USA BEST HEALTHCARE MONEY CAN BUY
Long-term complications of COVID-19 signals billions in healthcare costs ahead

Caroline Humer, Nick Brown, Emilio Parodi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Late in March, Laura Gross, 72, was recovering from gall bladder surgery in her Fort Lee, New Jersey, home when she became sick again.

Laura Gross looks out from her balcony in Fort Lee, New Jersey, U.S., July 31, 2020. Picture taken July 31, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Her throat, head and eyes hurt, her muscles and joints ached and she felt like she was in a fog. Her diagnosis was COVID-19. Four months later, these symptoms remain.

Gross sees a primary care doctor and specialists including a cardiologist, pulmonologist, endocrinologist, neurologist, and gastroenterologist.

“I’ve had a headache since April. I’ve never stopped running a low-grade temperature,” she said.

Studies of COVID-19 patients keep uncovering new complications associated with the disease.

With mounting evidence that some COVID-19 survivors face months, or possibly years, of debilitating complications, healthcare experts are beginning to study possible long-term costs.

Bruce Lee of the City University of New York (CUNY) Public School of Health estimated that if 20% of the U.S. population contracts the virus, the one-year post-hospitalization costs would be at least $50 billion, before factoring in longer-term care for lingering health problems. Without a vaccine, if 80% of the population became infected, that cost would balloon to $204 billion.

Some countries hit hard by the new coronavirus - including the United States, Britain and Italy - are considering whether these long-term effects can be considered a “post-COVID syndrome,” according to Reuters interviews with about a dozen doctors and health economists.


Some U.S. and Italian hospitals have created centers devoted to the care of these patients and are standardizing follow-up measures.

Britain’s Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are each leading national studies of COVID-19’s long-term impacts. An international panel of doctors will suggest standards for mid- and long-term care of recovered patients to the World Health Organization (WHO) in August.
YEARS BEFORE THE COST IS KNOWN

More than 17 million people have been infected by the new coronavirus worldwide, about a quarter of them in the United States.

Healthcare experts say it will be years before the costs for those who have recovered can be fully calculated, not unlike the slow recognition of HIV, or the health impacts to first responders of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

They stem from COVID-19’s toll on multiple organs, including heart, lung and kidney damage that will likely require costly care, such as regular scans and ultrasounds, as well as neurological deficits that are not yet fully understood.

A JAMA Cardiology study found that in one group of COVID-19 patients in Germany aged 45 to 53, more than 75% suffered from heart inflammation, raising the possibility of future heart failure.

A Kidney International study found that over a third of COVID-19 patients in a New York medical system developed acute kidney injury, and nearly 15% required dialysis.


Dr. Marco Rizzi in Bergamo, Italy, an early epicenter of the pandemic, said the Giovanni XXIII Hospital has seen close to 600 COVID-19 patients for follow-up. About 30% have lung issues, 10% have neurological problems, 10% have heart issues and about 9% have lingering motor skill problems. He co-chairs the WHO panel that will recommend long-term follow-up for patients.

“On a global level, nobody knows how many will still need checks and treatment in three months, six months, a year,” Rizzi said, adding that even those with mild COVID-19 “may have consequences in the future.”

Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital has seen more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients for follow-up. While major cardiology problems there were few, about 30% to 40% of patients have neurological problems and at least half suffer from respiratory conditions, according to Dr. Moreno Tresoldi.

Some of these long-term effects have only recently emerged, too soon for health economists to study medical claims and make accurate estimates of costs.

In Britain and Italy, those costs would be borne by their respective governments, which have committed to funding COVID-19 treatments but have offered few details on how much may be needed.

In the United States, more than half of the population is covered by private health insurers, an industry that is just beginning to estimate the cost of COVID-19.

CUNY’s Lee estimated the average one-year cost of a U.S. COVID-19 patient after they have been discharged from the hospital at $4,000, largely due to the lingering issues from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which affects some 40% of patients, and sepsis.

The estimate spans patients who had been hospitalized with moderate illness to the most severe cases, but does not include other potential complications, such as heart and kidney damage.

Even those who do not require hospitalization have average one-year costs after their initial illness of $1,000, Lee estimated.


Slideshow (2 Images)
‘HARD JUST TO GET UP’

Extra costs from lingering effects of COVID-19 could mean higher health insurance premiums in the United States. Some health plans have already raised 2021 premiums on comprehensive coverage by up to 8% due to COVID-19, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Anne McKee, 61, a retired psychologist who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee and Atlanta, had multiple sclerosis and asthma when she became infected nearly five months ago. She is still struggling to catch her breath.

“On good days, I can do a couple loads of laundry, but the last several days, it’s been hard just to get up and get a drink from the kitchen,” she said.

She has spent more than $5,000 on appointments, tests and prescription drugs during that time. Her insurance has paid more than $15,000 including $240 for a telehealth appointment and $455 for a lung scan.

“Many of the issues that arise from having a severe contraction of a disease could be 3, 5, 20 years down the road,” said Dale Hall, Managing Director of Research with the Society of Actuaries.

To understand the costs, U.S. actuaries compare insurance records of coronavirus patients against people with a similar health profile but no COVID-19, and follow them for years.

The United Kingdom aims to track the health of 10,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients over the first 12 months after being discharged and potentially as long as 25 years. Scientists running the study see the potential for defining a long-term COVID-19 syndrome, as they found with Ebola survivors in Africa.

“Many people, we believe will have scarring in the lungs and fatigue ... and perhaps vascular damage to the brain, perhaps, psychological distress as well,” said Professor Calum Semple from the University of Liverpool.


Margaret O’Hara, 50, who works at a Birmingham hospital is one of many COVID-19 patients who will not be included in the study because she had mild symptoms and was not hospitalized. But recurring health issues, including extreme shortness of breath, has kept her out of work.

O’Hara worries patients like her are not going to be included in the country’s long-term cost planning.

“We’re going to need ... expensive follow-up for quite a long time,” she said.

Analysis: Often on brink, Lebanon headed toward collapse

By ZEINA KARAM

1 of 7  https://apnews.com/dfd6b687da750f7f7c971e04a2bb0daf
A gas station workers gestures as he saying no fuel at the station, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. Lebanon is hurtling toward a tipping point at an alarming speed, driven by financial ruin, collapsing institutions, hyperinflation and rapidly rising poverty _ with a pandemic on top of that. The collapse threatens to break a nation seen as a model of diversity and resilience in the Arab world. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

BEIRUT (AP) — Power cuts that last up to 20 hours a day. Mountains of trash spilling into streets. Long lines at gas stations.

It may seem like a standard summer in Lebanon, a country used to wrestling with crumbling infrastructure as it vaults from one disaster to another.

Only this time, it’s different, Every day brings darker signs Lebanon has rarely seen in past crises: Mass layoffs, hospitals threatened with closure, shuttered shops and restaurants, crimes driven by desperation, a military that can no longer afford to feed its soldiers meat and warehouses that sell expired poultry.

Lebanon is hurtling toward a tipping point at an alarming speed, driven by financial ruin, collapsing institutions, hyperinflation and rapidly rising poverty — with a pandemic on top of that.

On Monday, the country’s foreign minister resigned, warning that a lack of vision and a will to implement structural reforms risked turning the country into a “failed state.”

The collapse threatens to break a nation seen as a model of diversity and resilience in the Arab world and potentially open the door to chaos. Lebanese worry about a decline so steep it would forever alter the small Mediterranean country’s identity and entrepreneurial spirit, unparalleled in the Middle East.

In the past, Lebanon has been able to in part blame its turmoil on outsiders. With 18 religious sects, a weak central government and far more powerful neighbors, it has always been caught in regional rivalries leading to political paralysis, violence or both. Its 1975-90 civil war made the word “Beirut” synonymous with war’s devastation and produced a generation of warlords-turned-politicians that Lebanon hasn’t been able to shake off to this day.




Since the war ended, the country has suffered a Syrian occupation, repeated conflict with Israel, bouts of sectarian fighting, political assassinations and various economic crises, as well as an influx of more than a million refugees from neighboring Syria’s civil war. The presence of the powerful Shiite group Hezbollah — a proxy army for Iran created in the 1980s to fight Israel’s occupation — ensures the country is always caught up in the struggle for supremacy by regional superpowers Iran and Saudi Arabia.

But the current crisis is largely of Lebanon’s own making; a culmination of decades of corruption and greed by a political class that pillaged nearly every sector of the economy.

For years, the country drifted along, miraculously avoiding collapse even as it accumulated one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens. The sectarian power-sharing system allotted top posts according to sect rather than qualifications, which in turn allowed politicians to survive by engaging in cronyism and patronage for their communities.




“One of the problems in Lebanon is that corruption has been democratized, it’s not sitting centrally with one man. It’s all over,” says Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Every sect has a sector of the economy that it controls and draws money from, so that it can keep their sect happy,” he said in a recent talk organized by the Center for Global Policy.

The troubles came to a head in late 2019, when nationwide protests erupted over the government’s intention to levy a tax on the WhatsApp messaging app, seen as the final straw for people fed up with their politicians. The protests touched off a two-week bank closure followed by a run on the banks and then informal capital controls that limited dollar currency withdrawals or transfers.

Amid a shortage in foreign currency, the Lebanese pound has shed 80% of its value on the black market, and prices for basic food items and other goods have seen a meteoric rise. Savings have evaporated, plunging many into sudden poverty.

Lebanon’s fall “represents an epic collapse with a generational impact,” wrote Maha Yehia, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

The pillars that long sustained Lebanon are crumbling, including its trademark freedoms and role as a tourism and financial services hub, and wiping out its middle class, she wrote in a recent analysis.

Left on its own, Lebanon could within months reach a point where it can no longer secure needs for its citizens like fuel, electricity, internet or even basic food.

Already, there are signs of the country being pushed toward a hunger crisis. Fears of a breakdown in security are real. The purchasing power of an ordinary soldiers’ salary has declined in dollar terms from around $900 to $150 a month. Public sector employees have similarly seen their salaries wiped out.

Unlike in previous crises when oil-rich Arab nations and international donors came to the rescue, Lebanon this time stands very much alone.

Not only is the world preoccupied with their own economic crises, traditional friends of Lebanon are no longer willing to help a country so steeped in corruption, particularly after the state defaulted on its debt in April. Moreover, the country is led by a Hezbollah-supported government, making it even more unlikely that Gulf countries would come to the rescue.

Lebanon’s only hope is an IMF bailout, but months of negotiations have led nowhere.

The French foreign minister, on a recent trip to Beirut, could not have been clearer that there would be no assistance for Lebanon before credible reform measures are taken. “Help us to help you!” he repeated.

The words appear to have fallen largely on deaf ears. Lebanese politicians can’t agree on the size of the government’s losses, much less carry out reforms to end the corruption from which they profit.

A complete breakdown of Lebanon threatens the wider region, potentially leading to security vacuums that could be exploited by extremists.

Writing in Washington-based The Hill newspaper, Mona Yaacoubian, senior adviser to the vice president for Middle East and Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said a total meltdown in Lebanon could also provoke new refugee flows to Europe and add yet more turmoil to the arc of instability stretching from Syria through Iraq, with negative implications for U.S. allies in the region.

Given the stakes, the United States cannot afford to ignore Lebanon’s impending collapse, she argues.

“Lebanon is rapidly spiraling toward the worst-case scenario: a failed state on the eastern Mediterranean.”

___

EDITOR’S NOTE: Zeina Karam, the news director for Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, has covered the Middle East since 1996. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zkaram.

US energy use hit 30-year low during pandemic shutdowns

By MATTHEW BROWN July 29, 2020

FILE - This April 26, 2020, file photo shows empty lanes of the 110 Arroyo Seco Parkway that leads to downtown Los Angeles during the coronavirus outbreak in Los Angeles, Calif. A record drop in U.S. energy consumption this spring was driven by less demand for coal that's burned for electricity and oil that's refined into gasoline and jet fuel. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. energy consumption plummeted to its lowest level in more than 30 years this spring as the nation’s economy largely shut down because of the coronavirus, federal officials reported Wednesday.

The drop was driven by less demand for coal that is burned for electricity and oil that’s refined into gasoline and jet fuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

The declines were in line with lower energy usage around the globe as the pandemic seized up economies.

Those trends are turning around as commercial activity resumes but the impact has already been profound — including energy companies filing for bankruptcy protection and a forecasted dip in annual U.S. and global greenhouse gas emissions.
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Overall U.S. energy consumption dropped 14 % during April compared to a year earlier, the energy administration said. That’s the lowest monthly level since 1989 and the largest decrease ever recorded in data that’s been collected since 1973.

The largest drop previously seen was in December 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks shocked the economy and a mild winter depressed electricity demand.

Natural gas bucked the trend with a 15 percent increase in use during the April lockdown. More people at home meant more demand for natural gas as a heating fuel, while relatively few homes are heated with coal or oil, said Brett Marohl, who helped produce the energy administration findings.

Petroleum consumption fell to 14.7 million barrels a day in April, down almost a third compared to the same period in 2019. Demand already has rebounded some after stay-at-home orders expired and large sectors of the economy started moving again.

Led by people resuming some of their old driving habits, particularly in cities, petroleum consumption in June was back up to 17.6 million barrels a day, according to the American Petroleum Institute. But new drilling activity continued to be weak, declining in June for the seventh month in a row to 11 million barrels daily as stockpiles of oil and petroleum products remained near record levels.

The spring drop in oil demand coincided with a market collapse triggered by a price dispute between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“While we are not out of the woods yet, we do appear to be headed in the right direction,” said Dean Foreman, the industry group’s chief economist.

Coal companies are expected to have an even tougher time recovering from the pandemic, which hit as the coal sector remained on a fairly steady downward spiral since 2007 despite President Donald Trump’s attempts to prop it up.

Coal consumption fell 27 percent in April compared to the same period in 2019, to 27 million tons. Most coal produced in the U.S. is used to generate electricity but many utilities have switched to cheaper natural gas and renewable sources like wind and solar.

The energy administration projects overall consumption will increase for the rest of 2020 but remain below 2019 levels.

Follow Matthew Brown on twitter: @matthewbrownap

Next in summer of player empowerment: Pac-12 players unite


FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2018, file photo, Oregon safety Jevon Holland (8) breaks up a pass for Utah wide receiver Jaylen Dixon (25) during the first half of the Pac-12 Conference championship NCAA college football game in Santa Clara, Calif. A group of Pac-12 football players on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, threatened to opt out of the coming season unless its concerns about competing during the COVID-19 pandemic and other racial and economic issues in college sports are addressed. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)


As college football leaders work to rescue a football season worth billions in revenue from the threat of COVID-19, the players have become emboldened.

They are calling out coaches and lawmakers, rallying for social cause s and asking for answers about how they are expected to safely play through a pandemic.

The latest act in this summer of college athlete empowerment comes from the West Coast, but there are already signs the movement could spread to other parts of the country.

A group of Pac-12 players Sunday presented a list of demands on issues ranging from healthy and safety to racial justice to economic rights. If they are not addressed — and exactly what that means is unclear — the players say they are prepared not to practice or play.

“It seems like the ball’s in the Pac-12′s court now,” Arizona State offensive lineman Cody Shear told AP.

Pac-12 referred to a statement it sent out Saturday, saying its support student-athletes “using their voices, and have regular communications with our student-athletes at many different levels on a range of topics.”

Shear was one of 13 players, including Oregon star safety Jevon Holland, from 10 schools listed on a news release sent to reporters. The players claim more than 400 of their Pac-12 peers have been communicating through a group chat app about a possible boycott. Oregon offensive lineman Penei Sewell, expected to be one of the first players taken in the next NFL draft, was among the players who showed support for the movement on social media along with Washington star defensive back Elijah Molden.



How many players would be willing to opt-out is hard to say.

“The Pac-12 players really want to play football,” Shear said, “I think this is a good opportunity for us to kind of make our voices heard given what’s happening in the world right now with the pandemic as well as the racial injustice. I think it’s a great opportunity for players to put their foot forward and make themselves heard.”

Shear said he was up front with Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards about being involved with the movement, and the coach was fully supportive.

Washington State defensive lineman Lamonte McDougle tweeted his support for the issues, but made clear he was playing: “I agree with everything this movement is fighting especially the health concerns but not playing this season isn’t an option for me I got ppl that need to eat. so if the NCAA wants to use me as a lab rat it is what it is.”

Utah quarterback Jake Bentley made a similar post.

The players have some supporters in high places.

“This is perhaps a watershed moment in college sports,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D.Conn.), who has been one of the leading voices among federal lawmakers pushing for changes to college athletics, said in one of several social media posts on the topic Sunday.

Some of the players’ demands seem radical: 50% of all revenue shared with the players. Some modest: A civic-engagement task force to address issues such as racial injustice in college sports. Some are already being addressed: NCAA rule changes allowing compensation for name, image and likeness. Of immediate concern with COVID-19, they’re asking for player-approved healthy and safety standards enforced by a third party.

“I think it’s all attainable,” said attorney Tim Nevius, a former NCAA investigator who has now represents college players in cases involving NCAA issues. “I think people see these as strong demands due to the historic denial of these basic rights to college athletes. People have trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that these are workers in a multibillion dollar industry.”

Less than two weeks ago, NCAA President Mark Emmert was on Capitol Hill, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing focused name, image and likeness compensation reform. Lawmakers also took the opportunity to pepper Emmert with other questions about long-term medical care for athletes and other issues.

College sports is entering an economic downturn even if the football season can be played and conferences can save the billions in television revenue that would disappear if there are no games to broadcast.

No football would mean massive shortfalls for athletic departments that could be forced to strip down programs and personnel.

With that knowledge, players are thinking about what they are getting for taking on the added risk of catching COVID-19.

“Student athlete’s lives shouldn’t be put at risk in order to prevent further financial backlash-especially when receiving insufficient compensation,” Washington receiver Ty Jones in one of several player statements released to reports.

Players have already begun opting out of the season for personal reasons. Most notably, Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley, another potential first-round NFL draft pick, announced last week he was skipping the season.

Right now this is the Pac-12′s problem. Already at Washington State it was reportedly causing disruptions in the program.

It might not stop out West.

Several players from outside the conference acknowledge the Pac-12′s movement on Sunday, including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the biggest star in the sport.

“This is in response to the growing inequities in college sports and coincides with a nation reckoning with racism and a global pandemic,” Nevius said. “These recent events have put a spotlight on critical issues in college sports.”

___

Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/ap-top-25-college-football-podcast/

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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Cooling of Earth caused by eruptions, not meteors

Analysis of sediment found in Hall's cave shows volcanic eruptions responsible for cooling of Earth around 13,000 years ago

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: WORKERS EXCAVATING HALL'S CAVE IN CENTRAL TEXAS view more 

CREDIT: MIKE WATERS/TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Ancient sediment found in a central Texas cave appears to solve the mystery of why the Earth cooled suddenly about 13,000 years ago, according to a research study co-authored by a Texas A&M University professor.

Michael Waters, director of The Center for The Study of the First Americans and Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, and colleagues from Baylor University and the University of Houston have had their work published in Science Advances.

Some researchers believed the event - which cooled the Earth by about 3 degrees Centigrade, a huge amount - was caused by an extraterrestrial impact with the Earth, such as a meteor collision.

But Waters and the team found that the evidence left in layers of sediment in Hall's Cave were almost certainly the result of volcanic eruptions.

Waters said that Hall's Cave, located in the Texas hill country, has a sediment record extending over 20,000 years and he first began researching the cave in 2017.

"It is an exceptional record that offers a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary cooperation to investigate a number of important research questions," he said.

"One big question was, did an extraterrestrial impact occur near the end of the last ice age, about 13,000 years ago as the ice sheets covering Canada were melting, and cause an abrupt cooling that thrust the northern hemisphere back into the ice age for an extra 1,200 years?"

Waters and the team found that within the cave are layers of sediment, first identified by Thomas Stafford (Stafford Research Laboratories, Colorado), that dated to the time of the proposed impact that could answer the question and perhaps even identify the trigger that started the ancient cold snap.

The event also likely helped cause the extinction of large mammals such as mammoth, horse and camel that once roamed North America.

"This work shows that the geochemical signature associated with the cooling event is not unique but occurred four times between 9,000 and 15,000 years ago," said Alan Brandon, professor of geosciences at University of Houston and head of the research team.

"Thus, the trigger for this cooling event didn't come from space. Prior geochemical evidence for a large meteor exploding in the atmosphere instead reflects a period of major volcanic eruptions.

"I was skeptical," Brandon said. "We took every avenue we could to come up with an alternative explanation, or even avoid, this conclusion. A volcanic eruption had been considered one possible explanation but was generally dismissed because there was no associated geochemical fingerprint."

After a volcano erupts, the global spread of aerosols reflects incoming solar radiation away from Earth and may lead to global cooling post eruption for one to five years, depending on the size and timescales of the eruption, the team said.

"The Younger Dryas, which occurred about 13,000 years ago, disrupted distinct warming at the end of the last ice age," said co-author Steven Forman, professor of geosciences at Baylor.

The Earth's climate may have been at a tipping point at the end of Younger Dryas, possibly from the ice sheet discharge into the North Atlantic Ocean, enhanced snow cover and powerful volcanic eruptions that may have in combination led to intense Northern Hemisphere cooling, Forman said.

"This period of rapid cooling coincides with the extinction of a number of species, including camels and horses, and the appearance of the Clovis archaeological tradition," said Waters.

Brandon and fellow University of Houston scientist Nan Sun completed the isotopic analysis of sediments collected from Hall's Cave. They found that elements such as iridium, ruthenium, platinum, palladium and rhenium were not present in the correct proportions, meaning that a meteor or asteroid could not have caused the event.

"The isotope analysis and the relative proportion of the elements matched those that were found in previous volcanic gases," said Sun, lead author of the report.

Volcanic eruptions cause their most severe cooling near the source, usually in the year of the eruption, with substantially less cooling in the years after the eruption, the team said.

The Younger Dryas cooling lasted about 1,200 years, "so a sole volcanic eruptive cause is an important initiating factor, but other Earth system changes, such as cooling of the oceans and more snow cover were needed to sustain this colder period, "Forman said.

Waters added that the bottom line is that "the chemical anomalies found in sediments dating to the beginning of the Younger Dryas are the result of volcanism and not an extraterrestrial impact."

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New studies show how to save parasites and why it's important

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

IMAGE: CHELSEA WOOD, RIGHT, AND THE TEAM PREPARE TO COLLECT TRAIL CAMERAS, WHICH WERE DEPLOYED TO QUANTIFY BIRD BIODIVERSITY AT EACH POND. view more 

CREDIT: EMILY WOOD

Parasites have a public relations problem.

Unlike the many charismatic mammals, fishes and birds that receive our attention (and our conservation dollars), parasites are thought of as something to eradicate -- and certainly not something to protect.

But only 4% of known parasites can infect humans, and the majority actually serve critical ecological roles, like regulating wildlife that might otherwise balloon in population size and become pests. Still, only about 10% of parasites have been identified and, as a result, they are mostly left out of conservation activities and research.

An international group of scientists wants to change that. About a dozen leading parasite ecologists, including University of Washington's Chelsea Wood, published a paper Aug. 1 in the journal Biological Conservation, which lays out an ambitious global conservation plan for parasites.

"Parasites are an incredibly diverse group of species, but as a society, we do not recognize this biological diversity as valuable," said Wood, an assistant professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "The point of this paper is to emphasize that we are losing parasites and the functions they serve without even recognizing it."

The authors propose 12 goals for the next decade that could advance parasite biodiversity conservation through a mix of research, advocacy and management.

"Even though we know little to nothing about most parasite species, we can still take action now to conserve parasite biodiversity," said Skylar Hopkins, paper and project co-lead and an assistant professor at North Carolina State University.

Perhaps the most ambitious goal is to describe half of the world's parasites within the next 10 years. Providing taxonomic descriptions allow species to be named, which is an important part of the conservation process, the researchers said.

"If species don't have a name, we can't save them," said Colin Carlson, the other project co-lead and an assistant professor at Georgetown University. "We've accepted that for decades about most animals and plants, but scientists have only discovered a fraction of a percentage of all the parasites on the planet. Those are the last frontiers: the deep sea, deep space, and the world that's living inside every species on Earth."

Importantly, the researchers stress that none of the parasites that infect humans or domesticated animals are included in their conservation plan. They say these parasites should be controlled to safeguard human and animal health.

The paper is part of an entire special edition devoted to parasite conservation. Wood is the lead author on one study in the collection that finds the responses of parasites to environmental change are likely to be complex, and that a changing world probably will see both outbreaks of some parasites and a total loss of other parasite species.

"We need to recognize that there will be a diversity of responses among parasite taxa and not take for granted that every parasite is dwindling toward extinction or about to cause a major outbreak," Wood said.

Parasites often need two or more host species to complete their lifecycle. For example, some parasites first infect fish or amphibians, but ultimately must get transmitted to birds to reproduce and multiply. They ensure that this happens through ingenious ways, Wood explained, often by manipulating the behavior or even the anatomy of their first host to make these fish or amphibians more susceptible to being eaten by birds. In this way, the parasite then gets transmitted to a bird -- its ultimate destination.

Given this dynamic, Wood and colleagues wanted to see what would happen to the abundance of parasites if the ecosystems in which they live changed. They designed an experiment across 16 ponds in central California's East Bay region. In half of the ponds, they installed structures such as bird houses, floating perches and mallard decoys intended to attract more birds, thus temporarily altering the natural ecosystem and boosting biodiversity in these ponds.

After a couple of years, the researchers analyzed parasite biodiversity in each of the 16 ponds. What they found was a mixed bag: Some parasite species responded to elevated bird biodiversity by declining in abundance. But other parasites actually increased in number when bird biodiversity increased. The authors concluded that as biodiversity changes -- due to climate change, development pressure or other reasons -- we can expect to see divergent responses by parasites, even those living within the same ecosystem.

Traditionally, the field of disease ecology assumes one of two paths: That we are either heading toward a future of more disease and massive outbreaks or toward a future of parasite extinction. This paper shows that both trajectories are happening simultaneously, Wood explained.

"This particular experiment suggests that we need to anticipate both trajectories going forward. It starts to resolve the conflict in the literature by showing that everyone is right -- it's all happening," Wood said. "The trick now is to figure out what traits will predict which parasites will decline and which will increase in response to biodiversity loss."

Wood's lab is working on that question now by reconstructing the history of parasites over time, documenting which parasites increased in abundance and which declined. However, there's almost no historical record of parasites and without this information, it's difficult to know how to conserve them. By dissecting museum specimens of fish, the researchers are identifying and counting various parasites found in the specimens at different places and times.

"These pickled animals are like parasite time capsules," Wood explained. "We can open them up and identify the parasites that infected a fish at its death. In this way, we can reconstruct and resurrect information that previously we didn't think was possible to get."

###

Co-authors on this paper are Pieter Johnson and Margaret Summerside of the University of Colorado Boulder. This research was funded by the Michigan Society of Fellows, National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the University of Washington, the University of Colorado, the National Institutes of Health and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

See the journal for the full list of authors and funders for the special edition.

FROM: Michelle Ma
University of Washington
mcma@uw.edu
(NOTE: Researcher contact information at end)

For more information, contact Wood at chelwood@uw.edu and Hopkins at hopkins@nceas.ucsb.edu.

Grant numbers:

NSF: OCE-1829509, DEB-1149308, DEB-1754171
NIH: RI0 GM109499

New method lets scientists peer deeper into ocean

BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST BARNEY BALCH COLLECTS OCEAN OPTICS DATA DURING A RESEARCH CRUISE IN THE GULF OF MAINE. BALCH IS PART OF A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS THAT HAS ESTABLISHED A... view more 

CREDIT: BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES

Researchers have advanced a new way to see into the ocean's depths, establishing an approach to detect algae and measure key properties using light. A paper published in Applied Optics reports using a laser-based tool, lidar, to collect these measurements far deeper than has been typically possible using satellites.

"Traditional satellite remote sensing approaches can collect a wide range of information about the upper ocean, but satellites typically can't 'see' deeper than the top five or 10 meters of the sea," said Barney Balch, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and an author of the paper. "Harnessing a tool that lets us look so much deeper into the ocean is like having a new set of eyes."

Lidar uses light emitted by lasers to gain information about particles in seawater, much as animals like bats and dolphins use sound to echolocate targets. By sending out pulses of light and timing how long it takes the beams to hit something and bounce back, lidar senses reflective particles like algae in the water.

Lead study author Brian Collister used a shipboard lidar system to detect algae and learn about conditions deeper in the ocean than satellites can measure. The research team on this 2018 cruise was composed of scientists from Old Dominion University and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

"The lidar approach has the potential to fill some important gaps in our ability to measure ocean biology from space," said Collister, a PhD student at Old Dominion University. "This technique will shed new light on the distribution of biology in the upper oceans, and allow us to better understand their role in Earth's climate."

In the Gulf of Maine, the team used lidar to detect and measure particles of the mineral calcium carbonate, gathering information about a bloom of coccolithophores. These algae surround themselves with calcium carbonate plates, which are white in color and highly reflective. The plates scatter light in a unique way, fundamentally changing how the light waves are oriented - and creating an identifiable signature that the lidar system can recognize.

Balch's research team has studied the Gulf of Maine for over two decades through the Gulf of Maine North Atlantic Time Series. Their experience in finding and identifying algae in this ecosystem provided key background information for testing the lidar system in what turned out to be the largest coccolithophore bloom observed in the region in 30 years.

"This cruise allowed us an ideal opportunity to try the lidar system out with the ability to sample the water and know exactly what species were in it," Balch said. "Lidar has been used in the ocean for decades, but few, if any, studies have been done inside a confirmed coccolithophore bloom, which profoundly changes how light behaves in the environment."

Coccolithophores thrive around the global ocean and exert a huge level of control on the biogeochemical cycles that shape the planet. Studying them is key to understanding global ocean dynamics, but field research is always costly. The team established that using lidar could potentially allow researchers to remotely estimate coccolithophore populations without stopping the ship to collect water samples - increasing their ability to collect valuable data, thus also conserving precious ship-time funds.

The research team also tested this approach in ocean environments that included the clear depths of the Sargasso Sea and the turbid waters off the coast of New York City. They found it to be effective across these diverse environments. Lidar systems can probe the ocean up to three times deeper than passive satellite remote sensing techniques that rely on the sun. Further research may establish approaches that allow lidar measurements to be taken by satellites, as well.

"It's a huge deal that we are learning to reliably identify particles in the ocean from a lidar system positioned above the water," said Richard Zimmerman, a study author and professor at Old Dominion University. "This is a significant advance, and it could revolutionize our ability to characterize and model marine ecosystems."

This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Virginia SpaceGrant Consortium.

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Brian Collister, a doctoral student at Old Dominion University, tends to a laser-based lidar system during a research cruise in the Bahamas. Collister is part of a team of researchers that has established a new approach to detect algae and measure key ocean properties using this tool.

Speech processing hierarchy in the dog brain

The study reveals exciting speech processing similarities between us and a speechless species

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE), FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: A DOG AND RESEARCHERS (MÁRTA GÁCSI (LEFT), ATTILA ANDICS, ANNA GÁBOR (RIGHT)) AT THE SCANNER. view more 

CREDIT: ENIK? KUBINYI / EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY

Dog brains, just as human brains, process speech hierarchically: intonations at lower, word meanings at higher stages, according to a new study by Hungarian researchers at the Department of Ethology, Faculty of Science, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) using functional MRI on awake dogs. The study, which reveals exciting speech processing similarities between us and a speechless species, will be published in Scientific Reports.

Humans keep talking to dogs whose sensitivity to human communicative signs is well known. Both the words what we say and the intonation how we say them carry information for them. For example, when we tell 'sit' many dogs can sit down. Similarly, when we praise dogs with a high toned voice, they may notice the positive intent. We know very little, however, on what is going on in their brains during these.

In this study, Hungarian researchers measured awake, cooperative dogs' brain activity via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Dogs listened to known, praise words (clever, well done, that's it) and unknown, neutral words (such, as if, yet) both in praising and neutral intonation.

"Exploring speech processing similarities and differences between dog and human brains can help a lot in understanding the steps that led to the emergence of speech during evolution. Human brains process speech hierarchically: first, intonations at lower-, next, word meanings at higher stages. Some years ago, we discovered that dog brains, just as human brains, separate intonation and word meaning. But is the hierarchy also similar? To find it out, we used a special technique this time: we measured how dog brain activity decreases to repeatedly played stimuli. During brain scanning, sometimes we repeated words, sometimes intonations. Stronger decrease in a given brain region to certain repetitions shows the region's involvement" - Anna Gábor, postdoctoral researcher at the MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group, lead author of the study explains.

The results show that dog brains, just like human brains, process speech hierarchically: intonation at lower stages (mostly in subcortical regions), while known words at higher stages (in cortical regions). Interestingly, older dogs distinguished words less than younger dogs.

"Although speech processing in humans is unique in many aspects, this study revealed exciting similarities between us and a speechless species. The similarity does not imply, however, that this hierarchy evolved for speech processing" - says Attila Andics, principal investigator of the MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group. "Instead, the hierarchy following intonation and word meaning processing reported here and also in humans may reflect a more general, not speech-specific processing principle. Simpler, emotionally loaded cues (such as intonation) are typically analysed at lower stages; while more complex, learnt cues (such as word meaning) are analysed at higher stages in multiple species. What our results really shed light on is that human speech processing may also follow this more basic, more general hierarchy."

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Video abstract about the research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EhI80fdEbw

This study was published in Scientific Reports titled "Multilevel fMRI adaptation for spoken word processing in the awake dog brain", written by Anna Gábor, Márta Gácsi, Dóra Szabó, Ádám Miklósi, Enik? Kubinyi and Attila Andics. This research was funded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ('Lendület' Program), the European Research Council (ERC), the Ministry of Human Capacities, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund and the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE).

Survey finds Americans social media habits changing as national tensions rise

A new national survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found more than half of Americans have changed their social media habits because of tensions surrounding current events this year

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER

Social Media Stress (VIDEO)

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER

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A new national survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found more than half of Americans have changed their social media habits because of tensions surrounding current events this year

CREDIT: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER


COLUMBUS, Ohio - As national tensions rise, a new national survey of 2,000 people commissioned by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds more Americans are adjusting how they use social media platforms.


Many participants cited stress from the global COVID-19 pandemic, along with the movement to end racial inequality and other divisive political issues in our country as reasons for taking a social media break.

While it may seem impossible to disconnect and step away from social media, some survey participants reported changing their social media habits this year. The survey found:


More than half of Americans (56%) say their social media habits have changed because of tensions surrounding current events this year.
Almost 3 in 10 Americans (29%) say their social media use has increased because of tensions surrounding current events this year.
And 1 in 5 Americans (20%) say they've taken breaks from social media because of tensions surrounding current events this year.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by information, opinions and arguments while scrolling through social media channels, said Ken Yeager, Ph.D., director of the Stress, Trauma and Resilience (STAR) Program at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

"Stepping away and reconnecting with reality offline is an important step to take for your mental health," Yeager said. "Being constantly immersed in this stressful environment and being overexposed to contentious or traumatic events can make you feel like the world is a less safe place to be. And because these stressors have persisted over a long period of time, it's wearing on people's ability to cope with that stress."

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When the negativity of social media posts and comment sections becomes overwhelming, Andrea Koder feels empowered by volunteering for causes she cares about, like fostering shelter animals.

Across the United States, there's been an increase in cases of depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance abuse over the past several months, said Yeager, who is a clinical professor in The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

"Even though you can't control what happens on social media, it's important to recognize how it may affect you and take steps to limit your exposure," Yeager said.

He offers these tips to go on a social media diet:


Reconnect with family and friends - Disconnect from your devices and stop scrolling on social media for a night. Instead, make plans with the people you care about, even if that's a group Zoom call. An evening of friendly conversation can be a welcome break from social media.
Create positive change in your community - Volunteer at a food bank, clean up a park or do anything that makes your neighborhood a better place. Seeing the good that you and others in your community are doing can help you realize what's truly important.
Use your power - Not only do you have the power of your vote, but you also have the power to voice your concerns and enact local change. Get involved in the issues that are important to you. Feeling like you're part of the process can be empowering and calming.
Talk about it - There can be a lot of misunderstandings in conversations about the biggest issues we are facing now, especially when they take place in social media comment sections. Talking to family and friends one-on-one about what is important to them and how they believe these issues affect them can help you understand where they're coming from.

Anyone who is regularly feeling panicked or having trouble controlling their mood or connecting with others should seek help from a mental health professional to learn ways to cope, Yeager said.

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Ken Yeager, Ph.D., counsels a patient at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Yeager says the stress of being constantly connected to the negativity on social media during this contentious time in our country has led to an increase in depression and anxiety.