New drugs alert

 The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Abuse warns that new benzodiazepines a appearing on the black market.  30 new molecules (25 of them were first detected between 2014 and 2020) are causing apprehension.  At this point, the market is dominated by etiazolam and flualprazolam but this situation could change because repressive measures on those substances have been enacted by many countries.  In 2019, 1240 seizures of new benzodiazepines have been carried out in Europe.  Early on, these drugs were sold as research chemicals, mainly under the names Phenazepam or Pyralolam. But increasingly they are sold as fake Valium or Xanax, common benzodiazepines.  Those 30 new benzodiazepines are imported from China as powder and fabricated in pill form in Europe.  France has an interesting law on the books prohibiting new illicit drugs that belong to a family of controlled substances.   One impact of Covid-19 could be that more people would be tempted to auto-medicate with benzodiazepines.  For more information on legal benzodiazepines, read my article on this blog on june 24, 2008.  To learn more about life after being caught dealing with controlled substances, go to www.lacloture.ca  (it is in french)

Covid-19

New pills !

The Food and Drugs Administration has granted emergency approval for Merck's new antiviral, Molnupiravir.  The treatment should last 5 days and be given to adults who have a mild case.  England has already bought a large quantity.  

The Food and Drug Administration has also granted emergency approval for Pfizer's new antiviral, Paxlovid.  The treatment should last 5 days and should be given to mild cases, 12 years and up who weigh at least 40 kilos.  Only small quantities will be available for months.  

England

In September 2021, the positivity of PCR tests dropped suddenly from 3% to 1%.  This drop was not observed elsewhere.  Concerned health professionals asked the NSH to investigate.  On October 12 the Immensa lab was closed because the investigation revealed that 43,000 false negative results were issued.  The positivity rate then soared because infected people had not isolated.  On 14 November, Thiemo Fetzer, a graduate student from the University of Warwick, estimated in his study that 21,000 additional cases were attributable to that blunder.  And the number of excess deaths is 400 to 1100.  In 2020, a database error wiped out the data of 15,000 cases of Covid-19.  Contact tracing was wiped out.  1500 deaths were attributable to this other NHS blunder.

China

China was the first country to detect and treat Covid-19.  Its borders are closed and new arrivals must be quarantined for 14 days.  Vaccination with Sinovac and Sinopharm is rolled out.  The pandemic has killed 6,000 chinese, compared to 800,000 Americans.  The National Institutes of Health (of the American government) has spent 1,000,000,000 $ to develop treatments and prevention methods.  The winter olympic games will take place in front of a strictly chinese audience.  The "zero covid" policy is popular there because of results.  In the Shanghai Disneyland, 34,000 visitors were confined to the site and then tested at night because of a single case.  Visitors were then asked to isolate for 48 hours.  about 100 cases are discovered every day in China (against 70,000 cases in the United States.)  Foreigners make up only 0.06% of China's population.  Quarantines are required for all visitors to China including Hong Kong.

New Alzheimer diagnosis test

 Dr" Serge Gauthier, from McGill University, reports an accuracy of 96% by measuring p-tau-217 in blood to diagnose Alzheimer .  More accuracy is possible by measuring the presence of APO4 protein in blood.  Effective treatment remains evaive...

Death of Dr. Aaron Beck

 There are a lot of psychiatric therapies, like role-playing, Gestalt, psychoanalysis, group therapies, art therapy, music therapies, hypnosis, primal cry.  But the most used today is probably cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT).  Its effectiveness has been demonstrated for a wide array of psychiatric problems.  The american founder of CBT has passed away.

In the 1950s, he follows Freud, like most psychiatrists of the time.  But in 1961, he rejects psychoanalysis.  He notices that patients have negative thoughts on self, the future or the world around them.  He works with patients to demonstrate those thoughts are mostly falacies.  He wrote more than 600 scientific papers; he launched "Cognitive Therapy and Research" a refereed publication: and he participated to the writing of 25 books.  He is also known for the Beck scales, used to measure depression, affliction, anxiety, OCD, and youth troubles.  He founded the Beck Institute with his daughter Judith who is a psychologist.  

Aaron Beck (Providence, Rhode Island 18-07-1921 / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1-11-2021)

An Inuit killed by police

 In early November, in Rankin Inlet, police is notified of the presence of agitated drunk men.  A man then fired his gun towards the police, then fled in his truck.  The tactical intervention team (RCMP) found him, but the 22-years-old was dead.  The Ottawa police is investigating.  A protest march was organized from the Winnipeg police station to the courthouse on nov. 6.

Female soldiers in the american army !

 An amendment to the annual defense budget would have extended conscription to young women. Congresswoman Chrisey Houlahan (who was an air force officer) declares that it is about time to go ahead with the concept.  But the principle is not popular among women : only 36% approve.  In Afghanistan, the medical condition which sent the most soldiers home was pregnancy ! 

the Guantanamo prison

 Twenty years after its opening, there are still 39 prisoners left.  731 internees have been transfered or freed and 9 have died (6 suicides and 3 deaths related to torture).  Among those who have been held there, 29% were Afghans, 17% were from Saudi Arabia, 15% were Yemenis, 9% were Pakistanis.  In all, 50 different countries of origin were represented.  80% of the Pakistanis and Afghans were there because a bounty was pledged for their capture so someone took them up on it.  Between 17 and 22 were less than 18 years old when they entered the facility.  14 of them were from secret CIA prisons abroad.  To learn more on the matter, consult:https://original.antiwar.com or www.antiwar.com/blog/author/scott-horton