Hope for prostate cancer patients

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Prostate cancer breakthrough

A total of 57,192 new prostate cancer cases were diagnosed in the UK in 2018, making it the most commonly diagnosed form of the disease.

A simple blood test could be used to identify prostate cancer patients who are less likely to respond to certain drugs, or at risk of relapse, paving the way for more tailored treatments.

A team at two hospitals in London tested 1,000 blood samples drawn from 216 men who were taking part in a clinical trial into drugs for advanced prostate cancer. They found that those with high levels of tumour DNA in their blood at the start of treatment had worse health outcomes; and that the men who responded to treatment had the most significant drop in tumour DNA over its course. Their levels typically reduced 23%, whereas the patients who partially responded to treatment had a 16% drop. As liquid biopsies are cheaper, quicker and less invasive than surgical ones, doctors can carry them out more often – making it easier for them to track the effectiveness of treatments.  ( The Week, 13 June 2020)

My comment: I have a personal reason for including this piece of information –  I had prostate cancer and also had the operation, not a pleasant experience.  If you are male and over , say 40, you should get yourself tested, every year as directed.  Not to do so could kill you.  Message received?

Population : the global crash

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The world is ill-prepared for the coming global crash in children being born.  Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century.   23 nations – including Spain and Japan – are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. and there will be as many people turning 80 as there are being born.

What is going on?

The fertility rate – the average number of children a woman gives birth to – is falling.   If it falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall.

In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime.  By 2017 the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4.  A Lancet  study projects that it will fall below 1.7 by 2100.

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As a result, the researchers expect the number of people on the planet to peak at 9.7 billion around 2064, before falling to 8.8 billion by the end of the century.  “That’s a pretty big thing; most of the world is transitioning into natural population decline,” researcher Prof Christopher Murray told the BBC.  “We will have to reorganise societies to address it”.

The falling fertility rate is being driven, not by falling sperm counts, but by more women in education and work, and greater access to contraception.  Key population forecasts for the end of the century are as follows:

Japan’s : fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017 to less than 53 million.  

Italy: from 61 million to 28 million over the same timeframe.

23 countries – including Spain, Portugal, Thailand and South Korea – populations will  more than halve.

China, peak population 1.4 billion in 2024, then droppingto 732 million by 2100. India will take its place as largest country. 

The UK:  75 million in 2063, and falling to 71 million by 2100.

 183 out of 195 countries will end the century with a fertility rate below the replacement level.

This is good for carbon emissions and for deforestation of farmland, but it also means more old people than young people on the planet.  The number of over 80-year-olds will soar from 141 million in 2017 to 866 million in 2100. (James Gallagher,  Health and science correspondent, BBC  15 July 2020)

My big question: Who will pay tax in a massively aged world? Who will pay for healthcare for the elderly? Who will look after the elderly?  And will anyone ever again be able to retire? 

The Narrowing of the American mind

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It is of course appalling that a columnist for The New York Times should feel obliged to resign on account of the in-house bullying she’s had to endure. Bari Weiss was hired by the paper three years ago, as it sought to recruit voices that could challenge its dominant liberal ethos. And though no hard-line conservative – she’d left The Wall Street Journal in protest at its gradual surrender to Donald Trump – Weiss was happy to take on left shibboleths, questioning the excesses of #MeToo, debunking the notion of cultural appropriation, and so on.

But for many of her fellow journalists this sin against left orthodoxy was unacceptable. “They’ve called me a Nazi and a racist,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels.”

Yet before the Right gets on its high horse over “the dangerous cancel culture that Democrats want to impose” on the nation, it should examine its own role in all this. For “if the Left is woke, the Right is bespoke: it has become tailored around one person”. And that person is Trump. The right-wing press gives little house room to any journalist who is critical of him. What we are seeing on both sides “is the narrowing of the American mind”.   It’s making everyone nastier.  (Mona Charen,  Chicago Sun-Times and The Week25 July 2020)

Do a Roosevelt on the US economy?

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Jim Tankersley wrote an article for Patriotic Millionaires which encourages us to rethink the traditional narrative of the post World War II economic boom in the US – the idea that innovation and American exceptionalism drove our expansion – is incorrect. 

Instead, he argues that massive investments into our own citizens was the biggest factor behind the boom. Now that we’re in a similar wartime-level economic depression, Tankersley argues that we should replicate those massive investments into the most vulnerable economic groups right now to pioneer a new era of growth out of one of our darkest moments.   ( Patriotic Millionaires, 8/6/2020)

My comment: the New Deal was a measure of daring and brilliance.  It took millions out of unemployment and poverty, gave them skills and education and laid the groundwork for the amazing successes of the post-war period.  In fact, in a more enlightened moment in history, it had widespread support, despite the effects on the national debt.  This is a moment similar to the great depression.  But who, if anyone, has the vision?

“Blasphemy, a way to control the people, and their thought

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Late last week Tahir Naseem, an American citizen, was murdered while standing trial for blasphemy in a Pakistani court. Naseem was a former member of the persecuted Ahmadi minority, and was lured to Pakistan in 2018 to be detained on charges of blasphemy. Coupled with the continued detention of Nigerian humanist Mubarak Bala since April of this year, it’s become clear that Congress cannot wait any longer to demand an end to blasphemy laws around the world. The silence is unacceptable.

83 countries around the world still have blasphemy laws that endanger the lives of those who do not conform to the state’s official religion or worldview. People of many faiths are all at risk. These laws have dire consequences; conviction can mean life in prison or a death sentence. And as Tahir’s death demonstrates, you don’t even need to be found guilty for your life to be in danger.

Recently, countries such as Greece, Ireland, and Canada have repealed their blasphemy laws and more are considering bringing these draconian laws to an end. However, the situation in many countries is increasingly dire, as evidenced by the the above gruesome news.  (American Humanist Society. 6 Aug 2020

My comment:  There is a bill before the US Senate, S. res. 458, which calls for an end to all blasphemy, apostasy, and heresy laws around the world.  We really should pass this bill and act against the medieval intolerance that persists in various parts of the world.  Regrettably, we have our own religious extremists to contend with.  Epicureanism stands for tolerance and give and take, regardless of local culture and beliefs.