#Smallpox inoculations

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1725 – Five Dublin children receive the first recorded smallpox inoculations in Ireland.

Smallpox is an acute contagious disease caused by the variola virus, a member of the orthopoxvirus family. It was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity and caused millions of deaths before it was eradicated. It is believed to have existed for at least 3000 years.   The name ‘smallpox’ was coined in the 15th century to distinguish it from the ‘great pox’, better known as…

[chiropteracupola]

a little pain now, to save a great deal more pain later

[flintlock fortress is a collaboration with @dxppercxdxver]

[bethanydelleman]

I was looking at poetry that Jane Austen might have read and I came across Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She sounds like an amazing woman. She thought her governess was dumb, so she hid in the family library and, "She taught herself Latin, a language usually reserved for men at the time. She secretly got a hold of a "Latin dictionary and grammar" and by the age of thirteen, her handling with the language was on par to most men. Furthermore, she was also a voracious reader."

She married an ambassador to the Ottoman empire and brought smallpox inoculation back to England. She was also a poet and important writer. In addition, she laughed at poet Alexander Pope (he is quoted in Austen's works) when he declared his love for her. (pictured below). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Wortley_Montagu)

The fact that someone heard about this proposal and then painted it is *chef's kiss*

(Edit) Here is the poem I used in a story:

A Hymn to the Moon

Written in July, in an arbour Thou silver deity of secret night, Direct my footsteps through the woodland shade; Thou conscious witness of unknown delight, The Lover's guardian, and the Muse's aid! By thy pale beams I solitary rove, To thee my tender grief confide; Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove, My friend, my goddess, and my guide. E'en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height, The charms of young Endymion drew; Veil'd with the mantle of concealing night; With all thy greatness and thy coldness too.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hello! First of all, thank you for the wonderful content! It's a real joy, and an enrichment, food for both the brain and the heart! I was wondering if through your treasures, you could find some writing notes/words/concepts/vocabulary relating to genetic engineering? Like...creating a virus, and a vaccine for it, modifying the virus so it has certain specific effects.... Thank you in advance!

Writing Notes: Virus & Vaccine

References How Viruses Work; Replication Cycle; Mutation, Variants, Strains, Genetically Engineering Viruses; Writing Tips; Creating your Fictional Virus & Vaccine

Virus - an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat.

It is a tiny lifeform that is a collection of genes inside a protective shell. Viruses can invade body cells where they multiply, causing illnesses.

It cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself. Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism.

Well-known examples of viruses causing human disease include AIDS, COVID-19, measles and smallpox. Examples of viruses:

Viruses are even smaller than bacteria and can invade living cells—including bacteria. They may interfere with the host genes, and when they move from host to host, they may take host genes with them.

Bacteriophages (also known as phages)—viruses that infect and kill bacteria.

Size differential between virus and bacterium

Viruses are measured in nanometers (nm).

They lack the cellular structure of bacteria, being just particles of protein and genetic material.

How Viruses Work

Viruses use an organism’s cells to survive and reproduce.

They travel from one organism to another.

Viruses can make themselves into a particle called a virion.

This allows the virus to survive temporarily outside of a host organism. When it enters the host, it attaches to a cell. A virus then takes over the cell’s reproductive mechanisms for its own use and creates more virions.

The virions destroy the cell as they burst out of it to infect more cells.

Viral shedding - when an infected person releases the virus into the environment by coughing, speaking, touching a surface, or shedding skin.

Viruses also can be shed through blood, feces, or bodily fluids.

Virus Replication Cycle

While the replication cycle of viruses can vary from virus to virus, there is a general pattern that can be described, consisting of 5 steps:

Attachment – the virion attaches to the correct host cell.

Penetration or Viral Entry – the virus or viral nucleic acid gains entrance into the cell.

Synthesis – the viral proteins and nucleic acid copies are manufactured by the cells’ machinery.

Assembly – viruses are produced from the viral components.

Release – newly formed virions are released from the cell.

Mutations, Variants, and Strains

Not all mutations cause variants and strains. Below are definitions that explain how mutations, variants, and strains differ.

Mutation - errors in the replication of the virus’s genetic code; can be beneficial to the virus, deleterious to the virus, or neutral

Variants - viruses with these mutations are called variants; the Delta and Omicron variants are examples of coronavirus mutations that cause different symptoms from the original infection

Strains - variants that have different physical properties are called strains; these strains may have different behaviors or mechanisms for infection or reproduction

Genetically Engineering Viruses

Using reverse genetics, the sequence of a viral genome can be identified, including that of its different strains and variants.

This enables scientists to identify sequences of the virus that enable it to bind to a receptor, as well as those regions that cause it to be so virulent.

Vaccine - a special preparation of substances that stimulate an immune response, used for inoculation

Vaccines & Fighting Viruses with Viruses

Common pathogenic viruses can be genetically modified to make them less pathogenic, such that their virulent properties are diminished but can still be recognized by the immune system to produce a robust immune response against. They are described as live attenuated.

This is the basis of many successful vaccines and is a better alternative than traditional vaccine development which typically includes heat-mediated disabling of viruses that tend to be poorer in terms of immunogenicity.

Viruses can also be genetically modified to ‘fight viruses’ by boosting immune cells to make more effective antibodies, especially where vaccines fail. Where vaccines fail, it is often due to the impaired antibody production by B-cells, even though antibodies can be raised against such viruses – including HIV, EBV, RSV & cold-viruses.

Related Articles: Modified virus used to kill cancer cells ⚜ Genetic Engineering ⚜ Engineering Bacterial Viruses ⚜ Benefits of Viruses

A Few Writing Tips

As more writers look to incorporate infectious diseases into their work, there are quite a few things writers should keep in mind:

Don’t anthropomorphize. Really easy to do, but scientifically wrong. Viruses don’t want to kill you; bacteria don’t want to infect you; parasites don’t want to make your blood curdle. None of these things are big enough to be sentient to want to do anything. They just do it (or don’t do it).

Personal protective equipment. This includes wearing gloves, lab coats, safety glasses, and tying your hair back if it’s long. It is the same as Edna Mode’s “no capes.” Flowing hair looks cool all the way to the explosive ball of flames that engulfs someone’s head.

Viruses are small. You can’t see viruses down a normal microscope—they need a special microscope called an electron microscope. These are highly specialized and take a long time to make the preparations to be able to see the virus. Normally viruses are detected by inference—measuring part of them using an assay that can amplify tiny amounts of material, for example PCR.

Viruses don’t really cause zombie apocalypses. 

Vaccines work. But they take time. The best vaccine in the world will still only prevent infections two weeks after it is given. Drugs are quicker, but still take some time. But the good news is an infection is not going to kill you (or turn you into a zombie) quickly, so they both have time to work.

Scientists use viruses as a vector to introduce healthy genes into a patient’s cells:

Your Fictional Virus & Vaccine

When creating your own fictional virus, research further on the topic and consider choosing a specific one as your basis/inspiration.

Here's one resource. For some of them, you'll need a subscription to access, but those that are available give you a good overview of the virus, as well as treatment options.

You can do the same for creating your fictional vaccine:

Here's one resource. And here's one on vaccine developments.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

Lastly, here's an interesting article on how science fiction can be a valuable tool to communicate widely around pandemic, whilst also acting as a creative space in which to anticipate how we may handle similar future events.

Thanks so much for your kind words, you're so lovely! Hope this helps with your writing. Would love to read your work if it does :)

[kemetic-dreams]

Onesimus (late 1600s–1700s) was an African man who was instrumental in the mitigation of the impact of a smallpox outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts. His birth name is unknown. He was enslaved and, in 1706, was given to the New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather, who renamed him. Onesimus introduced Mather to the principle and procedure of the variolation method of inoculation to prevent the disease, which laid the foundation for the development of vaccines. After a smallpox outbreak began in Boston in 1721, Mather used this knowledge to advocate for inoculation in the population. This practice eventually spread to other colonies. In a 2016 Boston magazine survey, Onesimus was declared one of the "Best Bostonians of All Time"

Onesimus's name at birth and place of birth are unknown with certainty. He was first documented as living in the colonies in 1706, having been brought to North America as an enslaved person. In December of that year, he was given as a gift by a church congregation to Cotton Mather, their Puritan minister of North Church, as well as a prominent figure in the Salem Witch Trials. Mather renamed him after a first-century AD enslaved person mentioned in the Bible.The name, "Onesimus" means "useful, helpful, or profitable".

Mather referred to the ethnicity of Onesimus as "Guaramantee", which may refer to the Coromantee (also known as Akan people of modern Ghana). 

Mather saw Onesimus as highly intelligent and educated him in reading and writing with the Mather family (for context, according to biographer Kathryn Koo, at that time, literacy was primarily associated with religious instruction, and writing as means of note-taking and conducting business)

In 1716 or shortly before, Onesimus had described to Mather the process of inoculation that had been performed on him and others in his society in Africa (as Mather reported in a letter): "People take Juice of Small-Pox; and Cut the Skin, and put in a drop." In the book, African Medical Knowledge, the Plain Style, and Satire in the 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy, Kelly Wisecup wrote that Onesimus is believed to have been inoculated at some point before being sold into slavery or during the slave trade, as he most likely traveled from the West Indies to Boston.

The variolation method of inoculation was long practiced in Africa among African people.

The practice was widespread among enslaved colonial people from many regions of Africa and, throughout the slave trade in the Americas, slave communities continued the practice of inoculation despite regional origin.

Mather followed Onesimus's medicinal advice because, as Margot Minardi writes, "inferiority had not yet been indelibly written onto the bodies of Africans."

[beansprean]

Queening the Pawn Act 3 Part 13

exposition reveal! poor the guide :(

Acts 1-2

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14

(ID in alt and under cut)

ID: 1a. Close up of an open book with ragged pages and handwritten script, Guillermo's hands holding it open on the table and finger tracing along the lines. Partially cut off by the panel, it reads: '...ouncil made the...what they most feared...wast troubled by this and...mine own concerns about gran...wretched, snarling beast of a slay...to execute the punishment mine own se...wot fate would'st befall the thing I saw...become of the Council after its escape. Blood wast blood, and mine own brother would'st... withal emulation an he knew I got to taste a van Helsing. I sank mine own fangs into its throat and drank deeply - the taste wost that o' paprika burning in mine own nostrils, but I carried on until the deed wast done and mine own blood wast down its throat. I wast congratulated and we retired for the day. I awoke to a stake at mine own heart and the creature's eyne glinting in the dark. I could hear its heartbeat thundering, strong and alive. The creature had somehow resisted the transformation! I did not have time to observe it for...it knapp'd, and mine own dear Bianca... if not for thy letters folded into mine o... The verbose nature of your love hath... at the hands o' the foul...' Dialogue from present Guillermo, back in the library doing the talking head, is overlaid: 'Turns out the Guide did remember something.' 1b. Close up of Guillermo hunched over the book, pages reflected in his glasses, eyes focused and intense as he presses his palm over his mouth in thought. His present dialogue continues: 'She says Van Helsings started drinking vampire blood more than 300 years ago. I guess they got the idea from the whole thing with smallpox - take the poison in small doses, only get a little sick, and eventually you don't get sick at all.' 1c. Zoom out, Guillermo sitting at the bar as the Guide comes up behind him, face drawn and worried. He turns with a start as she quickly pats him thrice on the shoulder. 1d. Close up on the Guide as she explains her experience, hand up in a pinching motion. Guillermo's voiceover continues: 'You get inoculated, or variolated, I guess. And seems like it was effective enough that, generations later...'

2a. Zoom out to see both standing in profile, the main area of the club beyond. The Van Helsing lore is spread out on the bartop, some books open, some closed, some with page markers sticking out. There are multiple yellow post-it notes scattered around, including some plastered over Abraham's jar to cover the view of his mummified specimen. Guillermo, now standing facing the Guide, leans back with the weight of this information, one hand braced on a barstool and the over covering his face. The Guide clasps her hands in front of her and ducks her head apologetically, looking up at him in concern. Guillermo's voiceover says 'I'm completely immune. I can't be turned.' 2b. Repeat. Guillermo starts to shake with emotion and holds up his free hand as if to shrug off any sympathy. The Guide darts forward worriedly, arms out. Guillermo's voiceover says 'It was hard to hear. Again.' 2c. Waist up of Guillermo and the Guide hugging, her arms around his back and pressing his head to her shoulder where he willingly buries his face, his own arms clutching to her back. Guillermo's voiceover continues: 'But I'm glad I know now, at least.' 2d. Close up on the Guide's eyes over Guillermo's head as they fly open suddenly, irises turned to slits ringed with red as she inhales. Her face is cast in sudden shadow and spatters of blood begin to pile up in the background.

3a. Zoom out, Waist up of the Guide over Guillermo's shoulder as they clutch at each other. Her eyes are wide and pained, lost in some forgotten memory as her arms begin to shake. Behind her, some vague humanoid shapes appear, one with long hair and long skirt, one in a hooded robe, and another kneeling at the robed one's feet. The memory speaks, 'My Guide, the Council has brought you a meal.' 3b. Repeat, blood spatters once again beginning to pop up in the background. The memory continues, responding 'Oh! That is very thoughtful, Mistress, thank you.' and 'Careful, he's a struggler.' The Guide shuts her eyes tightly, chin wobbling as a tear pools in her eye. She squeezes Guillermo even tighter, now beginning to ask for the comfort she had been offering. Guillermo lifts his head slightly and asks, '...Guide? Guide, are you okay?'

4a. Repeat, blood spatters increasing in size and volume. The Guide ducks her head to hide her face in Guillermo's shoulder, full body shaking. She stutters out, 'I don't know.' The voice in the memory comes in again, glitched out and repeating itself in fragments, asking, 'How does he taste?' 4b. A brown wooden background shutters in to bring us back to the present with Guillermo doing his talking head. He is smiling sadly, looking down as he recalls what he just avoided sharing to the cameras. He simply says, '...She's a good friend.' 4c. Repeat, the full background of the mantel and bookshelf fading back in as Guillermo turns toward the camera and shrugs with a self-depreciating smile. He says, 'So...that's it. That's all I have for you guys, sorry. Still kinda figuring out the next steps.' 4d. Zoom out, view of the fireplace straight-on with Guillermo on one side and Greg the camera guy on the other. The top of the sound tech's head and part of the boom is visible in the foreground as they pack up. Greg is a thin white man with long blonde hair and a long blonde beard, wearing cargo shorts, a cardigan, and a purple Teen Titans ball cap. He lowers his camera and asks Guillermo off the record: 'You think you might leave?' Guillermo sighs and tucks his hands into his pockets, answering, 'I don't know, Greg. I'm pretty deep into the sunk-cost fallacy at this point, haha. 4e. Waist up of Guillermo from Greg's POV as he walks toward the door to the hall, turning back slightly to raise one arm in a shrug and say 'But things with Nandor are obviously weird right now. I kinda wonder if he'd even notice.' / end ID

[whencyclopedia]

Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) was a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). One of George Washington's most trusted subordinates, Greene served capably as Quartermaster General before leading the southern American army during the final years of the war. He is often considered the second-best American Revolutionary general, behind only Washington himself.

Early Life

Greene was born on 7 August 1742 on Forge Farm, near Potowomut Creek in the township of Warwick, Rhode Island. He was the third of eight sons born to Nathanael Greene Sr., a prosperous farmer and ardent Quaker; indeed, the father's piety must have been generational, as Greene's ancestors had initially fled England in 1635 to escape religious persecution. Nathanael Greene Sr., lived with his children and second wife, Mary Mott Greene (mother to the younger Nathanael), on the family farm, which had turned into a lucrative enterprise; by the time the younger Nathanael was born, the farm included a farmhouse, a general store, a gristmill, a sawmill, and a forge. The forge, which produced anchors and chains, was by far the most profitable aspect of the family business, employing many workers and eventually becoming one of the foremost businesses in Rhode Island.

As a child, the younger Nathanael had a thirst for education that could not be quenched by his father's strict Quakerism. As Greene would later recall:

My father was a man had an excellent understanding and was governed in his conduct by humanity and kind benevolence. But his mind was overshadowed with prejudices against literary accomplishments.

(quoted in McCullough, 21)

As a result of his father's 'prejudices', Nathanael and his brothers were not sent to school but were instead put to work in the fields. This did not stop Greene from seeking out knowledge on his own; under the guidance of Ezra Stiles, future president of Yale College, Greene became a voracious reader. Anytime he was not required to work in the fields or at the forge, Greene had his nose buried in a book, reading classical literature as well as the more recent philosophical works that defined the Age of Enlightenment. He was also fond of studying mathematics, history, and law.

The autodidactic Greene grew into a handsome, robust man nearly six feet (183 cm) tall, with strong arms, a broad forehead, and "fine blue eyes" (McCullough, 22). A childhood accident left him with a slight limp in his right leg, his right eye was cloudy as an effect of smallpox inoculation, and he often suffered from asthma attacks and poor health. Yet he was nevertheless a charismatic and jolly young man who was often found in the company of women. By 1770, Greene had proved industrious enough for his father to put him in charge of a second family-owned foundry in the town of Coventry, Rhode Island. When Nathanael Greene Sr., died later that same year, Greene and his brothers inherited the entire family business. In 1774, Greene courted and married the pretty 19-year-old Catherine 'Caty' Littlefield, with whom he would have seven children between 1776 and 1786.

Continue reading...

[covid-safer-hotties]

Long COVID is hitting Kentucky hard. Vaccinations and proper ventilation are important. - Published Aug 1, 2024

We have a significant problem with the health of our nation.

Kentucky is barreling towards an unprecedented day of reckoning as it faces a tsunami of chronic diseases caused by sequalae from COVID-19. Currently, 7% of all Kentuckians report having symptoms of Long COVID, eighth highest in the United States. Mounting research is finding that delayed deaths and disability from damage to a multitude of different organs is greater than that from the acute infection. Kentucky is confronting this challenge by not improving indoor ventilation, not masking in high-risk settings and not keeping up-to-date on vaccinations. All of this in the face of raising rates of infections in Kentucky driven by new variants (KP.3).

In the spring of this year, vaccinations appeared to have reached a plateau (or maybe I should state a low flood plain) and the CDC stopped posting vaccination data on May 11, 2024. At that time the national average for receiving the updated booster was 22.5%. Kentucky was well below this at 18.5%.

Messaging from our leaders is important. The “blue” Western States and Northeastern States have almost twice the rate of up-to-date vaccinations (31.3%) as the “red” Southern States (16.1%), a trend which mirrors the perceived advice on the importance of vaccinations from their leaders.

One of our Northern Kentucky Representatives, Thomas Massie, last year introduced a U.S. Congressional Bill prohibiting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for international visitors, and most recently for those seeking U.S. Citizenship. These political efforts are perplexing in the face of right-wing concerns of “undocumented migrants” bringing disease into our country.

Nationally, there is a growing recognition that we have a significant problem with the health of our nation. However, there is not agreement regarding its cause.

Project 2025 only cares about white populations The national conservative initiative “2025, Mandate for Leadership” from the Heritage Foundation, recognizes a precipitous drop in life expectancy “…with white populations alone losing 7% of their expected life span in just one year.” However, the preceding paragraph appeared to blame this drop on “ ‘promoting equity in everything we do’ for the sake of ‘populations sharing a particular characteristic’ including race, sexuality, gender identification, ethnicity, and a host of other categories.” Of interest the only statistic given was for “white populations.”

After all, if the right wing thinks this virus could potentially be used as a “bio weapon” and it is still rapidly spreading in our society, maybe we should focus more on COVID-19 with its potential to cause long COVID and delayed deaths, rather than blaming programs designed to protect our high-risk frontline workers, many of which are economically disadvantaged and minorities.

The importance in vaccinations cannot be overstated. They are one of our best tools to prevent long COVID with efficacy rates of approximately 70%. But with reinfections, even this is not enough. As exemplified by statements by Whoopi Goldberg during her return to the View after a COVID-19 reinfection. "I'm just getting over COVID – again – and I can barely remember anybody’s name," "I don’t know who they are ... There are times when I go for a word and it’s not there, …."

And vaccinations, even mandates, are not anti-patriotic. In 1775, George Washington mandated that his troops receive smallpox vaccinations. He knew that with a 30% fatality rate smallpox was a grave threat to his army and could prevent a victory against the British Army. The process of vaccination was called “variolation” where pus was taken from a smallpox patient and inserted into a wound on the individual to be inoculated. This vaccine was not without complications, it had a fatality rate of 5 to 10%, but was safer than getting the disease.

What are we to do? Obviously, if one cannot totally prevent COVID infections our goal should be to become infected the least number of times possible; lowering our risks of deaths, hospitalizations and long COVID. A new generation of vaccines are needed and hopefully once available, they will be more effective in decreasing spread and preventing infections.

Kentuckians need to increase their efforts, both for our health and that of our society as a whole. Currently, I carry a CO2 monitor to measure ventilation and judge the risks of indoor settings. And we all should start using N95 masks in high-risk indoor settings, become boosted with the latest version of the vaccine and businesses need to greatly improve indoor ventilation.

[smallhorse]

The Science of the Serum

Allow me, if you will, to put some science into the science fiction of the marvel cinematic universe.

the shield super soldier serum functions as an imperfect non sentient symbiote

it’s a unique blend of cells that requires a host to survive, when it enters into the system of the host, it immediately starts taking over and in a series of rapid cell multiplication and deletion, starts to make things better by replacing the old cells with the serum enhanced cells

however the cell replacement is imperfect in that it replaces healthy host cells fine, replaces its own cells very well, but damaged tissue is difficult for the serum to recognize and replace to optimum functionality

Steve had weak muscles but they were healthy muscles and therefore they were able to be enhanced by the serum, it took longer for his lungs to operate at full capacity but Steve had medication to assist the function of his normal lungs and so between the medication and the serum they were able to get those lungs up and running pretty quickly

Now what about damaged/imperfect cells that don’t heal on their own, even with the super soldier serum? This treatise posits that they remain the same in that the super soldier serum cannot determine how to fix these cells and so it settles with imitating the cells to the best of their enhanced abilities

Operating under this assumption, it can be inferred that the scars that Steve had pre-serum stayed with him after the serum was introduced into his system

Insert a transition sentence here!

Prior to the sleek vaccine system we know and love involving a singular needle depositing the vaccine intramuscularly, the vaccines, specifically the smallpox vaccine in this case, that were in use around the time when Steve was wandering around being all pre-serum and adorable were administered through scratches into the superficial layers of the skin created by multipronged lancets

As such, anyone who received the small pox vaccination were left with a distinctive scar on their arm

So obviously Steve was like what’s this something to make me less sick? Sign me the fuck up and of course he drags Bucky along and then a half hour later they’re walking out of the clinic with perfectly circular wounds on their left biceps

Of course they laugh: chicks dig scars! need me to kiss it better? I'll give you a lollipop if you don't cry this time. and these little scars that they share feel more like badges of honor, brotherhood, and love than they feel like representations of their inoculations

Now when Steve rescues Bucky from hydra imprisonment Bucky is obviously thrilled to see him but also he’s never seen Steve like this before, he finally has the physical presence that is attitude always needed and now it’s like he’s transformed. Bucky always knew Steve was brave but seeing him in battle is this cognitive dissonance that he can’t really get over for a while.

That is until one night they’re sleeping rough with the commandos camped out in the middle of nowhere and they get shoved into the same tent because dammit Steve snores and Bucky is the only one who can sleep through it and so they’re lying together, Bucky trying to find a way back to his friend that suddenly he doesn’t feel like he knows any more

Bucky is running his fingers over the new Steve just trying to familiarize himself with this new body when he feels that little nickel sized depression in Steve’s skin and by god it’s night out and he can’t see a damn thing but Bucky would know that scar anywhere in the world because he has the exact same one. And so their matching scars become almost a talisman to remind them of who they were and who they are to each other. 

Months go by and hydra is pleased with the success of their brain washing, they’ve almost got the asset convinced he’s all machine, there’s back slaps and congratulations all around but it had nothing to do with those shoddy scientists. Bucky wasn’t Bucky anymore when he reached for that little dimpled scar on his arm and felt only cold smooth metal. he wasn’t Steve’s Bucky anymore. he wasn’t Bucky anymore. He wasn’t anyone anymore. he was only ready to comply

[marzipanandminutiae]

as a Millennial, I have a lot of anxieties.

what will the world be like in the future?

will I ever be able to afford a house and children, since I want those?

what if I get spontaneously sent back in time to an era that had smallpox, but after the invention of the inoculation, and have a greater smallpox risk than the people in that era because I was born after smallpox was eradicated and have never had said inoculation? wouldn't it be poetic tragedy if, coming from a time with medical knowledge these people could never even dream of, I died from a disease many of them were immune to because my era was innocent of its ravages?

you know, normal stuff

[chiropteracupola]

hm. thinking about art-showing again.

[quotesfrommyreading]

The last needle to be applied against smallpox, before its eradication almost half a century ago, carried a dose of vaccine smaller than a child’s pupil. Four hundred years fit inside that droplet. The devotion of D. A. Henderson’s disease-eradicating team was in it. So were the contributions of Benjamin Rubin and the Spanish boys, as well as the advocacy of Henry Cline and the discovery by Edward Jenner, and before him the evangelism of Lady Montagu, and the influence of Circassian traders from the Caucasus Mountains, who first brought the practice of inoculation to the Ottoman court. An assembly line of discovery, invention, deployment, and trust wound its way through centuries and landed at the tip of a needle. Perhaps there is our final lesson, the one most worth carrying forward. It takes one hero to make a great story, but progress is the story of us all.

  —  Why the Age of American Progress Ended

[mariacallous]

Parasites take an enormous toll on human and veterinary health. But researchers may have found a way for patients with brain disorders and a common brain parasite to become frenemies.

A new study published in Nature Microbiology has pioneered the use of a single-cell parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to inject therapeutic proteins into brain cells. The brain is very picky about what it lets in, including many drugs, which limits treatment options for neurological conditions.

As a professor of microbiology, I’ve dedicated my career to finding ways to kill dangerous parasites such as Toxoplasma. I’m fascinated by the prospect that we may be able to use their weaponry to instead treat other maladies.

Microbes as Medicine

Ever since scientists realized that microscopic organisms can cause illness—what’s called the 19th-century germ theory of disease—humanity has been on a quest to keep infectious agents out of our bodies. Many people’s understandable aversion to germs may make the idea of adapting these microbial adversaries for therapeutic purposes seem counterintuitive.

But preventing and treating disease by co-opting the very microbes that threaten us has a history that long predates germ theory. As early as the 1500s, people in the Middle East and Asia noted that those lucky enough to survive smallpox never got infected again. These observations led to the practice of purposefully exposing an uninfected person to the material from an infected person’s pus-filled sores—which unbeknownst to them contained weakened smallpox virus—to protect them from severe disease.

This concept of inoculation has yielded a plethora of vaccines that have saved countless lives.

Viruses, bacteria, and parasites have also evolved many tricks to penetrate organs such as the brain and could be retooled to deliver drugs into the body. Such uses could include viruses for gene therapy and intestinal bacteria to treat a gut infection known as C. diff.

Why Can’t We Just Take a Pill for Brain Diseases?

Pills offer a convenient and effective way to get medicine into the body. Chemical drugs such as aspirin or penicillin are small and easily absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream.

Biologic drugs such as insulin or semaglutide, on the other hand, are large and complex molecules that are vulnerable to breaking down in the stomach before they can be absorbed. They are also too big to pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream.

All drugs, especially biologics, have great difficulty penetrating the brain due to the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a layer of cells lining the brain’s blood vessels that acts like a gatekeeper to block germs and other unwanted substances from gaining access to neurons.

Toxoplasma Offers Delivery Service to Brain Cells

Toxoplasma parasites infect all animals, including humans. Infection can occur in multiple ways, including ingesting spores released in the stool of infected cats or consuming contaminated meat or water. Toxoplasmosis in otherwise healthy people produces only mild symptoms but can be serious in immunocompromised people and to gestating fetuses.

Unlike most pathogens, Toxoplasma can cross the blood-brain barrier and invade brain cells. Once inside neurons, the parasite releases a suite of proteins that alter gene expression in its host, which may be a factor in the behavioral changes it causes in infected animals and people.

In a new study, a global team of researchers hijacked the system Toxoplasma uses to secrete proteins into its host cell. The team genetically engineered Toxoplasma to make a hybrid protein, fusing one of its secreted proteins to a protein called MECP2, which regulates gene activity in the brain—in effect, giving the MECP2 a piggyback ride into neurons. Researchers found that the parasites secreted the MECP2 protein hybrid into neurons grown in a petri dish as well as in the brains of infected mice.

A genetic deficiency in MECP2 causes a rare brain development disorder called Rett syndrome. Gene therapy trials using viruses to deliver the MECP2 protein to treat Rett syndrome are underway. If Toxoplasma can deliver a form of MECP2 protein into brain cells, it may provide another option to treat this currently incurable condition. It also may offer another treatment option for other neurological problems that arise from errant proteins, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The Long Road Ahead

The road from laboratory bench to bedside is long and filled with obstacles, so don’t expect to see engineered Toxoplasma in the clinic anytime soon.

The obvious complication in using Toxoplasma for medical purposes is that it can produce a serious, lifelong infection that is currently incurable. Infecting someone with Toxoplasma can damage critical organ systems, including the brain, eyes, and heart.

However, up to one-third of people worldwide currently carry Toxoplasma in their brain, apparently without incident. Emerging studies have correlated infection with increased risk of schizophrenia, rage disorder, and recklessness, hinting that this quiet infection may be predisposing some people to serious neurological problems.

The widespread prevalence of Toxoplasma infections may also be another complication, as it disqualifies many people from using it for treatment. Since the billions of people who already carry the parasite have developed immunity against future infection, therapeutic forms of Toxoplasma would be rapidly destroyed by their immune systems once injected.

In some cases, the benefits of using Toxoplasma as a drug delivery system may outweigh the risks. Engineering benign forms of this parasite could produce the proteins patients need without harming the organ—the brain—that defines who we are.

[mourning-again-in-america]

You do get denounced by various preachers!

Still (probably unreasonably) irritated that for all the celebration of smallpox eradication in the EA community, the introduction of smallpox inoculation (by Zabdiel Boylston, on the advice of Cotton Mather, on the advice of one of his slaves) goes largely unnoticed and uncelebrated

[littlefeather-wolf]

Fool Thunder and family. Hunkpapa Lakota. 1880 ❤

The Hunkpapa (Lakota: Húŋkpapȟa) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as Honkpapa). By tradition, the Húŋkpapȟa set up their lodges at the entryway to the circle of the Great Council when the Sioux met in convocation. They speak Lakȟóta, one of the three dialects of the Sioux language.

Seven hundred and fifty mounted Yankton, Yanktonai and Lakota joined six companies of the Sixth Infantry and 80 fur trappers in an attack on an Arikara Indian village at Grand River (now South Dakota) in August 1823, named the Arikara War. Members of the Lakota, a part of them "Ankpapat", were the first Native Americans to fight in the American Indian Wars alongside US forces west of the Missouri.

They may have formed as a tribe within the Lakota relatively recently, as the first mention of the Hunkpapa in European-American historical records was from a treaty of 1825.

By signing the 1825 treaty, the Hunkpapa and the United States committed themselves to keep up the "friendship which has heretofore existed". With their x-mark, the chiefs also recognized the supremacy of the United States. It is not certain whether they really understood the text in the document. The US representatives gave a medal to Little White Bear, who they understood was the principal Hunkpapa chief; they did not realize how decentralized Native American authority was.

With the Indian Vaccination Act of 1832, the United States assumed responsibility for the inoculation of the Indians against smallpox. Some visiting Hunkpapa may have benefitted from Dr. M. Martin's vaccination of about 900 southern Lakota (no divisions named) at the head of Medicine Creek that autumn. When smallpox struck in 1837, it hit the Hunkpapa as the northernmost Lakota division. The loss, however, may have been fewer than one hundred people.Overall, the Hunkpapa seem to have suffered less from new diseases than many other tribes did.

The boundaries for the Lakota Indian territory were defined in the general peace treaty negotiated near Fort Laramie in the summer of 1851. Leaders of eight different tribes, often at odds with each other and each claiming large territories, signed the treaty. The United States was a ninth party to it. The Crow Indian territory included a tract of land north of the Yellowstone, while the Little Bighorn River ran through the heartland of the Crow country (now Montana). The treaty defines the land of the Arikara, the Hidatsa and the Mandan as a mutual area north of Heart River, partly encircled by the Missouri (now North Dakota).

Soon enough the Hunkpapa and other Sioux attacked the Arikara and the two other so-called village tribes, just as they had done in the past. By 1854, these three smallpox-devastated tribes called for protection from the U.S. Army, and they would repeatedly do so almost to the end of inter-tribal warfare. Eventually the Hunkpapa and other Lakota took control of the three tribes' area north of Heart River, forcing the village people to live in Like a Fishhook Village outside their treaty land. The Lakota were largely in control of the occupied area to 1876–1877.

The United States Army General Warren estimated the population of the Hunkpapa Lakota at about 2920 in 1855. He described their territory as ranging "from the Big Cheyenne up to the Yellowstone, and west to the Black Hills. He states that they formerly intermarried extensively with the Cheyenne." He noted that they raided settlers along the Platte River In addition to dealing with warfare, they suffered considerable losses due to contact with Europeans and contracting of Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity.

The Hunkpapa gave some of their remote relatives among the Santee Sioux armed support during a large-scale battle near Killdeer Mountain in 1864 with U.S. troops led by General A. Sully.

The Great Sioux Reservation was established with a new treaty in 1868. The Lakota agreed to the construction of "any railroad" outside their reservation. The United States recognized that "the country north of the North Platte River and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains" was unsold or unceded Indian territory. These hunting grounds in the south and in the west of the new Lakota domain were used mainly by the Sicangu (Brule-Sioux) and the Oglala, living nearby.

The "free bands" of Hunkpapa favored campsites outside the unsold areas. They took a leading part in the westward enlargement of the range used by the Lakota in the late 1860s and the early 1870s at the expense of other tribes. In search for buffalo, Lakota regularly occupied the eastern part of the Crow Indian Reservation as far west as the Bighorn River, sometimes even raiding the Crow Agency, as they did in 1873. The Lakota pressed the Crow Indians to the point that they reacted like other small tribes: they called for the U.S. Army to intervene and take actions against the intruders.

In the late summer of 1873, the Hunkpapa boldly attacked the Seventh Cavalry in United States territory north of the Yellowstone. Custer's troops escorted a railroad surveying party here, due to similar attacks the year before. Battles such as Honsinger Bluff and Pease Bottom took place on land purchased by the United States from the Crow tribe on May 7, 1868.These continual attacks, and complaints from American Natives, prompted the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to assess the full situation on the northern plains. He said that the unfriendly Lakota roaming the land of other people should "be forced by the military to come in to the Great Sioux Reservation". That was in 1873, notably one year before the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, but the US government did not take action on this concept until three years later.

The Hunkpapa were among the victors in the Battle of Little Bighorn in the Crow Indian Reservation in July 1876.

Since the 1880s, most Hunkpapa have lived in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation (in North and South Dakota). It comprises land along the Grand River which had been used by the Arikara Indians in 1823; the Hunkpapa "won the west" half a century before the whites.

During the 1870s, when the Native Americans of the Great Plains were fighting the United States, the Hunkpapa were led by Sitting Bull in the fighting, together with the Oglala Lakota. They were among the last of the tribes to go to the reservations. By 1891, the majority of Hunkpapa Lakota, about 571 people, resided in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation of North and South Dakota ...

Since then they have not been counted separately from the rest of the Lakota ...

[wuxiaphoenix]

Colors of Another Sky: A Matter of Timing

One of the problems of doing your research is sometimes you know too much. For example, someone inoculated with smallpox - variolated, instead of vaccinated - will come down with smallpox inside a few days.

Yes. Actual. Smallpox. Hopefully a mild case, one you can get over in a few days - but historically those are horribly miserable days. And you’re contagious a bit before, during, and probably at least a week after you’re sick. So if you don’t stick to strict quarantine or stay only around people who are already immune, you can spark off an epidemic. This is generally known as a Bad Idea.

In case any of you needs to use something like this in a story, smallpox spreads not just by airborne exposure, but by the infectious matter from a pock - the “seeds” of smallpox - contacting any break in the skin. Sick people who have to be out and about shed pocks; kids run around barefoot. You can see where this is going.

(For more history, check out The Speckled Monster, by Jennifer Lee Carrell.)

Theoretically, with sufficiently advanced science/magic, you could reduce the time someone was sick or contagious. But given you have to rely on variolation in the first place, you probably can’t eliminate it completely.

This is a major life interruption. Worse, from a writer’s POV, it’s a major pacing interruption. If it’s minor characters you might be able to get away with just a passing mention of John Doe having an awful time in quarantine, then have him show up in the story later as appropriate, likely still a bit pale and shaky but well enough to be released from house arrest given it’s an emergency.

(Of course it’s an emergency. That’s the way it always goes, right?)

Main characters are trickier. A major life interruption feels like it ought to be a major part of the story. But who wants to read a whole book where the character’s sick?

(Well. If you’re writing a zombie apocalypse and someone gets bitten, that might fit. But I tend not to write things that bleak.)

A novel’s too long; a chapter seems too short, unless the story makes a habit of covering events with “and a week later” intervening. If the character being sick is the only major event you’re skipping... the pacing feels wrong.

Which is why I’m considering making it a short story.

Two weeks seems about right for characters to do some settling in and frantic research before a party has to take off to handle another monster emergency. It’d let me do some slower slice-of-life stuff and give the characters time to explore the area they’re confined to. Which is actually fairly large. In a time when a lot of people still think smallpox is a curse sent by angry ghosts, and there are actual contagious curses that create monsters - you don’t just variolate your doctors, or your monster-hunters. You treat everyone they live in contact with.

Meaning as long as our variolated characters stay inside that minor village and steer clear of kids under two, they can move about on days they feel up to it and not worry about starting an epidemic.

Now to figure out what should go into the slice-of-life. I know I want Ningpo embroidery, book browsing, brainstorming about wine grapes, and upside-down rice noodles....