#William Tenn | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

justinspoliticalcorner · 2 months ago

Text

Devin Dwyer, Sarah Herndon, and Robert Zepeda at ABC News:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The transgender Tennessee teenager behind a historic hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court this week doesn't want to show her face on television but is eager to speak about a case she says has the potential to make thousands of American kids feel "seen" for who they are. "The court has definitely ruled in ways that would make me think that they don't exactly value bodily autonomy, but I have heard that they've been a little bit better about trans cases than people would think," said 16-year-old LW in an exclusive interview with ABC News alongside her parents Samantha and Brian Williams. The court on Wednesday will hear the Williams family's challenge to Tennessee's 2023 ban on gender-affirming medical treatments for minors, including puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapies that have dramatically improved LW's quality of life.

While the medications have been used safely to treat minors of all genders for years, they are now prohibited in Tennessee when used to treat trans kids struggling with gender dysphoria, the distress experienced when one's gender assigned at birth is different from one's sense of identity. "It's not very comfortable being trapped in [your body] because it just doesn't feel like you," said LW, who reports significant improvement since beginning the treatments in 2022. Since the state law took effect, LW now has to take time away from school to make a 10-hour round trip out of state to continue receiving care. The travel has also been a costly and time-consuming burden, her parents say.

"It would definitely be horrible for me to have to continue to go out of state to get care," said LW. "I feel normal now." Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Biden administration, and major American medical associations, the Williamses sued Tennessee last year alleging the ban on certain gender-affirming treatments for minors discriminates on the basis of sex and overrides the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their children. "Our state legislature had made such a big deal out of parents' rights during COVID, about masks and vaccines that that's for parents to decide these medical decisions for their children," Samantha Williams said. "And then they made this medical decision for our child."

State lawmakers who support the law, SB1, say it is meant to protect kids from potentially irreversible effects from treatment and that contradictory scientific evidence and uncertainty about long-term adverse consequences warrant caution. "We made the policy decision on behalf of our constituents that in Tennessee we think this is a risky procedure," said state Sen. Jack Johnson, the Senate GOP leader who sponsored the bill. "It is our role as policymakers here in the state of Tennessee to set those guardrails."

[...] The outcome of the case U.S. v. Skrmetti could have a sweeping impact on health care for the more than 300,000 American teens who identify as transgender, as well as the broader LGBTQ community. "This is one of the most significant LGBTQ cases to ever reach the Supreme Court. I think this is an inflection point," said Chase Strangio, the ACLU attorney representing the Williams family. He will be the first openly transgender person to argue a case before the nation's highest court. "Is this going to be a Bowers v. Hardwick type moment that sets off years of government legitimized discrimination against LGBTQ people? Or, is this going to be a Bostock moment that clarifies what we all have been assuming all this time, which is that LGBTQ people are protected under the Constitution and civil rights laws," Strangio said. In its 1968 decision in Bowers, the court upheld state laws criminalizing private same-sex conduct; it was overturned in 2003. The Court's 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County found that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal.

ABC News interviewed the trans teen girl and her parents that are at the heart of the United States v. Skrmetti case, which focuses on Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for trans youths (SB1), is set to be heard at oral arguments on Wednesday this week at SCOTUS.

#L.W. v. Skrmetti #United States v. Skrmetti #Transgender #LGBTQ+#ABC News #ABC #Samantha Williams #Brian Williams #Gender Affirming Healthcare #Tennessee SB1 #SCOTUS

10 notes · View notes

camisoledadparis · 2 months ago

Text

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 30

November 30 Holidays

1554 – Sir Philip Sidney, English courtier, soldier, and writer (d.1586); the English courtier and poet was one of the leading lights of Queen Elizabeth's court and a model of Renaissance chivalry. His Apostrophel and Stella is one of the great sonnet sequences in English and was inspired by his love for Penelope Devereaux, even though he later married Frances Walsingham. Lest one confuse Renaissance "love" and "marriage" with the modern versions, it should be pointed out that Penelope Devereaux was 12-years old when Sidney fell in love with her, and that Frances Walsingham was 14 when she was married to the 29-year-old courtier. Marriages were arranged then and not made in heaven, more a real estate transaction than a spiritual love match.

Sidney, himself, was in his teens when the Huguenot writer and diplomat Hubert Languet fell in love with him. Languet was 36 years his senior, lived with him for a time, and, when they parted, wrote passionate letters to him weekly. In his youth, Sidney was strongly attached to two young men, Fulke Greville and Edward Dyer, and wrote love verses to them both, a point not lost on gay John Addington Symonds when he wrote Sidney's biography.

Sidney died in battle at the age of 32. According to the story, while lying wounded he gave his water-bottle to another wounded soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine". This became possibly the most famous story about Sir Phillip, intended to illustrate his noble character.

1624 – In the Virginia Colony, Richard Cornish was hanged for sodomy for allegedly making advances on an indentured servant, William Couse. His conviction and execution, angrily contested by his brother and others, is the first to be recorded in the American colonies. In 1993 the William and Mary Gay and Lesbian Alumni created the Richard Cornish Endowment Fund for Gay and Lesbian Resource.

1864 – Died: Major General Patrick (Ronayne) Cleburne (b.1828), who was an Irish American soldier, best known for his service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Born in County Cork, Ireland, Cleburne served in the 41st Regiment of Foot of the British Army after failing to gain entrance into Trinity College of Medicine in 1846. He emigrated to the U.S. three years later. At the beginning of the Civil War, Cleburne sided with the Confederacy. He progressed from being a private soldier in the local militia to a division commander. Cleburne participated in many successful military campaigns, especially the Battle of Stones River and the Battle of Ringgold Gap. His strategic ability gained him the nickname "Stonewall of the West".

According to Randy Shilts ("Conduct Unbecoming"), the Major General might have earned the "Stonewall" appellation for less martial reasons. According to Shilts in his bestselling Conduct Unbecoming the Major General was a 'life-long bachelor' and wrote of the great love of his life:

Cleburne's relationship with his twenty-two year old adjutant, Captain Irving Ashby Buck, drew the notice of the general's colleagues. Cleburne's biographer John Francis Maguire wrote that the general's 'attachment' to Buck 'was a very strong one' and that Buck 'for nearly two years of the war, shared Cleburne's labors during the day and his blankets at night.' Buck himself wrote that the pair were 'close and confidential. I habitually messed with him and shared his tent and often his blankets."

Prior to the campaigning season of 1864, Cleburne became engaged to Susan Tarleton of Mobile, Alabama. Their marriage was never to be, as Cleburne was killed during an ill-conceived assault (which he opposed) on Union fortifications at the Battle of Franklin, just south of Nashville, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864.

Self-portrait

1869 – Konstantin Somov (d.1939) Russian Artist associated with the Mir iskusstva. He was the son of a curator at the Hermitage, and he attended the St Petersburg Academy of Art from 1888 to 1897, studying under the Realist painter Il'ya Repin from 1894. Somov was homosexual, like many of the World of Art members.

Sleeping Nude

In 1897 and again in 18989 he went to Paris and attended the studios of Filippo Colarossi and of Whistler. Neither the Realism of his Russian teachers nor the evanescent quality of Whistler's art was reflected for long in Somov's work. He turned instead for inspiration to the Old Masters in the Hermitage and to works of contemporary English and German artists, which he knew from visits abroad and from the art journals.

Following the Russian Revolution, he emigrated to the United States, but found the country "absolutely alien to his art" and moved to Paris. He was buried at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois Cemetery.

1874 – Winston Churchill, British prime minister and statesman (d.1965). He was Britain's wartime prime minister whose courageous leadership and defiant rhetoric fortified the English during their long struggle against Hitler's Germany. "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat," he stated upon becoming prime minister at the beginning of the war. He called Hitler's Reich a "monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime." Following the war, he coined the term "Iron Curtain" to describe the barrier between areas in Eastern Europe under Soviet control and the free West.

In his wonderfully entertaining and informative biography of W. Somerset Maugham, Ted Morgan tells how Maugham once asked Churchill whether it was true, as the statesman's mother had claimed, that he had had affairs with other young men in his youth.

"Not true!" Churchill replied. "But I once went to bed with a man to see what it was like."

The man turned out to be musical-comedy star, Ivor Novello.

"And what was it like?" asked Maugham.

"Musical" Churchill replied.

Another famous story goes that when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, he was woken one freezing February morning by a Downing Street aide bearing the shocking news that a male Tory MP had been caught having sex with a naked guardsman in St James’s Park.

Noting that it had been the coldest night of the winter, Churchill is said to have remarked: "Makes you proud to be British."

1900 – On this date, Oscar Wilde, Irish writer, wit and raconteur died (b.1854); Prison, after his conviction for "gross indecency," was unkind to Wilde's health and after he was released on May 19, 1897 he spent his last three years penniless, in self-imposed exile from society and artistic circles. He went under the assumed name of Sebastian Melmoth, after the famously "penetrated" Saint Sebastian and the devilish central character of Wilde's great-uncle Charles Robert Maturin's gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer.

Nevertheless, Wilde lost no time in returning to his previous pleasures. According to Lord Alfred Douglas, Robbie Ross "dragged [him] back to homosexual practices" during the summer of 1897, which they spent together in Berneval. After his release, he also wrote the famous poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Wilde spent his last years in the Hôtel d'Alsace, now known as L'Hôtel, in Paris, where he was notorious and uninhibited about enjoying the pleasures he had been denied in England. Again according to Douglas, "he was hand in glove with all the little boys on the Boulevard. He never attempted to conceal it." In a letter to Ross, Wilde laments, "Today I bade good-bye, with tears and one kiss, to the beautiful Greek boy. . . he is the nicest boy you ever introduced to me."

Just a month before his death he is quoted as saying, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go." His moods fluctuated; Max Beerbohm relates how, a few days before Wilde's death, their mutual friend Reginald 'Reggie' Turner had found Wilde very depressed after a nightmare. "I dreamt that I had died, and was supping with the dead!" "I am sure," Turner replied, "that you must have been the life and soul of the party." Reggie Turner was one of the very few of the old circle who remained with Wilde right to the end, and was at his bedside when he died. On his deathbed he was received into the Roman Catholic church. Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900.

Wilde was buried in the Cimitiere de Bagneaux outside Paris but was later moved to Père Lachaise in Paris. His tomb in Père Lachaise was designed by sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein, at the request of Robert Ross, who also asked for a small compartment to be made for his own ashes. Ross's ashes were transferred to the tomb in 1950. The numerous spots on it are lipstick traces from admirers.

The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitals. They were broken off as obscene and kept as a paperweight by a succession of Père Lachaise cemetary keepers. Their current whereabouts are unknown. In the summer of 2000, intermedia artist Leon Johnson performed a forty minute ceremony entitled Re-membering Wilde in which a commissioned silver prosthesis was installed to replace the vandalized genitals.

Note: As a general rule, this site does not list persons' death dates - unless their death was something out of the ordinary, a reason for them to be remembered, or because we don't know their date of birth. However, Oscar Wilde desreves special treatment. His name is referenced in this collection of brief biographies far more than any other person. His life, trial, and death had a world-wide effect on gay history.

1924 – San Francisco police sergeant Elliott Blackstone (d.2006) was the first police officer in the nation assigned to work with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

Elliott grew up in Chinook, MT. He graduated from Chinook High School (class of 1942) and immediately joined the United States Navy. He served in Naval Air in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He was honorably discharged in San Francisco, and made Northern California his home for the rest of his life.

He became a San Francisco police officer in 1949, serving until his retirement in 1975. As one of the City's ground-breaking Community Relations officers, he became the nation's first police liaison with the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community and a tireless advocate for its individual members.

During his 26-year career with the San Francisco Police Department, Mr. Blackstone helped mend the rift between the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and the police department. Before his assignment in 1962, the department's previous interaction with the community largely involved raids on bars and entrapment of gay men in bathrooms.

"He didn't see any reason why homosexuality or cross-dressing should be illegal," said Susan Stryker, a historian and scholar who directed and produced a documentary, "Screaming Queens," which tells the story of a 1966 riot at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. That event sparked San Francisco's transgender rights movement. After the riot, Mr. Blackstone trained other officers on transgender issues, and he is featured throughout the documentary.

The Pride Foundation of San Francisco named him Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshal for the 2006 Gay Pride Parade.

1955 – Kevin Conroy was an American actor and voice actor (d.2022). He is best known for his voice role as the DC Comics character Batman on the 1990s Warner Bros. television show Batman: The Animated Series, as well as various other TV series and feature films in the DC animated universe.

Due to the popularity of his performance as Batman, Conroy went on to voice the character for multiple films under the DC Universe Animated Original Movies banner, the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham video games, and in fall 2019 he will play a live action Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Conroy was born in Westbury, New York. Conroy was born into an Irish Catholic family which moved to Westport, Connecticut when he was about 11 years old. He moved to New York City in 1973 when he earned a full scholarship to attend Juilliard's drama division, studying under actor John Houseman. While there, he roomed with Robin Williams, who was in the same group as both Conroy and Kelsey Grammer.

After graduating from Juilliard in 1978, he toured with Houseman's acting group The Acting Company, and the following year he went on the national tour of Ira Levin's Deathtrap.

Filmreference.com listed Conroy as having been married, and having a child, though an interview with The New York Times in 2016 stated that he was single. He also said that he was gay.

In the 2016 interview with The New York Times promoting the animated adaptation of The Killing Joke, Conroy revealed that he was gay. As part of DC Comics' 2022 Pride anthology, Conroy wrote "Finding Batman", a story that recounted his life and experiences as a gay man. It received critical acclaim upon release. He was married to Vaughn C. Williams at the time of his death.

Conroy made an effort to conceal his homosexuality throughout most of his career. He spoke in "Finding Batman" about the discrimination he faced once potential collaborators and employers found out about his homosexuality. Conroy has said that on multiple occasions he had been removed from consideration for acting jobs due to his sexual orientation.

1978 – Born: Clay Aiken, American singer songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. Rolling Stone magazine featured Aiken on the cover of their July 2003 issue. In the cover article Aiken said, "One thing I've found of people in the public eye, either you're a womanizer or you've got to be gay. Since I'm neither one of those, people are completely concerned about me." In subsequent interviews he has expressed frustration over continued questions about his sexual orientation, telling People magazine in 2006, "It doesn't matter what I say. People are going to believe what they want."

After several years of public speculation, Aiken confirmed that he is gay in a September 2008 interview with People magazine. On November 18, 2010, Clay went to Washington, D.C. at a Capitol Hill briefing talking about anti-gay bullying.

1980 – Pepe Julian Onziema is an LGBT rights activist from Uganda. In 2012, he was named a Global Citizen by the Clinton Global Initiative for his work in human rights advocacy. He began his human rights work in 2003, which has twice led to his arrest. He has since participated in organizing gay pride celebrations in Uganda.

In 2012 he was invited to the Ugandan TV show Morning Breeze to join a debate about sexual minorities and their situation in Uganda. However the interview turned into a wild dispute when suddenly Martin Ssempa stormed into the show trying to discredit Onziema, waving fruits and vegetables while shouting in both English and Luganda over the moderator. The interview itself was uploaded to the internet and sparked internet memes.

In 2013, he was shortlisted for the David Kato Vision and Voice Award, an award in honour of his slain friend and colleague, and fellow advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, David Kato.

In 2014, he was interviewed by John Oliver on the American television series Last Week Tonight about the human rights situation for LGBT people in Uganda. Stonewall selected Onziema as Hero of the Year in 2014.

Onziema initially identified as lesbian, and now lives as a trans man. He lives in Kampala.

2006 – South Africa is the first African country to legalize same-sex marriage.

Today's Gay Wisdom: The wit of Oscar Wilde

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.

There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

There is no sin except stupidity.

It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?

Only the shallow know themselves.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

He hadn't a single redeeming vice.

A pessimist is one who, when he has a choice of two evils, chooses both.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

8 notes · View notes

covid-safer-hotties · 2 months ago

Text

The Tripledemic That Wasn’t - Published Dec 16, 2024

Covid mitigations kept respiratory diseases like RSV and Influenza at bay during 2020 and 2021. Dropping mask mandates brought them back, giving us the "tripledemics" and "quademics" being experienced right now. Mask up. Keep everyone safe and healthy.

By Marie Rosenthal, MS As the “traditional” respiratory season began during the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts, infectious disease doctors and hospital administrators were gearing up for a “tripledemic”—they were anticipating months of fighting not only SARS-CoV-2, but also influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

With the three viruses expected to surge across the country, experts were offering advice about protecting family, friends and colleagues. At the time, 12,000 people were dying from COVID-19 each day in the United States alone. Hospitals were barely handling the onslaught of incoming cases. What would they do if 200,000 or more people showed up at their doors with influenza or RSV? A “normal” flu season sees 100,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 to 51,000 deaths. A “normal” RSV season could hospitalize at least 120,000 people and kill 6,100.

Yet, to the relief of many, the tripledemic was not seen during the 2020-2021 respiratory season. So, what happened? Infectious Disease Special Edition spoke with three respiratory virus experts about what they saw, and why they think they saw it, and what that means for the future of influenza.

“The 2020 to 2021 season was the lowest influenza on record,” said William Schaffner, MD, FIDSA, a professor of medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, and a professor of preventive medicine, Department of Health Policy, at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, in Nashville, Tenn. “The curve was essentially flat. We even had some conversations with our colleagues in Canada, who said that the flu cases we were discovering were probably in error,” he jested.

“Flu was not just mild; it was absent, because of the very things that drove people crazy about COVID: segregation and wearing masks,” explained Arnold S. Monto, MD, the co-director of the Michigan Center for Respiratory Virus Research and Response, as well as professor emeritus in epidemiology and public health at the University of Michigan, School of Public Health, in Ann Arbor.

Mitigating Factors

There probably were two factors at play, according to the experts. The first was viral exclusion or interference, which can occur when people or animals are exposed to multiple viruses simultaneously. As the organisms jockey for position, one becomes dominant and the others wait their turn, so to speak. This is seen frequently during normal flu seasons—one strain of flu, often influenza A, sweeps across the country first, and then influenza B comes through near the end of the season.

“I think that when there is a respiratory virus roaring through the community, it can be hard for other respiratory viruses to break in,” said Richard J. Webby, PhD, the director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, and a member of the staff of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tenn.

“When you look at peaks of influenza A, influenza B or RSV over a winter season, more often than not, those peaks don’t overlay [one another]. One comes first and then when one is coming down, the other one will come up,” he said.

The other dynamic—and probably the biggest influencer—was the actions that were put into place to mitigate COVID-19. Social distancing and masking had much to do with stopping the spread of all the respiratory diseases, all three experts told Infectious Disease Special Edition.

“I think it was the unexpected consequence of everything that we were doing against COVID,” Dr. Webby said. “But influenza activity went to very low levels [that season] as did other respiratory viruses as well.”

Mitigation factors were important, according to Dr. Schaffner, because once people stopped wearing masks, attended church services and headed back to school, influenza quickly regained its place in the respiratory hierarchy.

“Quite clearly people were staying home [during COVID],” Dr. Schaffner said. “And most importantly, children were not going to school. They were not playing together, and of course, children have the great ‘distribution franchise’ … for influenza virus.”

One reason children are such efficient spreaders in the community is they shed flu virus for longer periods than adults do. While at school, daycare or play, they spread the virus among themselves and then bring it home to adult family and friends, Dr. Schaffner said.

“So, it’s clear the opportunities to spread the virus were so profoundly reduced in 2021, and we did not have an influenza season,” he added.

“I don’t think it was the interference between COVID and flu. Most people think it was the lockdowns and the changes in patterns, particularly schools being closed because schools are where everything is usually being spread. Just look at rhinovirus. Rhinovirus season starts after school opens,” Dr. Monto said.

Another factor that typically affects influenza hospitalizations and deaths is vaccination, but in this case, influenza vaccination was down, which is another reason the experts point to nonpharmacologic mitigation factors. Influenza vaccination has been decreasing since the pandemic. The CDC estimates that in the 2023-2024 flu season, only 55.4% of children from 6 months through 17 years received a flu vaccination—a decrease of 2 percentage points compared with the previous flu season (57.4%) and a decrease of 8.3 percentage points compared with 2019-2020 (63.7%).

Flu vaccination coverage was also low among adults. Only 44.9% of adults ages 18 and older were vaccinated against flu, a decrease of 2.0 percentage points from the previous season (46.9%). Adults saw an initial increase in flu coverage right after the pandemic started, but coverage has continued to decline, according to the CDC (bit.ly/49s7iVu-IDSE).

Taking Its Course

To tease out what happened to the other respiratory viruses, an Israeli study examined hospital admissions related to respiratory diseases among children before and after the pandemic. They retrospectively reviewed medical records from November 2020 to January 2021, and compared them with the same periods during the previous two years. They found 1,488 hospitalizations due to respiratory illnesses: 632 in 2018-2019, 701 in 2019-2020, and 144 in 2020-2021. They attributed the significant decline in respiratory viral and bacterial coinfections during the pandemic to viral interference, as well as social distancing and wearing masks (Isr Med Assoc J 2023;25[3]:171-176).

This was reiterated in several studies, including a recent review in Emerging Infectious Diseases, which predicted a return to more normal flu seasons as the COVID-19 emergency abated (2022;28[2]:273-281). “During the coronavirus disease pandemic, nonpharmacologic interventions have prevented the circulation of most respiratory viruses. Once the sanitary restrictions are lifted, circulation of seasonal respiratory viruses is expected to resume and will offer the opportunity to study their interactions, notably with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.”

As predicted, flu did fight its way back into circulation. The following year, 2021-2022, influenza started later than usual, but in 2022-2023, it started earlier, as “though the virus was getting back into its rhythm,” Dr. Schaffner said, and the 2024-2025 season appears to be behaving “just the way a conventional flu season starts.”

Dr. Webby added: “I think because we stopped doing everything that we were doing during the height of the pandemic—we stopped wearing masks, we started traveling again—COVID settled into more peaks of activity rather than year-round activity, so all of those things that helped keep flu away were gone.”

A Prudent Response

Based on this experience and what they know about respiratory viruses, all three experts agreed that wearing a mask in public during respiratory season is a prudent thing to do, especially if a person is immunocompromised. They also reiterated the importance of staying home when people are sick to stop the spread of all respiratory viruses.

“I recommend a mask for people who are at increased risk of getting more severe disease should they become infected,” Dr. Schaffner said. They should ask themselves these questions: “Are they more likely to become seriously ill and require hospitalization and intensive care admission? Are they at increased risk of dying? Eighty percent of the deaths occur in people 65 and older.

“As a person who is in that group, when I go to the supermarket or the drugstore, or anywhere, I wear a mask,” he said. “So, I think it would be a good idea.”

The viruses are respiratory, and thus spread through airborne particles, reminded Dr. Monto; therefore, anything that reduces that spread is worthwhile. He said he doesn’t understand the resistance to wearing a mask, “because it does work. Why does a surgeon wear a mask in an operating room? Because we know that wearing masks helps to stop the spread of infection,” Dr. Monto said. “It’s not a total answer, but it’s a partial one.”

“In some parts of the world, wearing a mask is still a pretty common practice, so obviously, it does work,” Dr. Webby said, but he added that he thinks it’s the combination of actions that is important. “What impact does wearing a mask on its own have? I don’t think we know,” he said. “People are traveling or were still maybe a little more likely to go to work with a bit of the sniffles as opposed to staying home, so it is hard to tease those out in my mind, but it makes good sense to wear a mask.”

In addition, they said healthcare providers should continue to recommend vaccination against COVID-19 and influenza, as well as RSV, if eligible, because the vaccines help reduce the risk for hospitalizations and death.

Despite the best prognostications, flu is unpredictable, Dr. Schaffner reminded. Although everyone thought a tripledemic would occur, it didn’t. It wasn’t the end of flu by a long shot, and flu came back this season just as it always has.

Dr. Monto concurred: “There are a lot of people who like to say, ‘We understand this.’ But in reality, when you look at what happens, there is a lot we don’t understand. We observe, and we try to predict.”

#mask up #public health #wear a mask #wear a respirator #pandemic #covid #still coviding #covid 19 #coronavirus #sars cov 2 #rsv #flu

8 notes · View notes

vicky117 · 2 months ago

Note

Holaaaa Vicky eres una inspiración muy grande para mi y tus dibujos me encantan, tengo una pregunta, Angsty Tenn en tu au conoce a Beta? o tiene transfondo?

Angsty tenn el original no..ya que el que vemos en Help wanted es solo la voz de el quien alguna vez fue trabajador en SL y que en varias ocasiones han utilizado su voz para presentar el Chow de los animatronicos o guiar a los guardias entre otras más.

angsty fue conocido en esos viejos años por su forma de vestir , como alguien de estándares altos , William Afton creo un personaje parecido a el para que le dé voz , angsty con gusto aceptó la propuesta.. asta que William se le ocurrió experimentar con este trabajador obviamente no termino bien para angsty, pero milagrosamente logro salir con vida o más o menos..desde allí nunca , nunca quiso poner ningún pie en Freddys o que tenga que ver con Afton incluso animatronicos.

Beta no tubo la oportunidad de conocer a angsty tenn en persona ni en físico solo a la voz de este en diferentes escenarios de la empresa fazbear y ese personaje característico de SL que sirve de guía a los guardias y técnicos , beta lo describe como un personaje molesto en ocasiones pero que da ayuda necesaria.

El nombre real de angsty tenn es Hans mixed y que solo el nombre anterior de angsty es un apodo lo cual William se vaso para poner al personaje de guía y presentador .

#fnaf #fnaf ul #fnaf fanart #dibujo #reyeno #vr #help wanted #SL FNAF #fnaf sister location #angsty tenn FNAF

12 notes · View notes

beardedmrbean · 7 months ago

Text

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The writings of the person who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville last year cannot be released to the public, a judge ruled Thursday.

Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles found that The Covenant School children and parents hold the copyright to any writings or other works created by shooter Audrey Hale, a former student who was killed by police. As part of the effort to keep the records closed, Hale’s parents transferred ownership of Hale’s property to the victims’ families, who then argued in court that they should be allowed to determine who has access to them.

Myles agreed, ruling that “the original writings, journals, art, photos and videos created by Hale” are subject to an exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act created by the federal Copyright Act.

The ruling comes more than a year after several groups filed public records requests for documents seized by Metro Nashville Police during their investigation into the March 2023 shooting. Those killed were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.

Part of the interest in the records stems from the fact that Hale, who police say was “assigned female at birth,” may have identified as a transgender man, and some pundits have floated the theory that the journals will reveal a planned hate crime against Christians.

The victims’ families released statements about the ruling on Friday. Cindy Peak’s family wrote, “The last year and a half without Cindy has been difficult. But today brings a measure of relief in our family. Denying the shooter some of the notoriety she sought by releasing her vile and unfiltered thoughts on the world is a result everyone should be thankful for.”

The shooter left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and a memoir, according to court filings. When the records requests were denied, several parties sued, and the situation quickly ballooned into a messy mix of conspiracy theories, leaked documents, probate battles and accusations of ethical misconduct. Myles’ order will almost surely be appealed.

After the initial records requests last year, police said they would eventually release the documents but could not do so right away because their investigation was still open. The groups suing for the immediate release of the records — including news outlets, a gun rights group, a law enforcement nonprofit and Tennessee state Sen. Todd Gardenhire — argued that there was no meaningful criminal investigation underway since Hale, who police say acted alone, was dead.

Meanwhile, a group of Covenant parents was allowed to intervene in the case and argue that the records should never become public. They said the release would be traumatic for the families and could inspire copycat attacks.

Myles found that the copycat risk was real and “of grave concern.”

“Hale used the writings of other perpetrators in similar crimes to guide how this plan was constructed and accomplished, mimicking some not only in their methodology, but also choice of weapons and targets,” Myles wrote. “Hale even held past perpetrators out as heroes in their attacks, idolizing them.”

Also intervening in the case were The Covenant School and the Covenant Presbyterian Church, which shares a building. They argued the records should remain closed because their release could threaten their security.

The Associated Press is among the groups that requested the records but did not participate in the lawsuit.

As the court case has dragged on, pages from one journal were leaked to a conservative commentator who posted them to social media in November. More recently, The Tennessee Star published dozens of stories based on allegedly 80 pages of Hale’s writings provided by an unnamed source. The publication is among the plaintiffs, and Myles briefly threatened to hold the paper’s editor-in-chief, Michael Leahy, and owner, Star News Digital Media, in contempt.

Although Myles’ ruling will shield many of the documents created by Hale from public release, other documents in the police file can be released once the case is officially closed as long as they fall under Tennessee’s open records law.

An attorney for the lead plaintiff in the case did not immediately have a reaction to the ruling.

#nunyas news #oh this is a lot of BS

11 notes · View notes

scotianostra · 3 months ago

Text

On November 7th 1974 Eric Linklater, the novelist and playwright, died in Aberdeen.

Although born in Wales, Linklater always considered himself as an Orcadian. Indeed like many on the island Eric can claim viking heritage and his family has documental proof that goes back to the 15th century an 18 generations.

There is a great wee story about his Great- Grandfather that I am sure you will appreciate, he worked on the whaling fleet from Stromness. When given leave he’d walk 10 miles home to Harray. It’s said there were many ale-houses by the road, and he never did the journey in less than 3 days!

Educated at Aberdeen University, Linklater spent many years on Orkney, the birthplace of his father, and even commanded the Orkney garrison during the Second World War.

Linklater was initially rejected by the army because of his poor eyesight, but joined up in 1917, his poor eyesight however meant he was not meant to see any action, he was sent to a Yeomanry regiment stationed in the north of England.

I read he lied about his age to join up, he would have been around 17 at the time, it’s partly true,and if you look at the pic of him in his uniform he does look very young.I did manage to dig up the truth about the lie though . While in England he heard that they were sending a small draft to the Black Watch in France, he made a few adjustments to his own medical record (improving his eyesight and adding a year to his age) and, using his own authority as Orderly Corporal, added his own name to the list of those sent abroad.

From 1919 to 1925 he studied at Aberdeen University, first in medicine and then in English. Between 1925 and 1927 he was an assistant editor of the Times of India, living in Bombay. After a year working at Aberdeen University in 1927-8, he spent two years as a Commonwealth Fellow in the USA, at Cornell and Berkeley.

Eric Linklater began publishing prolifically in 1929: altogether he wrote 23 novels, 3 volumes of short stories, 3 autobiographies, 10 plays, and 23 books of essays and non-fiction, as well as the books mentioned above in the first paragraph. Juan in America and Private Angelo are perhaps his best-known novels. He loved the Icelandic sagas, and wrote his own: The Men of Ness: the Saga of Thorlief Coalbiter’s Sons ; later, in 1955, he published a book about the sagas, called The Ultimate Viking.

On 1st June 1933 he Eric married Marjorie MacIntyre, and after a period in Italy they settled at Dounby in Orkney; they had four children.

Between 1939 and 1941 Linklater commanded the company of Royal Engineers on Orkney. In 1941 he was posted to the directorate of public relations in the War Office, and from 1944 to 1945 served in Italy, where he acquired the experiences necessary for writing Private Angelo, which was dedicated to the Eighth Army. It was a book about courage, but it did not celebrate war. Angelo’s remark “I hope you will not liberate us out of existence” might well have inspired William Tenn’s celebrated science fiction story “The Liberation of Earth” . In 1951 he published a history of that part of WW2, The Campaign in Italy, and, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel he visited Korea.

In 1945 Eric Linklater was elected rector of Aberdeen University, and in 1947 the family moved to to Ross, and later to Aberdeenshire. From 1968 to 1973 he was deputy lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty.

Diana Gabaldon author of the Outlander books, told National Geographic: she researched for her series of books by reading a Linklater book. "I was reading a research book called The Prince in the Heather. She said. The account of Jamie Fraser surviving Culloden is partly based on a true story in the book where a Fraser of the Master of Lovat's regiment” took refuge in a farmhouse with 18 others and survived the slaughter.

Eric Linklater died in Aberdeen on this day 1974 and was buried in the Harray churchyard in Orkney. His widow, already an active political campaigner, moved back to Orkney, to serve as chairman of the Orkney Heritage Society. She helped to establish the St Magnus festival, and campaigned for the Scottish National Party.

Orkney makar George Mackay Brown wrote in the Orcadian, 14th November 1974,

“Orkney is a poorer place without him; even though for most of the year, he lived outside the islands. It is fitting that his dust should be brought back to lie in Orkney earth.”

#scotland #scottish #history #orkneys #wales #orcadian #writer

6 notes · View notes