Epstein-Barr virus: you probably have it

 More than 60 percent of human infectious diseases are zoonotic—that is, they’re the result of humans coming into contact with a virus-carrying animal. The virus takes advantage of the new host and colonizes it. Such is the case with the virus that causes Covid-19 as well as the one that causes AIDS. While the viruses that cause Covid-19 and AIDS are quite successful in their ability to infect people, the most successful of the zoonotic viruses is the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a very transmissible species of herpesvirus that may reside within at least 90 percent of us, including half of five-year-old children.

EBV is passed from person to person through bodily fluids, mostly saliva. With most of us, when we become infected we don’t get particularly sick and we develop immunity. The virus remains inactive within your body for the rest of your life.  If your infection doesn’t occur until you’re an adolescent, you have about a fifty-percent chance of getting mononucleosis.

But it’s not all that benign. EPV has been implicated in a bunch of diseases, especially autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. But it’s also been implicated in other diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and a whole bunch of cancers. It’s actually a rather long list. One medical journal states “Developing a vaccine for the Epstein-Barr Virus could prevent up to 200,000 cancers globally.”

 This is all rather horrifying. Sorry I brought it up. You have enough to worry about.

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Nursing homes behaving worse: evicting the poor

 Across the country, reports of illegal nursing-home evictions are rising. It’s called “resident dumping.” The point is to get rid of unprofitable patients, mostly those who are poor and require extra care. Here’s how it works: a patient, usually with dementia, acts out in some way—throwing a bingo chip, yelling at a staff member, knocking over a chair. The nursing home sends the patient to a hospital for psychiatric examination. After the hospital discharges the patient, the nursing home refuses to take the patient back. By getting rid of people on Medicaid and replacing them with better-insured patients, the nursing home can get an extra $1000 a day, according to a lawyer for one of the patients.

There’s no national data on nursing home evictions. States do have nursing home ombudsmen, some of whom have said they have not seen nursing homes dumping patients. But in 16 states, some ombudsmen say the problem is getting worse. According to one report, problem residents are sometimes packed into vans and then abandoned in low-budget motels, or homeless shelters, or even onto street corners — or, in one reported instance in Maryland, into a storage facility. 

According to an ombudsman, Medicaid patients who require lots of staff attention “have a target on their back.” Lesson: If you’re on Medicaid and end up in a nursing home, be nice!

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Do not refrigerate

Because we had to evacuate for more than two weeks to escape the CZU August Lightning Complex Fire, I learned a thing or two about refrigeration. Our power had been out during this period and our refrigerator had been sitting at room temperature. When we returned it was foul smelling, to say the least. Of course, we had to throw out much of its contents, the worst of which was the rotted meat (eau de dead person). But I didn’t throw out everything. I decided to sniff and taste.

The most surprising was the almost full quart of pomegranate juice. I tasted it. It was fine! So I started examining and tasting other items, such as olives. They were also fine. I ended up keeping more of the jars that sit in the refrigerator door than I threw away—such items as pickles, capers, mustards, hot sauces and everything else that was either salty, vinegary, or spicy hot. I guess that’s sort of a no-brainer, when you think about it.

I’ve never refrigerated items such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes, all kinds of fruit. But I did a little research and discovered that, in addition to the other items I’ve mentioned, you don’t need to refrigerate eggs (unless cracked, of course). I threw away three of them that I could have saved (they’re displayed in refrigerated sections at the market)! You don’t need to refrigerate syrups (spoilage bacteria can’t grow when the sugar content is high). You also don’t need to refrigerate butter—which I knew. I always leave one stick on the kitchen counter but refrigerate the rest, which I’ll keep doing just for convenience. On an earlier occasion, I also learned, thanks to friends who had been house-sitting, that you don’t need to refrigerate peanut butter. It’s so much easier to spread at room temperature! 

All of my spicy, salty, vinegary items are still in the door of the refrigerator. I’m used to them being there and know where to find them.

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In poker, your arms give you away

 Michael Slepian, Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia University, studies the psychology of secrecy. He hit on the idea of studying poker players to determine whether the motions made by poker players as they placed their bets could reveal whether the players’ cards were good or bad.

In a series of three studies, Slepian asked undergraduates to look at clips of players from the 2009 World Series of Poker. In some of the clips, the students could see the full body (from the table up) and face of the players as they made their bets. Another set of clips showed only the chest and head (face) of the players. A third set of clips showed only the players’ arms as they pushed chips in on the table. The students were then asked to judge the quality of the poker hands—from very bad to very good—based on the clips they saw.

When judging the first two sets—those that included the heads and faces of the players—the students were no better than chance at guessing the quality of the players’ hands. In fact, when they studied players’ faces, their judgements actually dropped to below chance levels. Faces, it turns out, may actually give more false than useful information. But when the students looked at clips showing the motion of arms alone, their performance shot up. Even people who had no prior knowledge of poker seemed suddenly able to tell with some accuracy whether a player had a strong or weak hand. The players with the better hands executed their moves in a fluid manner and the students instinctively picked up on it. Apparently, smooth body movements suggest confidence; anxiety disrupts the smoothness.

At birth, our brainstems—the lowest and most primitive part of our brains—control our arms. That connection endures. We don’t think about the way we’re moving our hands and arms. For poker players, those movements can betray their carefully arranged facial expressions—their poker faces.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.