COVID nutters

 The reality of the pandemic is clearly hard for some to accept.  It was always one of those existential fears that I had, having read lots of science fiction and studied biology and then medicine at university.  I'd read a lot about pandemics in the past.  I knew they were bad and that we were due one.  I knew it would probably happen.  It's just a bit of a shitter that it actually happened.

COVID has happened.  It's almost everywhere and it kills tons of people.  Accept it and deal with it.

Some people can't or won't accept it.  Some reach for a comfortable conspiracy theory to protect them from the brutal truth that humanity is sometimes insignificant in the face of nature and a wee virus could wipe us all out.  COVID-19 isn't going to eliminate the human race but it's still nasty.  We need to do what we can to reduce and avoid infections.  Vaccines, washing our hands, social distancing, wearing masks - all small personal sacrifices to reduce infection rates and reduce deaths.  Some people can't so this.  Idiots like Ian Brown of the Stone Roses and various quack doctors post mad shit on the internet and people believe them and that has consequences.

The UK government haven't helped.  Initial standard Eton arrogance quickly followed by bewildered blind  panic bolstered by exceptionalism from Dominic Cummings and standard avarice has muddied the water creating a fertile breeding ground for the conspiracy theory nutters.  We need a government of adults and the UK does not have this.  

We will be living with COVID forever.  We will probably need yearly COVID vaccines for some time and normality will take some time to return.

The big lesson is don't eat random wild animals.

Diagnosis - TV series

Diagnosis is a Netflix TV series based on the New York Times 'Diagnosis' column written by Dr Lisa Sanders.  Lisa Sanders is an attending physician (a consultant in the UK) who previously contributed to House MD as a medical advisor.  House MD is one of my favourite medical TV shows.

In Diagnosis she looks at 8 diagnostic challenges.  The majority of these cases are neurological in origin.  To reach diagnosis in these cases she published a column online and invited people from around the world to make suggestions.  In several cases a diagnosis is reached.

This is almost an exercise in folk medicine, with random strangers making diagnostic suggestions.  Unsurprisingly Lyme disease is mentioned a lot and unsurprisingly positive Lyme tests suddenly appear.  In some cases I was not satisfied with the ultimate diagnosis and in at least one case I think the patient was unsatisfied.  A lot of mistrust of doctors is vocalised which is common.  Some doctors are good and some doctors are bad.  All doctors make mistakes and all doctors get things wrong.  Some diagnoses are hard to understand and will be refused by the person with the symptoms.

As a medical TV show, I enjoyed this, partly because it was mainly neurological problems and partly because it is what I see in clinic on a regular basis.

Worth watching.

Podcasts

Over the past few years I've started listening to a lot of Podcasts.  I always liked listening to the radio although I didn't always find the broadcast shows to be very exciting.  Podcasts are homemade radio shows that you can download and listen to at a time that suits you.  They also often cover more offbeat or esoteric subjects that appeal to me.

Mostly I listen to real life mystery podcasts, American political podcasts (mainly ones about Trump), Twin Peaks related podcasts and comic book podcasts.  And the Private Eye podcasts.

One of the first mystery style I started to listen to was Thinking Sideways - in this podcast three presenters take turns to present a mystery every week and discuss various theories on what went on.  The first episode that I listened to was on the 'Glasgow effect'.

Another slightly more fantastical podcast that I enjoy is Astonishing Legends - this podcast goes into strange tales in a great degree of detail.  They exude an X-Files type vibe and they are often rather credulous but the production values are good and I enjoy the shows.

From a comic book point of view Fatman on Batman produced by Clerks director Kevin Smith as part of his Smodcast empire is a good starting point (if you like Batman).  The early episodes in the archive are great, often focusing on individual comic book writers or artists and Batman related stuff. More recently the podcast has developed into a general forum for discussion of sic-fi, superheroes and anything Smith wants to talk about.

The Stuff You Should Know network has several good podcasts including Stuff They Don't Want You To Know and Stuff to Blow Your Mind (both of which have a sort of counterculture vibe) as well as the more mainstream, flagship Stuff You Should Know series.  All of these are fairly interesting.

In terms of Trump bashing Trumpcast is fairly funny and a good place to start.  The Pod Save America team have more White House connections and often have serious guests on to interview although they are often pretty funny too.

No Such Thing As A Fish  was one of the first podcasts I listened to, a spin off from the BBC QI series, where strange facts are discussed in an amusing manner every week.  It's good for a smile every now and again.

There are many more podcasts to check out - a few more are below
Page 94 - The Private Eye Podcast
The 2000AD Progcast - some great 2000AD chat
The Politico Nerdcast
A Twin Peaks Podcast

Enjoy

When things are good

Sometimes things are good in life.  It's probably just for a while but sometimes, for a bit, the road gets easier.  It's important to realise that you are in a good time because if you don't you only realise when it's gone.

I'm in a good bit now.  I'm doing a new job that feels worthwhile.  I'm in a good relationship.  I have money in my pocket.  I am fortunate.

At this point I look around me.  I'm doing well but that's not true for everyone.  One of my school friends is very sick at the moment.  He's a young man with a young family who's normally healthy and he has been critically ill in a hospital ITU for over a week.  The doctors are doing their best and he is almost stable,  In that situation, almost stable is a victory.  Bad things can happen with no warning so when things are good, enjoy them.

More generally, our current government are doing their best to fuck the country up.  I will never understand the Tory 'rich obnoxious idiot' mindset.  I will never understand why they have contempt for people less well off than themselves.  I guess humanity is a variable thing.

Anyway, right now, life is internally and locally good for me so I'm going to enjoy it

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Bad Science is a great book. It's a book about how the media misrepresents science. It's also about how various quacks exploit public ignorance of science for profit. It's funny and it's clearly written.

Science and the modern media are not really compatible. Science is about trying to understand our world by careful observation and trying to prove that your own preconcieved ideas about the world are wrong. The modern media is about selling newspapers and little else. The press is sensationalist and science is possibly a bit slow and boring.

Over the years scientific research has been misrepresented in the press to create scare stories. Alternative therapists make money by exploiting sick or anxious people with magical explanations for their crafts. Goldacre describes several interesting cases clearly.

I enjoyed this book because I've always been interested in English and the media. When I was a kid I wanted to be a writer or a journalist. I did a BSc in Neuroscience before doing to medical school and I'm currently just starting on a research degree. During my BSc I did a course on 'Science communication' which was about explaining scientific concepts to the general public. At medical school I did a 3 week block on Alternative Therapies which was interesting. It made me realise that some alternative therapies have more in common theoretically with the works of George Lucas than scientific, modern evidence based medicine.

This book is great. I hope a lot of people read it.

see

www.badscience.net

Musicophilia - Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

This book deals with two of my obsessions - music and neurology. I first got into Oliver Sacks in the third year of my Neuroscience BSc at Glasgow Uni. Until I read his work I'd never really thought about being a doctor but I found that his writing put a human face on the various conditions that I learned about in my lectures. Eventually I decided that I wanted to be a neurologist like Oliver Sacks and applied to medical school which got me to where I am today.

In this book Sacks looks at how music interacts with the brain. He describes musical auras which precede epileptic seizures and seizures which are triggered by music. He writes about the neurological basis of advertising jingles and musical hallucinations. He also talks about how music can help people with conditions like Parkinson's Disease or amnesia as well as the specific neurological problems that can affect musicians (which has left me thinking that I might have a bit of a dystonia affecting my left hand when I play guitar too much.)

He also describes musical hallucinations in deaf people and synaesthesia. I actually wish that I had synaesthesia, a neurological condition in which sensory input is cross-wired and musical notes can be associated with colours or tastes. It is for the most part harmless and it sounds like it might be interesting.

He writes about a rare congenital condition called Williams Syndrome that results in unusual musical abilities and about musical savants. I have learned a fair bit from this book although much of what he writes about has already been covered in his previous works.

I enjoyed this book although I would advise a new reader to start with The man who mistook his wife for a hat (which supplied the title of a Travis album) or An anthropologist on Mars. I would also tell a new reader about the film Awakenings although I would reassure the reader that Sacks books are not as sugary as the film inspired by his work.

For more try www.oliversacks.com