Notices by Brian Vastag (brianvastag@sciencemastodon.com), page 2

I don't know if this is public knowledge, but Sen. Jacky Rosen, Democrat from Nevada, was instrumental in Congress allocating over a billion dollars for #LongCovid research. I know that money has not been well-spent, but that can't be pinned on her. She's up for re-election so I wanted to make the patient community aware of her contribution.

#USpol #Covid

https://www.rosenfornevada.com/

Deciding not to vote in the US as a protest against the system is like dropping out of school to show how smart you are.

#USpol

@powersoffour Midwest spring storms: O'Hare delays

Midwest winter storms: O'Hare delays

Midwest any other time: O'Hare delays

Wow. Jet Propulsion Lab laying off over 500 people due to uncertainty from Congress on funding; memo tells everyone to stay home tomorrow as people are canned.

#space #government

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-workforce-update

Just read a long New Yorker article on long COVID and saw Beth Mazur's invisible hands all over it. She did so much and sought zero attention for it.

#LongCovid

This article. Beth was one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on ME/cfs and long COVID. When I added that line to her obituary I asked around if I needed to qualify it. Universal answer: No.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/what-would-it-mean-for-scientists-to-listen-to-patients

Did an interview today with a reporter at The Verge about the scourge of fake machine-generated obituaries that killed me off a few weeks ago, leading several people to think I really was dead, and how #Google rewarded the shit-merchants with high #SEO placement. Hopeful the article brings some changes.

Honest headlines: "At Annual Gathering, World Leaders Pledge to Continue Burning Planet"

#climate

Post-viral cognitive impairment ended my career and now on a, uh, good day, I can read a novel for about 20 minutes.

Looks like lots of others are getting to enjoy the same experience. Yes, it's COVID.

Can’t Think, Can’t Remember: More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/upshot/long-covid-disability.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

I have an article out today that's about how one person's determination to solve her own complex health problems led to an extraordinary effort on the part of one lab at NIH & a discovery that could lead to treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome & #LongCovid.

#news #journalism #health #MEcfs #medicine #research

https://wapo.st/3Pem0G4
(gift link)

Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer charged in the Georgia #Trump organized crime case, used to be liberal. But then: #CRYPTO FRIED HIS BRAIN.

"...friends said his politics seemed to shift after he reaped sizable returns from his investments in cryptocurrency.... He began to stake out more-libertarian positions in legal briefs, especially in his home state of Wisconsin, where he started donating to Republicans...."

#USpol

(gift link)
https://wapo.st/3YE5C63

A friend who got covid for the first time in early July now has an appointment at a post-covid clinic. They're struggling to function.

Watching people I care about get disabled by a preventable virus has chipped away at my soul for three years.

Zoos are asking patrons to stop showing videos on their phones to apes. They're worried about screen addiction and behavior changes. Apes! They're just like us.

#animals #apes #tech #addiction

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/why-the-toronto-zoo-wants-you-to-stop-showing-its-gorillas-videos-from-your-phones-1.6471592

And I have no idea what they've found, or how valuable it will be. They threw so many technologies at this illness they must've found something interesting. They used a technology to look at thousands of proteins in spinal fluid, for instance. In the meantime, millions more people have developed ME/CFS after covid - an outcome obvious to all of us who have been suffering post-infectious ME/CFS pre-pandemic. 18/

#LongCovid is, in many cases, ME/CFS. In May 2020, @Bether and I warned that this would happen in pages of the Washington Post. The article was extremely well-read - it was on the homepage for over 24 hours, a rarity - but it also hit the same weekend the George Floyd protests started. If not for the protests, I'm quite certain we would've gotten good TV and radio pick-up (broadcast people look at the top articles on WaPo and NYT and follow those stories). 19/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/could-covid-19-cause-long-term-chronic-fatigue-and-illness-in-some-patients/2020/05/29/bcd5edb2-a02c-11ea-b5c9-570a91917d8d_story.html

From early 2017 through early 2020, the under-resourced team managed to bring in something like 18 patients for two visits, and I think they hit their target on healthy volunteers. Like we all told them, it was way too slow. But it was moving forward. 13/

Then the #covid19 pandemic hit and the clinical center closed down. The team was unable to complete full study enrollment, a few patients short. Avi Nath turned his attention to autopsy studies of early covid victims to look for signs of brain damage and viral infilitration. In early 2021, the NIH team also brought in about 10 people who developed ME/CFS-like symptoms after covid vaccination, treating some with immunoglobulin & steroids. 14/

The ME/CFS study was very much back-burnered. The pandemic was taking everyone's attention. I talked to Brian Walitt later and asked him why the team didn't spend the time when the Clinical Center was mostly closed to analyze the very voluminous data. I didn't get much of a satisfactory answer, but as Nath was the PI, he was diverted to covid, and that probably is the answer. 15/

Eventually, the NIH team formed 5 data analysis groups for the study. One for immunology, another for physiology, etc. There is so much data in this study of a small group of patients. I think the study was very ambitious, and the team was under-resourced. While 30 or so researchers were involved, most were just pitching in on very specific sub-studies. It was up to Avi and Brian to try to synthesize everything. 16/

And finally, a few days ago - six years to the week I first entered the study - I got word that the NIH, after extensive internal review, has FINALLY submitted their main paper from the study to a journal for publication. I suspect Avi submitted to New England Journal of Medicine, his go-to journal, but I don't know for sure. It took entirely too long. 17/