Health

"Net-based surveys are less subjective than direct observations but are limited regarding the area that can be sampled (net apertures 1–2 m and ships typically have to slow down to deploy nets, requiring dedicated ship's time). The plastic debris sampled is determined by net mesh size, with similar mesh sizes required to make meaningful comparisons among studies. Floating debris typically is sampled with a neuston or manta trawl net lined with 0.33 mm mesh. Given the very high level of spatial clumping in marine litter, large numbers of net tows are required to adequately characterize the average abundance of litter at sea. Long-term changes in plastic meso-litter have been reported using surface net tows: in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in 1999, plastic abundance was 335 000 items/km2 and 5.1 kg/km2, roughly an order of magnitude greater than samples collected in the 1980s. Similar dramatic increases in plastic debris have been reported off Japan. However, caution is needed in interpreting such findings, because of the problems of extreme spatial heterogeneity, and the need to compare samples from equivalent water masses, which is to say that, if an examination of the same parcel of water a week apart is conducted, an order of magnitude change in plastic concentration could be observed."

"Oxfam has urged all three vaccine manufacturers to share their technical know-how with the World Health Organization (WHO) to leverage the world’s full manufacturing capacity and support regionally based production as a means to increase the overall supply, reduce on-the-ground distributional challenges, and respond to the desire of low- and middle-income countries to produce doses for their own citizens. “If Moderna worked with us, we could submit the WHO’s COVID-19 Vaccine mRNA Technology Transfer hub’s vaccine for approval at least one year sooner, which would save lives, decrease the risk of variants, and reduce the pandemic’s economic toll,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in his unprecedented presentation of the Oxfam resolution to Moderna shareholders via a pre-recorded statement. “We urge Moderna to share technology and know-how with the WHO hub and commit to not enforcing patents for COVID-19 and other essential vaccines in countries hosting the WHO hub and spokes. We also urge them to offer training to scientists working on those efforts through the Moderna mRNA access program.”"

"According to the , the choice to abandon systematic testing and contract tracing, which were effective in Korea and Taiwan, was a major mistake that contributed to the spread of the virus in virtually every country. The ultimate cause of this alarming delay were strategic choices. Italy was quickly forced to adopt a strategy of absolute confinement in order to halt the epidemic, as China had previously done. Other countries waited far too long to react, largely on the basis of the and crypto-Darwinian strategy of "herd immunity." Boris Johnson's United Kingdom was entirely passive in its initial approach, and other countries equivocated and delayed their restrictive measures, such as France and Germany, not to mention the United States. By adopting a strategy of "mitigation," or epidemic delay by "," these countries have de facto renounced any serious attempt to keep the virus under control from the start through the use of systematic screening and general confinement of the population, as was done in and Hubei province. According to the forecasts of the German and French governments, the strategy of collective immunity necessitates 50 to 80 percent contamination across the entire population. This amounts to accepting the deaths of hundreds of thousands — even millions — of people who are supposedly the "most fragile." All the while, the WHO's recommendations were very clear: states must not abandon systematic screening and contact tracing of anyone who tests positive for the virus."

"Why have states placed so little confidence in the WHO, and why have they not accorded the WHO a central role in coordinating the global response to the pandemic? In China, the epidemic effectively paralyzed the country both politically and economically. Freezing economic production and trade has never been practiced on such a scale, and the outcome has been a very serious economic and financial crisis in China. Germany, France and the United States most of all, thus largely hesitated in order to keep their economies running as long as possible — or, more precisely, to balance off economic and imperatives based on how the situation unfolds from "day to day," rather than heeding the more dire, long-term forecasts."

"The delays the WHO experienced in declaring a public health emergency cost valuable time tremendous amounts of time; more time was lost in the delay it took to get a team of international experts and to examine the outbreak which we wanted to do which they should have done. The inability of the WHO to obtain virus samples to this date has deprived the scientific community of essential data. New data that emerges across the world on a daily basis points to the unreliability of the initial reports and the world received all sorts of false information about transmission and mortality. The silence of the WHO on the disappearance of scientific researchers and doctors and new restrictions on the sharing of research into the origins of COVID-19 in the country of origin is deeply concerning especially when we put up by far the largest amount of money, not even close. Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained as a source with very little death, very little death, and certainly very little death by comparison. This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead the WHO willingly took China's assurances to face value, and they took it just at face value and defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising China for its so-called transparency. I don't think so. The WHO pushed China's misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable, and there was no need for travel bans. They told us when we put on our travel ban a very strong travel ban, there was no need to do it. Don't do it; they actually fought us. The WHO's reliance on China's disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that."

"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health, social and economic crisis. Historical comparisons are few, particularly in recent decades. This tragedy constitutes nothing less than a trial for all humanity. [...] The WHO has been financially weakened for the past several decades, and is now largely dependent on private donors, with 80 percent of its funding coming from private businesses or foundations. But despite its weakened condition, the WHO could have still provided an initial framework for global cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, not only because of the reliable information it had gathered since the beginning of January, but also because its recommendations for radical and early control of the epidemic were ultimately correct."

"President Trump announced at the White House coronavirus news briefing in the Rose Garden on Tuesday that the United States will immediately halt all funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), saying it had put "political correctness over lifesaving measures." Also at the briefing, the president said plans to ease the national economic shutdown were being finalized, and that he would be "authorizing governors to reopen their states to reopen as they see fit." At the same time, Trump made clear that he was not going to put "any pressure" on governors to reopen."

"The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that administers Wikipedia, announced today a collaboration to expand the public’s access to the latest and most reliable information about COVID-19. The collaboration will make trusted, public health information available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license at a time when countries face continuing resurgences of COVID-19 and social stability increasingly depends on the public’s shared understanding of the facts...Wikipedia volunteer editors, many of whom are from the medical community, have been creating, updating, and translating Wikipedia articles with information from reliable sources about the pandemic. As one of the top ten sites in the world, studies have shown that Wikipedia is one of the most frequently viewed sources for health information."

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

"Infectious diseases do not employ multinational public relations firms. There are no front groups to promote the spread of cholera. Mosquitoes have no lobbyists. The evidence presented here suggests that tobacco is a case unto itself, and that reversing its burden on global health will be not only about understanding addiction and curing disease, but, just as importantly, about overcoming a determined and powerful industry."

"Climate change is the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century."

"Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease, and so the R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown “Disease X” as far as possible."

"In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled. [...] Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospitals. In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher. [...] We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic."

"But in one respect these two men are not typical of postmodern family doctors, indeed of postmodern medical practice generally. They are unhurried."

"He {Bernard Lown, MD} called for a return to the fundamentals of doctoring-- listening to know the patient behind the symptoms; carefully touching the patient during the physical exam to communicate caring; using words that affirm the patient's vitality; and attending to the stresses and situations of his life circumstances."

"...I learned a Slow Medicine lesson: how individual medicine was. It wasn't true that one size fits all, that everyone or no one should have that treatment or this pill. Rather, the right answer had to do with style, with who you were, who the patient was."

"[In likening Slow Medicine to Slow Food:] Slow Food was not really about fast or slow in time. Rather it was about privileging the basics-- the ingredients, which do take time: farmers' time and gardeners' time, and also their skill, experience, and knowledge. It was about accepting what is-- the seasons, weather, climate-- and flowing with it, not against it. It was about removing what is in the way of a plant being the healthiest, the most fertile, the happiest it could be, and doing so by little actions, by fussing and fiddling. That was how it was "slow.""

"We can allow for Slow Medicine beds in our hospitals so that doctors have enough time to find out what is really wrong with a patient, and patients have enough time to heal."

"As the patient tells, I listen as hard as I can--- not taking notes during this segment of the interview, not interrupting unless critical, not indicating one way or another what I consider salient or meaningful or interesting. I try my best to register the diction, the form, the images, the pace of speech. I pay attention--- as I sit there on the edge of my seat, absorbing what is being given--- to metaphors, idioms, accompanying gestures, as well as plot and characters represented for me by the patient. . . . I listen not only for the content of his narrative but also for its form. . . its silences, where he chooses to begin in telling of himself, how he sequences symptoms with other life events. After a few minutes, the patient stops talking and begins to weep. I ask him why he cries. He says, 'No one ever let me do this before.'"

"What needs to be contested in medicine is seldom the accuracy of observations but the restriction of interest--- the frame drawn so tightly--- to the biological."

"The essence of Medicine is story-- finding the right story, understanding the true story, being unsatisfied with a story that does not make sense. Healthcare, on the other hand, deconstructs story into thousands of tiny pieces-- pages of boxes and check marks for which no one is responsible."

"Although I use many modalities in my practice, only 3 are basic: my hands, my voice, and my intention."

"The loudest cry of patients is for compassion and attention, which is a call for time."

"We don't need to remake our health-care system or rebuild it from the ground up. We don't need to do very much. It's pretty simple, quite attainable. Just an added perspective and a change of pace."

"Don’t touch the patient—state first what you see; cultivate your powers of observation."

"Examination relates to those phaenomena which a person examining can discover for himself by means of his own senses, and without any reference to the sensations of the patient. Most parts of the body may undergo a physical examination; the immediate results thereby obtained are called ."

"Correct breathing also performs a constant massage of the internal organs by raising them up and down, thus curing constipation when it is caused by faulty insufficient breathing (as is often the case) which holds the muscles of the abdomen in a static position. Therefore the first thing to do is to make sure that you know how to breathe from the physical standpoint, and how to control the muscle of the diaphragm. This muscle forms the dividing line between the chest and the stomach just below the ribs. Place the fingers upon the diaphragm muscle just below the ribs and under the centre breast bone. In this arched hollow lies the muscle upon which correct breathing depends. Take a slow breath, drawing the muscle upwards and inwards, following its movement with the fingers, fill the lungs with air right up to the collarbones. Then breathe out slowly whilst tucking the diaphragm still further inwards and upwards!"

"Herein lies the true secret of breathing because most people do the exact opposite and drop the whole chest and let the muscles sag whilst breathing outwards. At first, practise every day until you have gained control of the diaphragm muscle, using it to push the air up and out in expiration. This pulls the intestines from their usual sagging position, thus accelerating the whole digestive system. It is also the foundation for all your future breathing work. It raises the chest and inclines the oxygen to pass upwards into the head and cleanse and invigorate the mind."

"As soon as you have begun to master the diaphragm muscle, you can consider the rhythm of the breath. This must be gentle, even and deep, and have four stages: (1) pause for preparation, (counting three); (2) breathe in slowly, (counting three; (3) hold breath whilst absorbing life forces, (counting three) and (4) breathe out whilst spreading the new life all over the body (counting three). Then repeat the exercise. As soon as you feel able, increase the counts to four times four and gradually increase until you arc able to breathe to four times seven without strain. (p. 104)"

"Conversely, a shallow, quick breath only half-nourishes, and is the partner of fear, nervousness and self-consciousness; whilst the uneven uncontrolled breath allows the person to become ‘beside themselves* with the emotional disturbance and indecision."

"A Yogi, or eastern sage, who wishes to perfect himself begins with the breath, and by its means obtains control over every nerve and function in the body, and finally arrives at super-normal experiences and an ecstasy... Whereas a citizen of Western civilization is usually brought up without any knowledge of the science of breathing whatsoever, his breath being successively restricted by taboos and inhibitions throughout childhood, adolescence, and finally by the anxieties, depressions, bad air and smells, and the nervous rush of modern life. The final result is that the average person hardly breathes at all (compared with what he should do) and therefore is relatively half-conscious most of his days."

"We can get on top of the world in most circumstances if we know and practice correct breathing, but without it we will always be working on one cylinder, and at the bottom of our form. For correct breathing feeds our minds as well as our bodies."

"This is called the World Breath or ‘Seven’ Breath, and was much practised by the ancient Egyptians who were adepts at physical and physiological culture. Seven, as you know, plays an important part in the plan of the Universe which affects tnis Earth, as for instance, the 7 planets, 7 colours of the spectrum, 7 notes of music, 7 days of the week, etc. If we practise the Seven Breath every morning on awakening, we will tune ourselves in to the forces of growth and progress and derive great benefit and strength from so doing, provided we neither strain nor jerk."

"Correct breathing must be deep, slow, even, and controlled by the mind and will. If it is deep it allows all the necessary rays and forces of nature to be drawn in and to reach every part of the body. If it is slow, then all possible benefits can be obtained before it is expelled again. If it is even, a rhythm is established in time with the rhythm of nature; the various vibrations of the body tune in with each other, and with the cosmic life-giving rays, thus producing a complete harmonious integration. If it is controlled by the mind and will, outside influences cannot upset the personal rhythm, nor distract the individual from his goal."

"Some say ‘Man is what he eats’ and some say ‘A man’s thinking determines his character’. It might be even more true to say ‘A man’s life and character are governed by his breathing’! This is because a person can neither digest what he eats nor act up to his ideas unless his breathing qualifies him to do so. p. 101"

"Breathing is really a very complex activity. It does not only consist of taking in air, absorbing oxygen from it and letting it out again as carbonic acid gas! The breathing has a tremendous effect on the character, determining the mood, courage, strength of purpose, health and inspiration from day to day."

"Usually... a person’s breathing has become automatic from childhood upwards, being determined by his childhood’s environment, circumstances and heredity. This automatic breathing is usually very inferior because of our ‘modern’ way of life, and leads to permanent inferior health. Therefore one of the first things which must be taken in hand is an understanding and mastery of the science of breathing."

"It is no exaggeration to say that if even five minutes a day were spent in mental and physical breath control, a person’s whole life would be made anew. For, besides the physical atoms of the air, such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, there are literally thousands of different radiations playing through the atmosphere, some of them infinitely subtle and powerful, which come from planets far outside our solar system! These can, and should, be drawn upon by us in correct breathing, specialized through our endocrine glands, and used in our most vital thinking and creative activities."

"Modern man has even forgotten how to breathe correctly, therefore, some exercises in rhythmical breathing, provided the air is pure, will bring nothing but benefit. However, the danger of public instruction in such exercises is that ignorant people may begin to exaggerate them; this may cause an influx of blood to some particular center, which may often be situated in a diseased organ and thus could cause radical worsening of its condition."

"As for pranayama, you overestimate its significance. Correct breathing is always beneficial, but those exercises which are advocated by irresponsible self-styled yogis are extremely dangerous..."

"Prana is the very same psychic energy in its quality of vital force, which is diffused everywhere and is absorbed by man chiefly through breathing."

"When, in Insight-practice, the meditator has achieved some skill up to the stage of Calming, he will, in due course, become aware of the fact that two processes are involved here: the physical process (rūpa) of breathing or abdominal movement, and the mental process (nāma) of knowing it. ... If the awareness of these two processes has become strong through repetition, they will present themselves regularly as a pairwise progression of physical and mental phenomena: breathing, knowing, breathing, knowing, ..."

"Note also that a supermundane breath is single, without repetition. This is significant, for only in a lone breath can be summoned the full power of energy. With rapid repetition, shortness of breath can occur, which harms the work. The Thinker advised, “Understand the power of a supermundane breath.” 816."

"Cleanliness is necessary out of doors and in the human breathing. The imperil exhaled by irritated people is identical with filth, or shameful refuse. 293"

"Conscious breathing, which is a powerful meditation in its own right, will gradually put you in touch with the body. Follow the breath with your attention as it moves in and out of your body. Breathe into the body, and feel your abdomen expanding and contracting slightly with each inhalation and exhalation. If you find it easy to visualize, close your eyes and see yourself surrounded by light or immersed in a luminous substance - a sea of consciousness. Then breathe in that light. Feel that luminous substance filling up your body and making it luminous also."

"Each exhalation sends out emanations of psychic energy. Each man lavishly saturates space; therefore he is obligated to show concern about a better quality of psychic energy. If people would understand that each breath has a significance for space, they would take care to purify their breathing. With the simplest apparatus the emanations of psychic energy can be demonstrated. One can see in the swings of the pendulum of life how continuously the energy vibrates. The same means shows the radiations called the aura, which indicates that particles of the aura are being sent out ceaselessly into space, and psychic energy continually weaves a new protective net. He who speaks about the inconclusiveness of experiments with psychic energy will usually be one who does not ponder at all about its existence. Dense ignorance contributes to the poisoning of the atmosphere. This must be understood in its literal meaning. Pure breathing is not attained by means of medicines. Psychic energy is the basis of purifying the breathing. 339"

"Doing things in this way has a good effect on everyone, teaching by example, not just with words. When your child is agitated, you don't have to say, "Go to that room!" You can take his or her hand and walk together into the room for breathing, and sit quietly together. This is the best education for peace. It is really beautiful to begin the day by being a Buddha. Each time we feel ourselves about to leave our Buddha, we can sit and breathe until we return to our true self."

"There are three things I can recommend to you: arranging to have a breathing room in your home, a room for meditation; practicing breathing, sitting, for a few minutes every morning at home with your children; and going out for a slow walking meditation with your children before going to sleep, just ten minutes is enough. These things are very important. They can change our civilization."

"We have mentioned, and at the same time have pointed out natural ways of ascent. Is there a contradiction in this? No, because We do not reject pranayama, and even point out its usefulness, for in certain cases pranayama may be a kind of remedy for the organism. However, We always advise simple pranayama. Breathing is an important process, but, as in everything, a natural pranayama is the best and is in accord with contemporary conditions. People should not devote only a certain time of the day to the purification of breath, but should practice it frequently during the day. For instance, it is healing to inhale fresh prana several times before making an important statement. Public speakers often use this method, but they rarely do it consciously, and it is precisely the conscious inhalation of prana that will transform their breathing. Thus, the objector should understand that We approve of pranayama of a certain quality, but the ancient painful practices must be revised. 441."

"I have a friend who, whenever he becomes agitated, enters the breathing room in his home. He sits down respectfully, breathes in and out three times, invites the bell to sound, and recites the gatha. Immediately he feels better. If he needs to sit longer, he stays there. From time to time, while his wife is preparing dinner, she hears the sound of the bell, and it reminds her to be mindful in her work. At such times, she deeply appreciates her husband. "He is so wonderful, quite different from others. He knows how to deal with anger." If she has been irritated, her own resentment subsides. Sometimes she stops cutting vegetables and goes into the breathing room to sit with him. This picture is so lovely, more beautiful than an expensive painting."