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Shanghai Officials Conceal COVID Deaths At City Nursing Homes Amid Punishing Lockdown

Shanghai Officials Conceal COVID Deaths At City Nursing Homes Amid Punishing Lockdown

As local authorities in Shanghai prepare to start the…

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Shanghai Officials Conceal COVID Deaths At City Nursing Homes Amid Punishing Lockdown

As local authorities in Shanghai prepare to start the second phase of the Shanghai lockdown, the western press has seized on reports that the death toll from the omicron-driven outbreak in China's most populous city (and its financial capital) has been even larger than authorities have let on - the latest indication that the numbers being released by China's public-health authorities have been sanitized, and that the true scope of the outbreak is even larger than believed.

An outbreak at a Shanghai home for the elderly has killed a handful of residents in recent days, deaths that haven't been reflected in authorities' official numbers, which haven't reported any deaths in the hundreds of homes for the elderly in the city.

Citing a group of orderlies who had been sent to one of China's quarantine facilities, WSJ reported that an unknown number of bodies had been removed from the facility, where at least 100 positive cases have been confirmed among its residents.

Of course, concealing deaths in the city's nursing homes might strike a chord with Americans, who remember all too well former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's deliberate under-reporting of the number of deaths at nursing homes in the Empire State during the first months of the pandemic.

In Shanghai, one of the orderlies who spoke with WSJ said they were tasked with dressing the body of one dead patient, an order that made the orderly fear for their safety.

"I was scared to death. I said, 'Look, look, those are for dead bodies,'" another orderly said, recalling the sight of half a dozen hearses parked at the hospital gate at night.

But the orderlies weren't the only sources who spoke with WSJ (speaking with members of the foreign press is, of course, discouraged by the CCP, and these individuals spoke out at great personal risk). Separately, the son of a patient at the hospital said that his father had died within the past week, a friend of the son told the Journal, adding that others who had visited the hospital reported seeing the bodies of at least a dozen deceased patients.

More than half a dozen users on several of China’s major social-media platforms have also posted messages alleging unreported deaths at the hospital in recent days.

Another orderly told WSJ that a surprising number of providers and staffers at the facility had been infected.

"Orderlies, nurses and doctors, we’re all infected," she said.

The facility, Shanghai Donghai, has been around for 20 years, and is run by a state-owned food conglomerate with 1,800 beds and an orthopedics ward that also treats younger patients. It's the city's biggest elder-care facility by capacity, and it reported zero COVID infections in 2021.

But why would local authorities want to hide the number of infections and deaths if they're ordering lockdowns anyway?

Well, as Nikkei noted on Thursday, the reputations of prominent local bureaucrats are being threatened, so they're doing anything they can to mask the severity of the situation to try and salvage their reputations. With the National Party Congress set for later this year, Li Qiang, the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, is hoping to be elevated to the Politburo Standing Committee, China's most powerful policy-setting body. He's seen as one of President Xi's closest allies, and before the lockdown, he had been expected to move to Beijing and become a vice premier in charge of the economy. Unfortunately for him, the lockdown looks to have disrupted such plans.

Now, those within the party who oppose President Xi's power grab (the party's paramount leader is expected to clinch a third term as leader during the party Congress this fall, making him the first leader since Chairman Mao to break the limit of two five-year terms) are hoping to use the situation in Shanghai to block Li's promotion, depriving Xi of an important ally in the Politburo.

Reflecting the outpouring of  public anger stoked by the Shanghai lockdown (as supplies of food and medicine have grown increasingly strained), one local official told ABC News that the city's leadership failed to adequately prepare.

Ma Chunlei, a senior Shanghai official, acknowledged shortcomings in the city's response. Authorities have rushed to bolster food deliveries to the city after panic buying stripped store shelves of necessities.

"We didn’t prepare sufficiently enough," Ma said. "We sincerely accept the criticisms from the public and are making efforts to improve it."

Meanwhile, city of Shanghai was preparing to reopen the eastern half of the city, and shut its western half, as the staggered 9-day lockdown continues. While Shanghai's lockdown has slowed factory output (a byproduct of lockdowns across China), authorities have decided to lift a lockdown in Jilin Province (the epicenter of China's worst outbreak since Wuhan). Starting tomorrow, locals will be able to move about freely, although they will be required to wear masks and, when indoors, stay 1 meter (3 feet) apart. Public gatherings in parks and squares are prohibited.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/31/2022 - 19:20

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Rational design of mRNA nanovaccine for cancer immunotherapy

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are revolutionizing the therapy of cancer. It can be flexibly developed in a short period of time, allowing transient expression…

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October 16, 2023

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Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are revolutionizing the therapy of cancer. It can be flexibly developed in a short period of time, allowing transient expression of multiple antigens for safe and efficient immunization. A diversity of mRNA vaccines is being explored in clinic to benefit patients with cancer. However, the translation of mRNA vaccines is still hampered by multistage delivery barriers before initiating strong immunity, including rapid clearance, poor targeting to lymphoid organs and dendritic cells, catalytic hydrolysis and weak capability to pass through phospholipid bilayers. Besides, vaccination with mRNA alone can barely induce strong immune responses in the absence of adjuvants. It remains challenging to improve cytosolic delivery of mRNA and promote its in vivo vaccination efficacy in combination with adjuvants.

Credit: ©Science China Press

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are revolutionizing the therapy of cancer. It can be flexibly developed in a short period of time, allowing transient expression of multiple antigens for safe and efficient immunization. A diversity of mRNA vaccines is being explored in clinic to benefit patients with cancer. However, the translation of mRNA vaccines is still hampered by multistage delivery barriers before initiating strong immunity, including rapid clearance, poor targeting to lymphoid organs and dendritic cells, catalytic hydrolysis and weak capability to pass through phospholipid bilayers. Besides, vaccination with mRNA alone can barely induce strong immune responses in the absence of adjuvants. It remains challenging to improve cytosolic delivery of mRNA and promote its in vivo vaccination efficacy in combination with adjuvants.

In past decades, a huge number of nanocarriers have been reported to promote transfection efficacy of nucleic acid drugs or deliver drugs to lymph nodes. These studies provide valuable features including size, surface charge, modification, responsiveness, components and cytotoxicity to achieve the goal for lymph nodes drainage or cytosolic access. Machine learning techniques provide powerful tools for exploring the physicochemical characteristics and biological features of these nanoparticles, and facilitate the design of nanocarriers with high efficiency. Commonly, machine learning models were trained, selected and optimized with high quality and massive datasets from computations and high-throughput experimental data, and in turn guide the rational design, screening and optimization of nanocarriers. By leveraging existing nanocarriers’ databases, machine learning may provide insights into rational design of nanovaccines with high efficiency.

In a new research article published in the Beijing-based National Science Review, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Jiao Tong University used machine learning to guide the rationalized design of mRNA nanovaccines. This study identified the key parameters of nanovaccines for efficient delivery of mRNA and cGAMP based on a machine learning model from the Nanocarrier Database (2010-2021, web of science). The mRNA/cGAMP nanocomplexes based on phenylboronic acid grafted polyethyleneimine were prepared and further encapsulated with anionic lipids to obtain the nanovaccine. (1) The negative surface charge of the nanovaccine reduces the interaction with negatively charged glycosaminoglycans in matrix and improves accumulation in the lymph nodes. (2) The nanovaccine, after being internalized by the antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in the lymph nodes, promotes the release of mRNA and cGAMP from the endosomes to the cytoplasm, which activates the STING pathway and induces the presentation of tumor antigens. (3) The activation of STING pathway promotes the release of IFN-I, which activates T cell immune response to kill tumor cells and inhibit tumor growth and metastasis. Compared with the mRNA alone, the therapeutic strategy based on this nanovaccine demonstrated stronger anti-tumor effects in melanoma and colorectal cancer models.

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See the article:

STING agonist-boosted mRNA immunization via intelligent design of nanovaccines for enhancing cancer immunotherapy

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad214

Journal

National Science Review

DOI

10.1093/nsr/nwad214

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Can ChatGPT diagnose your condition? Not yet

A research group led by Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) finds that when common orthopedic symptoms are given, ChatGPT’s diagnosis and recommendations…

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October 16, 2023

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A research group led by Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) finds that when common orthopedic symptoms are given, ChatGPT’s diagnosis and recommendations are inconsistent

Credit: Division of Medical Design Innovations, TMDU

A research group led by Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) finds that when common orthopedic symptoms are given, ChatGPT’s diagnosis and recommendations are inconsistent

Tokyo, Japan – ChatGPT, a sophisticated chatbot driven by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, has been increasingly used in health care contexts, one of which is assisting patients in self-diagnosing before seeking medical help. Although it seems very useful at first glance, AI may cause more harm than good to the patient if it is not accurate in its diagnosis and recommendations. A research team from Japan and the United States recently found that the precision of ChatGPT’s diagnoses and the degree to which it recommends medical consultation require further development.

In a study published in September, the multi-institutional research team led by Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) evaluated the accuracy (percentage of correct responses) and precision of ChatGPT’s response to five common orthopedic diseases (including carpal tunnel syndrome, cervical myelopathy, and hip osteoarthritis) because orthopedic complaints are very common in clinical practice and comprise up to 26% of the reasons why patients seek care. Over a 5-day course, each of the study researchers submitted the same questions to ChatGPT. The reproducibility between days and researchers was also calculated, and the strength of the recommendation that the patient seek medical attention was evaluated.

“We found that accuracy and reproducibility of ChatGPT’s diagnosis are not consistent over the five conditions. ChatGPT’s diagnosis was 100% accurate for carpal tunnel syndrome, but only 4% for cervical myelopathy,” says lead author Tomoyuki Kuroiwa. Additionally, reproducibility between days and researchers varied from “poor” to “almost perfect” among the five conditions even though researchers entered the same questions every time.

ChatGPT was also inconsistent in recommending medical consultation. Although almost 80% of ChatGPT’s answers recommended medical consultation, only 12.8% included a strong recommendation as set by the study standards. “Without direct language, it is possible that the patient is left confused after self-diagnosis, or worse, experience harm from a misdiagnosis,” says Kuroiwa.

This is the first study to evaluate the reproducibility and degree of the medical consultation recommendation of ChatGPT’s ability to self-diagnose. “In its current form, ChatGPT is inconsistent in both accuracy and precision to help patients diagnose their disease,” explains senior author Koji Fujita. “Given the risk of error and potential harm from misdiagnosis, it is important for any diagnostic tool to include clear language alerting patients to seek expert medical opinions for confirmation of a disease.”

The researchers also note some limitations of the study including the use of questions simulated by the research team and not patient-derived questions; focusing on only five orthopedic diseases; and using only ChatGPT. While it is still too early to use AI intelligence for self-diagnosis, the training of ChatGPT on diseases of interest could change this. Future studies can help shed light on the role of AI as a diagnostic tool.

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The article, “The potential of ChatGPT as a self-diagnostic tool in common orthopedic diseases: exploratory study,” was published in Journal of Medical Internet Research at DOI: 10.2196/47621

Journal

Journal of Medical Internet Research

DOI

10.2196/47621

Article Title

The Potential of ChatGPT as a Self-Diagnostic Tool in Common Orthopedic Diseases: Exploratory Study

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Ancient Egypt had far more venomous snakes than the country today, according to our new study of a scroll

Ancient texts are still teaching us new things about the prevalence of wildlife.

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October 16, 2023

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How much can the written records of ancient civilisations tell us about the animals they lived alongside? Our latest research, based on the venomous snakes described in an ancient Egyptian papyrus, suggests more than you might think. A much more diverse range of snakes than we’d imagined lived in the land of the pharaohs – which also explains why these Egyptian authors were so preoccupied with treating snakebites!

Like cave paintings, texts from early in recorded history often describe wild animals the writers knew. They can provide some remarkable details, but identifying the species involved can still be hard. For instance, the ancient Egyptian document called the Brooklyn Papyrus, dating back to around 660-330BC but likely a copy of a much older document, lists different kinds of snake known at the time, the effects of their bites, and their treatment.

As well as the symptoms of the bite, the papyrus also describes the deity associated with the snake, or whose intervention might save the patient. The bite of the “great snake of Apophis” (a god who took the form of a snake), for example, was described as causing rapid death. Readers were also warned that this snake had not the usual two fangs but four, still a rare feature for a snake today.

The venomous snakes described in the Brooklyn Papyrus are diverse: 37 species are listed, of which the descriptions for 13 have been lost. Today, the area of ancient Egypt is home to far fewer species. This has led to much speculation among researchers as to which species are being described.

The four-fanged snake

For the great snake of Apophis, no reasonable contender currently lives within ancient Egypt’s borders. Like most of the venomous snakes that cause the majority of the world’s snakebite deaths, the vipers and cobras now found in Egypt have just two fangs, one in each upper jaw bone. In snakes, the jaw bones on the two sides are separated and move independently, unlike in mammals.

The nearest modern snake that often has four fangs is the boomslang (Disopholidus typus) from the sub-Saharan African savannas, now only found more than 400 miles (650km) south of present-day Egypt. Its venom can make the victim bleed from every orifice and cause a lethal brain haemorrhage. Could the snake of Apophis be an early, detailed description of a boomslang? And if so, how did the ancient Egyptians encounter a snake that now lives so far south of their borders?

Representation of Apep (Apophis) in Ancient Egyptian wall painting. Note resemblance to boomslang (above).

To find out, our masters student Elysha McBride used a statistical model called climate niche modelling to explore how the ranges of various African and Levantine (eastern Mediterranean) snakes have changed through time.

Niche modelling reconstructs the conditions in which a species lives, and identifies parts of the planet that offer similar conditions. Once the model has been taught to recognise places that are suitable today, we can add in maps of past climate conditions. It then produces a map showing all the places where that species might have been able to live in the past.

On the trail of ancient snakes

Our study shows the much more humid climates of early ancient Egypt would have supported many snakes that don’t live there today. We focused on ten species from the African tropics, the Maghreb region of north Africa and the Middle East that might match the papyrus’s descriptions. These include some of Africa’s most notorious venomous snakes such as the black mamba, puff adder and boomslang.

We found that nine of our ten species could probably once have lived in ancient Egypt. Many could have occupied the southern and southeastern parts of the country as it then was - modern northern Sudan and the Red Sea coast. Others might have lived in the fertile, vegetated Nile valley or along the northern coast. For instance, boomslangs might have lived along the Red Sea coast in places that 4,000 years ago would have been part of Egypt.

Similarly, one entry of the Brooklyn Papyrus describes a snake “patterned like a quail” that “hisses like a goldsmith’s bellows”. The puff adder (Bitis arietans) would fit this description, but currently lives only south of Khartoum in Sudan and in northern Eritrea. Again, our models suggest that this species’ range would once have extended much further north.

Read more: Wildlife wonders of Britain and Ireland before the industrial revolution – my research reveals all the biodiversity we've lost

Since the period we modelled, a lot has changed. Drying of the climate and desertification had set in about 4,200 years ago, but perhaps not uniformly. In the Nile valley and along the coast, for instance, farming and irrigation might have slowed the drying and allowed many species to persist into historical times. This implies that many more venomous snakes we only know from elsewhere might have been in Egypt at the time of the pharaohs.

Our study shows how enlightening it can be when we combine ancient texts with modern technology. Even a fanciful or imprecise ancient description can be highly informative. Modelling modern species’ ancient ranges can teach us a lot about how our ancestors’ ecosystems changed as a result of environmental change. We can use this information to understand the impact of their interactions with the wildlife around them.

Wolfgang Wüster receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.

Isabelle Catherine Winder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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