#crisis prepping

[themelanindigitalwave]

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[reasonsforhope]

"A large clinical trial in South Africa and Uganda has shown that a twice-yearly injection of a new pre-exposure prophylaxis drug gives young women total protection from HIV infection.

The trial tested whether the six-month injection of lenacapavir would provide better protection against HIV infection than two other drugs, both daily pills. All three medications are pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) drugs.

Physician-scientist Linda-Gail Bekker, principal investigator for the South African part of the study, tells Nadine Dreyer what makes this breakthough so significant and what to expect next.

Tell us about the trial and what it set out to achieve

The Purpose 1 trial with 5,000 participants took place at three sites in Uganda and 25 sites in South Africa to test the efficacy of lenacapavir and two other drugs.

Lenacapavir (Len LA) is a fusion capside inhibitor. It interferes with the HIV capsid, a protein shell that protects HIV’s genetic material and enzymes needed for replication. It is administered just under the skin, once every six months.

The randomised controlled trial, sponsored by the drug developers Gilead Sciences, tested several things.

The first was whether a six-monthly injection of lenacapavir was safe and would provide better protection against HIV infection as PrEP for women between the ages of 16 and 25 years than Truvada F/TDF, a daily PrEP pill in wide use that has been available for more than a decade.

Secondly, the trial also tested whether Descovy F/TAF, a newer daily pill, was as effective as F/TDF...

The trial had three arms. Young women were randomly assigned to one of the arms in a 2:2:1 ratio (Len LA: F/TAF oral: F/TDF oral) in a double blinded fashion. This means neither the participants nor the researchers knew which treatment participants were receiving until the clinical trial was over.

In eastern and southern Africa, young women are the population who bear the brunt of new HIV infections. They also find a daily PrEP regimen challenging to maintain, for a number of social and structural reasons.

During the randomised phase of the trial none of the 2,134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV. There was 100 percent efficiency.

By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women (or 1.5%) who took Truvada (F/TDF) and 39 of 2,136 (1.8%) who received Descovy (F/TAF) contracted the HIV virus...

What is the significance of these trials?

This breakthrough gives great hope that we have a proven, highly effective prevention tool to protect people from HIV.

There were 1.3 million new HIV infections globally in the past year. Although that’s fewer than the 2 million infections seen in 2010, it is clear that at this rate we are not going to meet the HIV new infection target that UNAIDS set for 2025 (fewer than 500,000 globally) or potentially even the goal to end Aids by 2030...

For young people, the daily decision to take a pill or use a condom or take a pill at the time of sexual intercourse can be very challenging.

HIV scientists and activists hope that young people may find that having to make this “prevention decision” only twice a year may reduce unpredictability and barriers.

For a young woman who struggles to get to an appointment at a clinic in a town or who can’t keep pills without facing stigma or violence, an injection just twice a year is the option that could keep her free of HIV.

What happens now?

The plan is that the Purpose 1 trial will go on but now in an “open label” phase. This means that study participants will be “unblinded”: they will be told whether they have been in the “injectable” or oral TDF or oral TAF groups.

They will be offered the choice of PrEP they would prefer as the trial continues.

A sister trial is also under way: Purpose 2 is being conducted in a number of regions including some sites in Africa among cisgender men, and transgender and nonbinary people who have sex with men.

It’s important to conduct trials among different groups because we have seen differences in effectiveness. Whether the sex is anal or vaginal is important and may have an impact on effectiveness.

How long until the drug is rolled out?

We have read in a Gilead Sciences press statement that within the next couple of months [from July 2024] the company will submit the dossier with all the results to a number of country regulators, particularly the Ugandan and South African regulators.

The World Health Organization will also review the data and may issue recommendations.

We hope then that this new drug will be adopted into WHO and country guidelines.

We also hope we may begin to see the drug being tested in more studies to understand better how to incorporate it into real world settings.

Price is a critical factor to ensure access and distribution in the public sector where it is badly needed.

Gilead Sciences has said it will offer licences to companies that make generic drugs, which is another critical way to get prices down.

In an ideal world, governments will be able to purchase this affordably and it will be offered to all who want it and need protection against HIV."

-via The Conversation, July 3, 2024

[allwitnobrevity]

Just a little comic I drew while I was stuck inside with approximately the 907th severe weather alert of the year

[loderlied]

the first thing i have drawn in weeks can you tell

[pocketramblr]

... hey guys does infinite crisis uh. start on father's day

[magentagalaxies]

I’m sure you’ve answered before, but HOW! did you get your hands on all of these scripts!!!

short answer: i'm friends with some of the kids in the hall, bruce mcculloch specifically let me help organize some of his old kids in the hall stuff in storage and as thanks he let me take home several of the original scripts for kids in the hall sketches!

long answer: somehow got in contact with paul bellini two years ago via the youtube comments for his band "mouth congress," we ended up meeting on zoom and becoming friends since i'm also a queer comedy writer and he's a huge inspiration to me. i ended up meeting scott thompson on new year's eve 2022 and about a month later after seeing a live performance of his buddy cole one-man-show i somehow had the audacity to pitch a buddy cole documentary to him (i was barely 20 years old at the time and had never made a documentary before) and somehow both scott and paul thought it was a great idea and said yes.

then i met bruce a few months later when he had a one-man-show at a theater next to the college i go to, i interviewed him on zoom beforehand (i told him it was for my school paper but that was a lie i was never involved with the school paper lmao) and literally by the end of that 30 minute conversation he was like "ok you are my mentee now please tell me all about the stuff you're working on because i want to help you succeed as a comedian" and i was like well actually the main thing i'm working right now is a documentary with scott and paul about buddy cole so bruce was like alright awesome i'm gonna sign on as an executive producer and help you get a budget and interview people

since then i've been traveling up to toronto on average once every two months (sometimes it's been longer between trips but i also spent literally the entirety of july in canada this year. i'm from the US btw and had never been to canada until i met paul) and every time i'm in town i end up seeing at least one of the kids in the hall during my trip. i'm actually planning on moving to canada once i graduate from college (it's my last semester) so yeah kids in the hall has very literally changed my life lmao

currently still working on putting together the buddy cole documentary - i'm traveling up to toronto next weekend to do my main interviews with scott and paul, then when the kids in the hall are all in town together in november i'll finally get to meet mark, kevin, and dave and interview them. making this documentary has been such a wild experience, i never expected to be able to genuinely call the kids in the hall my friends but now it's at a point where scott, paul, and bruce are basically my family. paul gives me feedback on basically every comedy sketch i write and i even got to perform with scott last summer (despite him never having seen or read my comedy before that performance, like what the hell how did he have that much confidence in me lmao)

i post updates on the making of my buddy cole doc on here all the time so definitely stay tuned for that, and i hope this context makes my random scott-posting make a lot more sense

[jjinpang]

rkgk

[siphisket]

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted about Banesbrook, so I wanna provide a brief update for the lovely folks who have shown interest in our little game.

First of all, Banesbrook is still happening! Since it’s an un-funded hobby project, timelines are a bit tricky to nail down, but all of the art, music, dialogue, and everything are prepped and ready for the Level 1 Demo, and even quite a bit beyond that!

The only thing that’s kept us from publishing the demo for nearly a year now is coding. We’ve hit a ton of road bumps along the way, ranging from irl scheduling conflicts to full-scale data loss, and even a legal scare when a former team member's age came to light. That last obstacle is the latest, and unfortunately, it means that for the second time, we’ll to have to start over the coding from scratch. While this will put us significantly behind schedule, it's important to us that we do not violate child labor law (especially while working on a game containing themes of childhood mistreatment).

Due to irl complications from before this issue came to light, I’ve had to indefinitely step away from the administrative duties involved in running a dev team, but despite everything, our coders have remained dedicated to rebuilding the demo so it doesn’t get fully shelved. It will be very slow going, but it’s going!

And some other good news! Since before we started working together, one of our coders has been working on his own game called Roswell’s Journey, and while I’ve wanted to keep Banesbrook in hobby territory, he went and started his own indie game studio called BitRate Games! Roswell’s Journey is currently in pre-alpha, and folks, this game looks so cool, I seriously can’t wait!

If you’re looking for an upcoming indie game to sink your teeth into, check it out here! (Or wishlist it on Steam!)

TL;DR — Banesbrook will be on the back burner for a while, but one of our amazing coders has an upcoming indie game coming soon, so keep an eye out for Roswell’s Journey!

[mens-reas]

.

[la0hu]

ugh i had the call with the recruiter and the moment she realized i didn't have working experience with react she was like "this job is gonna say no" like okay fine. i didn't even want the job that bad

[theskydoesgreatthingsnow]

‼️ATTENTION Faggots! Sex Workers! People With Bodies‼️

Your rights to PrEP, Cancer Screenings, and other preventive care are at risk!

A Texas Judge (who previously failed to overturn ACA) invalidated the preventative care statute, which required insurance to fully cover vital preventative certain cancer screenings and PrEP. Your right to life saving HIV protection is at risk!

This is super fucking important for our community. It is also a directly motivated, violent homophobic attack. Not in a internet “homophobic in effect ergo one could say” way—

‼️The stated motivation of the man who brought the suit is to use AIDS to punish homosexuality and sex work. ‼️

Conservative mega donor Dr Steven Hotze, a anti gay hate group founder, election denier, Covid conspiracy theorist, and person who filled the suit that led to this decision has stated that HIV Pre exposure drugs “facilitate behaviors such as homosexual sodomy, prostitution, and intravenous drug use” which conflicts with his religious beliefs. I repeat THE POINT IS FOR AIDS TO PUNISH HOMOSEXUALITY.

(The Hotze is now charged in connection with an agrivated assault of a repairman by a PI hired by the mega-donor to “confirm” election fraud. We might live in hell.)

This may come down to a legal fight, this may be out of the hands of protesters. BUT WATCH THIS DEVELOPMENT AND PREPARE FOR COMMUNITY ACTION.

It is possible that you are not at immediate risk. Most employers and insurers will keep these kinds of care fully covered for the same reason it was mandated: it is the ethical choice, and it saves them way more than it costs. But roughly one in five may try to save money by asking at risk groups to pay out of pocket.

And the problem will only grow more acute and widespread. Things like anxiety screenings, contraception, and many interventions for the chronically ill are also at risk of returning to pre ACA levels of financially burden, at the whims of corporate interests.

[mellow-killjoy]

I think making out to 'Violence' and 'Fever Dream' by Frank iero and the future violents would solve like 90% of my problems

The other 10% by fucking to pencey prep

It's better then therapy

[prep4tomoro]

Realistic Reasons to Have an Emergency Plan:

"There is no such thing as luck, merely opportunity meeting preparedness." ― George S. Patton Jr. Preparing for an Emergency, long before one is actually realized, is not only a good idea, it's the responsible and mature thing to do for oneself, family, friends and community. A common misunderstanding to preparing is for some end of the world situation or Hollywood doomsday scenario. Truth is, it's not about preparing for some statistical anomaly, but for the real life challenges that we are all going to face at some point in our lives; the kind of situations that feel like the end of your world if you're not prepared. The platitude "Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance" will manifest itself, in a good or bad way, depending on how well you have planned and read the signs (cascade of events) of a coming crisis. By the time a potential disaster event is announced, panic has already set in to the general public. Pre-planning (not just gathering stuff) is the key to preparation. It will keep a cool head when others have lost theirs. Information, below and throughout this web site, will help to make a plan and prepare for nearly any emergency situation. In modern day we have prepared for everything from earthquakes and floods, to super volcanoes and nuclear weapons. The host of problems that people prepare for could be anything from a simple loss of income, to the end of the world. For several years, Hawaii was warning their population of the threat of North Korea, yet, when a False Alarm Sounded In Hawaii in January 2018, "Primal fear" set in. Why? They were not prepared emotionally and with the necessary supplies. Don't be "that guy". Plan ahead and keep your composure. 1 - Everyday Emergencies are More Common Than Disasters 2 - Preparedness is About Practicality, not Paranoia 3 - Basic Preparedness is Easy and Affordable 4 - Knowledge is the Power to Respond to Different Situations 5 - Preparedness is About Peace of Mind Consider these reasons to prepare and have a real, documented plan:

Long-term Power Outages / Grid-Down Event

Loss of Income

Natural Disasters (Hurricane, Earthquake, Tornado, Flood, Severe Storm, Wildfire, Drought, Landslide, Volcano, Heat or Cold Wave)

Fire, Explosion, Hazardous Materials

Crime, Assaults, Home Invasions, Shootings

Pandemics and Health Emergencies

Space Weather (solar flares, EMPS)

Social Unrest, Civil War

Terrorist, Cyber or Nuclear Attacks, Bombings, Chemical Attacks, Radiation Dispersal & Emitting Devices

National Economic Disasters

The Aftermath: Post-Disaster Threats

In the end, what is the "goal" of being prepared; what's the purpose for all this stuff? Isn't the government going to be there for me and take care of this? I believe that those who ask these questions have never gone through a crisis and those who are able to answer the questions have lived through a crisis and learned from it. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of an adult to take care of their family, community and themselves to reduce the impact of an emergency event. Being prepared reduces fear, anxiety, and losses that accompany disasters. Yes, there may be public resources available if an emergency occurs but those resources will need to be shared (rationed - possibly thin) between everyone who is impacted by that same emergency. There is no guarantee you will be able to get exactly what you need to deal with the emergency. Don't take that risk. To what end do we survive? Survive to the end. Then start preparing for the next emergency with the knowledge gained from the last emergency. It's said that if you can survive the first 72 hours of a crisis situation, it's highly likely you'll survive the entire crisis. [Reference Link] Related Resources: Why You Don't Have to be a "Doomsday Prepper" to be Prepared Reality Prepping 10 SHTF Scenarios to Prepare for

[11-Cs Basic Emergency Kit] [14-Point Emergency Preps Checklist] [Immediate Steps to Take When Disaster Strikes] [Learn to be More Self-Sufficient] [The Ultimate Preparation] [P4T Main Menu]

This blog is partially funded by Affiliate Program Links and Private Donations. Thank you for your support.

[natinalpartisan]

Choosing the Right Survival Prepping Option: A Guide to Find Your Best Fit

In uncertain times, being prepared for emergencies is crucial. But with numerous survival prepping options available, finding the right one for you can be overwhelming. Fear not, as this comprehensive guide is here to help. Whether you're a city dweller or a wilderness enthusiast, this resource will navigate you through various prepping options, from bug-out bags to homesteading, self-sufficiency to tactical prepping. Discover the essentials of food storage, water purification, emergency shelter, and first aid. Uncover the secrets of outdoor survival and wilderness skills. Explore the realms of self-defense, alternative energy, and crisis management. Equip yourself with the knowledge to make informed decisions and ensure your readiness for any situation.