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Here Is When You Should Get Your Flu Shot

by WilburnMcLarty Posted on October 2, 2016

Mother Jones

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As flu season draws nearer, you may have noticed ads in your local pharmacy urging you to get your annual flu shot. On Thursday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doubled down on that message, urging Americans to get their vaccine as soon as they can. But last week, Americans got some conflicting advice. Some vaccine experts have suggested that it may be better to wait to get your flu shot. So which is it: Get your shot now or wait until the end of the month?

The conundrum is rooted in evidence that the immunity you get from your flu shot may wane over time, especially if you’re over the age of 65. Two weeks after you get your shot, your body develops antibodies—like little soldiers in your bloodstream that protect you from an influenza infection. The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of six months get a flu shot, and the immunity boost is especially important for children and the elderly, who are more vulnerable to complications. But some studies show that those antibodies may start to decline before the end of the flu season.

That’s why Laura Haynes, an immunology expert at the University of Connecticut Center on Aging, told Kaiser Health News that the ideal time to get your flu shot is sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

“If you’re over 65, don’t get the flu vaccine in September. Or August,” she said. Last year, the flu season peaked in December.

According to Kaiser Health News, the push to get people to vaccinate early is partly driven by economics. As more and more pharmacies offer flu shots, it makes sense for them to offer their vaccines as soon as they’re available in order to bring in more customers—even if it’s well before the flu season has begun.

However, waiting to get your vaccine carries its own risks. First and foremost, some people who delay getting their flu shot may simply forget to get one. An early vaccine is better than no vaccine at all.

“The problem is that a vaccination deferred is often a vaccination forgotten,” warned Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. At the annual National Foundation for Infectious Diseases press conference on flu vaccines, Frieden noted that even a small uptick of 5 percent in vaccination coverage could prevent nearly 10,000 hospitalizations.

In fact, last year saw a slight decline in the number of people who got vaccinated. About 45 percent of people got their vaccination last year, down about 1.5 percentage points compared with the previous year. And the largest decrease was among folks over the age of 50. According to Arthur Reingold, an epidemiology expert at the University of California-Berkeley and a member of the CDC’s immunization advisory committee, last week’s push to get people vaccinated is partly about keeping those numbers up.

“Each year, we have the challenge of getting people out the door—to their providers, to their drug store, to their work site—to do this,” Reingold told me. “So I would imagine that this suggestion that people get their flu shot now is partly to try to ensure that we don’t see a further decline in how many people actually do that.”

It’s also not entirely clear when your flu vaccine starts to wear off. Some studies show that you may still carry protection from your vaccination the previous year if the flu strains didn’t change. And there’s another reason you might not want to delay too long: You never know when the flu will arrive in your neighborhood. According to the CDC, the flu season can begin as early as October.

Overall, Reingold says, waiting a couple of weeks probably won’t make that much of a difference.

“My advice would be to get the flu shot whenever it’s convenient and not worry so much about trying to time it perfectly,” he said.

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Here Is When You Should Get Your Flu Shot

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We Talked to New Yorkers on the Block That Was Bombed About Who Will Make America Safe Again

by DarwinDiederich Posted on September 19, 2016

Mother Jones

New Yorkers are practical. “It would have been awesome to see a dumpster go flying across the street. I would have paid to see that,” Chelsea office worker Matthew Swope told me, deadpan, as we stood near to where a bomb detonated on Saturday night, injuring 29 people and triggering a manhunt across two states. “What else are you going to do?”

Residents and workers along 23rd Street near 7th Avenue were getting on with life Monday afternoon, as police oversaw a complicated crime scene nearby. Meanwhile, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump engaged in a war of words over terrorism, and over who would make Americans feel safer. “They are looking to make this into a war against Islam, rather than a war against jihadists, violent terrorists,” Clinton said about potential terrorists attacking America. “The kinds of rhetoric and language Mr. Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries.”

Trump, on the other hand, blamed immigration: “These attacks, and many others, were made possible because of our extremely open immigration system.”

Residents and workers in Chelsea, however, completely rejected Trump’s hardline immigration policy as a solution to future terrorist attacks. “Of course, Clinton—I feel that she can do a better job of protecting us,” Swope said. “She has a much more level-headed personality.”

Jane Nelson, who was visiting a friend in Chelsea, was even blunter: “He knows nothing.”*

Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified the person who said “He knows nothing.”

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We Talked to New Yorkers on the Block That Was Bombed About Who Will Make America Safe Again

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Donald Trump Is Teaching the Whole World How to Lie

by LucretiG37 Posted on September 18, 2016

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump lies practically every time he opens his mouth. That’s hardly even notable anymore. What is still notable is the corrosive effect he has on nearly everyone who enters his orbit. His kids lie without compunction. His spokespeople lie without compunction. His campaign manager—until recently a fairly normal conservative—lies without compunction. His surrogates lie without compunction. Everyone who spends any time around him seems to inhale the lesson that in the modern media environment, there’s simply no penalty for lying, no matter how obvious the lying is.

Today, Chris Christie casually peddled the obvious lie that Donald Trump gave up on birtherism after President Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011. This is easily fact checkable. There are tweets. There’s video. Glenn Kessler rounds up the evidence:

This is why Americans hate politics. A sitting governor goes on national television and when he is called out for an obvious falsehood, he simply repeats the inaccurate talking points over and over.

This will possibly be our shortest fact check ever….Slate magazine counted nearly 40 Trump tweets since 2011 that raise questions about Obama’s birth. Even after Trump starting running for president last year, he continued to question the president’s background in television interviews.

….This is such bogus spin that we have to wonder how Christie manages to say it with a straight face. Regular readers know we shy away from using the word “lie,” but clearly Christie is either lying or he is so misinformed that he has no business appearing on television.

Before he hooked up with Trump, Christie was a relatively normal politician. He’d spin, he’d exaggerate, he’d evade, and he’d conceal. But now he doesn’t bother. He just tells simpleminded lies with no evident concern for the fact that he’ll get called out on them. Trump has taught him that being fact checked doesn’t matter. Getting air time for the lie is all that matters.

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Donald Trump Is Teaching the Whole World How to Lie

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Here Is the Latest Campaign Faux Controversy

by MarguerSeay Posted on September 10, 2016

Mother Jones

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I can’t tell if this faux controversy is actually getting much attention, but I know my readers all want to stay up to date:

Donald Trump’s campaign sought an apology Saturday from his Democratic rival after Hillary Clinton took aim at the Republican’s supporters, suggesting that half of them are what she called “deplorables.”

….“To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?,” Mrs. Clinton told donors in New York City. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.” The former secretary of state added that “some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.” The Trump campaign quickly punched back, saying that Mrs. Clinton had revealed “her true contempt for everyday Americans.”

I’m sure this will be followed up on social media with lots of folks “fact checking” Clinton and showing that she’s right. Let’s take a look. Yep, here’s one:

Typical Hillary shill. The Reuters poll he links to clearly shows that less than half of Trump’s supporters are deplorable. At most it’s 49 percent, and the average is only 43 percent. As usual, Hillary Clinton is spinning and exaggerating for her own benefit. No wonder Americans don’t trust her. A tisket, a tasket, Hillary’s in a basket.

OK, fine, that was lame. But hopefully everyone just skips this whole affair. It’s one of those things that belongs in the category of stuff literally everyone knows but can’t say out loud. Trump’s outreach to the racist, sexist, xenophobic, Islamaphobic community is pretty obvious and hardly needs any further evidence. Every campaign reporter in the country knows this. The question is, can they say it? Or will they just “report the controversy” and declare that it “casts a new shadow” over a “struggling campaign”? I guess we’ll see.

UPDATE: Well, it’s now on the front page of the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. So I guess it’s getting some traction. Is this just because it’s a slow weekend news day? Or will it last? Come back Monday for your answer!

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Here Is the Latest Campaign Faux Controversy

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Voters Sure Are Pissed Off This Year

by JacksonNabors59 Posted on September 1, 2016

Mother Jones

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Voters are angry this year. Bernie Sanders proved it on the Democratic side and Donald Trump on the Republican side. People are sick and tired of the old guard that talks and talks but never gets anything done. The establishment has turned politics into a corrupt charnelhouse catering to the rich and powerful instead of regular Americans, and voters are finally fed up. The tea party was a start, Occupy Wall Street was next, and now there’s a volcanic, bipartisan fury erupting all over the country.

So, um, that means incumbents should be in big trouble on both sides of the aisle. It’s probably been a bloodbath in the primaries this year—though of course the lamestream media will never tell you about it. Let’s take a look.

Hah! There’s your evidence right there. In 2014 four incumbents lost their primary contests. This year five have lost. Behold the fury of the American electorate. Truly this year represents the long-awaited revolt of the voters against the entrenched interests that bailed out Wall Street and sent all our jobs overseas.

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Voters Sure Are Pissed Off This Year

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BREAKING: Donald Trump Avoids Imploding For Two Days!

by Mickie6771 Posted on August 21, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here’s the front page of the LA Times this morning. I have to say I’m impressed. Donald Trump gets a huge headline in the lead spot for spending—what? Two days? Maybe three? Anyway, two or three days without doing anything egregiously idiotic. It’s like the way we lavish praise on a two-year-old for not throwing his food all over the kitchen.

According to the story itself, Trump gave a good speech! He ran some TV ads! He visited Baton Rouge for 49 seconds! The first was plainly aimed at his white base, not at the African-Americans it was putatively meant for. The second is the bare minimum that any presidential campaign is expected to do. And the third was transparent hucksterism. Still, he managed to avoid imploding the entire time. Good boy, Donald!

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BREAKING: Donald Trump Avoids Imploding For Two Days!

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The Devastation of the Opioid Epidemic, in One Chart

by Russel7134 Posted on August 12, 2016

Mother Jones

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The opioid epidemic in America is taking its toll on a class of victims who have received relatively little attention in the crisis: babies. The rate of babies born in drug withdrawal has quadrupled over a 15-year stretch, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report looked at the prevalence of babies born between 1999 and 2013 with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), an illness caused by exposure in the womb to addictive drugs, primarily opioids—including heroin, methadone, and prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone (known by brand names OxyContin and Vicodin, respectively).

NAS isn’t known to have long-lasting effects, but babies going through it can suffer from tremors, seizures, gastrointestinal problems, and fevers. The increasing rates mirror the skyrocketing use of opioids across the country. In 2014, more than 47,000 Americans died from drug overdoses—a similar number to the fatalities during the HIV epidemic at its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (According to the CDC, NAS can also be caused by non-opioid drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, and barbiturates, but opioids are detected in the vast majority of cases.)

Only 28 states currently collect data on NAS, and some of those states have kept figures on the condition only for the past few years. But as the chart below shows, the number of babies born dependent on drugs varies drastically by state, with West Virginia, Vermont, and Maine showing the highest rates. That’s due in part to different use rates of opioids. West Virginia and Maine have some of the highest prescription opioid rates in the country, while Vermont is struggling with a spiraling heroin problem.

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In an attempt to curb the opioid crisis, the CDC released the first national standards for prescribing painkillers this spring. The recommendations, which are not binding, call for doctors to first try ibuprofen or aspirin to treat pain, limit short-term opioid treatment to three days, monitor patients’ drug use with regular urine tests and prescription tracking systems, and advise patients—particularly those who are pregnant—about the addictive effects.

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The Devastation of the Opioid Epidemic, in One Chart

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Griping About NBC’s Coverage of the Olympics Is a White-Collar Privilege

by ClarissaBlackman Posted on August 12, 2016

Mother Jones

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Let’s get back to the Olympics. In particular, the seemingly endless griping about NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. I’m tired of it.

Why? Because it emanates from a place of—what? White-collar privilege? Creative-class privilege? Or maybe just plain old class privilege. Basically, it comes from people who assume that we all have jobs that allow us to keep a TV on in the background all the time. And for people like that, it makes sense to want the Olympics live and unedited.

But most people don’t have jobs like that. They get up, they go to work, they come home, and the only chance they have to watch the Olympics starts around 6 or 7 at night. So what do they want? Whatever random stuff happens to be live at the time? Of course not. They want to see all the stuff that’s happened throughout the day.

And no, they’re not equally fascinated by any old sport, just for the sheer thrill of watching the best of the best compete against each other. Nor are they devotees of the hammer throw or epee—the more obscure the better for the hipsters of Olympic viewing. They only watch this stuff every four years or so, and they mostly want to see swimming and gymnastics and track. They don’t know any of the athletes, so they like the little mini-docs that get them up to speed on who they are and what they’ve been through—even if those segments do promote gauzy narratives aimed mostly at women. And they’re Americans, so they mostly like to see events where Americans are favored.

Does that make them a bunch of rubes? I don’t think so, though your mileage may vary. They’re just ordinary people. And they’re the ones that NBC televises the games for. Not for the one or two million of you who swear you want the games live so you can watch the hammer throw at 10 in the morning.

In other words, give it a rest. We all know how smart and sophisticated you are. We all know you have nice desk jobs where no one minds if you keep a streaming feed going all day long in a corner of your computer display. We all know you’re a big, big fan of the hammer throw.

That’s all fine. But keep it to yourself. Most of the country just doesn’t have the opportunity to follow your lead. They’ve got jobs, dinners to make, and kids to put to bed. Give them a break.

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Griping About NBC’s Coverage of the Olympics Is a White-Collar Privilege

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There’s a new toxin in your water to worry about, America

by VioletPHLsk Posted on August 11, 2016

This Mess Again

There’s a new toxin in your water to worry about, America

By on Aug 11, 2016Share

To add to the “what might kill me in my home today?” files: According to a new report from Harvard researchers, 33 states have high levels of industrial pollutants polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl (PFASs) in their municipal water supplies.

There are loads of chemicals in our water, but PFASs are pretty rough. They’ve been linked with cancer, hormone disruption, high cholesterol, and obesity. High levels of the toxins were found in the water supplies of at least 6 million people, according to study author Xindi Hu, but because the government doesn’t keep data on PFASs in drinking water for a third of the country, exposure is likely far more widespread.

How did so many PFASs get in the water supply? Well, they can be found in literally thousands of wildly varied products — from pizza boxes to camping gear. They’re the Max Martin of product manufacturing.

“Virtually all Americans are exposed to these compounds,” Hu told the Washington Post. “They never break down. Once they are released into the environment, they are there.”

Currently, PFASs aren’t regulated at all. But in May, EPA issued health advisories for polyfluoroalkyl substances, and asked utilities to follow stricter standards. But as Hu notes, we’re definitely stuck with them for now.

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There’s a new toxin in your water to worry about, America

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For the Love of God, Can We All Stop Whining About the Olympics Being Tape Delayed?

by SimonCreswick Posted on August 6, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here is Meredith Blake in the LA Times commenting on the Olympic opening ceremonies last night:

In yet the latest decision to fuel the #NBCfail hashag, the network broadcast the ceremony on a one-hour delay on the East Coast. The West Coast was delayed by an additional three hours. NBC claimed it was delaying the broadcast in order to provide additional “context” for viewers. The real reason, of course, was to draw as many eyeballs and run as many commercials (and women’s gymnastics promos) as possible.

Are we going to keep whining about this forever? The Olympics are tape-delayed so they can be broadcast in prime time. They’re stuffed with commercials because NBC paid a billion dollars for the broadcast rights and commercials are how they make up for that.

We’re not children. We all know this. Nevertheless, we’ve been complaining about it since 1992 and NBC has been resolutely tape-delaying the games anyway ever since. Why? Because that’s how most normal people like it. You know, the ones who have to work during the day and don’t get home until 6 or 7 o’clock.

The only question I have is why NBC allows itself to be bullied by a small squad of elitist reporters and sports purists into making up weird excuses about “context” or “plausibly live.” Why not just say, “Don’t be a child. We’re tape-delaying it so more people can watch.” Their viewing audience, which is much more sophisticated than the reporters and sports purists, will have no problem with this.

POSTSCRIPT: But other sports events aren’t tape delayed. Why the Olympics? Why why why?

Please. Events in the US aren’t tape delayed because they’re carefully scheduled to air when the networks want them to air. Overseas events are usually shown live and re-broadcast on tape delay. But you can’t do this with the Olympics because they run all day.

Also, not to make too fine a point of this, but most Americans don’t give a shit about most Olympic sports. They watch them once every four years, mostly to cheer Americans who win medals, and that’s about it. If it’s even slightly inconvenient to watch, they won’t bother. Despite their whinging, this is also true of the elitist reporters and sports purists, who for 47 months out of every 48 mostly couldn’t care less about rowing or archery or sumo wrestling.

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For the Love of God, Can We All Stop Whining About the Olympics Being Tape Delayed?

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