This doesn't sound good...
Study shows New York City rats carry SARS-CoV-2

A new study has demonstrated that rats are susceptible to infection with Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 and wild rats in the New York City municipal sewer systems and elsewhere in the city have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2. The study was published in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

How Covid could help cure cancer.

In an unexpected twist to the pandemic, Australian researchers have discovered that Covid could hold the cure one of the nation’s biggest killers.

The “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery from researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne focused on using people’s natural immunity from Covid-19 to target cancer.

Using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T therapy, the team used T cells, which are naturally occurring in white blood cells and help build immunity to viruses, to their advantage.

They took the T-cells, which were produced when a person had Covid or was vaccinated against it, and genetically re-engineered them to identify and attack cancer cells. These cells were then reinjected back into the patient and they were given a Covid vaccine.

“This new research is really exciting, it uses Covid-19 immunity, T ‘killer’ cells, to recognise Covid, engineers them to attack breast cancer cells – really clever,” Professor Robert Booy told Nine....

As the supposed centre of high tech and medicine, how is it that the USA is not doing better?


See:

We can do better than we're doing on Covid


That gives a beautifully brief summary of how the understanding of covid very rapidly changed from "nothing to worry about" to instead, how there was a new realization of how humans suffered and spread covid far far more greatly than what is considered 'normal' for 'flu'...

Lingering onwards still, the continuing deaths from covid in the USA outweigh the deadly bloodshed even for Pootin's war in Ukraine!


Stay healthy folks!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Unfortunately, lingering effects to note:


COVID survivors at increased risk of long-term gastrointestinal conditions
wrote:

Although people with severe COVID had highest risk, mild cases also upped risks.

... confirms what many long COVID patients already know all too well. But the analysis is among the largest and most comprehensive...

... Compared to the control groups, COVID-19 survivors had more constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, and bloating in the year after their infection...

... "Altogether the evidence base reinforces the need for continued emphasis on primary prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection (and prevention of reinfection) as the foundation of the public health response,"...

Stay healthy folks!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A too long case of callous disregard for everyone else around?

Or a question of freedom to do harm to others?


After 17th court hearing, woman with TB ordered to jail for refusing treatment
wrote:

A judge in Washington issued an arrest warrant Thursday for a Tacoma woman who has refused to have her active, contagious case of tuberculosis treated for over a year, violating numerous court orders. The judge also upheld an earlier order to have her jailed, where she can be tested and treated in isolation...

... it remains unclear what her objections are [to being treated]...

... "We will continue to work through the court and to pursue all our options to protect the community and persuade the patient to voluntarily seek the life-saving treatment she needs."...

... she also tested positive for COVID-19, "which also strongly suggests that she is not isolating as per this court’s order,"...

... Tuberculosis is a potentially deadly bacterial infection ... inhaling just a few germs is enough to seed an infection...

... In all, tuberculosis is one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world...

Are you happy for her to give you COVID-19 with the added special surprise of Tuberculosis?


Stay healthy folks!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Eyedrops from EzriCare and Delsam Phama

More deaths, injuries linked to recalled eyedrops

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are reporting two more deaths and additional cases of vision loss linked to eyedrops tainted with a drug-resistant bacteria.

The eyedrops from EzriCare and Delsam Phama were recalled in February and health authorities are continuing to track infections as they investigate the outbreak.

In the latest government tally, 68 people were diagnosed with infections from the bacteria, which has now caused a total of three deaths and eight cases of people losing their vision, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday.

With the COVID infection rate still running at a high of 1-in-40 people in England infected, this is THE LAST of the ONS reports of the current infection rate:


Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK: 24 March 2023
wrote:

Notice

24 March 2023

This is the final weekly Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey release...

... Next release:
Discontinued...

... The estimated percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) increased in England, and the trends were uncertain in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

In England, the estimated number of people testing positive for COVID-19 was 1,493,200 ..., equating to 2.66% of the population, or around 1 in 40 people...

Don't look and all problems magically go away?...

"Don't Look Up!"


Stay healthy folks?
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Don't look!


Covid testing scaled back further in England
wrote:

... part of the "living with Covid" approach that relies on vaccines to keep people safe.

Most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes will no longer be given swab tests, even if they have symptoms...

... The long-running Office for National Statistics Covid infection survey that estimated how many people in the community had the virus each week - based on nose and throat swabs from volunteers - has already come to an end.

The final one suggested 1.7 million people - about one out of every 35 (2.7% [of the population])...

... "Covid and other respiratory illnesses haven't gone away - and simple actions like washing your hands and staying at home and avoiding vulnerable people when unwell can make a big difference.

"For those at highest risk of severe illness, the spring booster programme also provides an opportunity to keep immunity topped up."...

Stay healthy folks!...?
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Consequences to come:


England's new ambulance numbers not {the} 800 promised
wrote:

The number of new ambulances in England will be far less than the hundreds promised by the government...

... But vehicles being ordered by trusts are mostly replacements they were prevented from purchasing because of procurement changes and the pandemic...

... "The pledge of 800 new ambulances - much like the mythical new hospitals - was always an attempt to distract people from the root cause of problems in the NHS; overworked and underpaid staff."...

... The promise of 800 extra ambulances was the headline-grabbing initiative at the centre of the government's two-year plan to support A&Es and the wider emergency care system.

After a decade of near-continuous deterioration in performance, the government and NHS bosses set out in January a series of proposals to improve waiting times... But the results of the BBC's Freedom of Information investigation suggest the number of new ambulances could be even lower than originally thought...

What deadly game is our Government playing with our health?...


Stay healthy folks!!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

How healthy is the world?


Today's old folks set to smash through longevity records
wrote:

Except maybe in America, where life expectancy keeps dropping...

... [life expectancy] jump by around five years. The researchers speculate it may be related to a wave of improvements in public health and medical technology – like the acceptance of germ theory and the widespread adoption of vaccines...

... We're experiencing the second rise now – particularly those of us born between 1910 and 1950, who also lived through leaps in healthcare technology and understanding...

... Sorry, Americans...

... For citizens of the US, the signs are already indicating that's not the case. Late last year US health officials said that life expectancy in that country was down for the second year in a row...

... There could be many reasons for lower life expectancies and rising maternal and childhood mortality rates in the United States...

Stay healthy and leave the USA?...

Stay healthy folks!!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Today's old folks set to smash through longevity records

Maybe.
I'm now 17 years older than the age at which my dad died.

And I can find nobody in his family tree, except my grandmother, going back to 1830's who reached the nominal retirement age of 65.

China health officials lash out at WHO, defend search for source of COVID-19 virus.

Chinese health officials have defended their search for the source of the COVID-19 virus and lashed out at the World Health Organization after its leader said Beijing should have shared genetic information earlier.

The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's, Shen Hongbing, said the WHO comments were "offensive and disrespectful."

He accused the WHO of "attempting to smear China" and said it should avoid helping others "politesse COVID-19".

The global health body's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in March that newly disclosed genetic material gathered in Wuhan in central China, where the first cases were detected in late 2019, "should have been shared three years ago".......

3 yrs and China wonders why they arn't trusted?

Consequences to come:

NHS {trainee doctors} drop-out rate an accident waiting to happen
wrote:

... His biggest fear with what he sees as an up to 40% drop-out rate is whether there will be enough doctors to replace his generation of medics.

The government said the majority of trainees go on to work in the NHS.

"[But] at the moment everyone is so fed up with the system," Mr Mercer said

His comments come as thousands of junior doctors take part in the second day of a national four-day walkout over pay...

... concerns over pay and conditions are leading many trainees to consider moving to other countries. "You can get much more pay over in Australia and New Zealand and we reckon it's now 40% of medical graduates who are going to leave after their training and that's criminal,"...

... A junior doctor from Southmead, who is leaving for New Zealand, told the BBC his pay would be £10,000 a year more than it is in England.

"Talking to people who have been out there, they feel so much more valued. They actually have a level of education when they are on the wards," he said. "I know for my two years of experience as a doctor in the NHS it's meant to be a training programme. It's not a training programme. "We are covering wards looking after really sick patients, because we are so stretched, because the system is so stretched and badly paid that we are not actually becoming the doctors that we should be."...

What deadly game is our Government playing with our health?...

Stay healthy folks!!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

For a positive note for once:


Ghana first to approve 'world-changer' malaria vaccine
wrote:

... Malaria kills about 620,000 people each year, most of them young children.

It has been a massive, century-long, scientific undertaking to develop a vaccine that protects the body from the malaria parasite.

Trial data from preliminary studies in Burkina Faso showed the R21 vaccine was up to 80% effective when given as three initial doses, and a booster a year later...

... "We expect R21 to make a major impact on malaria mortality in children in the coming years, and in the longer term [it] will contribute to overall final goal of malaria eradication and elimination."...

... Each dose of R21 is expected to cost a couple of dollars...

Stay healthy folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Just waiting to happen with great portent:


Teenagers at risk after drop in vaccine take-up
wrote:

... at risk of rare diseases after a drop-off in vaccinations during the Covid pandemic...

... protecting against tetanus, diphtheria and polio - down 7% on the previous year.

Another vaccine, against meningitis, also saw a similar fall in uptake.

Parents are being urged to make sure young people are up to date with their vaccines before they leave school...

Has everyone forgotten about those old nasties?

They are still there...


Say healthy folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

New warning over controversial acne drug Roaccutane linked to dozens of suicides

A controversial acne drug linked to dozens of suicides will come with a host of new warnings, health chiefs announced today.
Doctors must now 'fully discuss' the risks Isotretinoin could pose to patients' mental and sexual health before handing out supplies.
Two prescribers must also sign off on giving the drug, branded as Roaccutane in the UK, to under-18s under the medical watchdog's new safety measures.

Quite the deadly summary:


CNN - Hear what Dr. Fauci says hampered US response to Covid-19 pandemic


Can the "freedoms luvvin' contrarian" USA learn to do better?

Stay healthy folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Oft-prescribed beta blockers may not be wise for many heart patients

Beta blockers have long been widely prescribed for patients with heart issues, but two new studies this week question the benefit of the therapies in certain patients with strong heart function.

One study, published Tuesday in Heart, looked at people who experienced a heart attack but didn’t develop heart failure or dysfunction in their heart’s pumping. Researchers found that long-term beta blocker use wasn’t associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes in this group.

The other study, published Wednesday in JACC: Heart Failure, focused on people with heart failure who had mildly reduced and normal ejection fraction, which is a measure of a heart’s squeezing function. The authors found that beta blockers were linked to a greater risk of hospitalization in patients with higher squeezing power.

With the way the world is going Could a frozen ancient virus thawed by climate change cause the next pandemic?

Climate change threatens human life in many ways but one of the less obvious could be a rise in pandemics.

A warming climate could release ancient pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, that have been frozen in permafrost in the polar regions for millennia, Dr Jean-Michel Claverie tells ABC RN's Future Tense.

"We know for certain that bacteria can remain dormant but alive for probably up to 500,000 years in permafrost. And so at that point, this is the very beginning of Homo sapiens. Our species was just emerging [at that time]," says the emeritus professor of medicine at France's Aix Marseille University.

Dr Claverie and his team of researchers recently published their findings on seven ancient viruses found in Siberia's permafrost. One was almost 50,000 years old and still infectious.

He says scientists don't yet know exactly how ancient diseases could impact living species today – animals or humans. In 2021, it was reported that more than 100 ancient strains of bacteria found in Siberia's permafrost were resistant to antibiotics.

The professor says that if an ancient disease – like a virus that was lethal for a woolly mammoth – did spread across the world, it could have dangerous implications for humans.......

I just got my 2nd bivalent covid booster, that makes a total of 6 covid vacinations for me.

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