In October, the state agreed to pay Fiscus $150,000 to settle the case. In addition, top health officials agreed not to disparage Fiscus, and Fiscus agreed not to disparage state officials. Additionally, Fiscus is required to refrain from commenting if she is asked about the lawsuit, negotiations, or settlement.
$150k to silence her. I am not criticizing her, she has the right to move on and live her life. But this is outrageous that she was fired for upholding the law and gets chicken feed in the settlement.
When I was small, my father would occasionally tell us âMy mother always said you have to eat a pound of dirt before you die.â
I was too young to understand that he was trying to reassure us not to worry if we dropped our cookie or something on the floor. Instead I thought it meant that when you got really old and it came your time to die, youâd have to go out to the backyard and eat a pound of dirt before youâd be allowed to die. I spent years dreading that far-off day when I would have to go out and eat all that dirt.
Ilta-Sanomat reports that WHO figures show Finland to have registered the largest number of Covid deaths per one million inhabitants in Europe over the past 12 months.
Lasse Lehtonen, director of diagnostics at the Helsinki Universitry Hospital HUS, pointed out that the WHO collects statistical data from every country in the same way, with all persons who tested positive for coronavirus infections who have died within 30 days of infection being counted as Covid deaths.
Lehtonen considers WHOâs statistical method ârough and simpleâ, but the best available to make global comparisons.
âIt is not the truth, above all it describes variations among the countries,â Lehtonen said. âIt does not measure the absolute number of coronavirus deaths, but how different countries rank in relation to each other.â
The method used by Finlandâs Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) is based on a screening of death certificates which specify the coronavirus as the actual cause of death, or when it is recorded as a contributing factor.
Over the past year, more than 3,000 deaths from coronavirus infections have been recorded in Finland, which put the country at the top of the per capita list in Europe.
The overall total number of deaths attributed to coronavirus in Finland exceeded 10,000 at the beginning of July 2023. The total number in Finland is now clearly higher than in Norway and Denmark, which are roughly the same size in terms of population, but also clearly more densely populated.
Repeat after me: Correlation does not equal causation. Still, a statistically interesting finding, begging for further investigation. Usually, situs inversus is associated with conditions that make cilia not beat right. I have not heard that as a covid association, but as we have learned, that beast can pretty much do what it wants. I look forward to hearing more on this one.
But this is all highly speculative. For one thing, the report does not include data on whether pregnant people whose fetuses were diagnosed with the rare condition even had COVID-19 during their pregnanciesâand how their rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with those in pregnancies without situs inversus. It also does not include data on genetic and environmental factors that are known to be linked to situs inversus. And, notably, even though cases of situs inversus quadrupled, it was still very rare overall, and no such spikes were reported in other waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections, including after the pandemic first began in China in late 2019.
In Kennedyâs Upside Down, drug companies are obsessed with infectious diseases and vaccines, but wonât address chronic diseases, because of profits. I know thereâs a lot of inanity in his understanding of health and public policy, but drug companies LIVE to make drugs for chronic diseases. A drug you have to take daily makes so much more money compared to an antibiotic that you have to take for a week once or twice in your life or a vaccine that, if the research is lucky, you only have to take once in your life . Meanwhile, weâre dealing with multiple resistance bacteria that can resist all known antibiotics because itâs ( sigh) not profitable to develop them. We Need Antibiotics. Theyâre Not Profitable To Make. Who Pays?
The next pandemic isnât an if, itâs when. So infuriating to have people campaigning against public health.
Itâs a bullshit settlement and smells like the state lawyers, as lawyers are wont to if their client agrees, went hard and made her life hell.
We can never expect the victims to fight on forever to get justice in our legal system. Itâs too much of a burden. Iâm angry on her behalf. Even from a long way away this is enraging but if she moves the hell out of that state that ruined her life and starts again that is possibly the best she can hope for.
âWith the exception of venous thromboembolism and pulmonary embolism eventsâŚâ I mean, that still seems like a pretty good outcome!
The former causes extreme pain and can cause people to lose their leg(s). The latter can be deadly if not diagnosed in a timely manner, and makes people feel like they are drowning.
Just considering the financial aspects: DVT (deep vein thrombosis) costs about $25k per procedure to treat. Pulmonary embolism costs between $30k to well over $100k to treat in severe cases. A few grand to prevent that seems a good investment.
Ilta-Sanomat follows up on an Etelä-Suomen Sanomat story about angry Lahti residents causing ructions as they demand Covid booster shots.
The autumn Covid wave is in full swing in Finland, with plenty of people falling ill. That has prompted a belated rush for booster doses of vaccine, but capacity to deliver them is being tested in the Päijät-Häme region.
People have been abusive towards bookers on the phone lines, and even turned up at vaccination centres and tried to demand inoculation without an appointment.
The current vaccination programme is limited to those in risk groups, who are mostly over 65 years of age. Their behaviour has surprised health professionals.
âWeâre always hearing about young people this and young people that,â said vaccination coordinator Henry Raita. âBut there has been more disruptive behaviour from the over-65s than from the youth, which is a little strange. We are talking about grown up people who have plenty of life experience, and then they donât know how to behave.â
Just because people are old, doesnât mean that they are grown up. Some of the worst entitled, selfish, ignorant pieces of shit people Iâve encountered were seniors.
In other news, got my Comirnaty booster, and the influenza shot, this morning. But I was careful to set up an appointment as soon as it became available.
Had a medical appointment at a hospital complex this morning, and went in wearing my masks. No one else was wearing one. After sitting down to fill out forms, the receptionist called me back to the desk to ask if I was sick. I told her no, but after phone chats with friends who caught COVID in the past month and then werenât able to get out of bed for about two weeks, Iâm trying to keep it that way.
Missed this update on next-generation vaccines in the pipeline:
Also coverage on pan-coronavirus vaccines in particular:
Got my COVID booster yesterday along with this yearâs flu shot. So far, so good - my arm hurts, but thatâs whatâs happened with every COVID injection Iâve received.
It felt a bit strange to not get the sticker to add to my vaccination card, though. On the plus side, they seem to have given up the âsit here for 15 minutesâ part of the experience. Also, I didnât have to schedule it; theyâre doing walk-ins, which is handy.
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On the plus side, they seem to have given up the âsit here for 15 minutesâ part of the experience. Also, I didnât have to schedule it; theyâre doing walk-ins, which is handy.