tag > Health
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New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer (Bombastic Misleading Headline, by The Guardian)
A new blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer has been revealed by researchers in the latest study. Writing in the journal Annals of Oncology, the team reveal how the test was developed using a machine learning algorithm. The team initially fed the system with data on methylation patterns in DNA from within blood samples taken from more than 2,800 patients, before further training it with data from 3,052 participants.
When it came to identifying people with cancers the team found that, across more than 50 different types of cancer, the system correctly detected that the disease was present 44% of the time – although the team stress that figure could differ if the test was used to screen a general population, rather than those known to have cancer. Detection was better the more advanced the disease was. Overall, cancer was correctly detected in 18% of those with stage I cancer, but in 93% of those with stage IV cancer.
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Report reveals ‘massive plastic pollution footprint’ of drinks firms (Guardian)
"Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever are responsible for more than half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in six developing countries each year, enough to cover 83 football pitches every day, according to a report."
“Why are we here?”
Plastic… asshole.”
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Some People Can Detect Earth's Magnetic Field (popularmechanics)
Could some humans be able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field? Evidence suggests that in addition to quite a few animal species, humans could be—yes, this is the real term—magnetoreceptors. In a recent study, scientists conducted an experiment that measured how alpha waves interacted with a trace mineral that they believe registers magnetism.
Some Humans Can Detect Earth's Magnetic Field, After All (interestingengineering)
"Our results indicate that human brains are indeed collecting and selectively processing directional input from magnetic field receptors," concluded the scientists. "Such neural activity is a necessary prerequisite for any subsequent behavioral expression of magnetoreception, and it represents a starting point for testing whether such an expression exists."
"Can humans sense the Earth's magnetic field?" - the spooks at WHO said in 2008:
"Based on a recent in-depth review of the scientific literature, the WHO concluded that current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields," it says. "However, some gaps in knowledge about biological effects exist and need further research."
For extensive coverage on this topic, browse the #RadioBio tag on samim.io
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Covid-19 — Navigating the Uncharted - Research Paper by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D
"If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively."
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S Korea unleashes all-out policy assault on virus - ‘Big Brother’ on steroids (Asiantimes)
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention is in charge of the new digital surveillance system. It combines information from 27 public and private organizations including the National Police Agency, the Credit Finance Association, three mobile carriers and 22 credit card firms. This vast collection of big data is amassed, trawled through and analyzed by AI. The system is a comprehensive upgrade to a previous program under which “data detectives” combined CCTV footage, GPS location information, credit card payments and other metrics to track down persons who may have been in contact with the infected person.
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CBS News Caught Using Footage from an Italian Hospital to Describe Conditions in New York
“It was an editing mistake. We took immediate steps to remove it from all platforms and shows,” a CBS spokesperson said. [...] Sky News’s segment shows the same hospital that CBS News aired just days later. CBS News aired the misleading footage as Cuomo was bashing FEMA for the apparent lack of ventilators, suggesting that the video was of a New York hospital.
Counting deaths involving the coronavirus (Office of National Statistics)
According to the ONS blog even cases where it was merely suspected that the deceased had Covid-19 will now be included in the Covid-19 death stats. Given Covid-19 has some generic symptoms, that will include people who don't even have it.
Covid19 yet to impact Europe’s overall mortality (off-guardian)
Year-to-date statistics show excess mortality lower than previous years
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Eating Animals is the root cause of many of our current global challenge.
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Global condom shortage looms as coronavirus shuts down production (Guardian)
A global shortage of condoms is looming, the world’s biggest producer has said, after a coronavirus lockdown forced it to shut down production. Malaysia’s Karex Bhd makes one in every five condoms globally. It has not produced a single condom in its three Malaysian factories for more than a week because of a lockdown imposed by the government to halt the spread of the virus.
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Acclaimed mainstream scientists (Oxford, Standford, MaxPlank, Marie Curie, etc.) speaking up against the corona crisis handling and hysteria.
- 12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic (off-guardian)
- 10 more Experts Criticising the Coronavirus Panic (off-guardian)
- Perspectives on the Pandemic (off-guardian)
- Why this Nobel laureate predicts a quicker coronavirus recovery (LATimes)
- Wolfgang Wodarg: Corona viruses are not the problem - stay calm
- Corona-Krise: Offener Brief an die Bundeskanzlerin von Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi
- Renowned German mathematician and professor of statistics slams dramatization of Covid-19
- 12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic (off-guardian)
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Recent Corona Testing Reliability Weirdness
- Health Ministry delays test results, amid reports patients given false diagnoses (Time of Israel)
- Are coronavirus tests flawed? (BBC)
- Finnish health boss questions WHO coronavirus testing advice (Reuters)
- COVID-19 testing protocol changes, raising concerns about tracking virus in NC (WRAL)
- Why a wave of at-home coronavirus tests is dividing global regulators (Bloomberg)
- 99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says (Bloomberg)
- Coronavirus: pathogen could have been spreading in humans for decades, study says (SCMP)
- Coronavirus: Irreführung bei den Fallzahlen nun belegt (KenFM)
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UK has enough intensive care units for coronavirus, expert predicts (New Scientist)
The UK should now be able to cope with the spread of the covid-19 virus, according to one of the epidemiologists advising the government. Neil Ferguson at Imperial College London said that expected increases in National Health Service capacity and ongoing restrictions to people’s movements make him “reasonably confident” the health service can cope when the predicted peak of the epidemic arrives in two or three weeks. UK deaths from the disease are now unlikely to exceed 20,000, he said, and could be much lower.
Comment by @AlexBerenson: This is a remarkable turn from Neil Ferguson, who led the @imperialcollegeauthors who warned of 500,000 UK deaths - and who has now himself tested positive for COVID; He now says both that the U.K. should have enough ICU beds and that the coronavirus will probably kill under 20,000 people in the U.K. - more than 1/2 of whom would have died by the end of the year in any case bc they were so old and sick. Essentially, what has happened is that estimates of the viruses transmissibility have increased - which implies that many more people have already gotten it than we realize - which in turn implies it is less dangerous. Ferguson now predicts that the epidemic in the U.K. will peak and subside within “two to three weeks” - last week’s paper said 18+ months of quarantine would be necessary. One last point here: Ferguson gives the lockdown credit, which is *interesting* - the UK only began ita lockdown 2 days ago, and the theory is that lockdowns take 2 weeks or more to work. Not surprisingly, this testimony has received no attention in the US - I found it only in UK papers. Team Apocalypse is not interested.
More from Imperial
- Coronavirus pandemic could have caused 40 million deaths if left unchecked (Imperial)
- COVID-19: Imperial researchers model likely impact of public health measures (Imperial)
virus modeling
- Coronavirus pandemic could have caused 40 million deaths if left unchecked (Imperial)
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COVID-19 & AI - Privacy & Ethical Considerations (RE-Work)
Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures - as we battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, governments, industry and citizens around the world have kicked efforts into high gear to find creative and effective ways to curb the spread of the disease. A variety of technological and AI-enabled solutions are being proposed and piloted with varying degrees of success. What's being discussed less is how this might alter what precedents get set and how the technology landscape will change once the pandemic has subsided.
Finally, we must pay attention to the creeping deployment of surveillance infrastructure under the guise of fighting the pandemic. Particular attention needs to be focused on powers being granted to the government, the technological solutions being deployed and the legal and social precedents being set. We don't want to emerge from the pandemic crisis with a privacy and ethical crisis on our hands. The solutions being deployed to combat COVID-19 need to be purpose- and time-limited to hold our rights and freedoms in place.
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COVID-19 drives new threat to bats in China (sciencemag)
In China, bats are traditionally symbols of good luck and happiness. There are more than 1400 species of bats worldwide, but more than half of them have unknown or decreasing population trends. Unfortunately, the suggestion that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have originated in bats is putting them at increased risk.
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Air pollution plunges in European cities amid coronavirus lockdown (jpost)
While early reports of dolphins swimming in Venice were proven false, the European Space Agency reports that air pollution dropped in three cities. "This is a first level estimate; some of these values have gone down by about 40% of the normal value... so a very drastic decrease," Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes. "What you really see are the centers of this pollution… It is quite a good first level indicator of anthropogenic pollution coming from traffic and industry," added Aschbacher.
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Karl Brandt on trial, 20 August 1947 The Nuremberg Code (German: Nürnberger Kodex) is a set of research ethics principles for human experimentation created as a result of the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War. The origin of the Nuremberg Code began in pre–World War II German politics, particularly during the 1930s and 1940s. The pre-war German Medical Association was considered to be a progressive. On August 20, 1947, the judges delivered their verdict against Karl Brandt and 22 others. The verdict reiterated the memorandum's points and, in response to expert medical advisers for the prosecution, revised the original six points to ten.
The ten points became known as the "Nuremberg Code", which includes such principles as informed consent and absence of coercion; properly formulated scientific experimentation; and beneficence towards experiment participants. It is thought to have been mainly based on the Hippocratic Oath, which was interpreted as endorsing the experimental approach to medicine while protecting the patient.
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Saint Corona - Patron saint of epidemics?
Saints Victor and Corona (also known as Victor and Stephanie) are two Christian martyrs. Their legend states that Victor was a Roman soldier of Italian ancestry. Victor was tortured and then beheaded in Damascus in 160 AD. While he was suffering from the tortures, the sixteen-year-old wife of another soldier, named Corona or Stephanie comforted and encouraged him. For this, she was arrested and interrogated. Corona is especially venerated in Austria and eastern Bavaria. She is invoked in connection with superstitions involving money, such as gambling and treasure hunting. Otto III, around AD 1000, brought Corona's relics to Aachen in western Germany. Though there is little evidence of her being invoked against epidemics, Reuters reported in 2020 that she was "patron saint of epidemics," and that her relics will be available for public veneration "once the coronavirus pandemic has passed."
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Bill Gates Wants Socialist Medicine to Combat Coronavirus — Without the Socialists (jacobinmag)
Bill Gates says the private sector is ill-prepared to respond to pandemics and that governments need to ratchet up their spending by the billions and take charge. Too bad he’s still opposing the democratic-socialist movements that could do just that.
Bill Gates, the CIA, Jacques Attali ... they had warned of a global epidemic (leparisien) (English translation)
The risk of a new pandemic has been mentioned many times over the past fifteen years. And some projections are cause for concern.
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Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a G7 leader video conference In such extraordinary circumstances, forecasts and predictions by clever computers or AI-driven algorithms cannot provide specific solutions. These can only come about by putting our smartest thinkers together through multilateral action and global cooperation.
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Wuhan doctors plan long-term look at coronavirus impact on male sex hormone (SCMP)
Doctors in the central Chinese city of Wuhan plan to embark on a long-term study of the effects of the coronavirus on the male reproductive system, building on small-scale research indicating that the pathogen could affect sex hormone levels in men. Though still preliminary and not peer reviewed, the study is the first clinical observation of the potential impact of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, on the male reproductive system, especially among younger groups.
