CARLOS A. MONTANER EN CNN
El Blog de Montaner
El Blog de Carlos Alberto Montaner
Es uno de los periodistas más leídos del mundo hispánico. La revista Poder calculó en seis millones los lectores que semanalmente se asoman a sus columnas y artículos
Carlos Alberto Montaner
La Manipulación del Lenguaje con fines políticos.
https://movimientoc40.wordpress.com/2020/07/20/manipulacion-lenguaje-fines-politicos/
en el inicio fue la pandemia de desamor que provocó otras pandemias ya endémicas en el planeta, permanentes, sin remedio hasta hoy.
en medio de tantas pandemias llego el coronavirus, sucedió lo lógico: quebraron los hospitales y, por tanto, murio mucha mas gente que la ya terrible cantidad programada por las pandemias en curso, esas que nos acompañan por siempre, amén;
una vacuna llegó y aplanó el virus, el virus al que llaman Pandemia, la COVID-19,
las otras pandemias: el abandono de los sistemas primordiales y primarios de salud, la incapacidad de los cuerpos sobrevivientes para hacer frente al virus; continuarán mientras tanto
al menos por el resto de este siglo, amén.
LA CIENCIA sigue trabajando, obrando milagros en medio de tantas pandemias que asolan sin cesar, todos los dias sin pausa, sin descanso, sin intermitencias, sin vacunas que las puedan aplanar.
On 29 January, early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization published a guide on the use of medical masks by the general public to slow the spread of the virus. It said that compulsory mask wearing shouldn’t be required, as “no evidence is available on its usefulness to protect non-sick persons”.
It is easy to read those words and assume that face coverings of any kind are pointless – indeed, that is precisely what many people have done. But as the saying goes, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Rigorous studies on mask wearing have simply not been done, so we cannot say for sure that they work. We also cannot say that they don’t.
“The two pandemics have become interlinked, with obesity a factor in some cases of severe covid-19”
Now, though, new evidence is trickling in. As a result, official policy in many countries, including in England (see page 11), is changing. We still don’t have the gold standard of medical evidence – a randomised trial – but as we learn more about how the coronavirus is transmitted, face coverings seem a sensible idea.
Not content with fighting one pandemic, Johnson has also signalled his intention to begin battle with another: obesity. Of course, the two pandemics have become interlinked, with obesity a factor in the development of some cases of severe covid-19.
However, despite obesity having been around for a great deal longer than covid-19, the evidence on what to do about it remains surprisingly contradictory, with dieticians at loggerheads over whether the most effective approach is to reduce how much fat or carbohydrate we eat (see page 16). To find out, we need more long-term research. Only then can we follow the science. ■
HOW can countries become more resilient to the coronavirus? You may have heard about face masks, hand-washing and avoiding crowds. But as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was recovering from covid-19 in May, he announced another tactic: targeting the nation’s waistlines.
People who are overweight are certainly at a higher risk of developing severe covid-19, especially if they also have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity. Around a third of UK adults are overweight, and roughly another third are obese. Johnson has blamed his own weight for how severely he was affected by coronavirus when he was admitted to hospital in April.
England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, also said this month that losing weight would reduce people’s chances of a severe case of covid-19 if there is a second wave in the country this winter and advised that people should get “as fit as possible”.
There is just one problem: we don’t actually know the best way for people to lose weight and keep it off. Many initiatives have been tried, but very few have been shown to work. “There’s no country in the world that has solved this,” says Michael Lean at the University of Glasgow, UK.
People in most countries have been getting gradually heavier over the past few decades, with the UK one of the heaviest countries in Europe. This seems to be exacerbating the severity of the covid-19 outbreak, researchers argued in a recent editorial in the medical journal BMJ.
The UK government hasn’t yet released specifics of how it plans to reverse this trend, but it is unlikely to be as simple as people getting fitter, as Harries implied.
While exercise seems to help prevent weight gain, studies have shown that it doesn’t cause people to lose weight, perhaps because it is hard to achieve the levels necessary to burn off a significant amount of fat. It may also make people hungrier. Physical activity seems to have a host of health benefits, including protecting against heart disease and boosting mental health, but weight loss isn’t one of them.
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Exercise has become more challenging with gyms closed in lockdown (KATE GREEN/GETTY IMAGES)
1 in 6 Overweight US adults able to lose 10 per cent of their weight and keep it off for at least a year
“While exercise seems to help prevent weight gain, it doesn’t cause people to lose weight”
“People who are no longer young and have become heavy find it enormously difficult to exercise enough to have any meaningful effect on weight,” says Roy Taylor at Newcastle University in the UK.
Going on a diet may seem the obvious way to lose weight, but while losing weight this way is possible, if unpleasant, keeping it off is much harder. Most people who lose weight through dieting regain most if not all of it within a year or two and some end up heavier than when they started.
Figures are hard to come by, but one large and respected health-tracking survey in the US found that the number of overweight or obese adults who succeeded in losing 10 per cent of their weight and keeping it off for at least a year was just one in six.
Hard to shake
People who attend weight-loss clinics that offer intensive support have somewhat better outcomes, but results are still disheartening. For instance, Taylor ran a programme based in Tyneside, north-east England, and Scotland that won recognition for helping people with diabetes lose enough weight to put their condition into remission. The programme offers a low-calorie shake-based diet for three months followed by monthly appointments for support in weight maintenance. Yet even here, just a third managed to keep their diabetes in remission for two years.
Disillusionment with mainstream dietary advice to cut out fat may be contributing to the growing popularity of controversial low-carb diets. Instead of avoiding fat and counting calories, these involve limiting starchy foods like bread and pasta.
Some low-carb weight-loss clinics have reported impressive short-term results, but as yet there is little data on how many people manage to keep up this type of diet and maintain their weight loss long term, perhaps because these diets haven’t been popular for very long. It is a troubling gap in our knowledge if the aim is to avoid deaths from covid-19, since low-carb diets seem particularly helpful to people with diabetes and pre-diabetes, who are at an increased risk of covid-19, probably because starchy foods raise blood sugar.
Although it may seem extreme, the most effective way to lose weight is to undergo one of the various forms of weight-loss surgery, which shrink the stomach or redirect the gut. Such surgery makes it harder to overeat, and also means nutrients aren’t absorbed as well. Increasing access to weight-loss surgery is one of the options Johnson is reportedly considering in response to the coronavirus.
Randomised trials have shown that such surgery does help people lose significant weight and that type 2 diabetes often goes into remission. But it is a major operation that carries additional risks to the normal concerns about surgery. For example, one study estimates that one in 10 people who have it develop some kind of addiction, such as alcoholism–as if people are transferring a previous “addiction” to food to something else once they can no longer eat the same quantities.
There were long waiting lists for weight-loss surgery in the UK before the pandemic hit. During lockdown, all non-urgent operations were stopped. While services are now resuming, that backlog has increased. It is hard to see how the UK’s health service would be able to ramp up its provision of weight-loss surgery before this winter. “Is surgery for 30 per cent of the population really what we should be tilting at?” says Lean.
For Linia Patel, a dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, the only solution is to make societal changes to put the obesity epidemic into reverse. In public health parlance, we are living in an “obesogenic” environment, which makes it hard for people to resist eating more and expending less energy. “There should be far more emphasis on educating people to eat better and creating an environment that encourages them to do so,” says Patel.
Yet it would take years for these sorts of changes to have any effect on the population’s weight. And even here, there are few strategies proven to be effective at reducing levels of obesity.
Obesity mysteries
There are many differences between how people live their lives today and how they did before obesity rates started climbing, and we don’t know which are the most important in causing obesity (see “Why are we getting heavier?”, below).
One option would be to run state-funded long-term randomised trials to answer the question of whether we should discourage people from eating fat or carbohydrates. Advocates of each at least agree we should be trying to steer people away from highly processed foods, like fast food, ready meals and snacks, which tend to be high in fat, sugar and salt. “The food industry has been riding all over us,” says Graham MacGregor at Queen Mary University of London, who co-authored the BMJ editorial.
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Obesity has been rising around the world for more than 40 years
The question is how to do that steering. Countless school-based programmes that aim to teach children about exercise and healthy eating have failed to reduce obesity. Public health doctors have long called for tougher measures, like restricting junk food advertising and the number of fast food restaurants allowed near schools.
There are also calls to change the way food is taxed, so that highly processed food becomes more expensive. The UK government has just done the opposite, however, temporarily slashing taxes for restaurants in an effort to encourage consumer spending post-lockdown.
Ultimately, if Johnson’s recent brush with death has made him rethink the importance of tackling obesity, that is probably a good thing for the UK’s health that will bring benefits beyond the pandemic. But with many firms struggling as the country enters a deep recession, a cut in consumption to help people slim down may be hard to swallow.
More Insight online
Your guide to a rapidly changing world newscientist.com/insight ■
no country has truly eliminated the coronavirus from its shores and that doing so would mean making such large sacrifices in other areas of public well-being that it might not be worth it.
Earlier this month, Independent SAGE – a self-appointed group of scientists that provides advice with the intention of guiding UK government policy on the coronavirus – published a report recommending that the UK aims for zero reported cases, known as elimination, within the next 12 months.
“Achieving elimination would allow all social distancing measures to be lifted, schools to be fully open, the hospitality and entertainment industries to reopen fully, revitalisation of the economy and a sense of much needed normality for the population,” the report said.
All the researchers New Scientist contacted agreed that elimination is a worthy goal. Most say it is theoretically possible for many countries, including the UK, to rid themselves of the virus even without a vaccine.
Success would require tough measures, however. The steps suggested in the Independent SAGE report are familiar ones. They include boosting test, trace and isolate programmes, maintaining lockdown policies and strictly restricting travel.
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New Zealand is the only country where Parkrun events have resumed (PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES)
Such measures would be a departure from the current phased return to normal life proposed by the UK government. It recently advised people to return to office working and will soon offer discounts on restaurant meals to encourage dining out. Recent figures suggest England’s test and trace programme is only reaching about 80 per cent of infected people’s contacts, and it is unclear how many of those told to isolate are doing so.
80% Estimated proportion of infected people’s contacts being reached by contact tracers in England
Tight restrictions on travel and border control would have costs for business, tourism and the broader economy.
The steps needed to move to elimination would have other costs. “It’s really difficult to know [what the goal should be],” says Kathleen O’Reilly at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “It’s all about balancing what’s feasible, what resources you have available and what the disadvantages are with putting your resources into one disease.”
Even those countries that have come the closest to reaching elimination are now in a constant battle to keep things that way. New Zealand was tentatively described as “virus free” early in June, when all restrictions except tight border controls were lifted. But the country has been reporting small numbers of new cases of covid-19 on a near-daily basis for the past month. As of 21 July, the Ministry of Health reports 27 active cases in managed isolation and quarantine. More individuals there could have symptomless infections, says Rajiv Chowdhury at the University of Cambridge. Scotland looked like it was close to elimination at the end of June, but it is still seeing a number of new daily cases.
Elimination is worth aiming for if all we want to do is put an end to covid-19, says O’Reilly. But lockdown has already significantly affected other areas of healthcare provision. In the UK, elective medical procedures have been delayed, cancer screening has been put on hold and thousands of people have avoided seeking care for serious health issues, including for heart attack symptoms.
The balance is an even greater challenge in countries with more limited resources. Those that were well on the way to eliminating polio and measles via widespread vaccination efforts, for instance, have had significant setbacks due to the diversion of healthcare resources during the coronavirus pandemic. “Polio virus is now spreading more, certainly in some African populations and in Pakistan,” says O’Reilly.
Given these difficulties, some scientists are proposing an alternative approach: eliminating the coronavirus as a public health concern. In practice, this would mean there are so few cases that people would be unlikely to come into contact with an infected person while on an outing or visiting a restaurant, says O’Reilly. But how this relates to actual case numbers is unclear.
The Independent SAGE group suggests that having one case per million people in a population could be used to define having the coronavirus “under control”, but group member Gabriel Scally admits that this figure isn’t based on hard evidence about how the virus spreads.
Even this goal would mean significant, prolonged changes to behaviour in terms of social distancing, personal hygiene and mask wearing. “From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not hopeful,” says Chowdhury.
Eradication – having zero global cases of the virus – is an even bigger challenge. We have only ever eradicated one human disease, smallpox. That came about through a massive global effort, helped by a very effective vaccine. It was also much easier to see who was infected with the smallpox virus. For now, eradication of the coronavirus seems impossible. Even if a vaccine were developed, we don’t yet know how effective it would be or how long its effects might last.
Attempts to eliminate – or at least significantly lower – cases in one nation must also consider the global picture. “We have to tackle this as a world issue,” says Stephen Griffin at the University of Leeds, UK. This is why the US government’s decision to pull out of the World Health Organization is so “unproductive”, he says.
“We have to act together,” says Griffin. “If we don’t, we’re going to have real trouble for the foreseeable future.” ■
Ya que tanto se preocupan por el coronavirus, porqué no se hace lo mismo para erradicar los otros problemas que ponen en riesgo la vida de muchísimas más personas que el virus éste.
Porqué no se publican todos los días todos los accidentes de tránsito, cuántos de ellos están internados, cuántas UTI utilizan, cuántos nuevos lisiados tenemos por día, cuántos mueren todos los días y así planificar políticas prevenibles. Suspender el tránsito vehicular por ejemplo durante unos 10 años hasta que se construyan vehículos para todos a prueba de bombas nucleares.
O mejor, porqué no publican los medios todos los días cuántos nuevos pacientes se internan por día por exceso de colesterol, cuántos hay en cama de UTI por isquemia de miocardio, cuántos se infartaron, cuántos quedan con secuelas y cuántos mueren todos los días así tomamos medidas para protegernos de esta “calamidad” mil veces más grave que el coronavirus. Y así programar políticas que cierren todas las industrias que producen alimentos ricos en grasas. Podríamos poner inspectores en todos los restaurantes y multar a quienes consumen alimentos con aceite de cualquier origen y más caras para los alimentos con grasa. Salvariamos decenas de millones de vidas en unos pocos meses.
O podríamos hacer lo mismo con los enfermos por exceso de azúcar. Prohíbir y multar a quienes producen y mejor aún, a quienes consumen exceso de azúcar o pastas.
O mucho mejor aún, porqué no publicar todos los días los casos de neumonía prevenibles por causas NO coronavirus que causan 10 veces más muertes que el corona, cuántos se internan y cuántos mueren todos los días a cada hora como se hace con esta pandemia y así se podría aislar a todas las personas del mundo en riesgo de contraer una neumonía fatal NO coronavirus (aislar a los 7.800 millones de habitantes del planeta por ejemplo y ya que estamos tan preocupados por la salud y la vida de la gente).
Y si tanto nos preocupa la vida, que tal prohibir y destruir todas las armas del planeta.
O también por ……..
Basta ya con el verso del Coronavirus.
Basta de tanta hipocresía.
Esperemos la vacuna y mientras tanto a lo sumo usar barbijos y distanciamiento social sin ninguna otra restricción.
Y si así no va a ser, entonces hagamos lo mismo con las demás pestes que matan mil veces más personas que el virus éste. Y gente más joven.
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/72426-four-months-of-unprecedented-government-malfeasance-2020-07-25
El mejor escrito que he visto hasta ahora sobre la locura de los últimos meses.
Lo más notable de todo esto amigo Julián es que todo lo que dice la nota ya era evidente a los pocos días de iniciado el brote.
Cuando China revelaba el número de muertes, ya era suficiente como para predecir que el tan peligroso coronavirus no era tal ¿Cómo atribuir semejante calamidad a un virus que provocó la muerte de 4.000 personas en un país de 1.500 millones de habitantes? Ya habíamos empezado con una locura total.
Y como no se podía justificar semejante nivel de alarma dados los poquísimos casos de muerte registrados en China, comenzaron con el verso de que en China murieron pocos por su sistema político capaz de aislar totalmente a toda la población.
Por favor, eso es de una incongruencia total ¿Acaso conocen como vive el 50% por lo menos de los chinos? ¿No sabían que viven en barrios hacinados que ni siquiera tienen baños propios las viviendas y deben recurrir a baños públicos construidos por el gobierno?
Para que mencionar lo que ya pasaba en países más pobres y hacinados que China como Vietnam, Filipinas, Camboya, etc ¿Acaso son mucho más ordenados que los occidentales y viven todos en casas aisladas unas de otra? Déjate de joder, viven uno encima del otro.
Es cierto que los occidentales somos más vulnerables a los efectos del virus, pero si mueren 500 personas por cada millón de habitantes y la enorme mayoría de ellos de más de 80 años y que encima, como dice la nota, la mayoría de ellos con expectativas de vida de unos pocos meses más ¿Vale semejante desmadre de la vida diaria de las personas menores de 65 años para quienes el coronavirus es menos peligroso que la gripe común?
Los medios se tendrán que hacer cargo del desastre que armaron estos hdp.
Y ya era hora que aparezcan las críticas como en este medio que compartió Julián.
Qué ganas de demostrar lo indemostrable. Demos gracias que la mortalidad no es la del ébola, sino estaríamos asistiendo al fin de la civilización. Pero la pretensión de ustedes de que todo el mundo civilizado se equivocó, además de petulante es estúpida. EEUU puede darse el lujo de cualquier despilfarro o “malversación” si quieren así llamarlo, y Europa también. El verdadero problema económico está en los países que no pueden fabricar moneda de curso internacional. La recesión será espantosa y acarreará desnutrición y muerte incluso por hambre. Saludos.
Por la enorme cantidad de idiotas como vos lopecito que no tienen capacidad de análisis, los media hicieron caer en la trampa a todos.
Lo más extraño es que el más idiota de todos fuiste vos lopecito (y veo que todavía lo sos) que no solamente se creyó de lleno el verso de la “extraordinaria letalidad” del virus sino que la exageraste por cien. Ridículo total y absolutamente.
¿Dónde están los millones de muertos en latinoamerica pedazo de pelotudo?
Si no existieran tantos pelotudos como vos, lopecito, la situación hubiera sido totalmente diferente.
En Brasil ya llegaron a 50.000 muertos, faltan unos 5 millones de muertos para que tú pronóstico se acerque un poco.
Imbécil.
Ahí va de nuevo pibe htpp/elblog dela revista Billiken.com
Estimado Ramiro. La pandemia está en proceso. Mis medidas económicas (hasta las de botiquín jaja) resultan exitosas. Paso activos a valores de cambio prácticamente todas las semanas, para en parte reinvertir cuando la baja llegue a su fondo. Las cosas van resultando con esa casuística dialéctica que no deja de sorprenderme, aplico el sistema de “riesgo cero” que usé en los caminos y diversifico. Incluso estamos (digo estamos porque delego trabajo a hijos y nueras) segregando y construyendo en ciudad. Aunque no puedo evitar la depreciación del patrimonio y la parálisis de las actividades, me estoy dando (o preparando) el gustazo de transformar un menos en un más.
Toda la vida he estado equivocado, para muestra este mismo blog. Pero contra todo pronóstico, y esto viene desde los mismos pajonales de la Pampa, la suma de mis errores me llena de satisfacciones. Viera qué bien se siente uno cuando una nuera le dice “yo sé que con ustedes a mis hijos jamás les va a faltar nada”. Un saludo.
Si hay una frase que pinta de cuerpo entero a un mediocre, es ésta: “Viera qué bien se siente uno cuando una nuera le dice “yo sé que con ustedes a mis hijos jamás les va a faltar nada”.”
Pero me lo han dicho, Ramiro.
Como le decía, mi mediocridad solo suma errores, y estos me llenan de satisfacción, y tambien de seguridad para mis hijos, mis nietos y más allá. Un saludo.
Por más que te explique 100 veces no te va a dar el cerebro para entender porqué alguien que busca dar mensajes como con la frase mencionada es un mediocre sin remedio.
Es por el populismo argentino, Ramiro. Confunde los valores.
Y no se pierdan a Fauci lanzando la primera bola del campeonato de baseball 🙂 Cualquier parecido entre la de la precisión de su lanzamiento y la de sus pronósticos y recomendaciones es pura coincidencia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eD5xkn4WLA
Jua jua jua jua jua juuuaa
Falleció el ¨unhypenated American¨ 🙁
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/the_unhypenated_american_is_gone.html
Quiero homenajear a mi ex-vecino Marcus Lloyd (vivía en Deltona, donde dirigía el centro histórico y artístico e incluso compuso un himno a Deltona) con su ¨Tren de Trump¨. Escribía con frecuencia artículos para el American Thinker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKFnDZtzl0c
Que Dios lo tenga en Su gloria.
Excelente trabajo el “Trump Train 2020”. Arte musical y publicitario Excepcional. Me sorprendió.
Cuál fue la causa de la partida de Marcus Lloyd?
Oh oh, por lo general no abro los link pero acabo de ver el anterior y explica la causa. Me gustó la frase “político sin guión”. Un saludo.
Un infarto
El comentario de un amigo cuando le di la noticia fue “es una lástima que no pudiera llegar a ver a Trump reelecto”
Este fue uno de sus últimos artículos.
https://www.eurasiareview.com/26062020-blm-at-war-with-america-oped/
Y éste era su sitio web. Disculpen por poner tantos posts sobre un tema tan ajeno a los artículos, pero el fallecimiento de Lloyd me tiene un poco triste. Se fue uno de los buenos en un momento en que hace falta cada uno de ellos.
http://www.lloydmarcus.com/
Sorprendente. Con la precisión de un cirujano y la hilaridad de un artista. Lo supuse un showman, pero está claro que además es un pensador, y carga pesada por la circunstancia y el público al que confronta y se dirige. Su obra queda. Un saludo.
En Argentina llegamos al extremo de hacer 4 meses de cuarentena!!!
Y cuando llegó el pico del brote ¡Suspendimos la cuarentena!
Extraordinario!!!
Obviamente, la gente se dió cuenta de que con 2.500 muertos es más peligroso andar en moto que el coronavirus y por tanto ya nadie le da “un cinco de pelotas” a la cuarentena. Al gobierno no le quedó otra que liberar la circulación de personas.
Mientras tanto, en una economía ya devastada antes del coronavirus, ahora es directamente una calamidad.
No por el virus, sino por la cuarentena.
En el 2009, se propago en todo el mundo,el
virus del flu, que afecto mas de 1000 millones de personas,y causo mas de 500 mil
muertos y que hizo la ” gran prensa” NADA,
no era noticia, solo lo era la cuestion economica.Que hace en este minuto” esa misma gran prensa”, mas que informar”ATERRO
RISAR”.ES la pura verdad.