All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[JB]

People should stop with the "horse dewormer" label for that drug. It may not be of use for COVID, but it is one of the five or ten most important drugs for humans in the world, saving hundreds of thousands of human lives every year, and nearly eliminating river blindness, (a tropical disease). It is an anti parasite drug, not an anti viral agent, but it is a great drug for humans in the proper circumstances. So people should give it a little respect, and stop with that label. as it's telling the truth by using a lie. It's enough to point out that it is not an anti viral agent and won't work for COVID without disparaging a drug that has saved more lives than can be counted over the years.

The University of Minnesota is conducting the first clinical trial in the US using it as well as a few other anti-inflammatory medications in hopes of adding them to outpatient protocols. Since vaccines are still not readily available in all areas of all countries, I hope they have some success with their outcomes.

University of Minnesota ivermectin trial nearing completion
https://www.startribune.com/universi...ion/600139471/

Proof of effectiveness would give doctors outpatient COVID-19 therapies amid limited antiviral and antibody supplies.

University of Minnesota researchers expect to finish enrollment this week in the nation's first clinical trial of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, and the study's highly anticipated results could be only a month away.

The COVID-OUT study is reviewing three common drugs, including the antidepressant fluvoxamine and the diabetes treatment metformin, but gained attention for its inclusion of ivermectin. The controversial drug has been championed by opponents of COVID-19 vaccines, despite a warning from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that ivermectin is cleared only to treat parasitic infections, head lice and certain skin conditions.

Anti-inflammatory benefits of all three medications prompted the U study, which was delayed by slow enrollment over the summer until the delta and omicron waves of the pandemic emerged. Lead researcher Dr. Carolyn Bramante said the results will provide clinical guidance to doctors who are facing record pandemic cases and to the FDA about whether to authorize the drugs for treatment of COVID-19.

"Sooner would have been better, but I'm really proud of my team," she said. "We will be done very quickly."

Proven outpatient COVID-19 treatments have been limited, and supplies in Minnesota have been scarce. Providers in the state discontinued two types of monoclonal antibody infusions in December because they were ineffective against the omicron variant, and providers had to ration the effective types. New antiviral COVID-19 pills that have received emergency FDA approval are coming in small shipments every other week to Minnesota.

The U trial is enrolling 1,100 patients with COVID-19 to receive fluvoxamine and ivermectin, alone or in combination with metformin, or a nonmedicating placebo for comparison. The study is tracking whether patients taking the drugs for 14 days avoid hospitalization and maintain healthy blood oxygen levels.

[Jimbi]

Opps wrong tread!

[achilles]

The Boulder SWAT team caught that UCLA lecturer, fortunately. Guy closed UCLA today with a weird, rambling, crazed threat and video threatening a mass shooting, along with urging others to do the same. Guy is an obvious head case, what the Joker would look like IRL. What did surprise me was that this guy, with a Doctorate in Philosophy was barely even literate. Anyhow, he'd already been suspended by the school for allegedly sending porn to students. Gotta say, this guy seems about the craziest guy I've ever seen, it's deeply disturbing.

[Mister Mets]

The "entire groups of friends" probably refers to online groups. I know someone who is transitioning and one of the first things he wanted to do after coming out was to find other people to talk to who were going through the same thing he was. For young people, it's quite easy to find an online group that will serve that purpose. They're not necessarily people you would hang out with in person, just people who can discuss a common experience.

The references to friend groups appears to be about friends in school transitioning together.

Shrier refers to the work of Lisa Littman, who described the phenomenon.

https://www.science.org/content/arti...ender-identity

The most explosive of Littman's findings may be that among the young people reported on—83% of whom were designated female at birth—more than one-third had friendship groups in which 50% or more of the youths began to identify as transgender in a similar time frame. This, she writes, was more than 70 times the expected prevalence of transgender identity in young adults, which she reports is 0.7%.

This isn't about online groups sought out by people who are trans.

Could you explain the nuance you see in "The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters"?

I don't think the subtitle is nuanced, although I wouldn't really look for nuance in a subtitle.

Yeah, we'll be waiting a while for that.

I mean, given her entire premsie is false -- that there's a 'spike' in girls identifying as boys, in the first place, I don't see any reason to believe stories about 'entire groups of friends' transitioning either. She's already spewed several falsehoods in the media, after all.

But, sure, Mets, go on giving her the benefit of the doubt while you defend a book that literally has a seduction of the innocent style fearmonger title.

Christ.

Do I have a habit of failing to answer questions that are directly put to me?

[Mister Mets]

The Boulder SWAT team caught that UCLA lecturer, fortunately. Guy closed UCLA today with a weird, rambling, crazed threat and video threatening a mass shooting, along with urging others to do the same. Guy is an obvious head case, what the Joker would look like IRL. What did surprise me was that this guy, with a Doctorate in Philosophy was barely even literate. Anyhow, he'd already been suspended by the school for allegedly sending porn to students. Gotta say, this guy seems about the craziest guy I've ever seen, it's deeply disturbing.

It was a messed up situation. The fortunate thing is that no one died, or was hurt.

People who want to question/doubt others about their gender identity instead of taking them at their word that they know who they are, people who suggest to others that they are mentally unstable if they identify a certain way, who want to deny them opportunities to transition if they want to. Under some notion that there might be some "lost soul" in there who is really just confused and is willing to go through the long process of transition, risk losing people in their life, career opportunities and often their physical safety, because.... someone will have to help me here why they would do that? They might think it's cool?

Harassing a group of people is different from skepticism.

We have to be willing to discuss sensitive topics on which some people may have firmly held beliefs that are wrong. This is true in religion, parenting, and medication. Hypochondriacs and addictions are reasons we shouldn't have a policy of taking people at their word, especially when it comes to minors.

With skepticism comes the possibility we'll get it wrong, and we have to be mindful of that. These are sensitive questions.

A recent New York Times article looked at the debate within the medical community, including the ways in which adolescents are different.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/h...-hormones.html

Experts in transgender health are divided on these adolescent recommendations, reflecting a fraught debate over how to weigh conflicting risks for young people, who typically can’t give full legal consent until they are 18 and who may be in emotional distress or more vulnerable to peer influence than adults are.

Some of the drug regimens bring long-term risks, such as irreversible fertility loss. And in some cases, thought to be quite rare, transgender people later “detransition” to the gender they were assigned at birth. Given these risks, as well as the increasing number of adolescents seeking these treatments, some clinicians say that teens need more psychological assessment than adults do.

There are consequences to medical interventions.

Puberty blockers, for example, can impede bone development, though evidence so far suggests it resumes once puberty is initiated. And if taken in the early phase of puberty, blockers and hormones lead to fertility loss. Patients and their families should be counseled about these risks, the standards say, and if preserving fertility is a priority, drugs should be delayed until a more advanced stage of puberty.

There are some changes in the actions of adolescents seeking medical intervention.

But other trans health specialists are concerned by the sharp increase in adolescents who are referred to gender clinics, and worry that the desire for hormones and surgeries may be driven partly by peer influence on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

“The kids presenting these days are very different than what I was seeing in the early days,” said Dr. Edwards-Leeper, who in 2007 helped set up one of the first youth gender clinics in the United States, in Boston.

Dr. Edwards-Leeper said that now she was more likely to see adolescents who had recently begun to question their gender, whereas a decade ago her patients were more likely to have longstanding distress about their bodies.

These seemingly abrupt changes — as well as other mental health issues or a history of trauma — should be flags for providers to slow down, she said. Instead, some gender clinics with long wait lists are “blindly affirming” adolescent patients, she said, offering them hormones without taking these potential issues seriously.

[Zauriel]

Democrats have a supermajority in California and they refused to vote on a single-payer healthcare bill because just like the national party the state Democrat parties are corrupt and controlled by corporate interests.

The Democrats have proven themselves to be a money-corrupted corporate state party for decades now.


California Dems sent a single payer bill to a GOP governor’s desk in 2008. He vetoed it.

Now this year, California Dems refused to send a single payer bill to their Democratic governor’s desk, after the CA Dem Party cashed a $1 million check from a health insurer.

[JB]

Whoopi Goldberg suspended from 'The View' for 2 weeks over Holocaust comments
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/whoopi...ry?id=82613265

"Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments," ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a statement. "The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities."

[Tami]

Virginia Republicans advance bill to freeze minimum-wage increases

The Virginia House of Delegates passed a Republican bill on Tuesday that would freeze the state’s minimum wage at $11 an hour and overturn scheduled incremental raises that would bring the floor to $15 in 2026.

Though the bill is not likely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, it serves as an example of how newly in-power Republicans are seeking to roll back key legislation that was passed under unified Democratic leadership over the past two years.

The bill, introduced by Del. Nick Freitas (R-Culpeper), passed the House along party lines, 51-48, Tuesday afternoon. Freitas’s bill proposes eliminating raises outlined in a law passed in 2020, which increased the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour with incremental raises scheduled every year until 2026 when the minimum wage would reach $15 an hour.

[numberthirty]

Whoopi Goldberg suspended from 'The View' for 2 weeks over Holocaust comments
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/whoopi...ry?id=82613265

"Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments," ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a statement. "The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities."

That's living by the sword for you...

She's older than I am. It's just really off the wall that she just tuned out the fact that Jewish/Irish/Italians have not always been squarely in the "White..." category.

[JackDaw]

That's living by the sword for you...

She's older than I am. It's just really off the wall that she just tuned out the fact that Jewish/Irish/Italians have not always been squarely in the "White..." category.

I actually think if she had articulated things a little differently she had the basis of a sensible point.

What if she had put across her point over something like:-

“The Jewish and Romany people that the Nazis regarded as a separate race and killed without remorse, were genetically practically identical to their oppressors, in reality not a separate race at all. Sometimes we humans will focus on any small difference and use it as an excuse to do hateful things. We need to stop doing this, and focus on the things we have in common.”

[Malvolio]

I actually think if she had articulated things a little differently she had the basis of a sensible point.

What if she had put across her point over something like:-

“The Jewish and Romany people that the Nazis regarded as a separate race and killed without remorse, were genetically practically identical to their oppressors, in reality not a separate race at all. Sometimes we humans will focus on any small difference and use it as an excuse to do hateful things. We need to stop doing this, and focus on the things we have in common.”

That is a much better way of putting it, yes.

[CaptainEurope]

That sounds likely, yeah. Given the dearth of support options for young trans teens -- something fueled by books like this -- that sounds very likely indeed, and of course it's used as another fearmongering point by her.

I also would not be surprised if some of the other correlations Mets listed are mistaken for causality. As a psychologist, I can imagine that a person who has been misgendered by the world their whole lives becomes very withdrawn and has a hard time interacting with the world, which could lead to false diagnoses of autism or other disorders. Just in the past few months I had two trans clients (f2m) who told me they had previously been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but their current therapist disagreed with the diagnosis.

[CaptainEurope]

I actually think if she had articulated things a little differently she had the basis of a sensible point.

What if she had put across her point over something like:-

“The Jewish and Romany people that the Nazis regarded as a separate race and killed without remorse, were genetically practically identical to their oppressors, in reality not a separate race at all. Sometimes we humans will focus on any small difference and use it as an excuse to do hateful things. We need to stop doing this, and focus on the things we have in common.”

The problem with that is:
The same holds true for black people. Race is a social construct. They are genetically "practically identical".

[CaptainEurope]

Without looking it up, can you guess who said this about Biden promising a Black woman for SCOTUS?

"I don't look at it as being politicized. I look at it for being basically just a balance that needs to be done to represent who we are as a nation."

[worstblogever]

What post are you referring to, sir?

Pretty sure you can remember something that happened less than a month ago.

One example of someone spreading a left-wing conspiracy theory is the guy who recently claimed Trump planned the attack on the capitol.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post5887017

That certainly counts as a conspiracy theory.

And you quoted me, ergo, I'm the one you accused, falsely.

Are you a big enough person to apologize for the slight that keeps being proven to be one?