Day: September 19, 2023

Sleep Crisis Affects Mental Health of Students in U.S.

  • Published September 19, 2023
  • Environment
sleepy student

At least 50 percent of middle school students and 75 percent of high school students in the United States are not getting enough hours of sleep on a daily basis, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1

Commenting on children not getting enough sleep, Oleg Tarkovsky, director of Behavioral Health Services at CareFirst Blue Cross & Blue Shield, said:

It affects everything we do, including the functioning of kids, the ability to learn, their mental health, emotional social health and physical health. It affects everything.2

Tarkovsky added that for children under the age of six, inadequate sleep has a negative effect on growth and development, and, for adolescents, inadequate sleep interferes with learning by affecting memory and reducing attention spans.3

Rafael Pelayo, MD, a sleep researcher at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center in California, said that lack of sleep in adolescents affects their executive functioning, making them more susceptible to taking drugs, committing crimes, or taking risks sexually.4

Strong Link Between Lack of Sleep and Impulsive Behaviors in Children

A 2023 study from the Youth Development Institute at the University of Georgia published in Sleep Health found that children, who had less than nine hours of sleep per day or took over 30 minutes to fall asleep, exhibited more impulsive behaviors.5

The lead researcher of the study, Linhao Zhang, stated:

Stressful environments are shown to make adolescents seek immediate rewards rather than delayed rewards, but there are also adolescents who are in stressful environments who are not impulsive. We looked at what explains that link and what makes some people differ from others. One mechanism we found is sleep.6

The study used data from the Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a multi-year brain development study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data from 11,858 children aged between nine and 10 years old found that lack of sleep and long sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep) had a strong link to impulsive behaviors.7

The researchers’ data highlighted the important role that sleep plays in children’s cognitive and behavioral development and that this information can be used to create cost-effective interventions to help in the psychological development of children experiencing stressors at home.

Zhang added:

If you want to develop interventions for people in stressful environments, it’s very costly, and sometimes it needs generational work to change. Sleep is a modifiable behavior, and these changes can be cost-efficient.8

Sleep Deprivation Can Impact Development and Performance Even in Stress-Free Environments

The study’s researchers noted that sleep deprivation can also be a problem in stress-free environments. Zhang provided an example of how teenagers have a circadian rhythm that is adapted to staying up late at night and sleeping more in the morning; however, early start times at many schools and late nights completing homework can create an imbalance. She stated:

A lot of adolescents don’t have enough time to sleep, and they are sleep deprived. This study shows why it is important to promote longer sleep duration by delaying school start times or establishing routines so that adolescents know, ‘OK, after this event, I’m going to bed.9

Parents Can Play a Role in Correcting Children’s Sleep Behaviors

Dr. Pelayo notes that although sleep is a biological necessity, sleep habits are learned, which means that parents can play an important role in modeling good sleep habits to their children. He emphasizes that being a good role model is more effective than nagging or punishment, stating:

You can’t be smoking a cigarette and telling your kids not to smoke, right? Parents have to model healthy behavior themselves. If they’re sleep-deprived, their kids will likely be, too. … The first thing you want to do is to make sleep a priority in the family, so that sleep is not negotiable.10

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Click here to view References:

1 Glaze A. CDC: Children face ‘sleep crisis’ with potential impacts on mental health. CBS News Aug. 27, 2023.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. 
4 Suttie J. Why Sleep Matters for Kids’ Bodies and Brains. Greater Good Magazine Mar. 17, 2023.
5 Zhang L. et al. Sleep mediates the effect of stressful environments on youth development of impulsivity: The moderating role of within default mode network resting-state functional connectivity. Sleep Health 2023; 9(4): 503-511.
6 Neuroscience News. Good Sleep Habits Can Buffer Kids From Stress-Linked Impulsivity. Aug. 29, 2023.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Suttie J. Why Sleep Matters for Kids’ Bodies and Brains. Greater Good Magazine Mar. 17, 2023.

Federal Court Sides With Doctors on Ivermectin Lawsuit Charging FDA Overreach

  • Published September 18, 2023
  • Federal & State Courts
Ivermectin antiparisitic drug

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has given new life to a lawsuit brought by three doctors claiming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) overstepped its authority and acted as a medical doctor rather than as a regulating authority in the agency’s campaign promoting a ban on the use of the drug Ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19.1

The court’s decision overturned U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown’s lower court’s order dismissing the doctors’ lawsuit. Judge Brown agreed with the government that it was protected from the lawsuit due to sovereign immunity.2 Sovereign immunity provides that the government may not be sued without its consent. The purpose behind the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity is to protect the government from being forced to change policies should someone disagree with them and bring legal action.3

The medical doctors, Mary Bowden, Paul Marik, and Robert Apter, argue that the FDA’s actions of interfering with their prescribing of Ivermectin harmed their reputation caused punitive action to be taken against them, and interfered with the practice of medicine, which included pharmacies failing to fill their prescription orders for Ivermectin.

Jared Kalson, the lawyer for the plaintiffs argued:

If the government is going to label Ivermectin a horse medicine or a horse dewormer and promulgate the idea that it is only for animals, then the natural correlation is that doctors who prescribe it are horse doctors or quack doctors, which has played out. The government engaged in a singularly effective campaign here to malign a common drug that has been used for a very long time and has been dispensed in billions of doses. It’s one of the most famously safe drugs in the history of human medicine. And when people did exactly what the FDA said to ‘Stop it. Stop it with the Ivermectin,’ I don’t understand how that would not be traceable back to the FDA.4

Court Rules “FDA Not a Physician”

The plaintiffs appealed the lower court order to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The panel of three appellate judges, including Judge Don Willet, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, and Judge Edith Brown Clement agreed with the plaintiffs that the FDA committed government agency overreach and allowed the doctors to proceed with their lawsuit.5

The Order read,:

FDA is not a physician. It has authority to inform, announce, and apprise—but not to endorse, denounce, or advise. The doctors have plausibly alleged that FDA’s posts fell on the wrong side of the line between telling about and telling to. As such, the doctors can use the APA to assert their ultra vires claims against the agencies and the officials.6

Judge Willet took issue with the FDA’s Aug. 21, 2021 Twitter post stating, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” The judge wrote, “Even tweet-sized doses of personalized medical advice are beyond FDA’s statutory authority.”7

How a Licensed Inexpensive Antiparasitic Drug Helped Treat COVID

Merck originally marketed Ivermectin, which was licensed in 1981, as a veterinary antiparasitic drug. By the late 1980s, Ivermectin became the most widely used antiparasitic drug in both animals and humans and has been especially useful in Africa to effectively and safely control malaria.8 9 A Nobel prize-winning drug, doctors have been prescribing Ivermectin to patients for decades.10

So how did a cheap, accessible antiparasitic become such a popular drug used to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections during the COVID pandemic?

In 2020, Australian researchers from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) at Monash University made the discovery that Ivermectin could neutralize the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus within 48 hours. The study, a joint effort between Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University in Clayton, Australia, and the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity—a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, both in Melbourne, Australia—found that, in vitro, the drug proved effective against a number of viruses, including HIV, dengue, influenza, and Zika. The findings suggested that just a single dose of Ivermectin could remove or significantly reduce viral RNA within 24 to 48 hours of SARS-CoV-2 .

Dr. Kylie Wagstaff, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute scientist and leader of the study said: “We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it.”

A study was published in 2021 in the American Journal of Therapeutics providing evidence that the use of Ivermectin reduces morbidity and mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infections, including time to recovery and viral clearance.11 In addition, Ivermectin is being investigated as an option for treating certain other human viral infections like latent Epstein Barr, which can be reactivated in some individuals when they are infected with SARS-CoV-2 and lead to long COVID.12 13 14

Ivermectin Showed Antiviral Effects Against Omicron and Other Variants

Off-label use of Ivermectin has been the source of much scrutiny among many public health officials throughout and even following the pandemic. And while historically prescribed as an antiparasitic for humans and animals, the drug did show and other variants in 2022 during joint nonclinical research conducted by Japanese pharmaceutical company, Kowa Co. Ltd.15

Additionally, another study published in The Lancet in 2021 found Ivermectin to incite “antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 and provides insights into the type of evaluations to be considered in the assessment of antiviral drugs for the control of COVID.”16

Popular podcast host and health and wellness influencer Joe Rogan posted a video only days after the FDA urged people to stop taking the drug to prevent or treat COVID-19 to share he was taking Ivermectin after contracting the virus. He said that taking Ivermectin in conjunction with monoclonal antibodies, prednisone, azithromycin, a NAD drip, and a vitamin drip, a protocol he shared with his followers, helped him feel “great” only three days later.

FDA’s Condemnation of Ivermectin-Blocked Doctor Prescriptions for COVID Patients

Judge Willet further pointed out that Ivermectin is available in both animal and human form and that doctors have been prescribing the drug to patients for decades. However, after the FDA’s condemnation of Ivermectin as an ineffective and potentially dangerous treatment for COVID-19, pharmacies across the country began refusing to fill doctors’ prescriptions for patients.

A Department of Justice attorney, Ashley Cheumg Honold, clarified the FDA’s position to the court stating…

FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.17

Despite the FDA’s statement that doctors have the authority to prescribe Ivermectin to treat COVID, pharmacies continue to refuse to fill prescriptions for the drug, leaving patients scrambling. Dr Bowden told The Epoch Times:

This needs to come to an end. In telling my patients what medicines they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license. They have no accountability for this yet they are allowed to dictate patient care. … I see it every single day. Enough is enough.18

If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.

Click here to view References:

1 Robertson N. Federal appeals court revives lawsuit against FDA over COVID-19 ivermectin messaging. The Hill. Sept. 2, 2023.

2 Stieber Z. Judge Rules on Lawsuit Against FDA Over Ivermectin. The Epoch Times. Dec. 6, 2022.
3 What Is Sovereign Immunity? Definition and Examples. ThoughtCo.
4 Stieber Z. Judge Rules on Lawsuit Against FDA Over Ivermectin. The Epoch Times. Dec. 6, 2022.
5 Lysiak M. ‘FDA Is Not a Physician’: Appeals Court Sides With Doctors on Ivermectin for COVID-19. The Epoch Times Sept. 2, 2023.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid. 
8 Laing R, Gillan V, Devaney E. Ivermectin – Old Drug, New Tricks? Trends Parasitol June 2017; 33(6): 463-472.
9 Foy BD, Alout H, Seaman JA et al. Efficacy and risk of harms of repeat Ivermectin mass drug administrations for control of malaria (RIMDAMAL): a cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet 2019; 393 (10180): 1517-1526.
10 Santin AD, Scheim DE, McCullough PA et al. Invermection: a multifaceted drug of Nobel prize-honoured distinction with indicated efficacy against a new global scourge, COVID-19. New Microbes New Infect 2021; 42.
11 Kory P, Meduri GU, Varon J et al. Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19. Am J Ther 2021; 28(3).
12 Gold JE, Ikyay RA, Licht WE, Hurley DJ. Investigation of Long COVID Prevalence and its Relationship to Epstein-Barr Virus Reactivation. Pathogens 2021; 10(6).
13 Na L, Zhao L, Zhan X. Quantitative proteomics reveals a broad-spectrum antiviral property of ivermectin benefiting for COVID-19 treatment. J Cell Physiol 2021; 236(4): 2959-2974.
14 Bernal KDE, Whitehurst CB. Incidence of Epstein Barr virus reactivation is elevated in COVID-19 patients. Virus Res 2023; 334: 199157.
15 Reuters. Ivermectin shows ‘antiviral effect’ against COVID, Japanese company says. Jan. 31, 2022.
16 Krolewiecki A et al. Antiviral effect of high-dose ivermectin in adults with COVID-19: A proof-of-concept randomized trial. The Lancet June 17, 2021.
17 Lysiak M. ‘FDA Is Not a Physician’: Appeals Court Sides With Doctors on Ivermectin for COVID-19. The Epoch Times Sept. 2, 2023.
18 Lysiak M. Doctor: Pharmacists Continuing to Refuse Ivermectin Prescriptions, Raising Ethical Concerns. The Epoch Times. Sept. 1, 20223.

Ivanka Trump Feeds Maui Families Displaced By Devastating Wildfires

Ivanka Trump Feeds Maui Families Displaced By Devastating Wildfires

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 24: Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump speaks onstage during the 2018 Concordia Annual Summit - Day 1 at Grand Hyatt New York on September 24, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
(Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

OAN’s James Meyers
4:45 PM – Monday, September 18, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/ivanka-trump-feeds-maui-families-displaced-by-devastating-wildfires/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Ivanka Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, made a trip to Hawaii to help those who are still suffering from the tragic wildfires that took place last month.

CityServe teaming w/No Child Hungry & Calvary Chapel Church Maui (DailyMail fails to mention the Christian church) gets a surprise volunteer helper for Maui survivors (& others struggling in Biden's economy?), Ivanka Trump, w/a name tag saying only 'Iva.' https://t.co/JPGS7qyFzT pic.twitter.com/JO5bLObwZi

The former first daughter was on a charity mission with CityServe International, which included serving over 250,000 prepared meals to displaced families who are struggling to get back on track after the biggest wildfires in American history.

Additionally, Ivanka visited a Lahaina church that was being utilized as a temporary food bank and was able to talk to locals who now are trying to start their lives over.

“Her humble presence lifted spirits and reminded the people of Lahaina that they are not forgotten,” CityServe said in a statement.

“Amid the tears being shed, there are tangible signs of hope and love, and with the arrival of meals and supplies, our partners and team joined Ivanka in lifting boxes of supplies, comforting survivors and sharing meals to those who have lost everything,” the organization continued.

According to CityServe, Ivanka Trump distributed food, water, local produce, gift cards, and other essential supplies for those in need.

Furthermore, the charity is also providing gas cards and air filters to locals, which comes after residents were advised by officials to not drink the water in the area.

According to the group, a cargo plane filled with over $1 million worth of supplies will come to the Aloha State. The cargo haul will be filled with electric scooters, e-bikes, toys, dry foods, and small appliances “because of Ivanka’s connection”, the group said.

Currently, the damage across the island accounted for over 2,000 acres being burned. The death toll stands at 97 and 66 people remain missing. There are also an estimated 2,200 damaged or destroyed structures. 

According to experts, the cleanup will take several months and is predicted to cost almost $5.5 million. 

The former first daughter has reportedly left politics and decided to focus on charity work while raising her three children with her husband Jared Kushner.

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2,000 Additional Immigrants Dropped Off In San Diego County

2,000 Additional Immigrants Dropped Off In San Diego County

Immigrants enter agency vehicles in San Diego, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:00 PM – Monday, September 18, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/2000-additional-immigrants-dropped-off-in-san-diego-county/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

In San Diego, California, more immigrants are being dropped off at different transportation hubs.

More than 2,000 illegal asylum seekers were reportedly dropped off in the county just last week, according to a representative for San Diego County District 5.

Immigrants are experiencing their first taste of American culture at the Iris Transit Center. The representative went on to explain that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had dropped off at least 292 people there on Sunday morning alone.

“I have come to the land of safety and freedom,” migrant Mohamed Sweilem told a reporter through a translation app.

Sweilem is from Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa.

“I have been gone for a month or more since my approach,” Sweilem continued, saying that he was coming from an immigration detention center. “The most important thing is to reach the dream, which is to reach the United States… I was oppressed in my country.”

“These people are good people, and they provided us with all means and all necessary services. Thank you. Thank you a thousand times, thank you,” he concluded.

According to staff at a local migrant shelter who spoke to the press, they claim to already be at full capacity.

Lindsay Toczylowski, a notable immigration attorney, expressed her own thoughts as well.

“One of the best moments we see is when they’re finally able to tell their family that they’re here,” Toczylowski said. “It’s incredibly diverse, we’re utilizing translators, and there are people from all over the world… These are refugees. These are people who are coming to seek refuge in the United States, and the countries that they are from reflect many of the conflicts going on around the world.”

Toczylowski also serves as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center’s director.

Her organization assists illegal immigrants like Sweilem by giving them food, drinks, phone chargers, legal counsel, and more while guiding them through their journey.

However, other individuals, including local San Diego County officials, have voiced worry about the influx of immigrants.

“2,000 migrants from around the world have been dumped in San Diego County in four days. The Biden Admin is rolling out the red carpet for this chaos, showing zero concern for our region’s resources. State & local politicians are offering legal protection & free taxpayer-funded benefits, only encouraging this to continue. We can’t have a country without a border!” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond of District 5 said.

The mayor of El Cajon, Bill Wells, similarly echoed his feelings of frustration and worry regarding the immigrant drop-offs.

“This is a disaster. Every emergency room is at capacity in SD County. Our homeless shelters are full. Resources are stretched thin,” Wells maintained.

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