Notices by Hilda Bastian (hildabast@mastodon.online), page 2

@eniko I don't think it will take that long for vaccines to be shown to do better at those things. (Availability could take longer though, depending on where people live.)

The second generation Covid vax race isn't as fast as the first, but I think it's time to be cautiously optimistic. My latest newsletter:

https://hildabastian.wordpress.com/2024/02/25/encouraging-progress-in-the-next-generation-covid-vaccine-race/

...More clinical trial results for 2 vaccines that aim to be more durable & "variant-proof", including the one from GeoVax that's also being tested in people on cancer treatment.

The other is the self-amplifying mRNA vax from Arcturus that's authorized in Japan. Signs of immune response didn't wane as much as Pfizer's did by 6 months.

In other news, clinical trial data on a mucosal vaccine, & 2 more pancoronavirus vaccines are going into phase 1 trial in France.

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OK... *now* it's a race!

* We've got the first data suggesting a next generation Covid vaccine could outperform the Pfizer vax – it's authorized in one country & manufacture is ramping up.

* The number of nextgen vaxes reaching mid-stage trials (phase 2) is now in double digits.

* We've been hearing results of 2 clinical trials a month for the last 6 months.

Lots of news this month....1/2

My latest nextgen Covid vax update (no 14) @PLOS https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2024/02/23/picking-up-steam-next-generation-covid-vaccine-update-14/

#Vaccines #COVID19

...But it was 1973 before the American Psychiatric Assoc stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder - one of many social harms in STEM history.

Another source of grievous harm starts off my latest post @PLOS - a link to a chronology of psychology's contribution to racist beliefs & racial inequality.

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2024/02/15/black-history-month-early-mental-health-pioneers/

The post features a string of awe-inspiring African-Americans who tackled the sources of this crushing oppression & its effects on their communities...

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...This is Martin David Jenkins (1904-1978) & Herman George Canady (1901-1970).

In the mid-1930s, they each published influential studies that challenged beliefs about white intellectual superiority.

Check out the post for links to their work, and the stories and work of other groundbreakers:

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2024/02/15/black-history-month-early-mental-health-pioneers/

There are #Wikipedia notes, too, in case the post inspires you to tackle some fixer-uppers.

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...Here's another of them: This is Olivia Hooker (1915-2018), when she was honored by Barack Obama in 2015. She was 100 then.

https://ethicsandsociety.org/2015/08/19/fordham-professor-dr-olivia-hooker-honored-by-president-obama-at-coast-guard-graduation/

Hooker was a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre, who served in WW2 & used her GI Bill entitlement to get a master's in psychology. She studied learning disabilities & disadvantage, & was a lifelong civil rights activist...

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...Bowen became a psychiatrist, & the first African-American woman Colonel in the US Army.

In 1970, she did a tour of duty in Vietnam, as chief of psychiatry for the whole Army there. From then on, she was an advocate for treatment & support for substance dependency & PTSD.

She was awarded medals for establishing drug treatment centers in the war zone & reducing racial tensions....

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"Been there, done that!"

That's how Clotilde Dent Bowen used to describe her life (1923-2011).

This pic is when she was the first African-American woman to graduate medicine from Ohio State University in 1947.

I've just made her a Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clotilde_Dent_Bowen

And she features in my post on African-American pioneers in mental health. But more on her remarkable life before we meet some others...

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#BlackHistoryMonth #BHM #WomeninSTEM #TBT #Psychology

...Not long before her war posting, Bowen had done an interview with Ebony magazine about her life. Though at that time, same-sex relationships could get you discharged from the military, she was open about sharing her home with another woman.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=r-EDAAAAMBAJ

A friend of the family said Bowen told her stories of the gay community in Harlem in the 50s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/weirdoldbroads/comments/t9bkpf/admirable_women_clotilde_bowen/

In later life, she had a longterm relationship with another doctor, "Micki" Athans, who survived her

....
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A next generation Covid vax has been authorized by a major drug regulator for the first time.

It's a self-amplifying mRNA vax by Arcturus (USA), which could be more durable. It's authorized in Japan - with an application lodged in Europe, too.

Efficacy seems similar or superior efficacy to BNT/Pfizer vax.

Also in this update post @PLOS:

- Some trials of mucosal vax fully recruited or close
- Preclinical research highlights for "variant-proof" & pancoronavirus vaxes

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2024/01/11/a-major-first-next-generation-covid-vaccine-could-there-be-more-in-2024-update-13/

@clacke @hildabastian.wordpress.com They are releasing a 2.0 version tomorrow that's supposed to give us proper bidirectional commenting. If you could bear giving it a try again at the end of the week, that'd be great!

Starting the year with Internet nostalgia!

This was my very first website. LOL. I thought it was so cool! And I thought hyperlinks were like magic - I was so hooked.

We first went online in 1996, and we called it a World Wide Web server. We called email the Internet.

I had a small corner of a larger website, that in turn was a small corner of a university website.

The oldest version at the @internetarchive is from July 1998...
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https://web.archive.org/web/19980705172956/http://wwwsom.fmc.flinders.edu.au/FUSA/COCHRANE/cochrane/consumer.htm

@clacke @hildabastian.wordpress.com I think it's great - only one from you has appeared at the blog though. There are several from others.

I'll follow this up.

@hildabastian.wordpress.com Yay! It arrived - took a few minutes to federate for the first time though.

@clacke Thanks! Mine got through - I'll try and work it out tomorrow. (It's late here now.)

The highlight of peer review research in 2023 was the biggest trial yet of naming authors (or not) in peer review.

The authors concluded that their trial provides strong evidence "double-blind review" substantially reduces prestige bias.

I don't have as much confidence in that result though. In my new @PLOS post, I explain why - and why, even with this big trial, we're still a long way from clarity....

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/12/31/unpacking-the-biggest-trial-yet-of-naming-authors-in-peer-review/

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#PeerReview #AcademicChatter #Science

@clacke @hildabastian.wordpress.com Thanks! Yikes! Corrected online - hope the newsletter doesn't cause people headaches.

A New Hello to the Open Social Web!

My latest newsletter has all the usual bits – plus my entry into the world of federated WordPress.com, coolness, warts, and all.

#Fediblogs

https://hildabastian.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/a-new-hello-to-the-open-social-web/

...Waiting for this to federate for the first time. 🙏 (At least, I hope that's why it's not acting as expected.)