I got the late call to ‘do the DOT’ so apologies in advance. ‘Someone’ wanted to watch Knives Out.
I’ve been watching Downton Abbey all day and avoiding the news.
I did a Zoom workout, a Zoom happy hour, and did a puzzle exchange with a friend. I left my puzzles on the doorstep and she came by and made the trade. All in all, a very exciting weekend.
In other (actual) news:
Trump tells Americans to take unproven malaria drug to prevent Covid-19
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/coronavirus-us-ventilators-new-york-trump-touts-unproven-cure-malaria-drug
Damning, but not shocking.
The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true
Ugh:
A number of American religious leaders have endangered their flock by holding services – and by claiming the virus can be defeated by faith in God
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/04/america-rightwing-christian-preachers-virus-hoax
Talk about a curse:
Kennedy mother and son, swept away in Chesapeake Bay, are mourned by family
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/kennedy-mother-and-son-swept-away-in-chesapeake-bay-are-mourned-by-family/2020/04/04/8acb7eac-766c-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html
Some good news:
Joe Tsai, the billionaire co-founder of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, and his wife Clara Wu Tsai, have donated 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles and 2000 ventilators to New York —the US epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/04/tech/joe-tsai-clara-donate-masks-ventilators-new-york/index.html
Some good tweets:
People are recreating famous paintings with ‘whatever they have at home’. One of my faves so far!
Tell me how long this took you to find. I’m pretty embarrassed about how long I stared at this!
Stay safe out there!
A number of American religious leaders have endangered their flock by holding services – and by claiming the virus can be defeated by faith in God
welp… god helps those who help themselves can be taken many ways i spose… tho i dont think it was intended to help enrich the leaders at the cost of the flock
or maybe im just not cynical enough yet…
even the pope is streaming his services….fergodssake
Although Mrs. Butcher and I haven’t attended in many years, one of the things that I’ve always appreciated about the Episcopal Church is they aren’t afraid of science or otherwise living in the real world. I was fortunate enough to get to know a gentleman who is retired now, but spent his entire ministry actually encouraging all of us to help those who are oppressed in one way or another. He’s a good guy and a voice that has been sorely missing over the past few years. Trust me–read the Wikipedia entry and watch the YouTube clip with Oprah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Bacon_(Episcopal_priest)
Here’s an old joke you might hear among Episcopalians:
What’s the difference between an Episcopalian and a Baptist?
The Episcopalian will say hello to you at the liquor store.
Ha good joke!
I have quite a few Episcopalian friends, including a couple of priests. If I was a church goer that’s what I’d be. I’ve met Bishop Curry, he’s a fantastic speaker. And there’s a woman who runs the Absalom Jones Center for Peace in Atlanta, Dr. Catherine Meeks who’s been a big influence on me. Although she shakes her head at my heathen ways, lol.
So…. on that whole Dolt-45 recommending folks take Hydroxychloroquine thing…
TL/DR, DO NOT TAKE HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE for COVID-19, ‘cuz it can fuck up your heartbeat and leave you JUST as dead, as if you died from CoVid-19!!!
But you will *ALSO* be the asshole who took desperately needed meds away from Lupus patients!!!🤨🤨☠
For those who want more info:
If you know ANYONE you care about, who is trying to get their hands on some (especially to take with the antibiotic Azithromycin/Zithromax) YELL AT THEM(!!!!!), until they understand that these meds taken in combination can cause a fatal heart arrhythmia🥴🤬☠
http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/71/11_Supplement/A2395
They can fuck with a person’s QT interval (the time it takes from when your ventricles *start* to contract, to when they finish relaxing).
When your QT interval starts to get messed with, arrhythmias can develop–including something called tornadoes de pointes (aka, TdP–or in plain English: Twisting Peaks, more here– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsades_de_pointes ).
TdP is also the reason your MD and pharmacists will tell you to NEVER consume grapefruit, if you’re on “statin” medications–because it can KILL you!
“Drug-induced QT prolongation has long served as a surrogate indicator for increased risk of drug-associated torsades de pointes (TdP), a potentially lethal polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. However, the relationship between QT prolongation and risk of TdP is imperfect and complex. The risk of TdP is not a linear function of QT duration nor the extent of change; some drugs which prolong QTc are not associated with increased arrhythmic death.2,3 Although only a small proportion of patients with QTc prolongation suffer TdP, drug-associated QT prolongation is associated with increased arrhythmic and non-arrhythmic mortality and it therefore continues to be an important metric of drug safety.”
For those of y’all who want to read more, and are medical geeks like me (you learn how to read this shit as a civilian, when you end up with a rare medical condition that even the top specialist in your state says *he* can’t figure out for sure🙃), here’s the study it came from;
https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2020/03/27/14/00/ventricular-arrhythmia-risk-due-to-hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin-treatment-for-covid-19
Also people with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
For reasons passing understanding, my hospital actually seems to be trying this. They’re a top-rated research facility, with a number of Nobel prizes won by various faculty over the decades, and they’re openly treating people with this drug with zero research data behind it–only because a certain fat asshole talked about how great it was during one of his press conferences. WTF.
I am utterly, utterly dumbfounded that anyone, literally anyone, would take Orange McFuckface’s advice on medical treatment. I know, I shouldn’t be. I should have long ago accepted how unbelievably fucking stupid MAGAs are. I should have. But Jesus hold my fucking mule, how goddamn dumb do you have to BE to follow that incredibly stupid shithead’s advice on MEDICAL MATTERS? I get it, you think there’s a deep state and you think that foreigners are conspiring against you and you think that women are destroying your masculinity and you think … but fucking Christ you know he’s not a goddamn DOCTOR right? You fucking KNOW THAT, right?
Words are my actual life and I hate it when they fail me and all I have left is spewing profanity.
I’m so angry.
That’s it that’s the comment.
Thanks for sharing! I knew the thing about lupus patients needing the drug and not being able to get it.
I follow a bunch of medical folks over on Twitter, and the cardiac-team ones especially have been alternately banging their heads against the wall, and trying to scream this info from the rooftops, because they don’t want people to die unnecessarily.
Every time Dolt45 mentions “the malaria drugs,” it infuriates them,because (,just like with everything else!) he SO doesn’t know what he’s talking about.🙃