Blog note: COVID

A couple of days ago I felt crappy. 🤒 I tested twice for COVID. Was positive twice. Still feel crappy. My blogging might be limited for the next couple of days or until the crappiness significantly lifts.

A couple of days ago the fed govt stopped monitoring new cases of COVID. Now we are flying blind in the pandemic. Yes, it is still a pandemic. So far in 2024, ~24,000 people have died of COVID in the US. This isn't over and it won't be for a long time.

Two Fox News stories for your amusement.

 YES.......................... Amusement.  

Trump Loses It At Fox News, Says No One Can Trust It

The former president is once again lashing out at the network for letting a guest speak critically of him.

“Nobody can ever trust Fox News, and I am one of them, with the weak and ineffective RINO, Paul Ryan, on its Board of Directors,” the presumed GOP nominee for president wrote, using the acronym for “Republican in name only.”

“He’s a total lightweight, a failed and pathetic Speaker of the House, and a very disloyal person,” the former president continued.

A representative for Fox News didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the former president’s remarks. (No, what a surprise!!)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-fox-news-paul-ryan_n_66733658e4b0a1f905bb17c9

Fox News poll finds Biden ahead of Trump by two points

President Biden leads former President Trump by two points in a national poll of the presidential election published by Fox News on Wednesday, taking a lead for the first time since last October.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4730684-fox-news-poll-finds-biden-ahead-trump/

WOW, two whole points, break out the champagne!!

Jewish senators are getting nervous

The Hill reports:

Jewish senators alarmed by Alito’s pro-Christian agenda

Jewish Democratic senators are alarmed by conservative Justice Samuel Alito’s sympathy for basing government on Christian principles — something he expressed at a Supreme Court gala when he endorsed the idea of returning the nation to a place of “godliness.”

Democratic senators, including several Jewish lawmakers, fear Alito’s majority opinions in several high-profile cases, such as the Dobbs decision, which overturned the right to abortion, were driven by his religious views.

And they are not buying Alito’s claim that he had nothing to do with and couldn’t prevent the flying of an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a symbol of the Christian nationalist movement, at his New Jersey beach house.

Senate Democrats say members of the Supreme Court have a right to religious freedom but warn that when they try to impose their religious views on others, it crosses a line.

A Jewish Democratic senator who requested anonymity to comment on Alito said he is pushing a sectarian religious agenda on the court.

“I don’t think there’s really any doubt. I don’t think Alito and [conservative Justice Clarence] Thomas are being shy. They have a view of the world, and they’re trying to establish an official religion, and a specific denomination,” the lawmaker said.

One has to wonder if Christian Democratic senators are alarmed about radical authoritarian Christian nationalism (CN), if they are part of the CN movement, or if they don't care about anything other than re-election. If they are alarmed, they are not vocal about it as far as I can tell. The Democratic Party is pathetic. 

Improvement in diagnosing depression; Global cooling biomolecule discovery

Researchers at Stanford have published a study that has (1) uncovered six different types of depression, and (2) found that some of the different types respond to standard anti-depression treatments better than others:

A Stanford Medicine study reveals six subtypes of depression, identified through brain imaging and machine learning. These subtypes exhibit unique brain activity patterns, helping predict which patients will benefit from specific antidepressants or behavioral therapies. This approach aims to personalize and improve depression treatment efficacy.

Better methods for matching patients with treatments are desperately needed, said the study’s senior author, Leanne Williams, PhD, the Vincent V.C. Woo Professor, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and the director of Stanford Medicine’s Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness.

Brain imaging combined with a type of AI called machine learning can reveal subtypes of depression and anxiety. The study, to be published today (June 17) in the journal Nature Medicine, sorts depression into six biological subtypes, or “biotypes,” and identifies treatments that are more likely or less likely to work for three of these subtypes.

Around 30% of people with depression have what’s known as treatment-resistant depression, meaning multiple kinds of medication or therapy have failed to improve their symptoms. And for up to two-thirds of people with depression, treatment fails to fully reverse their symptoms to healthy levels.

That’s in part because there’s no good way to know which antidepressant or type of therapy could help a given patient. Medications are prescribed through a trial-and-error method, so it can take months or years to land on a drug that works — if it ever happens. And spending so long trying treatment after treatment, only to experience no relief, can worsen depression symptoms.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time we’ve been able to demonstrate that depression can be explained by different disruptions to the functioning of the brain,” Williams said. “In essence, it’s a demonstration of a personalized medicine approach for mental health based on objective measures of brain function.”

Given how primitive and ineffective depression treatments generally are, this seems like an important and promising avenue of research to pursue further. For new patients who present with depression, an initial brain scan could point to treatments that have a better chance of offering some relief sooner. This research starts to debunk the idea of one size fits all, trial and error for treating depression. I hope this pans out and turns out to be the start of a major advance in treating depression.  

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

STD reports about ocean a climate-cooling compound that some ocean algae make:

Global Cooling Breakthrough: Scientists Discover 

Ocean Algae’s Crucial Climate Impact

Researchers have identified Pelagophyceae algae as significant producers of DMSP, a compound crucial for climate regulation. This discovery suggests higher than expected levels of DMSP and its byproduct DMS, impacting global climate cooling.

The researchers identified the bloom-forming Pelagophyceae algae as potentially abundant and important producers of a compound called dimethylsulfoniopropionate, or DMSP.

Co-lead author Professor Jonathan Todd, of UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “The Pelagophyceae are amongst the most abundant algae on Earth, yet they were not previously known as important producers of DMSP.

“This discovery is exciting because DMSP is an abundant antistress compound, food source for other microorganisms, and major source of climate-cooling gases.”

Every year, billions of tonnes of DMSP are produced in the Earth’s oceans by marine microorganisms, helping them to survive by protecting against various stresses like changes in salinity, cold, high pressure, and oxidative stress.

Importantly, DMSP is the main source of a climate active gas called dimethylsulfide (DMS), which is known as the smell of the seaside.

When DMS is released into the atmosphere, DMS oxidation products help form clouds that reflect sunlight away from the Earth, effectively cooling the planet.

This natural process is essential for regulating the Earth’s climate and is also hugely important for the global sulfur cycle, representing the main route by which sulfur from the oceans is returned to land.

Interesting. The smell of the ocean comes from DMS. 

If more DMSP and DMS can be coaxed out of the oceans, this might turn out to be an important bit of knowledge for dealing with global warming.