Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

I continue to see articles trying to attribute increases in RSV/flu to COVID-induced immunodeficiency. I continue to be unimpressed by these arguments. During acute COVID, many studies found reduced T cells in the blood. But after resolution, the counts bounce back up. This is not consistent with T cells dying, as in AIDS. It's more consistent with cells migrating to sites of inflammation, and coming back to the blood when the infection is resolved. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1038-6

Some of you may have seen Elon Musk's endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s crazy antivax conspiracy theories today.

Over at post.news, I just posted a long-form piece about this, and about how science education needs to adapt to online disinformation.

Please a look. If you like it, boost it there or here or — if you dare — over on the birdsite.

https://post.news/article/2J7VEapSIpNWsrC0EawD8CopYqo

Now that the work of the Jan. 6 committee is over, focusing solely on Trump himself would be a mistake. Mending weak points in our election system must be a bipartisan priority. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-prevent-another-january-6

Interesting paper looking at the impact of vaccination for COVID19 with vaccine plus infection ie hybrid immunity on T cells. T cells are white blood cells that have critical roles in immunity for example support B cells to make antibody and can directly kill virally infected cells or virus. As expected antibody production increased from B cells (this been show before) post vaccine/hybrid immunity but little was known about T cells. https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00477-3

Henrietta Lacks was a poor, Black, young mother diagnosed w cervical cancer in 1951. When her cells were collected w/o consent, scientists saw they multiplied remarkably fast.

“HeLa” cells changed #science. They’re used globally to study viruses, drugs, hormones, genes, diseases & develop vaccines. Lacks passed away at 31 w no recognition.

Rebecca Skloot’s beautiful book about her life & legacy is changing that. Now her statue will replace Robert E. Lee in NC. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/us/henrietta-lacks-statue-roanoke-virginia.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare #history

Does making #seashells 🐚 in seawater to draw down atmospheric CO₂ sound like a good #climate solution to you?

Then you’re the target audience of this blog from @mtyka explaining how precipitation of calcium #carbonate to make shells actually releases CO₂.

http://mtyka.github.io/climate/2021/07/01/calcium-carbonate.html

Proposal to stop referring to covid in the past tense and climate change in the future tense.

#EarthquakeReport #EarthquakeToot for M 6.4 #Earthquake in Mendocino triple junction (Triangle of Doom) region

aftershocks suggest left-lateral strike-slip in Gorda plate

felt broadly, about 92%g in Ferndale

read more from last year's report
https://earthjay.com/?p=10125

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc73821036/executive

hi res map here

https://earthjay.com/earthquakes/20221220_norcal/20221220_norcal_interpretation.jpg

And, since seismicity is only the edges and shadows of complex, 3D space-time tectonic processes, the best is an animated view in 3D!

Hi there! 👋 I'm a professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette and my research lab studies #fish #evolutionary #biomechanics. I also like #SciArt, #photography, being #outdoors, #dogs, and #food. Follow along to learn about what me and my lab are up to!

"So long, free speech; hello, fee speech!" https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/twitter-users-shadow-banned-by-catturd-elon-musk-1234650720/

@freemo @mediocreape @lxo

There's an interesting (but paywalled) editorial board opinion piece discussing social media platform problems at

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/elon-musk-twitter-destroyed-fix/

I reference it because, buried in after all the back-story is the following statement, which I like, and I think is also relevant in the context of this thread.

"What matters is that they’re set up to get it right, in aggregate, according to the public commitments they’ve made.

That starts with something as simple as platforms committing to transparency, "

This lines up nicely with the intent of the UFoI.

Another #introduction, because I was shy about the first one. I'm the author of the NYT bestseller "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of #Autism and the Future of #Neurodiversity," which was the first science book to win the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in the UK. I'm also a fan of #jazz and other exploratory music, and have written liner notes for the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and other groups. I'm married to @WardQNormal. (This is us.) It's exciting to see this community develop!

This points to an emerging paradox in media reporting on disasters that's become really apparent in recent years: the more severe the damage, the less news initially makes it out (because power is out and telecoms are down) and the less coverage they receive.

“While the history of racial covenants has been well-documented, urban planners and historians say plotting them on a map — neighborhood by neighborhood and, in some cases, parcel by parcel — lays bare the extent of discrimination in stark and often surprising ways.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/17/racial-covenants-mapping/

Quoting Tamar Kohn (@VirusExplorers) about their new paper: "#Aerosol acidification important for inactivation of #airborne #Influenza & #SARSCoV2. Unintentional removal of acids & elevated NH3 levels indoors may prolong virus persistence. Overlooked role of #pH important for #virus transmission & mitigation."

We're slowly inching toward a mechanistic understanding of virus inactivation in aerosols.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c05777

And thus the tradeoff - if we *don't* have a bad year, we need to hold some of that water back in storage to protect us against the next bad year. So crushing cuts either way.