There's Still Life in the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he would terminate the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Washington and Manila have until August 9 to save it or negotiate a new VFA to avert any further alliance crisis. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - May 3, 2020 Category: Health Management Authors: Derek Grossman Source Type: blogs
Exponential growth is terrifying
This example illustrates just how fast exponential growth is. It was proposed on twitter by Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) who attributes the idea to Simon Moores.
Here’s Wembley Stadium. The watering system develops a fault: in minute 1 one drop of water is released; minute 2, two drops, minute 3 four drops, and so on. Every minute the number of drops doubles. How long will it take to fill Wembley stadium?
The answer is that after 44 minutes, before half-time, the stadium would overflow.
Here’s why.
The sequence is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . . so the nth term in the sequence is 2n – 1. For example, the 4th te...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 23, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: COVID-19 epidemiology Uncategorized exponential geometric Source Type: blogs
Exponential growth is terrifying
This example illustrates just how fast exponential growth is. It was proposed on twitter by Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) who attributes the idea to Simon Moores. The stadium version is a variant of the better known ‘grains of wheat (or rice) on a chessboard‘ problem. The stadium example is better, I think, because the time element gives it a sense of urgency, and that’s what we need right now.
Here’s Wembley Stadium. The watering system develops a fault: in minute 1 one drop of water is released; minute 2, two drops, minute 3 four drops, and so on. Every minute the number of drops doubles. How l...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 23, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: corona COVID-19 epidemiology Uncategorized corona virus exponential geometric SARS-COV-2 Source Type: blogs
If U.S. Forces Have to Leave the Philippines, Then What?
If the United States were to lose access to bases in the Philippines, the effects would ripple outward. Maintaining alliances in the Indo-Pacific in all their manifestations is critical — and the details matter. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - February 27, 2020 Category: Health Management Authors: Caroline Baxter Source Type: blogs
Alcohol Use Disorder in the API Community
Asian-American Pacific Islanders, also known as the API Community, are one of the fastest-growing minority groups in America. Due to model minority stereotypes and a lack of empirical data, the API community has been thought to have lower than expected rates of substance use disorders and behavioral addictions. However, alcohol use disorder in the API Community still exists, and it presents its own set of unique issues compared to other ethnicities and communities. These can include specific risk factors and barriers to treatment that other groups do not face.
What is the API Community?
In 1968, the term “Asian Amer...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - January 24, 2020 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Alcohol Alcohol Rehab Information Alcoholism Detox Resources for Alcohol and Drugs/Opiates alcohol abuse alcohol dependence alcohol detox alcohol treatment alcohol treatment center alcohol treatment facility alcohol use Alcoholics An Source Type: blogs
It Violates the First Amendment to Criminalize Immigration Advocacy or Giving Advice to Illegal Immigrants
Ilya Shapiro andMichael CollinsRegardless of the immigration enforcement practices at any given time, there are people and organizations who urge illegal immigrants to stay in this country and wait for political change. Likewise, immigrants themselves will take proactive steps in an attempt to adjust their status, to come out of the legal shadows. Lawyers will advise some immigrants — quite correctly, in many cases — that remaining in the country illegally will grant them certain constitutional or statutory protections that are unavailable outside the United States. But these advocates and attorneys may b...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 22, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Ilya Shapiro, Michael Collins Source Type: blogs
TWiV 567: Outbreaks and a breakout
The TWiV team covers outbreaks of eastern equine encephalitis virus in the US and poliovirus in the Philippines, and explain how a chemokine induced by HIV-1 infection helps release more virus particles from cells. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 567 (68 MB .mp3, 112 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - September 29, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology ALIX alphavirus CCL2 chemokine cytoskeleton eastern equine encephalitis virus EEE ESCRT HIV-1 IPV OPV outbreak poliovirus togavirus vaccine viral virus budding viruses Source Type: blogs
Polio returns to the Philippines
Cases of poliomyelitis have been reported in the Philippines 19 years after the country was declared free of the disease. The return of poliomyelitis to the country emphasizes the need to maintain high levels of immunization while polioviruses continue to circulate. The blame for the return of poliomyelitis is the drop in immunization rates to […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - September 26, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information eradication OPV Philippines poliomyelitis poliovirus type 2 poliovirus vaccine vaccine-associated poliovirus viral viruses Source Type: blogs
Bad viruses travel fast: Measles vaccine important for travelers
(This post has been updated with relevant recent information.)
The United States was declared free from ongoing measles transmission in 2000. But we may be at risk for joining the UK Greece, Albania, and the Czech Republic, four countries recently stripped of measles elimination status by the World Health Organization. Since the beginning of 2019, more than 1,234 measles cases have been reported in 31 states, with active outbreaks in upstate New York and El Paso, Texas. New York has just declared the end of its yearlong outbreak, which required a massive public health response to control. Minnesota had a major measles outb...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 8, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Travel health Source Type: blogs
Bad viruses travel fast: Measles vaccine important for travelers
The United States was declared free from ongoing measles transmission in 2000. But we may be at risk for joining the U.K, Greece, Albania, and the Czech Republic, four countries recently stripped of measles elimination status by the World Health Organization. Since the beginning of 2019, more than 1,234 measles cases have been reported in 31 states, with active outbreaks in upstate New York and El Paso, Texas. New York has just declared the end of its yearlong outbreak, which required a massive public health response to control. Minnesota had a major measles outbreak in 2017. In 2015, 125 cases of measles occurred in Cali...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 5, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Travel health Source Type: blogs
Digital Health And The Ebola Epidemic: How Not To Let It Go Viral
More than 1,500 deaths
and 2,500 people sickened – that’s the recent account of the ebola outbreak in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) raging in the country since last August,
and recently declared a public health emergency of international concern. Experts
say efforts to contain the virus are hindered by biological, public health,
political, and cultural issues, but we looked around what digital health
technologies could do to mitigate the spread and the devastation of the
infectious disease.
The
Spaghetti-like virus…
The
lethal Ebola virus first appeared in 1976 around a river in Congo – it was
named ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - August 1, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Africa AI artificial intelligence Congo digital digital health digital maps disease disease outbreak ebola epidemic Innovation technology Source Type: blogs
Digital Humanism And Healthcare
Patients not only have to be put in the center of care, but also in the center of health technology. In a more general manner that’s what digital humanism is about. Instead of technological development serving the interests of big tech companies to the detriment of people by exploiting human weaknesses and by taking control out of their hands, humans should step up and say stop to technology degrading humans, creating or widening gaps in societies, disregarding diversity. Here are some ideas and principles about how that, namely digital humanism, could unfold in healthcare.
Technology vs. humans: who has control?
G...
Source: The Medical Futurist - July 13, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine design development digital digital health digital technology ethics Healthcare human human nature humanism Innovation philosophy social sciences society technology design Source Type: blogs
Is There Such a Thing as a Free-Market Gold Standard?
Twice recently I ’ve come across arguments to the effect that, despite what some libertarians, goldbugs, cryptocurrency fans, and Fed Board candidates imagine, the idea that the historical gold standard kept governments from managing money, leaving the job to market forces, is a myth.Inhis June 24th piece criticizing Facebook ’s Libra Currency, which is being marketed as a sort of internationalstablecoin, Barry Eichengreen writes:Mercifully, Facebook avoided the idea that astablecoin will free us from the tyranny of the Federal Reserve. Typically, stablecoin purveyors invoke a mythical past in which the monetary unit o...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 9, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: George Selgin Source Type: blogs
Can Digital Health Go Off-Grid And Still Save Lives?
What would you do without your smartphone or laptop for a week? Some cannot even imagine putting them down for a second, not thinking much of the vulnerability of our entire digital existence. What if a hurricane destroys the electric grid? What if power supplies will get cut off by unstoppable rain? What about a future dystopic scenario with our traditional energy sources depleted due to overconsumption? And what if we just look at less fortunate parts of the world where stable electricity service is a rare treasure? We collected some examples of how medicine could become more independent from the traditional electricity ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 25, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Africa asia Caribbean development digital digital health Healthcare smartphone solar sustainability technology Source Type: blogs
Medicare: Ripe for Rip-Offs
The $768 billion Medicare program is in deep trouble as America ages and elderly health care soars in cost. Medicare is a giant central planning scheme that imposes more than 100,000 pages of regulations and related rules on more than 600,000 health care providers. The inefficiency is vast, and the structure of the program makes it a perfect target for fraud and abuse. The system processes more than a billion provider claims a year. Auditorsestimate that more than $50 billion of taxpayer money goes down the drain every year from improper payments. TheNew York Timeshighlights some alleged scams today stemming from a rec...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 10, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
