BC HEALTH
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

I think @SamAdlerBell in his quest to be the contrarian on Fauci gets several things wrong here. 1/

 First, the failure last year actually was driven by the White House, the #Trump inner circle. Watch what's happening now, the US' scientific and public health infrastructure is creaking back to life. 2/
I think Sam underestimates the decimation of many of our health agencies over the past four years and the establishment of ideological control over them during the pandemic. 3/
I also am puzzled why Tony gets the blame for not speaking up, etc. Robert Redfield, Brett Giroir, Deb Birx, Jerome Adams, Alex Azar all could have done the same. 4/
Several of these people Bob Redfield, Brett Giroir, Alex Azar were led by craven ambition, Jerome Adams by cowardice, but I do think Deb Birx and Tony tried as institutionalists, insiders to make a difference. 5/
I wrote to them privately and spoke publicly about the need to do more, but Sam misunderstands how long-time civil servants operate. The entire CDC staff could have resigned in protest, other agencies could have had everyone fall on their swords in protest as well. 6/
This isn't to excuse their behavior. It's just to say expecting people who have devoted their careers to places like CDC or NIH to resign in protest, speak out and get fired, is unrealistic. 7/
Lots can be said about the institutional failures--outside of Trump's influence--that happened last year. The testing debacle, the failure to real screen for new compounds against SARSCOV2 instead of just putting everything in the vaccine basket...8/
We were slow on masks. Yes. I agree. But there were also shortages of supplies even for healthcare settings in March. Remember the bandanas and panty-shields being worn by some on the wards, recycling N-95s? There was some worry about run on PPE by general public. 9/
Not an excuse, but context. The statement on herd immunity that Tony made. Dumb. Yeah. I get it. 10/
And Trump's obsession with loyalty twisted some of them to the breaking point. Redfield collapsed almost reflexively at the beginning. Birx thought she could control the situation. Tony though he could thread the needle, keep silent mostly, try to squeeze in some facts. 11/
No one came out of last year looking good and even if Fauci got accolades from some, those in public health saw what was happening. Shit was flying everywhere, everyone got soiled. 12/
But the biggest problem about @SamAdlerBell piece is not that it's slightly obsessive on Fauci (and I won't even start on the ACT UP sections, since I was there for many of these events), but gets the politics wrong in a big way. How so? 13/
At the end of the article Sam suggests that Tony should have resigned to lead the resistance. I mean, please. And then a bureaucrat arose to lead us. Really? The director of NIAID was going to be at the barricades? 14/
The big political question was NOT where was Dr. Fauci last year, but where were WE? Why didn't those not in government service rise up when the stakes were so much lower for resistance for us? Why didn't all the major non-governmental institutions mobilize on the pandemic? 15/
Many of us in public health were writing furiously about the failures of what was happening, as were others, but no one was doing the mobilization work to tip the scales from op-eds to direct action. 16/
Yes, those in government service do have to answer for their silence last year, but so do we. I am not holding up Fauci as a hero, but flipping him into the anti-hero of the story doesn't work either. 17/
I just posted a report from Brazil, about how Bolsanaro's policies drove the pandemic in Brazil. A fish rots from the head down. Trump and his circle hold the vast majority of blame for 2020 and our predicament today. It's just true. 18/
Bolsanaro's health ministers resigned and he just got other ones. This was also Trump's MO for 4 years, anyone who left, got replaced with people increasingly more loyal. The late arrival of Scott Atlas is a case in point here. 19/
So as a political history this piece fails. That's my main point. I've said terrible things about Fauci in the past in the press during the height of the AIDS epidemic, trashed Obama on global health/HIV in the 2000s. "Heroes" shouldn't be immune from criticism. 20/
Would it have been great if one by one federal scientists got to the mic and denounced Trump in 2020? Yeah, sure. And I want to be 35 again. Not gonna happen. 21/
The most startling thing to me and which no one has written about yet is why the rest of us were frozen like deer-in-the-headlights? 400,000 dead and "the resistance" to it all from outside the Administration was mostly in strongly worded op-eds. 22/
The press played the both sides game early on--kept saying "experts disagree" when Trump's policies were patently insane. This is the @NYTimes political desk's lingering shame, which they will never admit. 23/
Members of Congress sat on their hands. Mayors, governors just tried to keep their own cities and states from going under, but many aided and abetted the President. 24/
But political advocacy organizations, non-governmental actors could have mobilized. We did for the Women's March, after the Parkland shootings, for the March for Science. Yeah. big in-person events were a no-no, still are, but big not-in-person-events didn't happen either. 25/
In the aftermath of all of this, this is what's worry. Tony will retire soon. Take him off the playing field. Now what? We have to rebuild public health, not because of its failures last year, but because it was in shambles before 2020. 26/
We made our beds long before Trump. No national healthcare, a weak social safety net, a desperately under-funded and under-resourced public health infrastructure coast to coast under Republicans and Democrats. 27/
If Tony had spoken out all these structural issues would remain and frankly, it's the structures that outlast us, pave the way for crises out years into the future. 28/
And what are we going to do about that? end/

More from Gregg Gonsalves

Gregg Gonsalves
Gregg Gonsalves
@gregggonsalves
And this pathetic move by @JDVance1 isn't what is so odious about him. He's just a phony, all ambition, no real interest in public service. He made a big show out of moving back to #Ohio to start a group to work on the #opioid epidemic. 1/


I work on the opioids, on research on the epidemic, its relationship with HIV/HCV, overdose. I work with data from Ohio, so care deeply about what is going on there. I was excited. Until I started digging. There's no there there. 2/

More here. 3/

You can even read their IRS-990-N filing. Sure looks like @JDVance1 tried real hard on combatting the opioid epidemic in his state. Um. Not. 4/

Now he's moved on to venture capital. Money is more interesting than the suffering of the people of #Ohio I guess. 5/
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Gregg Gonsalves
Gregg Gonsalves
@gregggonsalves
Here @playbookplus goes again: ‘HOW MUCH IS BIPARTISANSHIP WORTH?’ I don't know @politico, how many more months would you like the pandemic to drag on for? How many more dead? How many more people, businesses ruined economically? I'm sorry but this is garbage framing in a crisis.

Oh but this is what powerful people are talking about in DC! Might that point itself be examined with more seriousness than taking this BS at face value? Don't you understand, we just reflect back what people are saying? We are mirrors on the world, we offer no commentary.

If "very serious people" are talking about what "nice number" would be $1.3T, 1.2T and not what we need to get out of this mess, might it be worth saying, perhaps, this conversation w/o reference to epidemiologic or economic reality is just a failure of leadership, governance?
ECONOMY
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Gregg Gonsalves
Gregg Gonsalves
@gregggonsalves
Eight years ago, Spencer Cox died of #AIDS. He had access to #antiretroviral therapy, but in his own struggles with #depression and substance use, he stopped taking them. 1/

Spencer left college, dropped out like me in the 80s, and we both found ourselves in @actupny where we joined the Treatment and Data Committee, doing battle with drug companies, the @US_FDA, the @NIH on a quest to save ourselves and our friends from near-certain death. 2/

Now everyone knows what those dark days before the advent of antiretroviral therapy were like. Waves upon waves of dying friends. A government who couldn't care less for the sick and dying. 3/

All this has happened before, and all this will happen again. AIDS. #COVID19. The next pandemic. The fire next time. 4/

And it changes you. Seeing so much death so young. Seeing those in power turn away from the catastrophe, even joke about it (find, listen to the tape of Larry Speakes in Oval Office w Reagan laughing about AIDS). 5/
HEALTH
Gregg Gonsalves
Gregg Gonsalves
@gregggonsalves
One thing I will never understand. In 2020, we let ~340,000 Americans die, sometimes in the thousands per day. And we watched. There were no protests, no daily banner headlines befitting a national tragedy on this scale. It's as if we watched 9/11 in a loop for 300+ days. 1/

It was the non-chalance of all of it, the sangfroid. Yes, of course, there were stories in the media, some great ones, but we were shoving bodies into makeshift morgues in America in 2020, and it all became background noise. 2/

And no one rose up. Punctuated outrage from some. But no one on the streets in any substantial numbers asking for, demanding answers, action. 3/

If it weren't for the #BlackLivesMatter protests you'd think most of America was already dead. 4/

You don't have to ask what would I have done if I was present at one of history's great tragedies where people made choices to let barbarism flourish. We've done it now. 5/
SOCIETY
Gregg Gonsalves
Gregg Gonsalves
@gregggonsalves
Important tweet from @jaketapper. One amendment: mainstream media will try to change the subject too. It's not a new criticism, the deferential spirit among the political press corps has been noted since Didion wrote about it in the 1990s.


"Those who talk to Mr. Woodward, in other words, can be confident that he will be civil (“I too was growing tired, and it seemed time to stand up and thank him”), that he will not feel impelled to make connections between..." 1/

"what he is told and what is already known that he will treat even the most patently self-serving account as if untainted by hindsight..." 2/

"In this business of running the story, in fact in the business of news itself, certain conventions are seen as beyond debate. “Opinion” will be so labeled, and confined to the op-ed page or the Sunday-morning shows." 3/

"'News analysis' will be so labeled, and will appear in a subordinate position to the 'news' story it accompanies. In the rest of the paper as on the evening news, the story will be reported “'impartially,' the story will be 'even-handed,' the story will be 'fair.'” 4/
FOR LATER READ

More from Health

Stephen Wolfe
Stephen Wolfe
@PerfInjust
Thread:
I'm thinking about Tim Keller's influence.

There is the curious fact that Keller is well-regarded among the culture elite (or at least has not suffered the sort of vilification one might expect given his influence). How can we explain this?

Looking at Prodigal God and other writings, you see that his approach to urban ministry is deeply political in a way that appeals to Democrat-heavy cities. It involves two moves:

1) equalizing sins: elevating the sin of hypocrisy, "moralism," and "religion" (the sins of "conservatives") and equating these with the sins tolerated among liberal (e.g., homosexuality)
&
2) emphasizing "self-righteousness" as a sort of chief sin (the sin of "red states").

Keller effectively downplays the sins that liberals tolerate while elevating the sins of their political enemies, the red state conservatives.

But the greatest appeal to liberals is that critiquing the "self-righteous" vilifies political action, particularly the action of social conservatives (e.g., anti-gay marriage). And the equalization of sins eases concerns over changes in social policy (e.g., gay marriage).
HEALTH , GOVERNMENT
Gadi Schwartz
Gadi Schwartz
@GadiNBC
ADHD, a thread (1)
If you have #ADHD & are struggling please know you’re not alone. This week on @Overview, we're talking about living w/ ADHD & Anxiety during the pandemic & many the stigmas & misconceptions that making things worse.

I was diagnosed w/ ADHD when I was 7. And in so many ways it’s been a blessing. I love my energy, the hyper-focus, the calm I feel in chaos, the ability to & feel emotions so intensely. It’s allowed me to to see the world differently be in a constant state of wonder.(2)

But realizing all that has been a long, difficult journey so figured I’d share some of my own struggles as well as the resources from @HowtoADHD because Jessica's channel has been a game-changer for me.(3)

First off, #ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a dumb description. It implies a deficit in attention & always hyper people. ADHD is a spectrum, & what we all have in common isn’t that we can’t pay attention. It’s that we have trouble controlling our attention.(4)

There are amazing analogies out there, like trying to watch 6 TV’s at once when someone else controls the remote. Or like driving a race car on city streets and spinning out whenever you try to turn.
HEALTH
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Patrick Strudwick
Patrick Strudwick
@PatrickStrud
I’m deeply saddened to learn that Dr Joseph Sonnabend, one of the most important figures in the history of AIDS, died yesterday. I spent time with him in 2018 for one of the last interviews he ever gave. Let me tell you about this man and what he did:

Sonnabend was one of the first doctors to raise the alarm. In 1979, while running a sexual health clinic in Greenwich Village, he wrote to the NY Health Dept to warn them of the symptoms he was seeing: low white blood cell counts, enlarged lymph nodes. He didn’t get a reply. 2/

So he kept speaking out. When a patient of his developed a very rare cancer – Kaposi’s Sarcoma – he linked up with a dermatologist at NYU who said that over a dozen gay men had it. Sonnabend knew there was something very wrong. He started working at the lab at NYU — for free. 3/

It was soon after this in 1981 that the New York Times famously reported “Rare Cancer Found In 41 Homosexuals”. The next decade would kill most of Sonnabend’s patients and friends — and all of his lovers. What Sonnabend did was to fight for every single of them. 4/

Want to know who was the first to publish advice to wear a condom? That was Sonnabend. In 1983 he co-authored the first safe sex leaflet to fight AIDS: “How To Have Sex In An Epidemic”. 5/
HEALTH
Chief Pharmacist \U0001f5e8\ufe0f
Chief Pharmacist 🗨️...
@ChiefPharmacst
All Women are at risk of getting Cervical Cancer. It often affect women over age 30.

Long-lasting infection with certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) are the main cause of cervical cancer.

HPV is a virus that is passed from one person to another during sex.

A Thread 🚺


More than half of sexually active people might have HPV at some point in their lives, but few women will get CERVICAL CANCER.

Early Screening tests & the HPV vaccine can help prevent cervical cancer.

When cervical cancer is diagnosed early, it is highly treatable &....

2/cont.

associated with long survival and good quality of life.

Most (almost all) cervical cancers are caused by HPV.

There are many types of HPV.
Some HPV types can cause changes on a woman’s CERVIX that can lead to cervical cancer as time goes on, WHILE other types can cause genital

or skin WARTS . HPV is so common that most people get it at some time in their lives.

HPV usually causes no symptoms so you can’t tell that you have it. For most women, HPV might be SELF LIMITING (ie it will go away on its own); However, if it doesn't, there are a chances that

over time it may result to cervical cancer.

OTHER FACTORS CAN INCREASE YOUR RISK of CERVICAL CANCER —
•Having HIV/AIDS
•Smoking.
•Using Oral contraceptives (birth control pills) for a long time (5+ years)
•Having birth to many children (4+ yrs).
•Having many sexual partners
HEALTH
Manish Dhawan.
Manish Dhawan.
@mysticfuture
Spoke with my neighbour. A type 2 diabetic on medications and realized even now there is so much ignorance on this subject. I have done extensive research on this subject (was forced 2 after being diagnosed)

Here sharing it with you all. retweet it, it may save someone's life.

My Neighbour said his hba1c is 7. Everything is fine, he just needs to bring it below 6.9 and he would be fine.
That is just baloney! anything more than 5.6 will result in all kind of complications (Kidney failure,retina failure (blindness) amputations& heart attack etc etc

When i told him the benifits of intermittent fasting and fasting, My neighbour Nitin said, I cannot fast as doctor said i need to eat 5 -6 times a day.

FACT: If you are NOT on any insulin enhancing drugs. you can fast as much as you want. (metformin is OK)

to which he said These drugs r permanent & progressive, you can never stop using them.
FACT: if you can change your diet, you can change your sugar and insulin levels and no longer need these drugs. (advise not aplicable to type 1 diabetics, they wud always need insulin injection

Diet, I am on diet precribed by WHO.
FACT: Fuck WHO, and don't eat carbohydrates. infact another name of diabetes is carb intolerance. You can never acheive 5.6 or lower while eating your rice and roti.
HEALTH

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A list below.🔻


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1/Politics thread time.

To me, the most important aspect of the 2018 midterms wasn't even about partisan control, but about democracy and voting rights. That's the real battle.

2/The good news: It's now an issue that everyone's talking about, and that everyone cares about.

3/More good news: Florida's proposition to give felons voting rights won. But it didn't just win - it won with substantial support from Republican voters.

That suggests there is still SOME grassroots support for democracy that transcends

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We seem to have accepted electoral dysfunction in Florida as a permanent thing. The 2000 election has never really
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Vशुद्धि...
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क्या आप जानते हैं कि क्या है, पितृ पक्ष में कौवे को खाना देने के पीछे का वैज्ञानिक कारण!

श्राद्ध पक्ष में कौओं का बड़ा ही महत्व है। कहते है कौआ यम का प्रतीक है, यदि आपके हाथों दिया गया भोजन ग्रहण कर ले, तो ऐसा माना जाता है कि पितरों की कृपा आपके ऊपर है और वे आपसे ख़ुश है।


कुछ लोग कहते हैं की व्यक्ति मरकर सबसे पहले कौवे के रूप में जन्म लेता है और उसे खाना खिलाने से वह भोजन पितरों को मिलता है

शायद हम सबने अपने घर के किसी बड़े बुज़ुर्ग, किसी पंडित या ज्योतिषाचार्य से ये सुना होगा। वे अनगिनत किस्से सुनाएंगे, कहेंगे बड़े बुज़ुर्ग कह गए इसीलिए ऐसा करना

शायद ही हमें कोई इसके पीछे का वैज्ञानिक कारण बता सके।

हमारे ऋषि मुनि और पौराणिक काल में रहने वाले लोग मुर्ख नहीं थे! कभी सोचियेगा कौवों को पितृ पक्ष में खिलाई खीर हमारे पूर्वजों तक कैसे पहुंचेगी?

हमारे ऋषि मुनि विद्वान थे, वे जो बात करते या कहते थे उसके पीछे कोई न कोई वैज्ञानिक कारण छुपा होता था।

एक बहुत रोचक तथ्य है पितृ पक्ष, भादो( भाद्रपद) प्रकृति और काक के बीच।

एक बात जो कह सकते कि हम सब ने स्वतः उग आये पीपल या बरगद का पेड़/ पौधा किसी न किसी दीवार, पुरानी

इमारत, पर्वत या अट्टालिकाओं पर ज़रूर देखा होगा। देखा है न?

ज़रा सोचिये पीपल या बरगद की बीज कैसे पहुंचे होंगे वहाँ तक? इनके बीज इतने हल्के भी नहीं होते के हवा उन्हें उड़ाके ले जा सके।
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Suchi Sharma
Suchi Sharma
@Suchi_sharma_
Yantrodharaka Anjaneya Temple, Hampi, Karnataka.

This temple dedicated to pawanputra Hanuman, near the banks of Tungabhadra river was built by dwaita philosopher and rajguru of the Vijayanagar empire, Sri Vyasaraja around +500 years ago.


:It is only in this temple that Hanuman appears in a prayer position. In this image, Bhagwan Hanuman’s crown has been formed by his tail.12 monkeys have been carved around this amulet.


:They represent the 12 days Sri Vyasaraja prayed to Hanuman ji. Each monkey holds the tail of the monkey in front of him but is facing backward. Seed syllables have also been carved around the amulet.


:It is believed that Sri Vyasaraja used to draw a picture of lord Hanuman here on the rocks before offering prayers using charcoal and the sketch disappeared after prayers.This incidence happened for 12 days in a row until he pleaded to bhagwan to appear in front of him.


On the 12th day, Hanuman ji appeared in front of Sri Vyasaraja and blessed him. Hanuman asked Sri Vyasaraja to constrain him in a hexagonal amulet & install him in that place.
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