Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 6h

This story provides yet another example of why society cannot continue to tolerate the institutional culture normalizing manipulation in the medical literature.

The toxic "whatever it takes to win" culture that disregards patient safety is a direct threats to our childrens' lives and health.

12 13

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 16h

It's probably dogs.

Or Grot-Debt from staying home for a few weeks years ago.

Definitely not the other thing.

Read "Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19: Disability and Function Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection" at NAP.edu

Read chapter 3 Selected Long-Term Health Effects Stemming from COVID-19 and Functional Implications: Since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVI...

nap.nationalacademies.org

Reposted by Mark Ungrin

Esther @elhopkins.bsky.social · 1d

@zackpolanski.bsky.social Please can you question Streeting on the research showing that Covid causes mental health problems. There is not over diagnosis of conditions like Autism, we now have experts who can identify it. So many are struggling and Labour are ignoring children suffering neurological

Esther @elhopkins.bsky.social · 1d

Shame on Labour to be talking about overdiagnosis of mental health problems. Also simultaneously ignoring the mountain of research on neuro covid and the mental health issues known to be caused from COVID infections! We need urgent loud opposition to this. 🧵

Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 1d

Simon Wessely — the controversial psychiatrist once dubbed “Britain’s most hated doctor” has been appointed vice chair of Labour’s review into overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergence.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/controv...

2 15 36

Reposted by Mark Ungrin

Tania J. Spencer @taniaspencer.bsky.social · 20h

@fitterhappieraj.bsky.social, via X -

2 20 68

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 16h

"Short sighted" only if their aim was to prevent #longCOVID - Occam's razor suggests their objective was to mislead the public about the damage they had done by promoting widespread COVID infection. And it seems to have worked, at least in the sense that they are better off for having done it.

1 2

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 17h

A lot like Russian propagandists going on about how Russia needs to keep murdering innocent civilians because the Russian invasion of Ukraine is actually somehow Ukraine's fault.

Be interesting to know who's writing their scripts...

🤔

6

Reposted by Mark Ungrin

Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 19h

Police in Airdrie, Alberta (just north of Calgary) say this driver hit a 17-year-old girl in a marked crosswalk, got out of the vehicle, and appeared to get upset at the teenager before driving away.

They released this video and are now trying to identify the driver.

57 250 420

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 17h

This also highlights the importance of the precautionary principle. The big failures of COVID management were two-fold: the rejection of scientific input (apparently viewed as competition for power); but worse, the lack of contingency planning, even where certainty was manifestly unreasonable.

🧵:

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · Dec 9

Core recommendation of the SARS Commission. There is no excuse for anyone in IPC or Public Health not being familiar with it. Even if their training ignored it (instructors burying their own past failures?), once we knew COVID is a SARS-CoV they were obligated to read it cover to cover.

Precautionary Principle In The Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada, Mr. Justice Krever said: Where there is reasonable evidence of an impending threat to public health, it is inappropriate to require proof of causation beyond a reasonable doubt before taking steps to avert the threat.22 The importance of the precautionary principle that reasonable efforts to reduce risk need not await scientific proof was demonstrated over and over during SARS. The need to apply it better is noted throughout this report. One example was the debate during SARS over whether SARS was transmitted by large droplets or through airborne particles. The point is not who was right and who was wrong in this debate. When it comes to worker safety in hospitals, we should not be driven by the scientific dogma of yesterday or even the scientific dogma of today. We should be driven by the precautionary principle that reasonable steps to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty.

1

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 20h

Memorization is essential, but medical programs need to do a much better job at teaching its limitations, especially in a world where students may memorize things that - as in the case above - were outdated 👉before their parents were even born.👈

Medicine's standards of rigour *are not good enough*.

2

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 20h

Here's the link to the Duguid review:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...

And a small part of the report of the inquiry into the mismanagement of SARS-CoV-1 - essential reading for competent Public Health & IPC leaders in SARS-CoV-2 (so...mostly ignored):
www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/e_records...

The Numbers and the Sites of Origin of the Droplets Expelled during Expiratory Activities

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

1 1 1

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 21h

E.g. contrast the misinformation memorized by UBC medical students in 2024 with the mechanistic understanding spelled out by the SARS commission in 2006 (quoting an older document), and the 1945 Duguid review (referencing a 1934 source).

It's no wonder hospitals botch COVID mitigations so badly.

Misinformation taught to medical students at UBC as part of their PPE training, reading:

"Why aren't N95 respirators recommended for non-AGMPs involving COVID-19-suspected or -confirmed patients?

Respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 viruses, are usually transported in large particle droplets (>5μm), which tend to fall rapidly to the ground, travelling only 1-3ft after being expelled into the air through sneezing, coughing, or exhaling (droplet transmission). These droplets can only infect others if they are loaded with infectious particles and if they contact another individual’s eyes, nose, or mouth.
droplet transmission

While N95 respirators can act as a physical barrier between the mouth and infectious droplets, they also filter the air of aerosolized infectious particles, a function which is not necessary for protection against droplet transmission. For this reason, N95 respirators offer no advantage over surgical/procedural masks for droplet transmission, and surgical/procedure masks with eye protection (face shield or goggles) are deemed sufficient when providing non-aerosolized care for a person suspected or confirmed with COVID-19."

One should be aware of the effects of droplet evaporation and the resultant diminution in size of ejected droplets. A 30 um droplet dries to a 5 um droplet within seconds under normal indoor air conditions. This means that a large droplet, as it evaporates, will not settle to the ground but become a free-floating entity.This has implications for the 3 foot rule, the basis for infection control precautionary measures, since it is commonly believed that large droplets ejected upon sneezing or coughing will follow Stoke’s Law and fall to ground within a 3 foot distance from the person’s face. It is evident that it is commonly believed that the 3 foot rule is a division between an unsafe and safe distance. There is no indication that the 3 foot rule takes into consideration the evaporation factor and the drift factor of airborne droplets, as discussed above. No scientific evidence is offered by WHO,DHHS-CDC,PCAH,or other medical authorities in explaining the rule. If large droplets quickly evaporate to free-floating small droplets, then the 3 foot rule applies only to droplets greater than about 50 – 100 um in diameter for which there is insufficient time chance for evaporation to take effect before they fall to the ground from a height of 5–6 feet. Free floating small droplets readily go beyond the 3 foot radius. Therefore, if the majority of ejected droplets following a sneeze are evaporated to a size that is free-floating after only seconds in air, the 3 foot rule becomes illogical and not particularly helpful from a disease transmission perspective.

Various techniques have been employed for counting droplets, but no one technique is adequate to demonstrate droplets of every size, some demonstrating only the large and some only the small. Wells (1934) showed that the large droplets and the small droplets have a different ætiological significance. Droplets larger than 100 microns in diameter fall to the ground within a few seconds; droplets initially smaller than 100 microns evaporate before falling to the ground and so form residues, or "droplet-nuclei," which are small enough to remain air-borne for many hours, or even days. Thus, while the large droplets may be responsible for dust-borne infection, it is the small droplets which produce directly true air-borne infection. For this reason, counts of the large droplets and counts of the small droplets are both required for a comprehensive account of droplet-spray.

1 1 6

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 21h

Imagine a world where corruption was rampant, oligarchs routinely bought friendly politicians, and authoritarian foreign adversaries like Russia were known to be running influence operations in Canada to support far-right populism.

Evading security screening would look really suspicious there.

🤔

Montreal Mike🇨🇦 @mikemontreal.bsky.social · 1d

October 7, 2025

Daily reminder:

The Leader of the Official Opposition still does not have a security clearance to be able to view any information on foreign or domestic influence or terror.
#cdnpoli

4 9

Reposted by Mark Ungrin

Durham County Department of Public Health (DCoDPH) @durhamhealthnc.bsky.social · 22h

October is #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth. Did you know? No-cost breast cancer screening is available to eligible individuals here at the Durham County Department of Public Health through the BCCCP program. Learn more and see if you qualify: dcopublichealth.org/services/wom... or call (919) 560-7631.

Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP) . Breast cancer screening: Age 40-64
Uninsured or underinsured
Below 250% of the federal poverty line
Have not been screened in the past year.

Cervical cancer screening:
Age 21-64
Uninsured or underinsured
Below 250% of the federal poverty line
Have not been screened in the past year

No charge for the initial screening.
For more information or to make an appointment, call (919) 560-7631.

3 5

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 22h

The usual concern is not the need for memorization, but the lack of awareness of its limits - the all too common tendency to elevate memorized (sometimes terribly outdated) "facts" over critical thinking and mechanistic understanding, and the associated disdain for non-clinical expertise.

Trump’s cronies aren’t what broke public health

The structural blind spots that undermine medical progress and how to fix them.

canadahealthwatch.ca

1 1 4

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 23h

There was a good piece on COVID prevention yesterday that very clearly highlighted the requirement for proper PPE, in one of our provinces where the airborne-denier pseudoscience types have until recently had a stranglehold over public health communications.

The dam is breaking, if ever so slowly.

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

Direct link to the quote in the article, just to complete the circle.

Oh to be a fly on the wall to see the panic, entitled ranting, and bruised egos among the "Urgency of Brunch" crowd today! 😁

1

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting that Wessely trained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Also telling that the powers-that-be so consistently insist on putting clinicians in charge of interpreting science, rather than people with advanced science training. Can't have hard-line scientists doing that!

1 5

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

Institutional medicine's processes are heavily biased towards finding "overdiagnosis" and "overtreatment" everywhere, because they prioritize influence and Dunning-Kruger overconfidence over scientific understanding.

Medical administrators do not get to the top by saying "I don't understand this".

Trump’s cronies aren’t what broke public health

The structural blind spots that undermine medical progress and how to fix them.

canadahealthwatch.ca

3

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

Looking at the BCCDC link IDK if that quote came from them, I think she just stood up and said 2+2=4. Either way, I think we have an actual journalist here!

That just puts the cherry on top of my whole day.

1 1 11

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

Direct link to the quote in the article, just to complete the circle.

Oh to be a fly on the wall to see the panic, entitled ranting, and bruised egos among the "Urgency of Brunch" crowd today! 😁

6 16

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

Excellent work from @michellegamage.bsky.social - a breath of fresh air!

Put the word out if BC's legion of airborne-transmission-denier quacks come after you for this. We've got your back.

#Standupforscience

24 76

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

It's hard to blame them when this was UBC medical school doing COVID prevention in 2024 (and how many patients just trying to protect their health have got the "I'm a doctor, I understand PPE" Dunning-Kruger line downstream of that?)

🤡

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · Mar 28

"But how *many* decades out of date is the misinformation @ubcmedicine.bsky.social has been teaching med students?"

Review from 1945, citing a 1934 paper. Since UBC partially corrected their materials in response to my email in 2024, the answer is "At least 9."

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...

2

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

And it's all exacerbated by the fact that the people who should be sounding the alarm about long COVID are the ones who pushed to let COVID become endemic (so they can say it's not their responsibility) - so they have a *huge* COI now to bury it. "Gaps in messaging" is diplomatically worded, but 🤯

Dealing with the fallout: Post-COVID Condition and its continued impact on individuals and society

science.gc.ca

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

One thing unions really need to focus on in bargaining is getting ironclad guarantees that workers disabled by #longCOVID will be covered and compensated, and employers can't hide behind uncertainty. As it stands workers who get sick are often just discarded, or forced into early retirement.

Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19

This study uses data from the Canadian COVID-19 Antibody and Health Survey to describe the current COVID-19 landscape, including infection, reinfection, and acute and long-term symptoms. This study al...

www150.statcan.gc.ca

1 1

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

The other thing is keep good records of bad results (notify admin, share with the union etc). Long COVID rates are getting really high, and employers are trying to wriggle out of taking responsibility for them - both by pretending it's "burnout", but also by denying links to the workplace.

Read "Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19: Disability and Function Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection" at NAP.edu

Read chapter 3 Selected Long-Term Health Effects Stemming from COVID-19 and Functional Implications: Since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVI...

nap.nationalacademies.org

1

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 1d

The above link is for residential levels, but AFAICT the legal limits in schools are the same as in refineries and chemical plants, so it's more reasonable for a non-industrial setting. You can get the Aranet 4 from e.g. Canadian Tire now, maybe a few teachers could go in on one for longer term use.

General PDP Template

www.canadiantire.ca

1