Health and Sanity category archive

Florida Woman.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Alexandra Brewis and Amber Wutich discuss a recent study regarding wearing masks in these viral times. A snippet:

Those who most adamantly resisted the idea of mask-use expressed a complicated but recognizable mix of political and religious beliefs that aligned with the idea that Coronavirus was a hoax. As one couple who had already been infected put it: “We know where we’re going when we die. We put our trust in God. There’s no fear. I mean, as far as our kids, I … don’t necessarily want them to get it, but I want them to build the immune system towards it.” There were also fears expressed that mask wearing was harmful because it caused poisoning from carbon dioxide build-up (it doesn’t). Some had adopted the idea, promoted through social media, that natural immunity gained from non-masking was protective against a worse form of the illness (it isn’t). Fearing the virus – and masking — was thus understood as counter-productive.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Christian Miller reports on research that suggests how persons wear masks in these viral times sheds light on their character. A bit; follow the link for details.

Suppose one person is wearing her mask properly, covering her mouth and nose. Suppose the other person only has his mask on his chin, or maybe down around his neck. From this difference alone, it could be that the second person is more likely to be dishonest in other situations as well.

That, at least, is what the economist Yossef Tobol at the Jerusalem College of Technology and his colleagues found in a recent study published in the journal Economic Letters.

The variable in the haystack.

H/T Susan for calling my attention to this article.

Protesting the protesting marauders.

David Lazarus investigated a hospital bill. A snippet:

Tony Summers, 82, underwent outpatient sinus surgery in October. His stay at San Diego’s Scripps Mercy Surgery Pavilion lasted less than three hours. He described the quality of care as excellent.

Summers received his insurer’s explanation of benefits recently.

There are any number of things we could nitpick about. But what really jumped out at me was a charge of almost $77,000 for “medical services,” a mysterious fee above and beyond the roughly $5,000 billed separately by Summers’ surgeon and anesthesiologist.

Follow the link for the story of his quest to find out what “medical services” warranted charges at the rate of $25,666.66 an hour for a three-hour outpatient procedure.

In a thoughtful article at The Seattle Times, Danny Westneat compares the different approaches to delivering COVID-19 vaccines in the neighboring states of Washington and Oregon and the larger implications thereof.

Here’s a bit:

There’s a real-time experiment in medical ethics and triage playing out right now between us and our sister state to the south, Oregon.

At its core is an uncomfortable question that nobody wants to fall on the wrong side of: Who really is essential in a society?

So who’s up next?

Here in these parts we are seeing similar arguments being played out on a much smaller scale as neighboring cities struggle with questions of, for example, reopening schools and restarting high school sports. Westneat offers a reasonable and reasoned assessment of the situation.

Macho man.

Instagram covidiots.