October 26, 2009
Health Blogging: Seasonal Flu, H1N1, and You
The U.S. government has a great deal of information across many agency websites about both seasonal flu and about H1N1, the virulent strain that used to be referred to as swine flu.
The government has created a single website — flu.gov — with extensive flu information, including an important Myths and Facts section designed to dispel rampant misinformation about flu vaccinations. (Take a self-evaluation here.)
Given that there are different vaccines for each strain and that it’s taking some time to get the H1N1 vaccine out to localities, it’s important to read up on how to go about getting immunized from both types of flu.
For instance, pregnant women and others with certain health conditions — including people with rheumatoid arthritis — are advised to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it’s available in their communities. A map tool on flu.gov can help you find out where the vaccine is available in your neck of the woods.
Also from CDC:
General Q’s and A’s about H1N1 vaccine
General information about seasonal flu (note: seasonal flu is different from H1N1)
According to the CDC, 46 states are reporting widespread flu activity. Here is another map with H1N1 case rates by region, courtesy of the CDC and USA Today.
Information is power. Send us your Reid Press Conference Soon on Next Steps for Senate Bill
Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is set to announce something health care-related at around 3:15 p.m. today. We’re going to watch on C-SPAN and will update this page soon with information and reaction (if what he says is newsworthy).
Update: Watch it live here.
Update 3:30: Well, that was fast. The Senate bill that will be sent to the Congressional Budget Office to be “scored” (to find out how much it will cost and/or reduce the deficit) will have a public option with a state opt-out. A “trigger” proposal, which some said would have set the public option in motion only at some point in the future if private health insurance costs did not come down, may actually now be completely dead. Reid said it won’t be in his bill nor would it be considered on the floor.
He said something about 2014 as the year states would be allowed to opt out, but it was really hard to tell what he meant. Many say it will take years just to get the public option ramped up.
Oddly enough, he also said the bill would have the Senate Finance Committee’s member-run health care cooperatives provision — once floated as an alternative to the public option — but it remains to be seen how that would work vis-a-vis the opt-out public option.
Lots of details to be worked out, for sure, but it’s pretty amazing that the public option lives on. Maybe they do listen to the public after all!
October 23, 2009
Science Friday: Tracking Bird Migration
Science Friday passes through a prime pit stop for migrating birds: Braddock Bay on Lake Ontario. Wing it below or here.
October 22, 2009
NYT Sunday Magazine: The Anxious Mind
I finally got around to reading this article from a few Sundays back, about a subject near and dear to my heart, anxiety. (I know, lots of people would say they only contemplate art and sculpture, but I’m being honest; I nervously contemplate art and sculpture, realizing that I know little about either.) Anyway, it’s pretty interesting: turns out, being an anxious (or, highly reactive) child isn’t necessarily all that bad, as long as you learn to adapt later. To wit:
People with a high-reactive temperament — as long as it doesn’t show itself as a clinical disorder — are generally conscientious and almost obsessively well-prepared. Worriers are likely to be the most thorough workers and the most attentive friends. Someone who worries about being late will plan to get to places early. Someone anxious about giving a public lecture will work harder to prepare for it. Test-taking anxiety can lead to better studying; fear of traveling can lead to careful mapping of transit routes.
Kagan told me that in the 40 years he worked at Harvard, he hired at least 200 research assistants, “and I always looked for high-reactives. They’re compulsive, they don’t make errors, they’re careful when they’re coding data.”
This explains a lot! (Here are some letters to the magazine after the article was published.)
(Picture credit: Mickey Duzyj)
October 21, 2009
Autumn: The Science
Via Boing Boing, Discovery Channel reveals the scientific secrets of fall foliage. (Maybe you noticed the picture switch on my home page?)
This, in turn, reminds me of the fall foliage parade in North Adams, Mass., also home to Natalie Jerimijenko’s “Tree Logic,” an ongoing installation of upside down maple trees at Mass MoCA, a few streets from the other Church Street. Check out Mass MoCA’s exhibitions here. (Via The Porches Inn at Mass MoCA blog, here’s a local shot of the foliage coming into its own this year.)
