cleanandsunny

This is why women choose the bear…

Idk how to format, but I want to save you from reading if you need that. So here’s a brief list of claims in the article:

• she frequently and repeatedly recruited homeless, impoverished female fans to provide childcare without any payment
• she repeatedly left these women alone with Gaiman, without the child present
• she warned Gaiman to “keep his hands off” at least one woman
• she said that at least 14 women had come to her for help with Gaiman
• she subsequently wrote a song about how much of a chore it was for her to deal with the multiple “suicidal mess”es Gaiman created
• she routinely controlled employment/housing of these women and knew Gaiman was, at best, sleeping with them (this cannot be consensual when housing/employment are in the mix)
• when notified of an assault that happened with her child present, only questioned whether the child was “wearing headphones”
• refused to cooperate with at least one police investigation
• refused any material help to assaulted women after repeatedly assuring them she would “take care of” them, get different housing/employment set up, etc.

Just…awful stuff, and this is best case scenario, FFS. She is fucking trash.

I didn’t heed the warning and regretted reading the whole thing - there are very detailed and gruesome first hand accounts of his alleged assaults on multiple women. Excellent reporting throughout, which only makes it more sickening.

Also, as a former Amanda Palmer fan, fuck her, too. It’s clear she enabled this and committed, at minimum, wage theft crimes. Both of them deserve to do jail time with even the most generous best-case-scenarios. I’m sure she was also abused by him, but that is not an excuse to abuse other women. Some feminist.

Ah, the joy of cats!

He has 2 heated beds and a cat tree! But he’s 16, and I think the older he gets, the needier he is.

I wish that worked. Mine screams to be picked up and held like you’re burping a baby. Absolute mad lad.

Of course! Everybody should stay on top of annual flu shots and COVID boosters - and RSV if you are eligible - and don’t forget about routine or travel immunizations, either. Tdap for example only lasts 10 years. In my lifetime, we’ve also had new vaccines for HPV, RSV, malaria, and chicken pox/shingles, which is amazing. Vaccines are one of the cheapest and easiest ways to take care of yourself and the people around you.

Okay, re: any cross-protection from vaccines, the answer is again likely no. For years people have been working on a “universal vaccine” so we wouldn’t have to do annual shots. There is currently work being done with the mRNA technology that came out of COVID, as well as universal HA targets. But we are, for the moment, still stuck with traditional flu vaccines.

Our current flu vaccines work by stimulating the production of antibodies targeting two surface proteins of the flu virus, HA and NA. These control viral attachment/fusion and release, respectively, which are important for viral infection and replication. When we think about vaccine effectiveness studies we want to see those HA and NA titres high because they are linked with protection.

The human vs avian strains of influenza behave differently when it comes to these proteins. HA proteins of human-to-human strains recognize α(2,6)-linked sialic acid, while avian strains use α(2,3)-linked sialic acid. Not every species has tissues with both of these sialic acid receptors. Some do - like pigs, quails, and turkeys - which is where we see viruses start to shift and cause problems for humans. So, mutations in those HA proteins in avian influenza is what decides whether they can reproduce in humans.

In other words - our current swine flu “H1” vaccine is unable to target any avian flu “H1” protein, and that’s actually a good thing! It means that the strains are well and truly separate, and avian influenzas cannot readily reproduce in humans without additional mutation. If and when we start to see human-to-human transmission of H5, then we can look at that strain’s protein structures and determine appropriate targets for vaccination.

This is a question for your doctor, so I am not providing any medical advice. Typically whether from infection or vaccination, we expect to see protective antibodies for several months.

It’s one patient and these rapid changes happened before in human patients, so who knows. All other H5 outbreaks to date have been limited and sporadic. We’d need more genomic data from more human cases. They are also going to monitor these cases closely so we’ll find out more as we go.

You’re welcome!

I knew this question would come up and unfortunately (or fortunately) I’m not an immunology PhD 😅 of course it’s always recommended to get flu shots due to partial coverage, reducing coinfections, and sparing health systems undue burden but let me see if I can get you a proper answer from someone who dreams about proteins and titers.