Life: April is a moving season

A few stories on recent moving surrounding me.

(a) Today one of the lab members was leaving. We had a send off party with a cake. She accepted a job offer from a biotech/medical research company in San Francisco and will be working on immuno-oncology project there. The project will be a good fit for her specialties. Good for her. 

I'll be participating in an interview for someone who may be filling in the position tomorrow.

(b) Speaking of moving out, a nice neighbor lived in a house on my walking/jogging course. We greeted each other. She even gave me some vegetables from the garden. The neighbor also seemed to have moved out a few days ago.

(c) This past Sunday, my sister was moving our mother to a care facility closer to her home. I pledged and sent Biden's $1,400 to my sister to help the moving. Thank you, President Biden.

Then there was a moving in. 

(d) There was a house on the same walking course. The house had been empty for a couple of years under somewhat gruesome circumstances.

On a summer day two years ago, I was walking down the road. Then there were police cars, police tapes surrounding the house, some cops in and out of the house, and several neighbors watching.

There was unmistakable stench of rotting meat in the air. "Someone must have died there", I thought. 

Later, local news told me that they found a man who was shot dead in the house. The man in his late 20's did not show up in his work, so his workplace sent police to check on, and they found the man's body on the floor. Certainly, I could see a bullet hole in the window. The shooter sneaked up and shot the victim from outside.

In the following months, local news reported some follow ups. They caught the shooters. The shooting was due to some sort of triangle relationship.

Come to think of it, death is a form of moving out, too.

The house was cleaned and repainted. There was a "for sale" sign in the front yard earlier this year, then the sign was gone.

Recently I saw someone moved in the house. The house is occupied again. 

Any old house would have a resident or two who died there. I would not panic to know death, unless ghost horror movie stuff /paranormal activities actually occur. 

I didn't know if real estate agents are mandated to tell these dead people circumstances to new house seekers. Quick search educated me that in most states including Oklahoma, they don't have to tell buyers about paranormal activities or death. Hmm.

I say nothing bad will happen. But, good luck to the new residents.

Science: "Covid brain" is real

Last Thursday (4/15/2021) I was checking out an online seminar of the Oklahoma Neuroscience Chapter group, entitled "COVID-19: A systemic disease with neurological complications" by Dr. Douglas Drevets.

They recorded the session and uploaded in Youtube as below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWw6zl4r49A

In short, Dr. Drevets reported Covid19 after-effects with a focus on neuro-psychiatric symptoms, and outlined the mechanisms.

He was talking about nasty symptoms that you don't want to have, such as stroke, fatigue (chronic fatigue syndrome-like, so called "long covid"), headache, anxiety, mood swing and insomnia.

 

Although the visus infects and affects ACE2-expressing target cells (rich in endothelial cells of lungs, GI tract, blood vessels), in addition, the virus affects brain as well, through directly invading neurons and through vascular damage and secreted cytokines.

Severity of respiratory covid symptoms (hospitalized or not, usually based on blood oxygen level) and neuro-psychiatric symptoms did not correlate. Even people with mild covid symptoms can have notable neuro-psychiatric symptoms later.

Other virus infections can also affect brain (Zica, Japanese encephalitis, etc). But their analysis indicated difference in cytokine expression profiles between COVID and other viral infections.

Interesting? Yes. 

What does it mean? I/we don't know (yet).

Will covid brain lead to other long-term effects or cause other diseases like Alzheimer's? Remain to be seen.

Covid is not just a cold. We are still investigating its clinical manifestations and long-term effects. 

In the meantime, you better not catch Covid and risk nasty "covid brain" now. Get your vaccine and do what you can.

Dance: Are we getting back to social dancing yet?

 This title question really depends on where you live. Obviously, if you live in a locked down city, or in a country where covid is rampant, the answer is "not yet". 

Here in my place, likely due to seasonal warming-up, new case of covid and resulting deaths have come down. Hospital bed occupancy level is below 10%, meaning hospitals are finally getting a break.

The answer also depends on your status. Covid can kill, or leave nasty aftereffects, and transmit easily. Getting vaccination will be a responsible act for yourself and for others. 

I am seeing reports of vaccination (1st or 2nd) in facebook, from non-medical practitioner or first responder or high-risk individuals. In fact, the vaccine is open to most adults, and they would be available to kids soon. Today they are saying that about 20% of Americans have gotten vaccination. Good.

I got the 2nd dose on early February. I can expect a reasonable degree of protection from covid for some more months, not counting vaccine-overriding variants that may or may not come.

So, can I come back to social dance parties now? Probably.

I did check out a social salsa party on 3/27. Mask was still required. The crowd was about 2/3 of what it used to be, but people were coming back.

Salsa crowd generally is younger. That may be a reason that they are coming back already. 

Speaking of ages, tango crowd is older. They may take extra time to come back. West Coast Swing people are in-between, age-wise. Maybe I should check out WCS party next?

Throwing a party or event, or not, is a judgement call by the organizer. I saw discussions by WCS event director on whether to resume events, or what would be the conditions to meet. 

It still is a tough call, because there still is a risk of covid cluster. I remember a few dance events last year that yielded clusters of covid patients. When that occurs, it is very damaging to the reputation of the event and its organizers. 

From the business and money standpoint, they may be itching to start. Fun-loving dancers would love it, too. Anti-maskers, covid deniers, freeDumb fighters and Karens would love to see everything is back to "normal".

The organizers could ask (or request or enforce) to take precautions as much as the participants can (e.g., mask, sanitizer, possibly the "vaccine passport"). Yet, when a covid cluster occurs, not much can be done to reverse it, nor to take "responsibility".

It is a tough call they make. We can choose to attend or not to attend. Assuming all precautions taken and suggested, in case we get covid at a dance party, it may now be becoming a matter of personal responsibility, rather than act of god.

This is a big change from last year. Or even from earlier this year. Situations change, so do our interpretations.

So this is our situation here in early April, 2021.

PS

There was Geroscience symposium organized by OUHSC aging group over zoom today. There will be another session tomorrow.  4/10-15 is AACR annual meeting, also online/virtual.

Scientific meetings have changed so much. And it is so convenient. Will it be back to "normal" with all traveling, accommodation and mingling? Hard to say.