Dilip Simeon's blog

Many cancer treatments are notoriously savage on the body. Drugs often attack both healthy cells and tumor cells, causing a plethora of side effects. Immunotherapies that help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells are no different. Though they have prolonged the lives of countless patients , they work in only a subset of patients. One study found that fewer than 30% of breast cancer patients respond to one of the most common forms of immunotherapy. But what if drugs could be engineered to attack only tumor cells and spare the rest of the body? To that end, my colleagues and I at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have designed a method to keep one promising cancer drug from wreaking havoc by “masking” it until it reaches a tumor.... https://theconversation.com/masked-cancer-drug-stealthily-trains-immune-system-to-kill-tumors-while-sparing-healthy-tissues-reducing-treatment-side-effects-183588

Ever since the pandemic struck, concerns have been raised about the improper use of antimicrobials amongst  Covid-19  patients. The worry is that unnecessary prescription of antimicrobials will lead to a further increase in the already high levels of drug resistance in most parts of the world. In the past few years, alarmingly high resistance rates in pathogens of public health importance have been reported from Indian hospitals. Unfortunately, the resistance rates reported by the hospitals and laboratories do not automatically translate to disease burden unless each resistant isolate is correlated with the clinical outcomes in the patients from whom they were isolated. This has to do with inadequate hospital information systems in most public sector funded healthcare facilities in India and many low-middle income countries. In 2014, economist Jim O’ Neill estimated that 10 million annual deaths from AMR could occur by 2050. Studies such as the ones conducted by him paved th...

Decades of political campaigning against climate science and medicine have made public health a battleground of beliefs. Vaccine hesitancy, as seen in eastern Europe, based on distrust in authority, can’t be solved with rationality alone. So what might the antidote be?    Rejecting science is not so much a grass-roots movement, says Péter Krekó, in conversation with Réka Kinga Papp, as it is a position based on political affiliation and acculturation.  While acknowledging that the excessive mystification of scholarly knowledge and the natural sciences can harm the democratization of these fields, Krekó argues that tackling anti-science requires investigation too. Perhaps disinformation and junk science cannot be eradicated, but critical skills can help navigate an accelerated digital media environment. Find Péter Krekó’s latest article, ‘ Mutations of science in the pandemic  in Eurozine, along with his  previous articles  dealing with disinformation, socia...

Weiss is the former New York Times journalist best known for her  departure from that paper . In a  resignation letter  posted to her own website, Weiss complained that she had been subjected to constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with her views, and that the Times had "become a kind of performance space." A New York Times spokesperson then  said  the company is "committed to fostering an environment of honest, searching and empathetic dialogue between colleagues, one where mutual respect is required of all." I had followed Weiss' resignation with interest -- in no small part because I am drawn to nuanced conversations about the loss of nuance itself in academic and intellectual discourse. But as I watched Weiss' performance in the space across from Maher -- who was quick to testify that he didn't take the same Covid precautions as Weiss -- I did not see much in the way of nuance. I found myself comparing her comments to the quiet suffering of...

As the pandemic stretches on, our collective ability to weather adversities and bounce back to emotional stability is being challenged daily. Many of us have suffered significant trauma from illness, hospitalization and death. Many more have experienced job loss, economic uncertainly and financial instability. And everyone has had to cope with an unprecedented uprooting of social and emotional support networks. Are we, as human beings, built to withstand such pressures? Decades of research says the answer is "yes," said psychiatrist Dr. Dennis Charney, who is the dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and coauthor of " Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges ." And if we aren't quite up to it yet, he said, we can learn to be. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/07/health/resilience-tips-wellness/index.html Tanya Gold - How materialism makes us sad The Almond Trees by Albert Camus

People often assume that the objectivity of science requires it to be  isolated  from governmental politics. However, scientists have  always gotten involved in politics  as  advisers  and through shaping public opinion. And science itself – how scientists are  funded  and how they choose their research priorities –  is a political affair . The coronavirus pandemic showed both the  benefits  and  risks  of this relationship – from the  controversies   surrounding   hydroxychloroquine  to the efforts of  Operation Warp Speed  allowing researchers to develop vaccines  in less than a year . In this context, it is understandable that many people began to doubt whether they should trust science at all. As a  historian of science , I know that the question is not whether science and politics ought to be involved – they are already. Rather, it is important for people to understand how thi...

Until a couple of centuries ago, more than a quarter of children died before their first birthday, around half before their fifth. In “Extra Life,” Steven Johnson, a writer of popular books on science and technology, tells the stories behind what he calls, in an understatement, “one of the greatest achievements in the history of our species.”  Steven Johnson:  A Short History of Living Longer Reviewed by Steven Pinker Starting in the second half of the 19th century, the average life span began to climb rapidly, giving humans not just extra life, but  an  extra life. In rich countries, life expectancy at birth hit 40 by 1880, 50 by 1900, 60 by 1930, 70 by 1960, and 80 by 2010. The rest of the world is catching up. Global life expectancy in 2019 was 72.6 years, higher than that of any country, rich or poor, in 1950. People in the shortest-lived countries today will, on average, outlive those of your grandparents’ generation. “Life expectancy” is a statistical ab...

On May 8 the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court while hearing a PIL wondered why India, a pioneer in vaccine production before the current pandemic and a big exporter of vaccines, had to rely on just two private domestic manufacturers-- Serum Institute  of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech--to produce Covid-19 vaccines. It has also baffled many ordinary citizens. India’s self-sufficiency in vaccine production was destroyed one and half decades ago under the UPA-I government. Anbumani Ramadoss, then the Union Health Minister in Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government effectively moved vaccine manufacture and government procurement to the private sector.  In January 2008, the licences of three premier public sector vaccine manufacturers were suspended citing non-compliance with WHO good manufacturing practices (GMP). These public sector units (PSUs) were: Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, BCG Vaccine Laboratory (BCGVL) in Guindy and Pasteur Institute of I...

Washington: A peer-reviewed research has claimed that global ivermectin use can end  Covid-19 pandemic , as the medicine significantly reduces the risk of contracting the deadly respiratory disease when used regularly. The common  antiparasitic ivermectin  is being touted as a miracle cure for Covid-19 by doctors and campaigners the world over. Peer reviewed by medical experts that included three US government senior  scientists  and published in the American Journal of Therapeutics, the research is the most comprehensive review of the available data taken from clinical, in vitro, animal, and real-world studies. Led by the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), a group of medical and scientific experts reviewed published peer-reviewed studies, manuscripts, expert meta-analyses, and epidemiological analyses of regions with ivermectin distribution efforts all showing that ivermectin is effective prophylaxis and  treatment  for Covid-19. "We ...

A  growing chorus  is now seeing India’s second wave of Covid-19 as a governance failure more than anything else. A May 8  editorial in The Lancet , a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal, placed the responsibility of this current Covid-19 disaster in India with prime minister Narendra Modi. In a scathing piece that details the unfathomable devastation in the country, The Lancet wrote that his government “seemed more intent on removing criticism on Twitter than trying to control the pandemic.” Full text Titled “India’s Covid-19 Emergency,” the editorial in one of the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals blamed the government for not paying heed to  superspreader events  and not preventing the unprecedented surge of Covid-19 cases.  Despite warnings about the risks of superspreader events, the government allowed religious festivals to go ahead, drawing millions of people from around the country, along with huge political rallies - co...

Last week, Brazil’s total death toll from COVID-19 passed 400,000. In India, the pandemic is taking around 3,500 lives every day and has prompted a global response, with offers of oxygen, ventilators, intensive-care beds and more. Although these two countries are thousands of miles apart, the crises in both are the result of political failings: their leaders have either failed or been slow to act on researchers’ advice. This has contributed to an unconscionable loss of life. Brazil’s biggest failing is that its president, Jair Bolsonaro, has consistently mischaracterized COVID-19 as a “little flu” and has  refused to follow scientific advice in setting policy , such as enforcing mask-wearing and limiting contact between people. India’s leaders have not acted as decisively as was needed. They have, for example, allowed  - and, in some cases, encouraged - large gatherings. Such a situation isn’t new. As we saw during the administration of former US president Donald Trump, ig...

The new wave will hurt global efforts and vaccine supplies, experts say. Researchers are scrambling to assess whether new coronavirus variants are playing a role in India.  When the coronavirus first struck India last year, the country enforced one of the  world’s strictest national lockdowns . The warning was clear:  A fast spread in a population of 1.3 billion would be devastating. Though  damaging  and  ultimately flawed , the lockdown and other efforts appeared to work. Infections dropped and deaths remained low. Officials and the public dropped their guard. Experts warned fruitlessly that the government’s haphazard approach would bring a crisis when a new wave appeared. Now the crisis is here. India on Saturday reported a daily record of 145,384 new infections as Covid-19 raced out of control. Deaths, while still relatively low, are rising. Vaccinations, a mammoth task in such a large nation,  are dangerously behind schedule . Hospital beds are ru...