A lot of brands will be making statements today about what happened at our nation's capital yesterday. Most will run the range from "insincere" to "oblivious."

We debated if we should. But as a mental health platform, we feel we have a responsibility to say a few things.

1. White supremacy is not a mental illness.

The attempted coup that happened yesterday was not the product of mental illness.

We cannot deflect the responsibility of those involved by labelling them "unhinged," "crazy," or "sick."

As a platform that is dedicated to unpacking ableism when we see it, we feel a strong responsibility to name this quite clearly: a legacy of racism, woven through and through in this country, is not the product of mental illness.

It may be unfathomable to those of us who have had the privilege of not seeing it. It may be shocking to those of us who had more faith in our democracy than this.

That does not mean we should label what we do not understand an "illness." It means we should educate ourselves.

2. Yes, what we collectively experienced is trauma. If you find yourself struggling to "go back to normal," that is understandable.

It is our hope that you will extend grace to yourself, and to those around you who are having a hard time today.

A lot of talk about NHS comms
I’m not sure sure that showing pictures on the news of busy ICUs or Ambulance queues will convince the naysayers and covid deniers of anything
They would still say it was staged or a hoax
Of course we need robust and honest information

But having a communications strategy based purely on images to fight the conspiracy theorists and covid hoaxers is a recipe for disaster
What we need is a high profile, properly funded public health campaign, but perhaps more than that we need ...

To accept that nhs isnt t a film set and patient confidentiality is important
Everyone says they love the NHS - show it by following advice

When working in nhs Comms I always took the view that media access and cooperating with media requests was important, this was often unpopular and at times I was a ‘lone voice’ often fighting both medics and the ‘corporate’ NHS side of things on the issue

And I think most health or other journalists who know me will say that I was fair and arranged access where others refused
One thing I never did was to forget it was a hospital/clinic/etc and patients were at the centre of it all

Government deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries and DfE chief scientific adviser Osama Rahman are among witnesses giving evidence to @CommonsEd shortly on the science of school closures. Stay tuned for live

First question to the scientists is about school reopenings.

Harries says ambition "should always be that schools should be open where that is appropriate", but there's a caveat around "current epidemiology" and "very high rates" seen recently.

#edselctte

Rahman says government will be "looking at what the balance of risks are" and doing continued monitoring.

Asked if there could be a regional or phased system of reopening, Harries says it's "highly likely" there will not be consistent patterns of infections

#edselctte

"It may well be possible that we need to have some differential application, but as Osama has said, clearly schools will be right at the top of the priority" - Harries

#edselctte

Harries adds it's "likely that we will have some regional separation of interventions"

Rahman says DfE's contingency framework is aligned to the tier system "so it may be that that is appropriate"

#edselctte

Vitamin C; more than just a sweet vitamin

Boost immune system and protect you from heart disease

Thread

RT

👇🏼

THIS IS THE MESSAGE TO BLITZ THE PROVINCE

The mandate from Alberta Health to limit gatherings at Christmas is illegal and has no standing in law. The Alberta Bill of Rights states the following:

" Every law of Alberta shall, unless it is expressly declared by an Act of the

Ok so lets talk blood. Obviously this is an important step forward, however the decisions and recommendations are still seeped in deep institutional homophobia.

A

Context: The ban on gay men giving blood was brought in in 1980 in the face of the AIDS epidemic, where little was known about HIV and testing was patchy at best. This is understandable- however what should have been a temporary measure has remained in status quo for 4 decades 2/

The 'deferral period' of 3 months, brought in in 2011, allowed a straight woman to have unprotected sex with an HIV positive man and give blood the next day while gay men had to remain abstinent for 3 months regardless of the riskiness of their sex. 3/

The obvious problem was that assumptions were being made about the risk of gay men giving blood that showed an ignorance and lack of understanding on the part of policymakers which was rightly criticised and lobbied against 4/

Over the years, LGBT+ lobbying has largely used the image of beautiful white middle class gay men in a long term committed relationship to sell the idea of equality to conservative Britain - 'We're just like you!' we shout as we show people our fascia of respectability. 5/

For the first time ever in my life, I actually did something that I'm very proud of.

I always wanted to make a difference. And now I just helped send medicine for 50 children in Africa.

Destiny fulfilled! @foodforhungryFH

What a start for a new new year? It just fe...

Ready?
Incoming rant, but serious 😐.

https://t.co/dPsJILZkgP

It really and truly was high-intensity, aimed, microwave radiation that caused “Havana Syndrome” (permanent brain damage) in US and Canadian diplomats while they were stationed in Cuba and China in recent years.

Don’t get caught up in the irrelevant debate about whether these aimed and fired beams of microwave energy were intended to cause physical harm to the brains of our officials (rather than a “side effect” of energy beams fired to activate hidden surveillance gear nearby)...

...
Because it *does not matter* what the official intention was. The facts are:

1. Advanced technology was aimed at official US & CA diplomats.

2. Those diplomats were legally permitted, and expected, to be in those known locations while stationed in Cuba and China.

...

...
3. The devices aimed at our diplomats in Cuba and China were then deliberately and intentionally fired high-energy microwave payloads into the bodies of US and Canadian government officials who were not violating any agreement or law by merely being at these places.

4. In fact, the conventional doctrines of diplomatic immunity extended to official government visitors of this type heavily suggest that even if “Inflicting Brain Damage via Microwave Cannon” was actually a potential criminal penalty...

1/Part 2 on #diabetes #prevention based on the @TheLancet diabetes commission report.

Individual level prevention of type 2 diabetes (T2D) gets a lot of attention. Part 2 reflect this - but don’t worry, there will be more on the other levels in part 3..

Let’s get going..

2/Several large randomized controlled trials (RCT) have shown that lifestyle interventions (diet, exercise, metformin) can prevent/delay onset of T2D as well as prevent later complications like cardiovascular disease and eye disease.

3/This has led to the implementation of diabetes prevention programmes for people at high risk of T2D in some high-income countries (HIC) like Germany, Finland, USA, UK, Poland and Singapore.

4/Evaluation of such real-world interventions is important as they may not provide similar benefits as in the RCTs that included volunteers that were very closely supervised. Evaluation of the US DPP has observed favorable weight loss at 1 year. Similar efforts are underway in UK

5/Although the individual level interventions overall work when there is adherence, it is often only a small proportion of the population that can adhere over time. Hence...

🚨New paper on "Psychology as a historical science" w/ @JoHenrich & @slingerland20 in Annual Review of Psychology. Catalyzing the field of "historical psychology" by reviewing work on: origins of psychology and institutions today, psychology of the past (data from dead minds) 1/

Our psychology is shaped by our societies, and our societies are shaped by their histories. We can do better than butterfly collecting--just measuring cross-cultural diffs. For psychology to develop a full theory of human behavior, we need historical psychology. 2/

Psychology is shaped by millions of years of genetic evolution, thousands of years of cultural evolution, & a short lifetime of experience; yet, much of the field has focused on that short lifetime of experience. The WEIRD People Problem is not only about geography but history 3/

Past societies can be as culturally distant as distant societies. Cohort effects are a sliver of the cross-temporal variation we would expect in a culturally evolving species. History serves as a kind of psychological fossil record, a source of "data from dead minds". 4/

We (1) review work in historical psychology; (2) introduce methods including causal inference & how to extract data from dead minds; (3) explore the role of theory in mapping history to psychology; and (4) provide some conclusions concerning the future of this field. 5/

#RunBetter👣
LESS INJURY, MORE EFFICIENCY = BETTER RUNNER

A better runner doesn’t mean a faster runner.

A better runner = a healthier runner, a less injuries, a more efficient runner.

Whether you’re running for Vibes or looking at a PB, #RunBetter👣 is here for you.

A🧵...

1. WORK ON YOUR TECHNIQUE

Your technique will affect your speed, how often you get injured and your all-round running economy. You may find that after a little work on your technique, you find running easier and more enjoyable...1/3
#RunBetter👣

Examples of poor technique amongst runners are things like overstriding, short steps, heel striking and being tense.
Aim to run tall, as if a string is pulling you upwards. Focus on getting your foot to land underneath your center of mass.
2/3
#RunBetter👣

Try to relax your shoulders when running; tensing up is wasted energy & ruins your running efficiency.
Focusing on these things can bring about big improvements in your running!

Ask a friend to snap you during your training to see what your technique looks like.3/3

#RunBetter👣

2. FOCUS ON RECOVERY RUNS

It’s easy to go out & run hard or push the pace on every run. This may seem like a good way to train to get quicker, but this is counterproductive...1/3

#RunBetter👣

As someone who has studied healthcare handoffs for a while, I can’t stop thinking about the Presidential one coming up. I see I’m not the only one. But this is not like any handoff. My nerdy 🧵 #MedTwitter #Inauguration2021

Handoffs come in many flavors in medicine. In general, the highest risk handoffs are when the patient is really sick and the handoff is permanent and not temporary. So in some ways, yes has elements of a risky handoff. America is definitely sick and the handoff is permanent.

Ideal handoffs are a transfer of content and a transfer of professional responsibility. The goal of content transfer: to achieve a shared mental model or shared vision of the patient. Professional responsibility usu= does receiver accept? Now it’s been will sender relinquish?

While both parts key, the transfer of professional responsibility is a must. The transfer of content also rests on the quality and accuracy of information transferred, the sender investment to transfer the information, and the receivers ability to understand & act on it.

In this case, there is concern no or sparse content is transferred. Even with a checklist, there may reason to question the content. In fact, too much dependency on content during any handoff could actually harm decision making of the person taking over due to an anchoring bias.

@GloriaSlap
Craig, M. C., et al (2007). Gonadotropin hormone releasing hormone agonists alter prefrontal function during verbal encoding in young women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 32(8-10), 1116–1127.

I will link this back to the original thread, but it is better for Clarity and to stop any gaming of Twitter and the creation of any labyrinth where details get lost to be avoided.

This 2007 paper identifies issues with GnRHa usage and Executive Function.

As memory is affected, especially the formation of NEW memories for new information, and the implications that subjects are not able to grasp and utilise new information needed for "Informed Consent", impacts upon Executive Function are evident.

Using Google Scholar as a quick and dirty source, we find that the paper and evidence is cited in at least 51 other papers since 2007.

The breadth of concerns raised is interesting.

The implications of the Contraceptive Pill on brain function and reduced executive function get raised. - A Sexed issue.

@MaajidNawaz 2) pre-existing conditions include asthma, mental health issues etc - all kinds of things that don't mean somebody is close to death. And someone in their 60s still has ~20 years of life ahead of them on average.

3) This is based on the erroneous assumption that lockdown causes economic damage - the truth is, covid causes economic damage, and countries that don't deal with covid get damaged the most (Britain has the worst death toll and the worst economic contraction in Europe currently)

4) the first paragraph of this contains some very skewed stats: most scientists agree that IFR is closer to 1% than 0.23%, and 60% vaccination/infection is necessary for herd immunity, not 30-40%

5) The Stanford study is a mess - it takes data from only 10 countries (not enough to draw any meaningful comparisons), and ignores those like Brazil where the result of non-lockdown policies has been catastrophic....

5)... Sweden has horrendous death rates compared to other Nordics (unacknowledged), and the study fails to consider many of the additional extreme measures taken in S Korea (testing to a degree not undertaken anywhere else in the world) that made lockdown unnecessary there.