News & Views from an Embedded Systems Designer
I thought her mask fashion show instead of a science based briefing and failure to halt Trump’s drink bleach idea were bad, now this.
Source: Former Trump adviser joins company that makes hazardous air cleaners | Ars Technica
Reading her biography it seems to me she’s one of those people who got the degree but really only did good administration work not good science based medicine.
An Arizona man has died and his wife is in a critical condition after both ingested chloroquine phosphate in an apparent effort to stave off Covid-19.
President Donald Trump has touted the medication form of chloroquine as a possible treatment for the virus.
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Shortly after ingestion, the couple fell ill, said Arizona-based hospital system Banner Health. The couple were both in their 60s. The woman told NBC News she had seen a televised briefing in which Mr Trump discussed the potential benefits of chloroquine as a treatment Covid-19.
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“We saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually,” she said. “Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.” “We were afraid of getting sick,” she told NBC.
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They mixed a small amount of the substance with liquid to drink. Within 20 minutes, both fell ill. “I started vomiting,” she said. “My husband started developing respiratory problems.” Her husband could not be revived in hospital and she remains in critical care.
Source: Coronavirus: Man dies taking fish tank cleaner as virus drug – BBC News
As I’ve pointed out before, the entire saga shows that, when push comes to shove and a crisis hits, physicians’ dedication to science- and evidence-based medicine is disturbingly weak. So it came as no surprise (to me, at least) when the FDA issued a warning on Friday about chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine:
“The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers Friday against taking malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 outside a hospital or formal clinical trial setting after deaths and poisonings were reported. …”
Read the rest here: Hydroxychloroquine and the price of abandoning of science- and evidence-based medicine – Science-Based Medicine
One thing is very clear, Dr. Didier Raoult, and David L Brown M.D. should have their licenses to practice medicine revoked, like what happened to former doctor Andrew Wakefield.
I keep encountering idiots who claim some particular dew point temperature is always comfortable. This is so absurd that anyone who says it has absolutely no understanding of the word comfortable or what dew point is.
Dew point is literally the temperature at which dew will form if the current air mass is cooled to that temperature. It also corresponds to 100% RH. This of course means that if the dew point is 10°C (50°F) and the temperature is 10°C (50°F) then the %RH is 100% and water is condensing out of the air and dripping down everything that’s at or below the air temperature.
So if you ever encounter somebody who claims that some dew point temperature is always comfortable ask them, Do you really think that dripping wet 100%RH is comfortable.
If you want to judge comfort go for relative humidity where above 80% feels yucky damp and below 30% feels horribly dry (cracked skin and static electricity problems)
It makes me very sad to see that Sesame Street has fallen under the spell of the wealthy, dangerous to children and public health, pseudo-science organization Autism Speaks. Using the muppets to promote dangerous quackery is horrible.
Learn more about this issues from Rebecca,
Source: Sesame Street Partners with Anti-vaccine Organization Autism Speaks – Skepchick
or these other news sources.
Sesame Street Chooses Wrong Narrative on Autism and Loses a Key Relationship
A PROMINENT AUTISM GROUP HAS CUT TIES WITH ‘SESAME STREET’ OVER NEW PSAS FEATURING AUTISTIC MUPPET
Why An Autism Group Is Breaking Up With ‘Sesame Street’
‘Sesame Street’ Under Fire For PSAs About Autism That Add ‘Further Stigma’
In case you aren’t aware, the Quack Miranda Warning takes the form of:
These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease.
This statement is required on health products when the manufacturer and seller either are unable or unwilling to show the product is useful the way normal health products show their usefulness. It provides the manufacturer/seller some immunity from legal liability. So to protect your health and/or prevent wasting money on useless products all you have to do is avoid buying any product that bears this warning. Be aware that, like all fine print meant to protect undeserved profits, this warning will be in a tiny font in the most obscure location of a page.
It used to be that you’d only see this warning on diet pills, weird vitamins and other things you’d ingest. This warning has worked so well at limiting liability that pretty much all useless products relating to health in any way shape or form now include the warning. Case in point, xZubi, the warning is in the smallest font at the bottom of the home page.
I find the easiest way to check for the warning is to search any suspect page for the phrase “evaluated by the FDA” (Firefox & Internet Explorer, press Control+F to search a page) . I hope this information helps you avoid wasting money or damaging your health, Happy New Year 2011.
A psychic in Belize made a claim that caused the believers to burn down a wildlife sanctuary, story here. This is an all to common problem with belief in imaginary powers, for more examples of problems caused by psychics see this page of the What’s the Harm web site.
Hat tip to PZ Myers, for pointing out this story.
Last night Frontline aired what I feel may go down as the most important documentary of 2010, The Vaccine War. An extremely well made documentary that is as unbiased and factual as possible, this is what I expect and nearly always get from Frontline. On the rare occasion I’ve seen where Frontline messes up, they quickly and thoroughly correct the mistake.
I feel this documentary is important not because it will likely end the problem of the anti-vaccine movement, although I really hope it will. It is important because if we keep heading down this road eventually the avoidance of vaccinations will cause unnecessary illness, pain and death. It may be twenty or more years from now but if it happens we’ll have this documentary to review and see who caused the problem. Then we can rightly blame the irresponsible parties (I’m looking at you, McCarthy, Handley, Fisher, Kennedy and the other out front denialists).
Check your local listing for re-broadcast times, watch the documentary online at PBS.org.
iBurst (Pty) Ltd. a wireless ISP in South Africa has tried a new strategy in overcoming tower installation objections due to claims of electromagnetic hypersensitivity. They turned the tower off completely without telling the neighbors for over a month and observed as the complaints of EHS continued. This proves conclusively, to anyone capable of the most basic critical thinking, that the tower is not the cause of the reported symptoms.
Unfortunately the neighbors still want to try to have a court shut down the tower showing that the neighbors aren’t thinking logically. The company did what is considered the gold standard in EMI/EMF effect testing by every regulatory agency, standards organization and decent engineer. Once you turn off the power to any transmitter, bringing the power output to zero, anything still happening is clearly not from that transmitter.
This incredibly simple and essentially infallible disconnect test is about as good as it gets. Many people should be familiar with this type of test from their own experience. The most common example I can think of is when you’re sitting in a parked car and hear a noise that seems to be coming from the engine. You turn off the engine and if the sound goes away the engine is the culprit, if the sound remains it’s not the engine. No functional human being should be able to deny the results of this test and the radio transmitter variation is just as reliable.
It is clear that EHS is a very real disorder but it is also very likely to be a psychogenic illness. Many studies and tests of EHS have been made over the past decades and the evidence points squarely at this being psychogenic. Sadly, as this iBurst case so clearly demonstrates, no matter how good the evidence is, some people refuse to believe and instead fall back on standard pseudoscience tactics.
Links to some full free access journal articles on this topic:
