Doris O'Brien is a retired college Speech teacher and banker. She has published two books of humor (Up or Down With Women's Liberation and Humor Me a Little) and for many years contributed light verse to the Pepper 'n Salt column of the Wall Street Journal. She is an avid writer of letters to the editors.
Doris celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in the same year she welcomed her first grandchild. She now lives in Pasadena with a great view of the San Gabriel mountains — and the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.
She can be reached by e-mail: witsendob at (@) gmail.com
Kaiser Health News: Why You Can’t Find Cheap At-Home Covid Tests
"While developing a rapid test that detects the coronavirus in someone’s saliva, Blink Science, a Florida-based startup, heard something startling: The Food and Drug Administration had more than 3,000 emergency use authorization applications and didn’t have the resources to get through them." "The U.S. produced covid-19 vaccines in record time, but, nearly two years into the pandemic, consumers have few options for cheap tests that quickly screen for infection, though they are widely available in Europe. Experts say the paucity of tests and their high prices undermine efforts in the U.S. to return to normal life. more »
Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Lots and Lots of Boxelders
Ferida writes: "They aren’t harmful to humans, yet having so many insects meet us at our door is not exactly a welcome greeting. They take winter refuge on boxelder and ash trees, which we don’t have, and maple trees, which we do. So we have started spraying them with diluted dish soap which was suggested instead of pesticides and we’ve noticed a slowing down of their invasion. I hope they will be gone soon." more »
JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg: Growing Public Health Concern of COVID-19 Chronic Olfactory Dysfunction
"This analysis of new daily cases of COVID-19, acute incidence of OD [Olfactory Dysfunction], and rates of recovery suggest that more than 700,000, and possibly as many as 1.6 million, US individuals experience COD because of SARS-CoV-2. To put this number in context, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders estimated that, among US adults 40 years or older, measurable OD was found in up to 13.3 million adults.6 Notably, the age-specific prevalence of OD is 4.2% for individuals between age 40 to 49 years and 39.4% for individuals 80 years and older." "The loss of olfaction has been associated with decreased general quality of life, impaired food intake, inability to detect harmful gas and smoke, enhanced worries about personal hygiene, diminished social well-being, initiation of depressive symptoms." more »
EPA Advances Science to Protect the Public from PFOA and PFOS in Drinking Water
"EPA will not wait to take action to protect the public from PFAS exposure. The agency will be actively engaging with its partners regarding PFOA and PFOS in drinking water, including supporting their monitoring and remediation efforts. Importantly, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021, invests $10 billion to help communities test for and clean up PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water and wastewater, and can be used to support projects in disadvantaged communities" more »
