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"It was pretty obvious where to go out there so I don't know what went on."

"I was about 20 seconds back so I kind of saw it happening but I'm not going to shout. It's not my job."

"I obviously came today with no hope of [beating my best time], but sometimes it just comes."

Tyler Pence, 28, cross-country coach, University of Illinois Springfield

"At that intersection where that incident happened, the course was well-marked.The signage is well displayed. The volunteers are there. And the fourth element is those elite runners have a meeting the day before to get familiar with the course."

"I don't want this to be a total loss for them so I think there is going to be some compensation for them."

"That shows that we are taking some responsibility ourselves. As race director, I feel somewhat responsible."
Joe Moreno, race director, Quad Cities Marathon race

Running Magazine

 

What are the chances? Two race competitors a hard-to-beat distance in front of other runners in the competition, one of them aware that he's ahead of his best time, each is just about guaranteed to be winners; one a first-place winner, the other second-place. Which order would be realized was up to chance. And may the best man win. As matters turned out, that win went not to Elijah Mwangangi Saolo or Luke Kibet, two Kenyans entered in the 265.2-mile run, beginning and ending in Moline, Illinois.

These races are open to anyone who qualifies, registers and is accepted. Held annually the fourth Sunday of September, the Quad Cities Marathon is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon; The Big One. The Quad race covers five races, four cities, three bridges, two states, one island. Elijah Mwangangi Saolo's grandfather Joseph Nzau is a Kenyan runner of some repute. He won the Quad-City Times Bix 7 in the 1980s, twice.

Joseph Nzau is his grandson's trainer. They had trained together ahead of the marathon in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Grandson Saolo has become a professional racer of sorts, his wins fund his family's living expenses; he supports his family through running and winning. Many of the races he would normally run were cancelled during the pandemic. Had he won the $3,000 first-place award, it would have been destined for his family's upkeep.

Both Kenyan runners were just about halfway to the finish line and they were clear front-runners. That's when they saw a marathon volunteer on a bicycle turning through Arsenal Island, and so they followed the cyclist. Instead of turning in the direction of the well-marked race route, the runners were led off route. A critical error in direction or judgement, which automatically disqualified the two Kenyans.

And it was when they turned off erroneously, trustingly, that Tyler Pence made the decision, as he watched them veer off the right track, not to alert them to their mistake. It wasn't his job, after all. And he did rather benefit from his instant decision to forge on and forget about what he'd seen. Honour in sports. Clear conscience because, after all, it 'wasn't his job'. And in so doing he became the first American runner in twenty years to win the race.

Joe Moreno informed the local newspaper the route had been properly marked. Furthermore runners experienced in the course had attended a meeting before the race to become familiar with its course. Signage was in place as it was meant to be. When Saolo and Kibet approached the finish line it was explained to them by Moreno they were disqualified for having taken an unofficial route.

And the marathon race volunteer who led the pair off the official track route? "I messed up royally", he said mournfully. Yes, he did. So did several others involved in the race.

Tyler Pence of Springfield finishes first in the TBK Bank Quad Cities Marathon on Sept. 26, 2021, in Moline, Ill    

Gary L. Krambeck/Quad City Times via AP  

Whatever It Takes : Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers

"We were aware of the possibility of cheating -- but we thought it would be a question of [an exam] leak or someone would use the internet, which is why it was restricted in many cities."

"In one case, we caught a student teacher after the exam and had to take him to a doctor to identify and remove the Bluetooth device from his ear."

"...This was a totally new modus operandi. [They] are getting so tech savvy."

"The slippers had a sim card and the candidates had a tiny Bluetooth bug implanted in their ears. In one case, we had to take a doctor's intervention to find the bug as it was so deeply implanted."

Priti Chandra, police official, Bikaner, India

Photo AFP/Getty Images

 

India has an immense population of 1.3 billion people. So it shouldn't be surprising that there were 1.6 million applicants taking the government examinations for student-teachers in Rajasthan state on Sunday. Among that number of potential future teachers was a group of 25 enterprising students who planned on passing the exam with flying colours, securing their coveted teaching posts in the country. All it took was money, no need to study and know their subjects thoroughly enough to have confidence in their own ability to learn and to absorb the required information convincingly enough to pass the qualifying exam.

 

Unfortunately, the students who had bought into a fraudulent new scheme, and who bought the items they would need to acquire the teaching certificates they planned on receiving, underestimated the keen observational intelligence of those involved in holding and administering the tests. They soon enough realized that their purchase of an innovative bit of technology would avail them nothing but failure and possibly jail time.

 

Those administering the exam, fully aware of the problem that cheating has been in the past, prepared for it this time around by authorizing a temporary cut to mobile internet access. Someone with an astute eye happened to notice that a group of people appeared to be behaving strangely while outside the exam hall on Saturday evening. In all likelihood testing the reception for the Bluetooth devices meant to accompany them into the exam chamber the following day.

 

They had paid out $8,142 each to acquire a pair of flip-flops. Not just any kind of footwear, but of a type that was truly unique, with receiving devices slipped into the sole of the shoes, enabling receipt of calls meant to be sent wirelessly to tiny receivers resting in the ears of the student teachers. Accomplices on the outside were to call the aspiring teachers' flip-flops to dictate correct answers. 

At least twenty-five students were found to have bought the wired flip-flops, according to investigators. Information that was shared with several other districts alerting them to the situation before the start of the exams, led many testing centres in the state to have students taking the exam remove their footwear beforehand. 

In India a handsome living can be earned by professionals hired to impersonate others, taking exams in their place, or stealing, or illegally procuring exam papers, then reselling them. A country of opportunities is also one of innovative illegality. It's not that such government jobs pay well. They are coveted for the extras that come with them; employment security and benefits such as lifelong pensions.

 

 

Public Urination Issues Threatening to Impact Environment

"Illicit drug contamination from public urination happens at every music festival."

"The level of release is unknown, but festivals undoubtedly are an annual source of illicit drug release."

"Unfortunately, Glastonbury Festival’s close proximity to a river results in any drugs released by festival attendees having little time to degrade in the soil before entering the fragile freshwater ecosystem."

Dan Aberg, School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Wales, U.K.

 

"[The levels of illegal drugs were] high enough to be classed as environmentally damaging. [However, levels] decline pretty quickly after Glastonbury has finished."

"This has highlighted the fact that stopping public urination is so important. Not just for the traditional pollutants, which we've kind of known about, but for these these types of pollutants, which we're only now really just becoming aware of -- pharmaceutical waste, illicit drug waste -- these are important."

"We need to start highlighting the dangers of these drugs to the public and to festival goers and saying, 'look, another reason why you should not be peeing on the ground, go and use the loos, go and use the facilities."

"Our main concern is the environmental impact. This study identifies that drugs are being released at levels high enough to disrupt the lifecycle of the European eel."

 Christian Dunn, professor in wetland science, Bangor University

Public urination at Glastonbury Festival leaves traces of cocaine and MDMA in river, posing threat to rare eels. Pictured, Glastonbury Festival goers at Worthy Farm, Pilton. (Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

 

Published in the journal Environmental Research last week, a study out of Bangor University Wales, led by Professor Christian Dunn, has revealed the presence of dangerous levels of illicit drugs running through rivers, after Britain's Glastonbury Festival is over, representing a threat to local eels. Due to cocaine levels in the river the sexual maturity of the European eel population downstream is in danger of being delayed.

Narcotics are released into the waterways from festival-goers spurning the use of the public lavatories placed at the festivals to be used, whereas among those in attendance many find it more convenient to urinate on the ground, and do so in sufficient numbers that the effluent reaches streams and rivers, polluting them, negatively impacting wildlife and aquatic vegetation.

Outdoor urination has resulted in levels of MDMA quadrupling during the week following the festival, according to findings in the study dating from the 2019 festival. Cocaine concentrations rise to levels affecting the life cycle of European eels, which happen to be a protected species of aquatic wildlife. The threats posed by the influx of drugs into the waterways also impact zebrafish embryos and mussels, along with fern spores.

The area where the festival takes place is close to the Whitelake river, making it all the more vital that people attending the festival make use of the official lavatories. A partial solution suggested by the study researchers might be to construct reed beds to treat wastewater prior to it entering the river at Glastonbury, a method of intervention that might be useful at other festival sites with similar problems.

The best solution, however, is to educate people, and advise them of the potential damage their carelessness creates. Dangerously high levels of antibiotic pollution with the potential to create bacterial resistance has been found as well through previous studies of waterways.

Glastonbury Festival, photo by Mariel Wood

Move Over, mRNA Vaccines, Here Comes Llama Nanobodies!

"These are among the most effective SARS=CoV-2 neutralizing agents we  have ever tested at PHE [Public Health England]."

"We believe the unique structure and strength of the nanobodies contribute to their significant potential for both the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and look forward to working collaboratively to press this work into clinical studies."

Miles Carroll, deputy director, National Infection Service, Public Health England

"Nanobodies have a number of advantages over human antibodies."

"They are cheaper to produce and can be delivered directly to the airways through a nebulizer or nasal spray, so can be self-administered at home rather than needing an injection."

Ray Owens, Rosalind Franklin Institute, Oxfordshire, Great Britain

Llamas and other camelid mammals naturally produce tiny nanobodies against infections. Scientists are testing whether these small, stable antibodies might be an effective treatment against COVID-19. (Image by Shutterstock/Roger de la Harpe.)

 

Scientists at Public Health England discovered that nanobodies -- a smaller, simple form of antibody generated by llamas and camels -- can target with great effect the virus that causes COVID-19, to the extent that the coronavirus treatment they have devised produced from llama antibodies represents one of the most effective tested ever at the National Infection Service, PHE. The nanobodies were generated by injecting a portion of the spike protein at the University of Reading, into a llama research subject.

 

The llama's immune system quickly responded to protect the animal against the virus, and the llama as a result failed to become ill with the virus. Its production of nanobodies had the researchers extract them through blood samples. Laboratory tests then found the use of nanobodies in treatment reduced the severity of the disease dramatically in infected hamsters. Three nanobody chains were successful in neutralizing both the original variants of the COVID virus and the alpha variant.

The study also found that a fourth chain succeeded in neutralizing the beta variant, laying at rest the scientists' apprehension that the strain might have avoided the antibodies produced through vaccination. During the pandemic, extracted human antibodies had been in use with serious cases, requiring in-hospital injections. The nanobody treatment extracted from llamas, however can be administered through use of a nasal spray.The research results were published in the journal Nature Communication.

 

Llamas, alpacas and other camelids produce a special kind of antibody called nanobodies, which may be used to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19. image via Peakpx

"This is thousands of times better than the current technology, specifically in its selecting properties. We want nanobodies that bind tightly to SARS-CoV-2, and with this method we can get a drug-quality nanobody that is up to 10,000 times more potent."

"With this method we can discover thousands of distinct, ultrahigh-affinity nanobodies for specific antigen binding."

"These nanobodies may or may not provide a treatment for COVID-19, but the technology used to isolate them will be important in the future."

Yi Shi, professor of cell biology, University of Pittsburgh

COVID Vaccines Trump 'Natural Immunity'

"There are some important practical considerations, in addition to medical/scientific ones."

"[First, it's harder to confirm a previous infection than to track vaccination. Early in the pandemic, when testing centres were overwhelmed, many people were diagnosed with 'COVID-19' based on symptoms only. But other viruses can cause similar symptoms, meaning] there is a considerable risk that someone who was misdiagnosed would remain vulnerable to infection while assuming they are immune."

Matthew Miller, associate professor, Michael G.DeGroote Institute for Infectious Diseases, McMaster University, Hamilton

"Back before we even knew we'd have vaccines so soon, many countries and groups who were strongly opposed to lockdowns and public health measures were using the argument that the quickest way to establish herd immunity and get back to normal would be let the virus run wild -- a reckless approach that would have resulted in far more deaths than we have already seen."

"Having said that, personally I feel immunity is immunity and immunity from natural infection contributes to herd immunity in the same way that vaccine-induced immunity contributes to herd immunity."

"But I DEFINITELY don't think anyone, anywhere should have 'ripped off the Band-Aid' to quickly establish herd immunity."

Rodney Russell, professor of virology and immunology, Memorial University, Newfoundland

"The argument is, 'See, they don't really care about the science, all they care about is their vaccine agenda'."

"It's really kind of a stealth way to critique vaccine policy."

"Natural immunity has become an anti-vaxxer talking point."

Timothy Caulfield, health policy expert, University of Alberta

Third-dose COVID-19 vaccine 'booster' programs have already begun in Israel, and data about their effectiveness are starting to come in.  Credit: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty

There are some issues with post-COVID immunity and the immunity conferred by vaccines as opposed to those presumed to be present in the wake of recovery from a COVID infection, that are controversial, misunderstood, complex and little discussed. The type of immunity called 'natural immunity' resulting from a prior bout with the coronavirus is touted by some as sufficient unto itself, worthy of recognition, and those having natural immunity are to be regarded as fully immunized, as much so as those who have been treated with two vaccine doses.

The issue is one that concerns officials in that it may lead to some people making the decision to become infected with COVID, rather than submit to a COVID-19 vaccination. In so doing, risking serious consequences; hospitalization, Long COVID, even death. Moreover, the messaging to the public of the imperative to be properly vaccinated as protection against contracting COVID can be muddied, and ultimately lost. 

 

Recent studies on the other hand, suggest as well that immunity gained with an infection can provide formidable protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus; that people previously infected and then follow up with vaccination may turn out to be the most fully protected of all. Leading some people who have recovered from COVID to complain at the unfair treatment in being shut out of non-essential businesses; even terminated from employment should they not agree to being vaccinated.

"Problems linger", explained Dr.Miller, in that even if lab-confirmed prior infections were to be considered since as testing capacity increased and was offered to anyone, studies show that those who have asymptomatic or mild infections mount a much less robust immune response than those who exhibited coronavirus symptoms "and also less robust than those who have received a full vaccine series".

 

There are, in fact, no clear safety signals in association with inoculation of the previously infected, so it might appear prudent to require the same proof-of-vaccination for the COVID-recovered, from a standpoint of reliably standardized policy.And, points out Dr.Russell of Memorial University, the Delta strain complicates the situation by its very steep infectability. People infected in the pandemic's early stages would have seen their immune system respond to a weaker variant "So do we know they can handle more recent variants months or potentially years after their original infection?" 

 

And then there are the results from two recent studies which suggest that immunity from a previous infection confers longer-lasting and stronger protection. Furthermore, people who never  had COVID and received two doses of the Pfizer shots were six to 13  times more likely to contract Delta than those who were previously infected with COVID, according to a large study of tens of thousands of Israelis. Yet another version of the same study found the COVID-recoverd who were unvaccinated were twice as likely to be reinfected as the COVID-recovered receiving a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine.

 

Virologist Shane Crotty wrote in Science magazine that people with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection "mount unusually potent immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines". Which may explain why it is they are also likelier to experience side effects such as fever and fatigue. Published in Nature, a study out of Rockefeller University found memory B cells which can linger for decades unleashing potent antibodies every time the body is re-exposed to COVID outperformed memory B cells produced by mRNA vaccines.

 

The body's immune system reacts to the entire virus, not merely the spike protein generated from the vaccines, with natural infection. And then there is that little matter of natural infection that "can also kill you", pointed out Michel Nussenzweig of Rockefeller University. All of which leads inevitably to the message that everyone should become vaccinated, irrespective of previous infection, and nor should anyone intentionally plan to become infected with COVID to spur 'natural immunity'.

 

Johns Hopkins University

"[The problem with considering the once-infected as potentially having adequate immunity], is that we have no idea how much immunity they had then, or now."

"But with vaccination, we at least know that everyone received the standard amounts of the vaccines."

Rodney Russell, Memorial University

Preventing Overdoses ... Harms From Crystal Meth

Connect To Care

"It's not a substance that any of us are very happy about. It causes us so much social disorder and so many problems in the community because people, when they're high, they're so unpredictable. It's often very loud, very public, very erratic and it's frightening to be around and it's very hard to know how to keep our other clients and our staff safe from people that are high on crystal meth."

"Crystal meth was something that would sort of appear in Ottawa periodically, but for the longest time Ottawa was really a crack cocaine [area]. We were a crack city."

"There was a very sudden blip of crystal meth use. Once people make the switch, they don't generally have an interest in going back and so that introduces to our community a problem that frankly we haven't had before and frankly, truly, one we are not prepared for."

"The reality is we don't know the dose of these things yet. We haven't had enough time to get the science down to really know what it is we're dealing with."

"There's no great way to grieve. The deaths just keep coming. At the same time as you're very upset and sad about somebody who has died, you still have to go to work each day and deal with the overdoses that are occurring in front of you to try to prevent more people from adding to those numbers."

Wendy Muckle, executive director, Ottawa Inner City Health

 

"They become twitchy. They're humming, they're unable to control their body movements so they're jerking around, they're in and out of consciousness. They appear to be in a lot of psychological distress."

"We're monitoring them to make sure they're OK and that gives us a chance to engage with them, to do info gathering, find out if there are other supports they need."

"Can we help them with a welfare application? Do they have court coming up" Do they need us to check on that?"

"So when somebody is using crystal meth and they're tizik and they're feverish and they're distressed psychologically, it's very challenging to engage with people."

Adrienne Paddock, diversion case manager, Shepherds of Good Hope, harm reduction worker 

Adrienne Paddock, a diversion case manager with the Shepherds of Good Hope, says crystal meth use is way up in Ottawa and because "God knows what's in it," there's also an unprecedented amount of overdose deaths, she says. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

Ottawa's streets are presenting front-line workers with a new reality; a sharp increase in stimulant use of crystal meth, which has a myriad adverse effects posing a danger to users and the wider community at large. Until recently the stimulant of choice was crack cocaine ... and then along came the COVID-19 pandemic and the closing of the border between Canada and the United States, making it far more difficult for smugglers of cocaine to bring their products into Canada. Scarcity means higher prices and crack became not only difficult to access, but too expensive.

Dealers, looking for alternatives, settled on an easy substitute; crystal meth; cheap, easy to produce. No expensive imports, the chemicals readily available: fertilizer, cold medication, lithium batteries and a basic laboratory. While crack produces a short high, crystal meth's effects last for hours. People were asking for clean meth pipes given to them by Ottawa Inner City Health, or they could consume crystal meth at safe consumption sites.

 

Ottawa safe injection sites

 

People get a sensation of elation, high on crystal meth, the drug stimulating the nervous system and causing the brain to release dopamine in large quantities; a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure. And then there are the side effects, where meth users can be more susceptible to violent behaviour, and to suffer from anxiety, seizures, nausea and vomiting. Which even then isn't the worst potential of a drug that can lead to "meth mouth" which the American Dental Association describes as "severe tooth decay and gum disease which often causes teeth to break or fall out".

The drug has other deleterious effects, keeping users from sleeping, with the eventual effect of reaching a state of "tizik", and in that state people are not able to be communicated with, a problem when front-line workers do their best to carry out the basic necessities of giving aid to people in need. With crystal meth on the scene, the opioid crisis worsens. At a time when harm reduction workers were on the cusp of knowing how to deal with one substance such as coping with fentanyl overdoses, the drug of choice suddenly changes.

Xtra*

The spike in meth consumption is now straining the system, which had struggled to come to terms with fentanyl use and overdoses resulting from the drug. "Supports and services for people who use methanphetamine and other stimulants are limited and not currently meeting the need", noted Ottawa Public Health in a new reality where stimulants are contributing further to an increase in overdose deaths, up 75 percent, from 124 fatal overdoses in 2019 to 218 in 2020.

According to the Office of the Chief Coroner, during the pandemic in Ontario a significant increase in the percentage of opioid-related deaths with stimulants as a contributing factor was realized. The Ottawa Paramedic Service has seen an increase in people using multiple substances in stimulants such as crystal meth along with opioids. People in despair caused by the chaos of the pandemic have been provoked toward poly-substance use, say both Paddock and Muckle, even as paramedics see a shift in patients they transport to hospital.

"People think that because they're not buying fentanyl that they're not at risk of overdosing, and that's the danger. If you have a dealer who is selling multiple substances, all it takes is a small amount of fentanyl to taint that crystal meth."

"And then you have a client who's smoking crystal meth in a stairwell by themselves because they're not a fentanyl users and they're not expecting any risk of overdose, and those are the people that we worry about finding too late."

Adrienne Paddock, harm reduction worker