lab linked to China’s biowarfare program” and pointing to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The article cited research by Dany Shoham, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, who told The Post he did not want to comment further.

Despite little public evidence, the theory has spread widely on social media, to conspiracy theory websites and in some international news outlets.

The Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is a “Cellular Level Biosafety Level 4” facility, which means it has a high level of operational security and is authorized to work on dangerous pathogens, including Ebola.

Those entering the level 4 lab use airlocks and protective suits. Waste, and even air, is heavily filtered and cleaned before leaving the facility.

Milton Leitenberg, an expert on chemical weapons at the University of Maryland, said he and other analysts around the world had discussed the possibility that weapons development at the Wuhan lab could have led to the coronavirus outbreak in a private email chain but that no one had found convincing evidence to support the theory.

“Of course, if they are doing bioweaponry, it is covert,” Leitenberg said in a phone call, but added it was unlikely the Chinese government would use such a facility for production or even research and development of bioweapons.

The Wuhan lab is well-known and it is relatively open compared with other Chinese institutes: It has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and was developed with the aid of French engineers.

“Wuhan Institute of Virology is a world-class research institution that does world-class research in virology and immunology,” Ebright said, noting that one specialty of the facility was researching coronaviruses transmitted by bats.

Trevan, who was quoted in a 2017 article in Nature that warned of possible risks at the Wuhan facility that was cited by the Daily Mail, said in a phone call to The Post that he was concerned at the time about how to “manage risk in these complex systems when you cannot predict all the ways in which the system could fail.”

A former British diplomat and political adviser to the United Nations, he said he had not followed affairs at the facility closely since 2017 and was not aware of any specific problems there, but that he doubted the coronavirus outbreak could have come from a weapons program.

An annual State Department report released last year said China had engaged “in biological activities with potential dual-use applications.”

Elsa Kania, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that while Chinese officials had expressed public interest in the potential weaponization of biotechnology, a coronavirus would not be a useful weapon.

“Hypothetically, a bioweapon would be designed to be highly targeted in its effects, whereas since its outbreak the coronavirus is already on track to become widespread in China and worldwide,” she said.

Vipin Narang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a message on Twitter that a good bioweapon “in theory has high lethality but low, not [high], communicability” and that spreading such ideas would be “incredibly irresponsible.”

After the 2014 Ebola outbreak, fringe news outlets suggested spuriously that the U.S. Department of Defense had manufactured the virus. In the Soviet Union, military labs did look into whether the virus could be used as a weapon but ultimately abandoned those hopes.

The speculation may be linked to uncertainty over where the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak originated. Some scientists initially suspected a seafood market in Wuhan may have been the starting point, but a study by Chinese researchers and published in the Lancet on Friday questioned that analysis.

Late Tuesday, Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalistic Global Times newspaper, wrote that a conspiracy theory had emerged in China that the United States was responsible for the outbreak. “Their logic: Why always China?” Hu wrote on Twitter. “But most Chinese don’t believe it.”

Spoiler:

Dead Bat Soup!
Just like mom used to make!

[Witness]

A deadly virus is spreading from state to state and has infected 15 million Americans so far. It's influenza

The novel coronavirus that's sickening thousands globally -- and at least five people in the US -- is inspiring countries to close their borders and Americans to buy up surgical masks quicker than major retailers can restock them.
There's another virus that has infected 15 million Americans across the country and killed more than 8,200 people this season alone. It's not a new pandemic -- it's influenza.
The 2019-2020 flu season is projected to be one of the worst in a decade, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At least 140,000 people have been hospitalized with complications from the flu, and that number is predicted to climb as flu activity swirls.

The flu is a constant in Americans' lives. It's that familiarity that makes it more dangerous to underestimate, said Dr. Margot Savoy, chair of Family and Community Medicine at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
"Lumping all the viral illness we tend to catch in the winter sometimes makes us too comfortable thinking everything is 'just a bad cold,'" she said. "We underestimate how deadly influenza really is."
Even the low-end estimate of deaths each year is startling, Savoy said: The Centers for Disease Control predicts at least 12,000 people will die from the flu in the US every year. In the 2017-2018 flu season, as many as 61,000 people died, and 45 million were sickened.
In the 2019-2020 season so far, 15 million people in the US have gotten the flu and 8,200 people have died from it, including at least 54 children. Flu activity has been elevated for 11 weeks straight, the CDC reported, and will likely continue for the next several weeks.
Savoy, who also serves on the American Academy of Family Physician's board of directors, said the novelty of emerging infections can overshadow the flu. People are less panicked about the flu because healthcare providers "appear to have control" over the infection.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/heal ... index.html

[shemp]

But at least they didn't catch TEH AUTIZM!!!

[asthmatic camel]

Terrifying, isn't it?

[Witness]

Coronavirus: Pish-posh, experts say to AYUSH homeopathy push as epidemic reaches India

Experts have called out the government for pushing homeopathy as a possible preventive treatment option for coronavirus infections. There's no scientific evidence for the efficacy of homeopathic treatment.

The government is drawing flak for pushing homeopathy as a possible preventive treatment option for coronavirus infections -- which have killed 170 people in China -- and says its advisory was only a preventive measure. India reported its first confirmed infection on Thursday.

Although popular, homeopathy is based on ideas that fly in the face of scientific wisdom, such as its "minimum dose" assumption that diluting a medicine's active ingredient increases its efficiency, or its "water memory" hypothesis. Benefits, if any, are attributed to a placebo effect, and there is evidence that homeopathic treatment can be dangerous.

But India's Ministry of AYUSH, set up in November 2014 and given a 15 per cent funding hike last year, claims homeopathy is a "a time tested therapy". AYUSH is an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy.

On January 29, 2020, the Ministry of AYUSH published an advisory in five languages prescribing coronavirus prevention and symptom management methods based on ayurveda, homeopathy and unani.

The Indian Medical Association considers practitioners of ayurveda, unani and homeopathy who are not licensed to practice modern medicine to be quacks.

https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story ... 2020-01-30

I'm sure cow urine will stomp out the virus.

[Pyrrho]

[asthmatic camel]

So, unprotected sex with dead wild or farm animals is OK?

[asthmatic camel]

And what about unprotected sex with pets, both living and dead? Does that get the WHO seal of approval, too?

And fish. I mean is it OK to have unprotected sex with a dead mackerel or not? Or a live one, come to that.

And birds. You know, is unprotected sex with live or dead penguins a no-no?

These things matter.

[sparks]

That was great AC. "When rancid becomes hilarious"

[Witness]

Face mask creativity (too big to embed): https://i.imgur.com/f2xlBbH.jpg

[Witness]

UN Pleads for Help Amid 'Devastating' Locust Invasion

Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms

Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was the worst locust infestation in more than two decades.

https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-declares ... a-52224762

[shemp]

I dunno, smells shopped.

[Witness]

I dunno, smells shopped.

[Bruce]

Yes, AC, anything that is not on the list is fair game. If you want to have unprotected sex with lobotomized domestic free range pangolins from Uzbekistan, it us your god given right, but you must respect the list!

[sparks]

Bruce, you're making free range etc. sound bad.

[Witness]

Drug Overdose Deaths Drop for First Time in Nearly Two Decades

Deaths from drug overdoses dipped in 2018 for the first time in nearly two decades as the nation continues to battle the opioid crisis.

The number of drug overdoses deaths dropped 4.1 percent from 70,237 in 2017 to 67,367 in 2018, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The drop in drug deaths boosted life expectancy. In 2018, life expectancy was 78.7 years, a o.1 percent increase from the 2017 level of 78.6 years. The increase is still lower than in 2014, when life expectancy peaked at 78.9 years.

However, although deaths were down nationally, some states suffered more overdose fatalities in 2018 than during the previous year, namely California, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, and South Carolina.

The CDC’s report gives President Trump’s reelection campaign a boost during an election year. The White House declared the opioid epidemic a public-health crisis in 2017, and the administration has focused on stiffening penalties for drug dealers as well taking steps to prevent people from getting addicted in the first place and increasing federal funding to help addicts get a second chance. The president said he wants to see solutions to the “general drug crisis” as well as the problems caused specifically by opioids.

Deaths from opioids increased about 8 percent from 1999 to 2013, and then spiked 70 percent from 2013 to 2017 as the crisis spun out of control. Close to 400,000 Americans are estimated to have died between 1999 and 2017 as a result of the opioid crisis. Almost every state along with thousands of local governments and other entities have sued the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid crisis.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/drug-ove ... 10485.html

[Skeeve]

Corona Virus
This was dated: Jan 19, 2020

[Witness]

Dunno what credence give to that, but here you go:

[Skeeve]

Bangladeshi aircrew refuse to work on flight evacuating citizens from Wuhan

Aircrew from Bangladesh’s national carrier Biman have refused to work on a flight aimed at repatriating citizens from virus-hit Chinese cities, forcing the government to scrap the evacuation plan.

The South Asian nation last week evacuated 312 people, mostly students, from the epicenter of the deadly outbreak, and had planned a second flight for another 171 Bangladeshis.

“We can’t bring them because we can’t send any flight,” foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen told reporters on Saturday.

“No crew wants to go there. The crew who went there earlier don’t want to go either.”

The outbreak, which has killed more than 800 people and infected tens of thousands across China, has spread to nearly more than two dozen other countries and sparked global concern.

There have been no cases recorded in Bangladesh.

The evacuees and aircrew who returned to Dhaka on February 1 are being quarantined for 14 days at a camp usually used for Haj pilgrims.

Health officials say none have tested positive for the virus.

The minister said the government was trying to charter a Chinese flight instead, but so far without success.

[Bruce]

Nobody makes out of life alive.

[Pyrrho]

What could go wrong?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/02/c ... ction.html

The other related problem is where many non-sick people stay away from work to avoid getting sick. If enough people do this, especially at critical infrastructure jobs, then the whole economy may collapse. And not only is a collapsed economy bad for most everyone, sick people do much worse there. Not only can’t they get to a doctor or hospital, they might not even be able to get food or heating/cooling. Infected surfaces don’t get cleaned, and maybe even dead bodies don’t get removed. Thieves don’t get stopped. And so on. We can already see social support partially collapsing in Wuhan now, and it’s not pretty.

There’s an obvious, if disturbing, solution here: controlled infection. We could not only insist that critical workers go to work, but we might also choose on purpose who gets exposed when. We can’t slow down infection very much, but we can speed it up a lot, via deliberately exposing particular people at particular times, according to a plan.

Such a plan shouldn’t just expose random people early, as they’d be likely to infect others around them. Instead, groups might be taken together to isolated places to be exposed, or maybe whole city blocks could be isolated and then exposed at once. Those who work in critical infrastructure, especially medicine, are ideal candidates to go early. Such a plan should only expose a small fraction of each critical workforce at any one time, so that most of them remain available to keep the lights on.

[Bruce]

Even better, we could just kill off the people who aren't sick yet so we don't have to worry about them getting sick. We should start with the ones that none of us like; vegans, and hippies, and anti-vaxxers to name a few. I can't believe no one has ever thought of this idea before.