January 18, 29,20

 We have a doctor's appointment today so we'll see how much reading I get done.

Doomberg has an article criticizing the "research" which concluded that using gas stoves is correlated with increased childhood asthma and other respiratory conditions. I took those claims with a bit of amusement and a large dose of salt to begin with. Another article I read earlier in this kerfuffle noted that poor and ethnic/racial minority children showed the strongest correlation which the author thought was a strong argument for banning gas stoves because it would benefit the children. Well, those groups usually live in areas that experience higher auto emission pollution and, often, industrial pollution. And those groups are also most likely to be malnourished which might also enter into the picture. The Doomberg article claims that the group conducting the research is part of a group actively pushing against the natural gas industry. That is why I try to find out exactly who is doing the research to see what biases they might have. Do they have incentives (financial and otherwise) to come to the conclusions the wanted to justify?

Improve the News put up a good article on China's nearly one million person drop in population that was announced earlier this week. A lot more detail and connections to some history.

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Yesterday was a disjointed kind of day dedicated to some clean up that wasn't done because of the medical appointment and errands on the 18th. We also had to talk to her doctor because the inhaler prescribed was WAY too expensive. The Doctor checked that the medication was covered by Medicare and it was which makes me wonder what the full cost might have been. Doctor wanted us to call the medicare advantage insurance company to have them provide a list of lower cost alternatives. Mom decided to simply do without since the cost is too much for a "slight" COPD. We don't understand why we have to pressure the insurance company to prescribe a medication. They aren't doctors. The American medical industry is totally screwed up.

Just what we need (NOT!!). I originally found it on an Indiana news station and then went to Google for more information. (I didn't link to the original) So illegal drug purveyors are now selling their products with fentanyl but with a veterinary sedative not approved for any human application which, because it isn't a narcotic, makes Narcan useless in overdose cases. As usual with these stories the reporters featured the grieving mother of the young man who died of his overdose but like so many such segments it irritated me. Yeah, he was only 32 with the potential for a long life. Yeah, he had two cute kids he evidently loved. But answer this question: why did he value getting high much more than a future with those kids? His mother certainly didn't know and she knew he had an addiction problem from his teen years.

As long as I can remember histories firmly concluded that the Bubonic Plague was spread by rats. This article, featured on Naked Capitalism, questions that notion. The focus on other possibilities for spread (human to human by touch or by the human body's own population of fleas and possibly lice) is good. Too often human behavior is ignored in these stories. The disease appears and spreads of its own volition and humans are the passive victims. That is rarely the case. One article I read so many years ago I can no longer remember the source claimed that people in the areas of Asia where the plague was endemic for a long time developed ways of handling the rodents who possibly harbored the pathogen which contained the spread while Europeans didn't. Maybe. I also noticed that the article didn't mention a couple of factors I also read years ago. First, the dominant rat population in Europe changed and the new dominant was a better reservoir for the bacterium. Second, Medieval Europeans considered cats demonic creatures and killed large numbers of them which eliminated a major predator of rats. Looking carefully to whatever information is available for the three outbreaks the authors identified might provide some answers.

We are still being bombarded with the ads for Medicare Advantage even though the open enrollment has expired. Mom decided to check into it and we have already had some glitches. None of the ads tell you exactly what the program will cost and getting a straight answer from the agents you talk to is impossible. She told them she didn't want the drug coverage but the latest letter indicates she is going to get it anyway at an additional cost. And she is going to be charged a penalty for not having such coverage for 55 months. I will definitely will not enroll in Medicare Advantage. Too much we aren't being told. She is going to keep it as it is and see how it goes.

Susie Madrak at Crooks&Liars covers that idiotic proposal for a 30% national sales tax and the abolition of the IRS which Spineless McCarthy promised to bring to the floor to get Buddy Carter's vote for his speakership. My first thought on this was that it was typically Republican in that it would impose a regressive tax to replace an at least modestly progressive tax structure. Second thought, OMG, these guys want to take us back to Medieval day s when we peasants had to spend at least days a week working for the lord with some extra fees thrown in. Think about that--2 of the 6 day work week (Sundays was for Church). That is what 30% translates to. More progressive states at least make exceptions for food and some other necessities. I wonder how they plan to give the wealthy a pass. Notice that the payroll taxes which support Social Security and Medicare would also be eliminated so how do they expect to continue those programs or is this a backdoor way to eliminate them.