In the United Kingdom, a 48-year-old who was bit by a stray feline ended up contracting a species of bacterium that scientists have never seen before. His immune response to the foreign microorganism was a doozy. Just eight hours after receiving multiple bites, the man's hands had swollen to such a great extent that he took himself to the emergency department. His puncture wounds were cleaned and dressed and he was given a tetanus shot before being sent on his way with antibiotics. A day later, he was back at the hospital. His pinky and middle fingers on his left hand were painfully enlarged and both his forearms were red and swollen. Doctors had to surgically remove the damaged tissue around his wounds. He was also given three different antibiotics intravenously and was sent home with oral antibiotics. This time, thankfully, the treatment worked and he made a full recovery. Back at the hospital, however, doctors were busy trying to figure out what had happened. When they analyzed the microorganisms present in samples from his wounds, they found an unrecognizable Streptococcus-like organism.
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Stop the ban on blood donation of gay men
The zebrafish is used as model in developmental biology. Here two juvenile fish of just two days old. © MPI für Entwicklungsbiologie/ Jürgen Berger/ Mahendra Sonawane
via Frans de Waal - Public Page http://ift.tt/105kgEA
Journey to the Microcosmos- Flatworms: Simple Wiggly Tubes
Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs
Quote Voiced by Jam’s Germs
a photo of a rhondrophyta tetrasporophyte under a microscope from my botany class <3
Moderna is quadrupling the cost of covid vaccines, from $26/dose to $110–130. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel calls the price hike “consistent with the value” of the mRNA vaccines. Moderna’s manufacturing costs are $2.85/dose, for a 4,460% markup on every dose:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/moderna-may-match-pfizers-400-price-hike-on-covid-vaccines-report-says/
If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/24/nationalize-moderna/#herd-immunity
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Stop the ban on blood donation of gay men
Fun fact: my dad, after being a surgeon for 25 years, no longer has fingerprints. The sponge he uses to wash his hands several times a day is so harsh that it’s rubbed off his fingerprints throughout the years. Sometimes he can’t get into our building because the biometric uses a fingerprint scanner 😭