WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2020 — Homeless New Yorkers are targeted in a $31.7 million slip-and-fall ring … A crime ring burns and floods dozens of homes. … A sober-home mogul trades sex for drugs.
Source: Hall Of Shame Showcases $80B Pandemic Of Insurance Fraud
Chinese researchers found N501Y mutation in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 virus strain. In the mouse model, the N501Y mutation was found to increase the binding affinity of the virus with the mouse ACE2 receptor. The mutation in the mouse-adapted strain also caused increased virulence. In a preliminary report posted on December 19, Dr. Andrew Rambaut from […]
N501Y mutation in SARS-CoV-2 virus causes increased infectivity, disease severity in mice — Science Chronicle
Interesting article and the last paragraphs must be emphasized.
Dr. Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology at CMC Vellore, however, cautions that emergence of N501Y mutation has been seen on other occasions. According to her, the N501Y mutation in a strain that has been adapted to infect a mouse model cannot be compared with the N501Y mutation seen in the new variant infecting humans. And the severity of diseases caused by the mutation in the mouse model has no relevance to humans, she says.
“At this time, one can only say the mutation increases binding affinity in humans and hence increased transmissibility. Nothing can be said about disease severity,” says Dr. Kang.
Age is a risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 infections.
Elderly men have increased mortality compared to elderly women.
Elderly patients can present differently. Delirium can be the primary symptom of COVID-19 infection, as can persistent hypoxia.
Consider COVID-19 in the setting of altered mental status and geriatric falls.
Elderly patients in the ED who live in nursing homes should undergo COVID-19 testing.
Elderly individuals with COVID-19 tend to have increased lesions and lobar involvement on chest CT.
Laboratory diagnostics may differ based on age, and the geriatric population may have lymphopenia, higher CRP values, and increased D-dimer on testing.
COVID-19 in the Elderly — http://www.emdocs.net/covid-19-in-the-elderly/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=covid-19-in-the-elderly
The full article takes some time to read but it’s well worth it if you are into the clinical stuff.
Researchers from IBM Trusteer say they’ve uncovered a massive fraud operation that used a network of mobile device emulators to drain millions of dollars from online bank accounts in a matter of days.
The scale of the operation was unlike anything the researchers have seen before. In one case, crooks used about 20 emulators to mimic more than 16,000 phones belonging to customers whose mobile bank accounts had been compromised.
The thieves then entered usernames and passwords into banking apps running on the emulators and initiated fraudulent money orders that siphoned funds out of the compromised accounts. Emulators are used by legitimate developers and researchers to test how apps run on a variety of different mobile devices.
To bypass protections banks use to block such attacks, the crooks used device identifiers corresponding to each compromised account holder and spoofed GPS locations the device was known to use. The device IDs were likely obtained from the holders’ hacked devices, although in some cases, the fraudsters gave the appearance that they were customers who were accessing their accounts from new phones. The attackers were also able to bypass multi-factor authentication by accessing SMS messages.
“Evil mobile emulator farms” used to steal millions from US and EU banks — https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/12/evil-mobile-emulator-farms-used-to-steal-millions-from-us-and-eu-banks/
I bank online but never use my phone. I check my accounts on a regular basis to see if anything looks odd (besides some of the websites you know who shops at).
Check your accounts. Now.
In some cases, food companies can obscure their involvement through the use of what are known as “front groups,” third-party organizations disguised by innocuous-seeming names. (Until recently, for example, Coca-Cola funded a front group called the “Global Energy Balance Network” that conducted research on obesity.) Sacks and his team included front groups in their definition of industry involvement.
“It’s sometimes quite difficult to see when you’re looking at who’s funding a study, if [they] are related to the food industry,” he said. “So when we would see a paper funded by some random-sounding group, the challenge was actually digging in, going on their website and seeing who’s funding them. Because the food industry often tries to hide that.”
In the most popular nutrition journals, 1 in 7 articles have food industry involvement — https://thecounter.org/food-industry-involvement-nutrition-journals-studies/
At least 10 peer-reviewed studies about pasta published since 2008 were either funded directly by Barilla or, like the one published this month, were carried out by scientists who have had financial ties to the company, which reported sales of 3.4 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in 2016. For two years, Barilla has publicized some of these studies, plus others favorable to its product, on its website with taglines like “Eat Smart Be Smart…With Pasta” and “More Evidence Pasta Is Good For You.” And the company hired the large public relations firm Edelman to push the latest study’s findings to journalists.
Those Studies About Pasta Being Good For You? Some Are Paid For By Barilla. — https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/pasta-barilla-science-funding#.dmmzapNdG
I just love writing obvious click bait headlines.
Residents are the lowest-ranking doctors in a hospital. Stanford Medicine has about 1,300 across all disciplines. Only seven made the priority vaccination list, despite the fact that this week, residents were asked to volunteer for ICU coverage in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases.
“Residents are patient-facing, we’re the ones who have been asked to intubate, yet some attendings who have been face-timing us from home are being vaccinated before us,” said Dr. Sarah Johnson, a third-year OB-GYN resident who has delivered babies from COVID-positive patients during the pandemic. “This is the final straw to say, ‘We don’t actually care about you.’”
Only Seven of Stanford’s First 5,000 Vaccines Were Designated for Medical Residents – https://www.propublica.org/article/only-seven-of-stanfords-first-5-000-vaccines-were-designated-for-medical-residents
Stanford Medicine demonstrates how much they care about their residents.
Here’s an interesting breakdown of lessons learned.
In its earliest attempts at explaining the problem, Stanford’s administrators laid blame with the algorithm. Despite best intentions, they explained, the algorithm had made a mistake that the humans had to answer for.
This is a bit like blaming the hammer for missing the nail.
3 lessons from Stanford’s Covid-19 vaccine algorithm debacle — https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/21/stanford-covid19-vaccine-algorithm/
Operation Warp Speed also experienced some hiccups.
“It looked very good on paper,” Perna said. “Paper plans are very good. Execution is where we learn, and we adapted accordingly.”
‘I failed’: Operation Warp Speed leader takes responsibility for Covid-19 vaccine distribution confusion — https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/19/operation-warp-speed-leader-takes-sole-responsibility-for-covid-19-vaccine-distribution-confusion/?utm_campaign=rss
Remember “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”
The most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, and joint pain. Some people in the clinical trials have reported fever. Side effects are more common after the second dose; younger adults, who have more robust immune systems, reported more side effects than older adults.
To be clear: These side effects are a sign of an immune system kicking into gear. They do not signal that the vaccine is unsafe. To date there are no serious, long-term side effects associated with receipt of these vaccines, which will be closely monitored as their use expands.
A side-by-side comparison of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines — https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/19/a-side-by-side-comparison-of-the-pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-vaccines/?utm_campaign=rss
Post and link for informational purposes only. I will not waste my time trying to convince people that a virus doesn’t care about your gender, age, sexuality, religion, skin color, politics, net worth, personal freedoms, dietary preferences, or anything else.
A virus merely wants a host organism to infect.
Even under the best circumstances, however, addiction is a disease prone to relapse. An estimated 40-60% of people who misuse drugs will return to using them at some point during recovery—and it’s this time that leaves them most vulnerable to overdose, since their tolerance has dropped, often dramatically, during their period of abstinence.
The US covid pandemic has a sinister shadow—drug overdoses — BMJ 2020; 371 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4751 (Published 17 December 2020)
The test is performed using a mid-turbinate nasal swab designed for comfortable self-sampling. The sample is inserted into a single-use cartridge that returns results in 15 minutes. The at-home test analyzer connects to the user’s smartphone through Bluetooth and pairs with a downloadable app that provides step-by-step instructions and displays results.
Users can share real-time results from the test, selling for approximately $30, with healthcare professionals, employers, and schools for efficient COVID-19 tracking. Ellume plans to scale-up manufacturing to deliver millions of home tests per month in 2021.
NIH-funded COVID-19 home test is first to receive over-the-counter authorization from FDA – https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-funded-covid-19-home-test-first-receive-over-counter-authorization-fda
I wonder if this test works without a smartphone? I wonder if the app can share real- time results with local government agencies that are tracking test numbers? I wonder if low income people can take advantage of this test due to cost considerations? I wonder if applicants for life or health insurance will use this test, get results then apply for insurance thus creating another channel for anti-selection?
I wonder a lot nowadays but I truly don’t wonder about my last point. Of course people will self-test before applying for insurance. My local CVS has shelves full of at home tests that people are using now for lots of other things like nicotine, non-prescription drugs, etc.
Retirement can’t come soon enough for this old warrior.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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