Since 2006, type 1 diabetes in Finland has plateaued and then decreased after the authorities’ decision to fortify dietary milk products with cholecalciferol. The role of vitamin D in innate and adaptive immunity is critical. A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamin D was recently discovered; in a correct analysis of the data used by the Institute of Medicine, it was found that 8895 IU/d was needed for 97.5% of individuals to achieve values ≥50 nmol/L. Another study confirmed that 6201 IU/d was needed to achieve 75 nmol/L and 9122 IU/d was needed to reach 100 nmol/L. The largest meta-analysis ever conducted of studies published between 1966 and 2013 showed that 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels <75 nmol/L may be too low for safety and associated with higher all-cause mortality, demolishing the previously presumed U-shape curve of mortality associated with vitamin D levels. Since all-disease mortality is reduced to 1.0 with serum vitamin D levels ≥100 nmol/L, we call public health authorities to consider designating as the RDA at least three-fourths of the levels proposed by the Endocrine Society Expert Committee as safe upper tolerable daily intake doses. This could lead to a recommendation of 1000 IU for children <1 year on enriched formula and 1500 IU for breastfed children older than 6 months, 3000 IU for children >1 year of age, and around 8000 IU for young adults and thereafter. Actions are urgently needed to protect the global population from vitamin D deficiency.

Violates international conventions for chemical weapons, long-term safety data following exposure is sparse but alarming, it’s being used against peaceful people, and this factoid I didn’t know:

“The sale and trade of tear gas worldwide is largely unregulated, and as a result, it's often not clear what chemicals exist in each canister, how toxic these chemicals are, or even whether they've been safety tested beforehand, the researchers explain.”

But in a world where our diabetes drugs are tainted with carcinogens and our ecstasy is mostly meth and caffeine, why did I think there would be any quality control in the chemical weapons industry?

“In this cohort study of 489 patients who had a vitamin D level measured in the year before COVID-19 testing, the relative risk of testing positive for COVID-19 was 1.77 times greater for patients with likely deficient vitamin D status compared with patients with likely sufficient vitamin D status, a difference that was statistically significant.”

The disease tolerance hypothesis

And it turns out that questions about distancing don’t end at 6 feet. In the past few months, environmental scientists, physicists, engineers, epidemiologists, and others have become increasingly vocal with concerns that the virus might be transmitted through smaller droplets that can reach as far as 26 feet on violent exhalations like coughs and sneezes. The droplets can slow down, dry out, and hang in the air for hours.

"Among the 143 people interviewed for the report, only 18 were symptom-free 60 days after their hospital discharge. More than half of the people interviewed said that they still experienced three or more symptoms, among which fatigue was the most common issue cited."

Maybe Covid-19 will result in some good research for people with ME/CFS.

second strain was very slightly different from the first (confirming reinfection), but first infection helped him be immune to a more severe infection.

not known: how contagious is a second infection?

Where would we be without science to validate the existence of queer people?

But yeah, okay, let’s reopen and go back to “normal.”

“Over the 4 days of infection before the typical time of symptom onset (day 5), the probability of a false-negative result in an infected person decreases from 100% (95% CI, 100% to 100%) on day 1 to 67% (CI, 27% to 94%) on day 4. On the day of symptom onset, the median false-negative rate was 38% (CI, 18% to 65%). This decreased to 20% (CI, 12% to 30%) on day 8 (3 days after symptom onset) then began to increase again, from 21% (CI, 13% to 31%) on day 9 to 66% (CI, 54% to 77%) on day 21.“

“In this study of a cohort of [100] German patients recently recovered from COVID-19 infection, CMR revealed cardiac involvement in 78 patients (78%) and ongoing [cardiac] inflammation in 60 patients (60%), independent of preexisting conditions, severity and overall course of the acute illness, and time from the original diagnosis. These findings indicate the need for ongoing investigation of the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19.“

“The odds of having a child born with birth defects during or after the war were more than a third higher for veterans who say they handled, sprayed or were directly sprayed with Agent Orange than for veterans who say they weren’t exposed or weren’t sure.“

Smaller amount of virus exposure = fewer/milder symptoms.

Wear your goddamn masks, people.

The data is back up, but it’s unlikely to be updated.

“The technology that powers the nation’s leading automated speech recognition systems makes twice as many errors when interpreting words spoken by African Americans as when interpreting the same words spoken by whites.”

“The average cocaine addiction lasts four years, the average marijuana addiction lasts six years, and the average alcohol addiction is resolved within 15 years. Heroin addictions tend to last as long as alcoholism, but prescription opioid problems, on average, last five years. In these large samples, which are drawn from the general population, only a quarter of people who recover have ever sought assistance in doing so (including via 12-step programs). This actually makes addictions the psychiatric disorder with the highest odds of recovery.”