Earlier this week, I tweeted about wanting to read more single mom essays about Motherās Day. Lyz Lenz was kind enough to let me write one for her newsletter. I hope youāll read and share.
Iāve been focusing on longform projects for quite a while and havenāt published a piece in a minute, so getting to write this is especially meaningful to me. Thanks to Lyz for giving me the space and to Serena Golden for the excellent edits.
https://lyz.substack.com/p/a-single-moms-manifesto-for-mothers
A Single Momās Manifesto for Motherās Day
A guest essay by Megan Pillow
Over on the bad site, Twitter has lifted restrictions on Kremlin accounts and is no longer limiting the reach of Kremlin media accounts.
Russian government tweets are appearing in Twitterās algorithmically-driven āFor Youā feed for newly created accounts, even when they did not follow them. So Twitter is not just *showing* these Kremlin accounts ā it's algorithmically *boosting* them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2023/04/07/elon-musk-twitter-lifts-restrictions-putin-kremlin-russia/
Putin's Twitter account resurfaces as Russia comes in from the cold
Elon Muskās social media site lifts restrictions on Kremlin-linked tweets
Apps are due May 1, and Iāll make decisions by early June. I hope youāll follow our progress this year and will help me support talented emerging writers and KHJN! Please share!
Iām offering this for free because Iāve had a lot of support for my writing from generous people, and this is a small chance for me to give back. I also hope to raise visibility for Kentucky Health Justice Network and its work to support abortion and gender-affirming care in KY.
This will be a small cohort - no more than 10 ppl - and weāll meet twice a month for a year for both seminars and workshops. Iām also prioritizing the applications of BIPOC folks, trans and queer folks, disabled folks, and folks with low incomes.
MFAs arenāt accessible for all talented writers, and they arenāt necessary to be a successful writer. But folks should still be able to access MFA-quality workshops that offer a long-term rather than intensive workshop experience. Thatās what Iāll try to offer in miniature here.
Iāve got a few personal projects in the works this year that Iām really excited about, and today Iām launching one of them: Craft Year is a free, year-long online writing workshop for people without MFAs. Iāll do a short thread here, but read more about it and apply to join on my website if youāre eligible!
@igallupd Try not to be too hard on yourself about any of it. We all have days when we aren't our best. And I'm also an insomniac and have just resigned myself to getting work done when I can't sleep. It sucks, but sometimes it's necessary!
Drugmaker Eli Lilly caps the cost of insulin at $35 a month, bringing relief for millions
Eli Lilly said it would cap the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 per month. More than 8 million people with diabetes rely on insulin, which is notoriously expensive in the U.S.
My fear at this stage of the #COVID19 pandemic is that we'll see a slow drip of data and studies showing just how much damage repeat COVID infections are doing to our body. We'll realize, too late, how much safer we should've been.
This is one small example: A Sharp Rise in Autoimmune Encephalitis in the COVID-19 Era. āWe may be entering an era of heightened autoimmune encephalitis,ā which is a set of related conditions in which the immune system attacks the brain.
https://www.cureus.com/articles/130722-a-sharp-rise-in-autoimmune-encephalitis-in-the-covid-19-era-a-case-series#!/
A Sharp Rise in Autoimmune Encephalitis in the COVID-19 Era: A Case Series
Background: Autoimmune encephalitis was very rare prior to the current pandemic. A sharp rise in cases has been observed from March to August of 2022 in Los Angeles. Such an increase, especially with certain types of antibodies, may point toward the possibility of post-infectious autoimmune encephalitis. While review articles on autoimmune encephalitis during this pandemic have been published, a sharp rise in one geographic area within a short period of time has not been documented yet.
Aims: To report an alarming increase in autoimmune encephalitis with mostly positive glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) and/or voltage-gated potassium channel (VGKC) antibodies over six months during 2022 in Downtown Los Angeles.
Material and methods: This is an observational case series from one neurocritical care practice in Downtown Los Angeles. Autoimmune encephalitis antibody panels were sent to patients with altered mental status or neurologic deficits of unclear etiology from March to August of 2022.
Results: Of the 29 patients tested, 12 reports came back positive. Ten had positive GAD and/or VGKC antibodies, one had a positive myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody, and one had a positive leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 protein antibody; a 41% positive rate.
Conclusions: This observation has important implications: (1) We may be entering an era of heightened autoimmune encephalitis. (2) These occurrences may be post-infectious in nature at this point of the pandemic. (3) Mostly GAD and VGKC antibodies have been identified (10 of them), which may point toward a new direction of research from a molecular mimicry standpoint. (4) To benefit patients, clinicians need to be aware of such disease manifestations and increase testing; resources must be increased to improve test availability and shorten turnaround time; and treatment, which is expansive, must be made widely available for these potentially reversible diseases.
Caroline Orr Bueno
Laura Anne Gilman
Augie Ray