What's behind South Africa's flood disaster

 

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220418-what-s-behind-south-africa-s-flood-disaster

 

Issued on: 18/04/2022 - 12:34

South Africa, the continent's most industrialised country, has largely escaped the tropical cyclones that regularly hit its neighbours.
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But last week, storms pummelled the east coast city of Durban, triggering heavy floods and landslides that killed more than 440.

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If the storm system itself is a known phenomenon, the difference this time was the intensity of the the deluge.

Here, experts point the finger at climate change -- warmer seas charge the atmosphere with more moisture, which then gets dumped as rainfall.

"We've seen in Durban three (severe) floods in less than 10 years. Does it have to do with climate change? Definitely," said Mary Galvin of the University of Johannesburg.

"We are feeling the impact of what will certainly be unpredictable, more frequent, severe and extreme weather events."

A recent UN report says what was once considered a one-in-a-hundred-year flood event could end up happening several times a year by 2050.

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Brazilian study finds COVID-19 cases and deaths higher in areas with electoral support for President Bolsonaro

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949744

 

 News Release 14-Apr-2022
Study of 853 counties in Minas Gerais state finds counties that voted for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in the 2018 election are more likely to have higher incidence and death rates from COVID-19
Reports and Proceedings
European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

 

In a study to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal (23-26 April), researchers from Sociedade Mineira de Infectologia and Associação Mineira de Epidemiologia e Controle de Infecções show a correlation between the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s denialist attitude to COVID-19 and higher COVID-19 incidence and mortality.

The study, involving 853 counties in Minas Gerais (the second most populous state located in southeastern Brazil), finds that in Bolsonaro voting counties, COVID-19 cases and deaths were substantially higher than in counties where Bolsonaro lost the 2018 presidential election vote.

“The role of politics had a critical impact on COVID-19 responses to the pandemic in Brazil from the outset”, say Dr Carlos Starling from Sociedade Mineira de Infectologia. “President Jair Bolsonaro has denied COVID-19 severity, promoted treatments without evidence of efficacy, and discouraged social distancing, the use of masks, local lockdowns and other protective measures, which has likely resulted in higher infection rates and deaths from COVID-19 among his supporters.”
The death toll from Covid-19 in Brazil has passed 659,000, the third highest reported toll of any country in the world [1].

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Comprehensive care program helped reduce some racial disparities after hip and knee replacement

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949973

 

 News Release 18-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Wolters Kluwer Health

 

A "bundled care" Medicare program to improve care for patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery has led to reductions in some outcome disparities for Black compared with White patients, suggests a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.

The introduction of Medicare's Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) Model coincided with a reduction of racial differences in hospital readmission rates after hip or knee replacement surgery, according to new research by Calin Moucha, MD, Jashvant Poeran, MD, PhD, and other colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.

Despite gains, racial differences persist in patient characteristics and outcomes.

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Youth development program helps kids get out of poverty in adulthood

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949982

 

 News Release 18-Apr-2022
Study measured outcomes after 33-year follow-up with program alumni
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

 

A free youth development program serving Black children and teens living in a low-income segregated community demonstrated positive long-term educational and financial outcomes in its alumni, according to a study from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago published in the journal BMC Public Health.

A 33-year follow-up revealed that alumni graduated from college at twice the rate of their peers who did not participate in the youth development program. For each year of program enrollment, alumni were 10 percent more likely to complete college. Alumni also were more likely to save money at the end of the month and to report a better standard of living than their parents.

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Study: Black kidney transplant patients exhibit faster clearance rates of key immunosuppressive medicine tacrolimus

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950019

 

 News Release 18-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University at Buffalo

 

Kidney transplant survival is shorter, on average, in Black recipients compared to white recipients receiving similar treatment. Although Black people make up only 13% of the population, they represent 35% of patients with kidney failure in the United States, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

A variety of factors influence kidney transplant survival in Black recipients, including socioeconomics, genomics and attaining adequate blood concentrations of prescribed immunosuppressive medications.

Black kidney transplant recipients have a faster clearance rate of the immunosuppressive drug tacrolimus than white recipients, according to a new study led by Kathleen Tornatore, PharmD, professor of pharmacy practice in the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The study, published earlier this year in Pharmacotherapy, is one of the first to examine how both race and sex influence tacrolimus pharmacokinetics (the study of how drugs move throughout the body). 

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Variable schedules harm workers and businesses

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950022

 

 News Release 18-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Cornell University

 

Variable work schedules – which employers increasingly use to maximize profits amid unpredictable market conditions – can actually undermine organizational performance, especially in crisis periods such as the pandemic, according to Cornell University research.

In a new study, doctoral student Hyesook Chung found that managers who rely on less stable variable work schedules experience higher turnover, due to the negative impact on workers’ economic security, health and work–life balance.

Additionally, Chung found the effect is likely to be more striking during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, since household financial and health-related distress is likely to be higher, and social systems that provide support are under duress. This higher store-level turnover, in turn, reduces the store’s financial performance, increasingly so as the crisis unfolds, she said.

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COVID-19 vaccine protects kids and teens from severe illness

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950026

 

 News Release 18-Apr-2022
Study evaluated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effectiveness during the Delta and Omicron periods in children 5-18 years of age
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

 

Results of a new multicenter study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that vaccination with a primary series of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in children ages 5–11 years by two-thirds during the Omicron period. Among adolescents ages 12–18 years who were vaccinated with a primary series of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, protection against COVID-19-associated hospitalization during the Omicron period was lower than during the Delta period, similar to what has been previously shown among adults. Levels of protection against critical COVID-19 requiring life-supporting interventions remained high in vaccinated adolescents during both the Delta and the Omicron periods. 

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Voting against sick people

 

https://twitter.com/TheDemocrats/status/1516110568612061184

1:45 PM · Apr 18, 2022

 

Why did 193 House Republicans vote against a standalone bill to cap the cost of insulin at $35/month?

Double standard on inflation

 

https://twitter.com/DanPriceSeattle/status/1515846130390781956

 Dan Price
@DanPriceSeattle

8:14 PM · Apr 17, 2022

if corporations are "forced to raise prices" because of inflation how come they weren't forced to lower prices when they got $1.9 trillion in tax cuts?

Vegan diets for dogs may be linked with better health, and could be less hazardous, than meat-based diets

 

Not true for cats.

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/948887

 

  News Release 13-Apr-2022
Survey findings may support nutritionally complete vegan dog diets over raw or conventional meat diets
Peer-Reviewed Publication
PLOS

A survey study of the guardians of more than 2,500 dogs explored links between dog diet and health outcomes, suggesting that nutritionally sound vegan diets may be healthier and less hazardous than conventional or raw meat-based diets. Andrew Knight of the University of Winchester, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on April 13, 2022.

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Further research is needed to confirm whether a raw meat or a vegan diet is associated with better dog health outcomes. The researchers suggest that large-scale, cross-sectional, and longitudinal studies of dogs, maintained on different diets, which utilizes data such as results of veterinary clinical examinations and veterinary medical histories, could yield results of greater reliability. Still, prior research has linked raw meat diets to increased risk of pathogens and nutritional deficiencies. In light of both the new and prior findings, the researchers suggest that a nutritionally sound vegan diet may in fact be the healthiest and least hazardous choice for dogs.

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Healthy lifestyle associated with more years without Alzheimer’s

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949405

 

 News Release 13-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
BMJ

 

 A US study published by The BMJ today suggests that a healthy lifestyle is associated with a longer life expectancy among both men and women, and they lived a larger proportion of their remaining years without Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings show that a healthy lifestyle is associated with longer life expectancies, but crucially the extra years did not mean extra years lived with Alzheimer’s.

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 Participants completed detailed diet and lifestyle questionnaires and a healthy lifestyle score was developed based on: a hybrid Mediterranean-DASH Diet (a diet rich in whole grains, green leafy vegetables and berries and low in fast/fried food, and red meats); late-life cognitively stimulating activities; at least 150 minutes a week of physical activity; not smoking; low to moderate alcohol consumption.

Cognitive activities included reading, visiting a museum or doing crosswords.

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Exercise during pregnancy reduces the risk of Type-2 Diabetes in offspring, study finds

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949762

 

 News Release 14-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Tohoku University

 

A new study has demonstrated that maternal exercise during pregnancy improves the metabolic health of offspring, even when the mother is obese or on a high-fat diet. Physical exercise by the mother induces the placenta to secrete the key protein SOD3, resulting in a lowered risk of diabetes for the offspring. The findings in the paper identified the mechanisms behind this process.

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New study shows increase in black lung disease in coal miners

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949740

 

 News Release 14-Apr-2022
Provides rationale for the mine safety and health administration to develop a more protective occupational standard for silica.
Peer-Reviewed Publication
American Thoracic Society

 

Higher levels of  silica dust can be found in the lung tissue of contemporary coal miners compared to the lung tissue in previous generations of coal miners, according to a new study in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.  The study helps explain the recent increase in severe pneumoconiosis – often referred to as black lung disease – concentrated in central Appalachia (West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky) miners.

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Food insecurity doubled likelihood of foregoing or delaying medical care during first year of COVID-19 pandemic in U.S.

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949800

 

 News Release 14-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

 

Individuals experiencing food insecurity—a household’s lack of consistent access to adequate food resources—in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic were more than twice as likely to forego or delay medical care due to cost concerns compared to food-secure households, according to a survey led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Conducted in December 2020, the survey also found that racial and ethnic minority groups and lower-income individuals were significantly more likely to face food insecurity compared to whites and higher-income individuals.

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Investigating the connections between medicaid and cancer survival

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949822

 

 News Release 14-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

 

At first blush, the numbers aren’t great: Cancer patients who are covered by Medicaid tend to have later-stage disease and higher rates of mortality.

But when Cathy Bradley, PhD, deputy director of the University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center, started digging into the data a little deeper, she found some of the reasons for the dire statistics. Many people with cancer enroll in Medicaid only after they are diagnosed, suggesting they may have been uninsured prior to diagnosis and had limited access to cancer screening and treatment.

“What some researchers have done in the past is looked at Medicaid and observed that people who are insured by Medicaid and diagnosed with cancer have late-stage disease and greater mortality rates,” she says. “What I was able to show is that Medicaid is actually picking up people who were otherwise uninsured or underinsured. They get diagnosed with cancer, and enroll in Medicaid afterward. By then, they have late-stage cancer because they most likely did not have health insurance that would have given them access to screening and treatment prior to cancer diagnosis.”

 

Tennessee state senator offers Hitler as inspiration to homeless

 

 https://thehill.com/news/state-watch/3267283-tennessee-state-senator-offers-hitler-as-inspiration-to-homeless/

 

by Lauren Vella - 04/14/22 10:56 AM ET

 

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Tennessee state Sen. Frank Niceley (R) made his remarks on the Senate floor during a debate on a bill to make camping or soliciting along state highways or exit ramps a misdemeanor.

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“Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while. So for two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that got him into history books,” he said.

“So a lot of these people, it’s not a dead end. They can come out of this, these homeless camps and have a productive life, or in Hitler’s case, a very unproductive life,” he continued. “I support this bill.” 

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Opponents of the bill say it is unfair and argue that the way to combat homelessness is with more housing.

“The answer to homelessness and we’ve said it over and over is more housing. We need to put the resources that we are spending making more laws that are clearly inhumane into the resources we need to build more housing units,” said Paula Foster, a nonprofit homelessness advocate, according to the outlet. 

 

 

For the first time, wind power eclipsed both coal and nuclear in the U.S.

 

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092806582/wind-power-energy-source

 

April 14, 202211:36 AM ET
Deepa Shivaram
 

 

Wind power in the United States reached a new milestone last month.

On March 29, wind turbines produced more electricity than coal and nuclear, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an agency that collects energy statistics for the government, says.

In the past, wind-powered electricity has gone beyond coal and nuclear on separate days, but this was the first time wind surpassed both on the same day. Natural gas is still the largest source of electricity generation in the country. 

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But wind taking the No. 2 spot may be short-lived.
Environmental laws can be an obstacle in building green energy infrastructure

The agency says electricity generation from wind on a monthly basis has been lower than natural gas, coal and nuclear generation. According to EIA projections, wind is not expected to surpass any other method in any month of 2022 or 2023.

Avoiding Covid is intelligent

 

Saw this on Quora:

 

 Do you believe that the media’s display of evocative images of a pandemic led people to value conformity and obedience over eccentricity or rebellion?

No.

Listen, this should be simple. If ten people walk down the street, and all ten of them walk around the huge steaming pile of dog turds in the middle of the road, it’s not because they’re all conformist sheep.

And the guy who walks right through the pile of dogshit and then tracks it all over his house is not a brave, independent maverick. He’s a moron with dogshit all over his carpet.

Study finds decrease in racial disparity and increase in survival rates in metastatic breast cancer patients due to Medicaid expansion

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949291

 gen

 News Release 8-Apr-2022
Findings from study led by Susan G. Komen scholars published in JAMA Oncology
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Susan G. Komen

 

A new study led by Susan G. Komen® Scholars indicates that patients diagnosed with de novo stage 4 breast cancer – also called metastatic breast cancer– had improved survival rates and decreased mortality rates when those patients had access to care. De novo means the breast cancer was stage 4 at the time of diagnosis and had already spread to distant parts of the body.

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New study reveals that healthy plant-based diets are associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/948960

 

 News Release 8-Apr-2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Diabetologia

 

 New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) finds that the consumption of healthy plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee, and legumes, is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in generally healthy people and support their role in diabetes prevention.

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