Perspective from The New England Journal of Medicine — What Covid Has Taught the World about Ethics
— Read on www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2210173
Wondering why everything to do with the pandemic triggered controversy? This article sums up most of the ethical am moral dilemmas.
I recently sold my condo in Vancouver and moved to Courtenay BC. I although I had stayed in Courtenay for a few weeks last year, I did not realize how noisey and busy it had become compared to paradise. (Hornby Island) Ironically, Vancouver became considerably quieter with Covid-19. Traffic was down by about 80%. Everything was closed except grocery stores.
My new 4th floor condo in Courtenay overlooks a busy street and faces west, letting the hot evening sun stream into my floor-to-ceiling windows. Not something the home inspector picked up on when she viewed the unit. I investigated some home cooling options and started with ceiling fans which have helped. Then Safe and Sound came to install window film. Visually it looks good, a bit like looking through sun glasses. They used 3 different kinds of film, depending on the sun exposure.
Even with the film it is still too hot without the AC on at the peak of the heat of the day. The temperature on the balcony sometimes hit 40C. The portable AC was a very good investment. I also bought a tilting patio umbrella. It took a while to ship the order as I guess they were sold out. I tracked the temperature on an excel speadsheet (see below) and the inside temperature has been able to be kept around 25C or less while the outside temperature goes up to 40C late in the afternoon. So here are stategies in the order of how much I think it helps:
Some of the heat is a result of the heat rising from the other floors in the building. Really the whole building should have air conditioning. Ok I think this project is done!
How living in a pandemic distorts our sense of time | Science News
— Read on www.sciencenews.org/article/pandemic-living-distorts-time-sense
Are you caught in Blursday? I know I am. I thought it was just getting older but apparently not 🙃
What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission during the COVID‐19 pandemic? – Jimenez – 2022 – Indoor Air – Wiley Online Library
— Read on onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ina.13070
Interesting history of theories of disease transmission and how hard it is to change theories or beliefs. One wonders if social media will increase the adoption of innovation. I predict more research to come on this topic.
www.nature.com/articles/s41430-020-0558-y.pdf
There is controversy about Vitamin D supplements. At least there should be routine testing for deficiency covered by health insurance which it is not. With 7.4 % of Canadians reporting deficiency it is a public health issue.
“Prevalence rates of severe vitamin D deficiency, defined as 25(OH)D <30 nmol/L (or 12 ng/ml), of 5.9% (US) [18], 7.4% (Canada) [19], and 13% (Europe) [2] have been reported. Estimates of the prevalence of 25(OH)D levels <50 nmol/L (or 20 ng/ml) have been reported as 24% (US), 37% (Canada), and 40% (Europe).”
Cashman KD, Dowling KG, Škrabáková Z, Gonzalez-Gross M, Valtueña J, De Henauw S, et al. Vitamin D deficiency in Europe: pandemic? Am J Clin Nutr. 2016;103:1033–44. https://doi.org/ 10.3945/ajcn.115.120873
Schleicher RL, Sternberg MR, Looker AC, Yetley EA, Lacher DA, Sempos CT, et al. National estimates of serum total 25- Hydroxyvitamin D and metabolite concentrations measured by liquid chromatography–Tandem mass spectrometry in the US population during 2007–2010. J Nutr. 2016;146:1051–61. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.115.227728
Sarafin K, Durazo-Arvizu R, Tian L, Phinney KW, Tai S, Camara JE, et al. Standardizing 25-hydroxyvitamin D values from the Canadian Health Measures Survey. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015;102:1044–50. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.103689
Helen Branswell, who has covered the Covid-19 pandemic from the start, reflects on what she has learned two years on.
— Read on www.statnews.com/2021/12/28/10-lessons-ive-learned-from-the-covid-19-pandemic/
And excellent review of what went wrong and right.
The content shared in some online wellness spaces has powerful emotional and psychological foundations that can cause even science-minded people to question the public health consensus on the ability of vaccines to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/10/22/wellness-vaccine-misinformation-social-media/
Wondering what’s going on with you? With your friends? These researchers found older adults are reporting the highest levels of positive experiences in their daily lives, often through providing support to others.
— Read on www.scientificamerican.com/interactive/the-biggest-psychological-experiment-in-history-is-running-now/
“Vitamin D – Hope Or Hype?” German Professor Says Widespread Deficiency Being Grossly Ignored
— Read on notrickszone.com/2021/08/04/vitamin-d-hope-or-hype-german-professor-says-widespread-deficiency-being-grossly-ignored/
Canada could not track the spread of the virus as effectively as it needed to last year and is now struggling to keep tabs on vaccine effectiveness because of flaws in the system, the report claims
— Read on www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-canadas-data-gaps-hampered-pandemic-response-hurting-vaccination/
TheUnRetired.life 