The tyranny of the cellphone

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If it were not for my wife’s comfort with her cellphone I might as well be isolated on a tropical island.

Everyone in the UK expects you to have a cellphone – the whole health system. the police, the local Council, the Post Office, the Bank, the government, the emergency services. Just everyone. I am possibly the last person on the planet who possesses no cellphone and cannot send text messages, not because I am cheap but because I am old and my cognition is not what it was when, in the army, I planned an imagined invasion of Crete by allied armies (truly! I was told at the end I had been captured by German paratroopers!).
Anyway, I wander from the point.

The point is that to me I prefer (1) a telephone call or (2) an old fashioned email. What I find irritating is the assumption that you have a cellphone and can text. When you think how many people can barely pay their electricity bills and earn peanuts this assumption is, shall we say politely “out of touch”.

Now…….which uninhabited, peaceful Pacific island would suit best….?

A surge of Ivermectin overdose calls

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Health experts and medical groups are pushing to stamp out the growing use of ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug, to treat COVID-19, amid warnings that it can cause harmful side effects and that there’s little evidence it helps.

Poison control centers are seeing a dramatic surge in calls from people who are self-medicating with ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug for animals that some falsely claim treats COVID-19.

According to the National Poison Data System (NPDS), which collects information from the nation’s 55 poison control centers, there was a 245% jump in reported exposure cases from July to August — from 133 to 459.

Meanwhile, emergency rooms across the country are treating more patients who have taken the drug, after being persuaded by false and misleading information spread on the internet by talk show hosts and political leaders. Most patients are overdosing on a version of the drug that is formulated to treat parasites in cows and horses.

The troubling trend has been on the rise since the start of 2021 — despite warnings from state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention against taking ivermectin. The NPDS says 1,143 ivermectin exposure cases were reported between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31. That marks an increase of 163% over the same period last year.

Ivermectin treats infections caused by some parasitic worms, head lice and skin conditions such as rosacea. When taken in appropriate, prescribed doses, it can be highly effective and is included in the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

But after some clinical trials at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration says the “currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19.”

In Kansas, the Department of Health and Environment is urging residents to disregard false information about ivermectin’s effectiveness against Covid.
“Kansans should avoid taking medications that are intended for animals and should only take ivermectin as prescribed by their physician,” Lee Norman, secretary of the department, said earlier this week.

In Mississippi, which has one of the lowest rates of vaccination against the coronavirus, at least 70% of recent calls to the state poison control center were related to people who ingested ivermectin, which meant for cattle and horses.

Minnesota’s Poison Control System is dealing with the same problem. According to the department, only one ivermectin exposure case was reported in July, but in August, the figure jumped to nine. Kentucky has seen similar increases. Thirteen misuse calls have been reported this year, Ashley Webb, director of the Kentucky Poison Control Center, told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

“Of the calls, 75% were from people who bought ivermectin from a feed store or farm supply store and treated themselves with the animal product,” Webb said. The other 25% were people who had a prescription, she added.”You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the FDA said in a renewed warning late last month.

Those people in Mississippi with a prescription from a health care provider should only fill it “through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed,” the agency instructs. It also cautioned that large doses of the drug are “dangerous and can cause serious harm” and said that doses of ivermectin produced for animals could contain ingredients harmful to humans. (Denis Farrell/AP)

My comment. Actually, is there any need for comment? This tells the world all it needs to know about the backwoods of America. Fortunately, there are still plenty of intelligent and educated people elsewhere.

Smile!

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A new Priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak. After mass he asked the Monsignor how he had done.
The Monsignor replied, “When I am worried about getting nervous on the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip.”
So next Sunday he took the Monsignor’s advice. At the beginning of the sermon, he got nervous and took a drink. He proceeded to talk up a storm.
Upon his return to his office after the mass, he found the following note on the door:
1) Sip the vodka, don’t gulp.
2) There are 10 commandments, not 12.
3) There are 12 disciples, not 10.
4) Jesus was consecrated, not constipated.
5) Jacob wagered his donkey, he did not bet his ass.
6) We do not refer to Jesus Christ as the late J.C…
7) The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not referred to as Daddy, Junior and the Spook.
8) David slew Goliath; he did not kick the shit out of him…
9) When David was hit by a rock and was knocked off his donkey, don’t say he was stoned off his ass.
10) We do not refer to the cross as the ‘Big T.’
11) When Jesus broke the bread at the last supper he said, “Take this and eat it for this is my body.” He did not say, “Eat me.”
12) The Virgin Mary is not called ‘Mary with the Cherry’.
13) The recommended grace before a meal is not: Rub-A-Dub-Dub thanks for the grub, Yeah God.
14) Next Sunday there will be a taffy pulling contest at St. Peter’s not a peter pulling contest at St. Taffy’s. (Sent by Beth Barnes)

This generational conflict is bogus

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A fake generational war over the climate crisis has distorted public thinking and political strategy, when in fact older generations are just as worried about the issue as younger people, according to research.

In fact, the study found older people were actually more likely than the young to feel that acting in environmentally conscious ways would make a difference, with twice as many baby boomers as members of generation Z having boycotted a company in the last 12 months for environmental reasons. The fake conflict between generations over the climate crisis is “dangerous and destructive”, the lead researcher, Prof Bobby Duffy, said.

My commment: Amen to that! As an older person I am quite as concerned as anyone else. The weather news, especially from the US, is really scary. You have to be deaf and blind not to be aware of the rising temperatures, the forest fires, the hurricanes, and the melting ice at the poles. If you are British maybe one of the greatest threat is disruption of the Gulf Stream, which could make the British Isles a very cold place to live in, as I understand it. The irony is that many Brits worry about foreign migrants, but it is quite possible the they will join the migrations as well.(Am I being alarmist?).

Afghanistan

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Afghanistan is hit by brain drain as the ‘best and brightest’flee Taliban rule. (Los Angeles Times)

The re-emergence of Taliban rule has triggered the departure of thousands of highly skilled Afghans from what is already one of the world’s most under-developed nations.

As the insurgents continue to tighten their grip, people with “a wealth of skills and experience” are “joining a brain drain of such grave proportions that even the Taliban, faced with running one of the world’s poorest countries, has taken notice with dismay”, the Los Angeles Times commented.

My comment: The Taliban is an illustration of the downside of using a religion as a blueprint for modern governance. If you choose to employ medieval religious ideology as a framework for “modern” government, what do you expect? Now were they introducing the precepts of Epicureanism they might be surprised at the positive reaction of the people. Religion should be a personal matter.