News and Notes
The Swiss Cheese Model of Reducing Risk
The premise of using multiple strategies to reduce risk is a foundation for workplace management of possible hazards. No single intervention can be expected to work 100% of the time. Having several strategies can help to make sure the virus can't find a way through the holes in the cheese! The national workplace safety lab also ranks possible...
Recent Tweets and Facebook Posts
Happy Groundhog Day. For anyone advocating to escape the time loop, we see you.
Arlington’s failed to find a way to reduce opioid overdoses (10-30 annual deaths) for 6 years.
Now we have ~100 extra deaths a year, w/ #COVID19.
Change remains possible. Just look at the ...climate.
Groundhog day?
How many more years of COVID?
Did the groundhog say?
Or is he out with avian flu?
More evidence that ACCESS, not hesitancy, drive a growing divide between those who have “tools” ($$, paid sick leave days, and information) that enables a higher rate of vaccination — and those who don’t.
@ArlingtonDES, @ArlingtonVA, @ReadyArlington, @APSVirginia: #COVIDIsntOver
From our new paper in @PLOSMedicine - tell me the median income or % college educated of your ZIP code (in MA), and I can tell you the % of the population boosted (and to a lesser extent vaccinated). Clearly not everyone “has the tools”.
FDA says it’s removed the positive test requirement for prescribing of Covid antiviral drugs bc “in rare instances,” people with recent exposure & symptoms may be diagnosed w Covid even w negative test result
The “ugh shut up about covid” crowd are all up in my mentions telling me not to blame myself & that getting COVID is not a moral failing.
So let’s be clear: I don’t blame any individual for getting an infectious disease *ever*. Disease is *never* a moral failing. Full stop. ...https://t.co/bPLaaM6lwN
I think I may have finally gotten COVID & I’m feeling miserable & achy & I really do not understand why people think it would be “fine and good, actually” to go through this multiple times per year.
Share something nice to help me hate everyone & everything a little less?🤧
Hey @SuptDuran: Breathing dirty air is linked to higher risk of anxiety & depression. New study finds people who lived in most polluted areas of UK, compared to least, were at ~16% greater odds for depression, +11% for anxiety.
...https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2801116?guestAccessKey=7e73695e-44c9-4d61-b97e-438e0df756eb&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=020123
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/health/pollution-depression-anxiety
1/ These homes replaced their gas stoves – saw a huge drop in indoor pollution
"Pilot program in New York, found striking differences in the levels of harmful indoor chemicals after the switch"
https://t.co/UBnH3OyCqD
We will be the Alzheimer’s generation. A fitting epilogue for Gen X.
New study in Neuron finds association between viral infections of the brain with later Alzheimer's.
Given SARSCoV2 has probably created the largest 3-year epidemic of viral brain infections in history, expect a increase in AD rates 3-15 years from now
https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)01147-3
The 4 types of 🇺🇸 post-covid infection:
1. “I got over it no problem”
2. “I got over it no problem but it’s *so weird* that I now have 14 random new totally-unrelated-to-covid health issues”
3. “I got over it no problem but I’ve been sick with colds ...since Nov.”
4. #LongCovid
So the website at @cvspharmacy says they require a recent blood test before giving you Paxlovid, in addition to a COVID test. And if you’re on Medicare or Medicaid, it’s just a no. And it will cost you $60 to tell you that you don’t qualify, too. So much for “we have the tools.”
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-removes-covid-test-requirements-pfizer-merck-pills-2023-02-01/
Smart Air is all about affordable #cleanair so when we started hearing the buzz about the very low-cost Taotronics, we were intrigued (and excited!).
What clean air could be even cheaper...?
A thread 🧵 /1
Clinicians and policy makers should be aware of the continued risks for this patient group. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, pre-emptive and early treatments, and non-pharmaceutical interventions eg masks and social distancing can still help this group.
9/
The risk in different groups of immunocompromised patients was not equal. Patients being treated for cancer had the highest risk, followed by people with organ transplants.
5/
Across the first four major waves of the pandemic in the UK, 14% of patients who were hospitalised with COVID-19 had some kind of compromised immune system.
Immunocompromised patients had a 44% higher risk of death in hospital than patients with normal immune systems.
3/
It would be FANtastic, @DFisman! I might even have to come back to where my career started to help out. 😉. 👇🏻 https://t.co/UoZYeZL0IW
How great would it be if we could get architects, engineers and public health and education professionals to get together in Toronto and support a community effort on Corsi-Rosenthal boxes that includes design and fun aesthetics.
@UofT_dlsph @uoftengineering @OCAD @torontomet
When the public health emergency ends in May, it may become even harder for parents to access COVID vaccines for kids.
Pharmacies & healthcare facilities in places where there's low demand for COVID vaccines may not order supply. https://t.co/XpMZ722JeC
For many parents, accessing COVID-19 vaccines for kids has been a challenge.
"Parents should not be driving 45 minutes to get a dose of a vaccine, a free vaccine that the federal government provides you," @RWeintraubMD said.
Good overview of barriers:
https://www.romper.com/parenting/where-to-find-covid-vaccines-for-kids-under-5
Maintenance of ventilation is crucial. Check out at @nathan_wood_8 posts for all the pictures of the horrors that lie in so many systems. Having a standard is not enough, it’s on the ground delivery and keeping it working. Maybe we need building MOTs? https://t.co/ocimiF8yIA
Communal extract system. Deeply contaminated with dust, debris and bacteria. This is years of neglect. Image is the internal attenuator. The internal duxting will also be in the same condition. #maintenance #ventilation
