Week of March 5, 2023
Macho, my very manly San Pedro cactus, died from root rot this week. After a small ceremony acknowledging (his?) participation as a background actor in my teleconferences (and role as a fantastic conversation starter), I buried the cactus in the woods. His loss is humbling and an example of hubris. I failed to realize that being a kidney doctor (who believes that, in general, more water is good) does not, by default, mean I am a skilled caretaker of succulents (for whom more water is bad). I can only hope that Macho, looking down from the great desert in the sky, knows he's inspired me to be a more accountable cactus custodian.
Macho's death pushed me to find this melodious French man's San Pedro Cactus Care YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@sanpedromastery6262
The death photo of a sad emasculated Macho:
https://nigelworks.smugmug.com/2023/February/i-jJX4zsP
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Case rates are low, but updated data from the C.D.C. demonstrates a rising 14-day death rate. There are still, on average, 500 people a day dying of COVID in the United States.
N.Y. Times Tracker
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
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Dr. Eric Topol highlighted a recent New England Journal letter to the editor debate in which two thoughtful scientists debated data about the effectiveness of vaccines without ad hominem attacks or conspiracy theories. This kind of scientific discussion (about how valuable the bivalent vaccine is for individuals under 50) feels refreshingly mundane.
https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1631057686933434370
In the office on Friday, one of my self-proclaimed "skeptical" patients asserted two related COVID misconceptions worth discussing:
1) that the vaccine (more than COVID itself) is the cause of cardiac problems (and thus should not be given).
2) And, because the word "shot" is often used to describe getting vaccinated, the COVID vaccine (and any vaccine described as a shot) is not a vaccine; it is "just a shot."
Here is what the data says:
COVID is associated with a high rate of numerous cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes, new-onset arrhythmias, etc.), as reviewed in multiple large-scale population studies. I note that the rates of these cardiovascular events from COVID impact between 3 and 12 people per 1000 [one thousand] unvaccinated individuals by 12 months after a COVID infection. The rates of complications from the vaccine (clots or myocarditis) were 1-8 per 1 million people vaccinated. The risk of complications from coronavirus infection is much greater than the risk of a vaccine-related complication. (And, by the way, vaccinations overwhelmingly protect you from death and hospitalization.) Again, even the best drivers get in car accidents [exposure to COVID]; the question is, are you wearing a seatbelt [mask], and do you have airbags [vaccine] if you do?
Excellent review:
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/heart-attacks-and-strokes-late-after
One of the papers:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01689-3#Sec31
Paper on rates of complications from COVID vaccine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8971371/
Let's look at the silly semantics of "shot" (or jab, as our U.K. friends say) vs. vaccine. Vaccines are any substance used to provoke the body's immune response. Injections (shots) are one means of administering vaccines. However, shot and jab are often used colloquially to describe a vaccine, as in, "did you get your flu shot?" There is no scientifically meaningful difference between a vaccination delivered via an injection, a shot, or a jab.
https://medlineplus.gov/vaccines.html
Now, why some countries say jab vs. shot is more interesting. We can thank the Scottish for the word jab:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/04/why-do-we-call-vaccinations-jabs
Bloomberg had an interesting article on persistent coronavirus infection in some long-COVID patients.
Medical Trends and Technology
I found a fascinating discussion of ongoing research using fMRI data (imaging that looks at how blood flows to various parts of the brain) to interpret what images a patient in the fMRI machine was seeing. This technology is nowhere near useful, but there is progress in machine learning to understand and reconstruct functional brain imaging patterns into the sights and sounds people hear and see. (A very clunky "mind reading" of sorts.) Amazing and scary.
https://twitter.com/danberridge/status/1631489991435243520
The paper referenced is pre-print (non-peer reviewed).
https://sites.google.com/view/stablediffusion-with-brain/
Here is the author's academic website
https://www.fbs.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/research_group/detail/25
Infographics
Delta Dental performs an annual survey to determine the Tooth Fairy Index (T.F.I.), showing the value of a lost tooth. Teeth are outpacing the S & P 500 for 2022-2023. (N.B. - I do not advocate selling ANY body parts.)
https://www.deltadental.com/us/en/tooth-fairy/the-original-poll.html
Things I learned this week
This history of the gin and tonic is fascinating and involves the treatment of malaria and scurvy (vitamin C deficiency). Cheers!
https://www.tastingtable.com/789380/the-surprising-reason-gin-and-tonic-was-invented/
The Museum of Failure is a rotating exhibition of defunct products that range from Coke II to the DeLorean to Olestra. I am old enough to have had or used several of these items.
Olestra is an excellent example of gastrointestinal trade-offs being significantly worse than the dopamine rush of eating potato chips (or other snack food).
https://priceonomics.com/the-failure-of-the-fat-free-revolution/
Living with A.I.
The former Google engineer who claimed Google's A.I. engine he was working on is sentient is back in the news with updated thoughts and commentary. He (apparently) knows how to cause A.I. chatbots to stress out and break their constraints.
https://futurism.com/fired-google-engineer-ai-sentience
M.I.T.'s Technology Review offered an enlightening interview with the OpenAI team that is responsible for ChatGPT:
My kids' school continues to struggle with how to use A.I. tools. Their combined civics program [social studies + English + history] now makes all writing assignments in-class only with wifi turned off. Here are some other ways schools are thinking about using ChatGPT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html
A.I. art of the week (via Dall-E 2)
"A sad, dying cactus and the tooth fairy drinking gin and tonics."
https://labs.openai.com/s/Ws4KTzNUbwdU4K0iJ84JcJAs
Clean hands and sharp minds, team,
Adam
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