“Every one can master a grief but he that has it.”
William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
- Farther along
It’s just short of seven months since the death of Hilary Teachout, my beloved wife. I was close to despair when I returned from her deathbed to my locked-down apartment, and though I thought at one point that I was coming out of it, I was wrong. I missed out...Read more
The New York Times – “Googling something was all we once did with Google. Now we spend hours a day using its maps, videos, security cameras, email, smartphones and more….It isn’t just that I am spending more time in a Google search, either. The Silicon Valley company has leveraged the act of looking for something online into such a vast technology empire over the years that it has crept into my home, my work, my devices and much more. It has become the tech brand that dominates my life — and probably yours, too. On my Apple iPhone, I use Google’s apps for photo albums and maps, along with tools for calendar, email and documents. On my computer and tablet, the various web browsers I use feature Google as the default search bar. For work, I use Google Finance (to look up stock quotes), Google Drive (to store files), Google Meet (to teleconference) and Google Hangouts (to communicate). In my home, Google is also everywhere. My Nest home security camerais made by Google. A Google voice service rings my door buzzer. To learn how to repair a gutter, I recently watched home improvement videos on YouTube. In online maps, Google has photos of my house taken from outer space and camera-embedded cars. By my unofficial estimate, I spend at least seven hours a day on Google-related products…”
“Since the outbreak began, news about Covid-19 has been subject to political manipulation and misinformation, and it continues to spread today. Making matters more complex, we all inevitably bring our own implicit biases or “motivated reasoning” in determining what news and information to believe and what to discount as propaganda from “the other side.” This is particularly true on our social media platforms. But it is still possible- urgent actually–to know how to identify, assess and understand what counts as credible evidence, information and reporting on the virus, since the difference between believing accurate information vs. believing bad information can literally be a matter of life and death. In this one hour interactive panel, four research, media, and data experts will discuss how to make sense of and evaluate sources in our complex and contentious media and information ecosystem. Topics include: science, trust and expertise; filter bubbles and motivated reasoning; understanding data visualizations; and tools and tips for avoiding and identifying misinformation. Members of the audience will also have the opportunity to share their own experiences and observations making this a highly interactive event ” [via Bob Berkman, Business Librarian, Learning Initiatives, University of Rochester (NY)]
Presenters
- Stephanie Barrett, MLIS, UR Social Science Librarian with a specialty in public health information
- Robert Berkman, MA Journalism, UR Business Librarian. Editor, The Information Advisor’s Guide to Internet Research
- Sarah Pugachev, MS Information Science, Director of Carlson Science & Engineering Libraries and Research Initiatives
- Kristana Textor, PhD Games & Learning. Instructor, Digital Media Studies
Penn State. “Mouthwashes, oral rinses may inactivate human coronaviruses, study finds.” ScienceDaily, 19 October 2020. “Certain oral antiseptics and mouthwashes may have the ability to inactivate human coronaviruses, according to a new study. The results indicate that some of these products might be useful for reducing the viral load, or amount of virus, in the mouth after infection and may help to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.”
- Source – Craig Meyers, Richard Robison, Janice Milici, Samina Alam, David Quillen, David Goldenberg, Rena Kass. Lowering the transmission and spread of human coronavirus[full-text]. Journal of Medical Virology, 2020; DOI: 10.1002/jmv.26514 – “Our results suggest that several nasal/sinus and oral rinses had potent virucidal properties and could have the potential to inactivate HCoV and decrease viral load in vivo. Studies of chronic rhinosinusitis have shown the safe use of 1% baby shampoo formulations as a nasal rinse, but there is no literature to date that evaluates its use against HCoV or other viruses. Our study shows that a 1% baby shampoo solution was effective at inactivating HCoV in a time‐dependent manner. The dilute rinse was able to reduce the amount of infectious virus by close to 99% after a contact time of 1 min and greater than 99.9% after a contact time of 2 min. With a contact time of 30 s 1% baby shampoo showed variable results ranging from less than 90% reduction in infectious virus to up toward a 99.9% reduction. Overall the results show a clear time‐dependent decrease of infectious virus. In contrast, a commonly used saline rinse formulation (Neti‐Pot) had no effect on infectious viral count in our study. Most of the common over‐the‐counter mouth washes/gargles tested demonstrated at least a 90% reduction in infectious virus at 1 min of contract time with the majority of products showing increasing virucidal activity with longer contact times. The products had varying active ingredients and formulations. Interestingly, three of the products tested (Peroxide Sore Mouth, Orajel Antiseptic Rinse, and 1.5% H2O2) all contained 1.5% H2O2 as their active ingredient. With these three products there were variable results with a reduction of infectious virus ranged from below 90% to 99%. The similar results obtained from all three products suggest that the inactive ingredients that are in the Peroxide Sore Mouth and Orajel Antiseptic Rinse provide no noteworthy additional effect toward inactivating the infectious virus. These results agree with a recently published study showing that both 1.5% and 3% H2O2 showed between a 90% and a 99% decrease in infectious HCoV…”
- See also The New York Times – No, Mouthwash Will Not Save You From the Coronavirus – Even if people coated the inside of their mouths with a coronavirus-killing chemical, a substantial amount of the virus would still remain in the body.
- See also Washington Post – What those studies on mouthwash and coronaviruses actually mean
