StemCell Therapy

I watched Love is Blind with my eyes closed, and I cant say I was surprised.

After days of hearing all about Netflixs new hot dating show, I decided to see what the hype was about, and given the unique circumstances presented in the program experiment, I decided to play along. If the dating was going to be blind, I would be blind too. But it turns out, love really probably isnt all that blind. Theres a lot one can still gather from the sound of anothers voice.

For those unfamiliar, the rules are simple. Participants had about ten days in pods to shop around for a fiance before they must decide whether to get married in a matter of just a few short weeks following a brief getaway to Mexico together. But heres the catch: singles were barred from actually seeing each other until a marriage proposal was accepted in the pod.

With nothing to go off in the way of their appearance except for their voice, which, as I discovered, you can still tell a lot from, it presented a daunting experiment to those participating. Is love really blind? Can couples really disconnect emotional compatibility with physical attraction? Do we really have dating reversed in the real world? Intriguing questions to be sure, but they were presented in a limited experiment at best.

For one, the cast of characters turned out to be pretty predictable. I only kept my eyes shut for the first episode, and by the time episode two rolled around, Cameron and Lauren had already gotten engaged. Both quirky, cute, geeky and charming, it came as little surprise. These traits and mannerisms could be picked up on just by the sounds and inflection in each of their voices, and Lauren had given away that she was black by telling off another guy who speculated about her race.

The other couples in the season were even more predictable, particularly Barnett who was found stuck between Amber and Jessica. Sure its judgmental and assuming, but its human, and all three sounded just as attractive as they looked, and the participants could probably pick up on the others level of attractiveness through the pod. It was no surprise either that Mark, a fitness instructor, was hitting things off with Jessica too, whose high-pitched feminine voice painted a relatively accurate picture as one of the shows prettiest people.

In the end, the couples to end up engaged in Mexico had found their partner evenly matched in their level of attractiveness despite not even seeing each other before they got engaged. Subconsciously, I suspect deep down that they all saw what I did in the blindness of the pods, imagining the figure behind the wall through the context presented by the sounds of their voice and any other clues in their background, i.e., fitness expert. After all, its human nature.

The biggest surprise to come when opening my eyes for the rest of the series was how well the singles so often dressed as if they were preparing for a magazine photoshoot. These people were talking to a wall and drinking copious amounts of alcohol, so why dress up? They were on TV to be fair, but there was plenty of time to play dress up in the more momentous occasions on the show such as the second proposals where their looks were revealed and their trips to Mexico.

The experiment seemed to work, for some couples. Of course thats something to celebrate, and I wish them all the best. But the experiment remained limited in scope as the couples no doubt were able to sense identifiable physical characteristics through the sound of the others voice.

So is love blind? Probably not.

The rest is here:
I Watched 'Love Is Blind' With My Eyes Closed - The Federalist

The CW shared spring premiere dates, which sees season two of In the Dark debut April 16 and DCs Stargirl premiere May 19.

Perry Mattfeld stars in In the Dark. She plays Murphy, a messy 20-something who struggles with love, alcohol and blindness. CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television, in association with Red Hour Films, produce the show. Executive producers are Corinne Kingsbury, Ben Stiller, Jackie Cohn, Nicholas Weinstock, Michael Showalter and Emily Fox .

DCs Stargirl follows high school student Courtney Whitmore as she inspires an unlikely group of heroes to stop the villains of the past. Brec Bassinger, Luke Wilson and Amy Smart star. That show debuts a day after its digital debut on DC Universe.

Geoff Johns executive produces with Melissa Carter, who is co-showrunner, and Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Greg Beeman. Berlanti Productions and Mad Ghost Productions produce the series in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Go here to see the original:
The CW Shares Start Dates for In the Dark and DCs Stargirl - Broadcasting & Cable

It is with great sadness to announce that Beverly Patte Szewczyk of Rochester (Penfield), NY, passed away peacefully on March 20, 2020, at the age of 78.

Bev was born in Holyoke, MA. She spent her childhood in Dryden, NY and graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Physical Education. She spent her child-raising years in Rochester (Brighton), NY and Madison, CT. Bev loved the outdoors, sports, and was involved in many PTA activities. She passed these passions on to her children and grandchildren.

Bev was an amazing woman who was an inspiration to anyone who knew her. Even with her blindness, she always had a positive outlook on life. She was a fun-loving spirit and had a recognizable laugh that brightened up any room. Her incredible strength was very evident during her battle to survive numerous medical issues over that last several months. She lived a fantastic life.

Bev is survived by her loving husband of 53 years, Richard Szewczyk; her son, Todd Szewczyk and wife Kim (Hollis, NH); and her daughter, Kathleen Kenney and husband Dan (Jamison, PA). She is also survived by 5 grandchildren, Lindsey, Kyle and Brian Szewczyk and Kylie and Danny Kenney; her brother, George Patte and wife Mary; and sister, Mary Ann Hester and husband Gerry. She is predeceased by her parents, George and Patricia Patte; and her, sister Kathy Malison.

A memorial service and celebration of life will be postponed and announced at a later date due to the virus pandemic that has affected the entire nation. Lansing Funeral Home in Lansing, NY, is assisting the family. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution in Bevs name to ABVI (Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired), 500 South Clinton Street, Rochester, NY 14520.

To share a memory, please visit http://www.lansingfuneralhome.com.

See the original post:
Obituary: Beverly Patte Szewczyk - The Ithaca Voice

The proportion of U.S. adults at high risk for blindness has grown over a 15-year period and so has the share who say they cannot afford eyeglasses, according to a new study.

Between 2002 and 2017, the number of people at high risk for vision loss seniors, people with diabetes and those with eye disorders rose from 65 million to 93 million, but 40% of adults said they hadnt been getting yearly eye exams, researchers report in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Nearly 1 in 10 also said they couldnt afford eyeglasses.

We have a large number of adults at high risk for vision loss and at high risk for not receiving recommended eye care, said study leader Sharon Saydah of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The solution is to really improve access, awareness and the affordability of eye care.

Saydah and colleagues looked at nationally representative surveys of 31,000 adults in 2002 and nearly 33,000 adults in 2017.

The proportion at increased risk for vision loss grew between the two surveys: adults over age 65 rose from about 51% to 53% of the total, and those with a diabetes diagnosis rose from about 21% to 25%.

People reporting vision problems or eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or eye injury grew from 9% in 2002 to almost 11% in 2017, the study found.

Among all adults, the proportion who said they couldnt afford eyeglasses rose from 8.3% in 2002 to 8.7% in 2017.

While not having corrective lenses wont lead to vision damage, it can lead to injury, Saydah said. Having poor vision and not being able to see properly can contribute to falls and can lead to other disabilities, she said.

A major factor leading to vision loss in seniors is high blood sugar, Saydah said. But if diabetes is managed properly and blood sugar levels are controlled, that can help reduce vision loss, she added.

While U.S. seniors are covered by Medicare, the original version of the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older doesnt cover regular eye exams unless the patient has diabetes or is at high risk for glaucoma.

In 2017, among adults at high risk of blindness, 57% reported visiting an eye care professional annually and 60% had received a dilated eye examination.

This study highlights critical gaps in eye care access and affordability in the United States, and indicates these gaps have persisted despite shifts in our health insurance landscape, Bonnielin Swenor, of the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said in an email.

This study is not examining a question about improving eye conditions, but instead focuses on access and affordability of eyeglasses, said Swenor, who wasnt involved in the study.

Currently most medical insurance and Medicare do not cover the costs of eyeglasses, which this data support as an important gap for the American population.

Unless something changes, the problem is likely to get worse, said Dr. Syed Mahmood Ali Shah, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

While there was a slight increase over the past 15 years in the percentage of patients getting examined, the number of elderly with diabetes is expected to double by 2040, said Shah, who was not involved in the new research.

Shah suspects cost is the big reason for patients skipping eye exams. Even among those with some coverage, there can be a significant copay, he said, which not everyone can afford.

Read this article:
Number of U.S. adults at risk for blindness on the rise - The Union Leader

Colour blindness may not remain a roadblock for driving anymore as the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Monday drafted a notification for issuing license to people suffering from colour vision deficiency. "Being sensitive to the issues raised and considering the demand of such citizens, the Ministry has issued a draft notification GSR 176 E, dated 16 March 2020 for amendment to Form 1 and 1A of Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 for soliciting comments and suggestions," ministerial officials told ANI.

"The matter was sympathetically examined consulting the Medical experts. It had been reported that the citizens with certain degree of colour blindness can be provided with driving license and this is being done in many countries of the world," they added.

The issue was brought to the notice of the ministry that the colour blind are unable to own a license for driving.

The draft norms have been prepared after ophthalmologists from the All Indian institute of Medical sciences suggested its positive recommendations.

According to the new draft regulations, the question of distinguishing between pigmentary colours, red and green, 'Yes/No,' shall be omitted.

However, the certification of medical fitness regarding the applicant's colour vision have been mandated. The applicant needs to prove whether he/she have been found suffering from severe or total colour blindness.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

See the rest here:
Driving license might soon be issued to those with colour blindness - Livemint

When the plague came to London in 1665, Londoners lost their wits. They consulted astrologers, quacks, the Bible. They searched their bodies for signs, tokens of the disease: lumps, blisters, black spots. They begged for prophecies; they paid for predictions; they prayed; they yowled. They closed their eyes; they covered their ears. They wept in the street. They read alarming almanacs: Certain it is, books frighted them terribly. The government, keen to contain the panic, attempted to suppress the Printing of such Books as terrifyd the People, according to Daniel Defoe, in A Journal of the Plague Year, a history that he wrote in tandem with an advice manual called Due Preparations for the Plague, in 1722, a year when people feared that the disease might leap across the English Channel again, after having journeyed from the Middle East to Marseille and points north on a merchant ship. Defoe hoped that his books would be useful both to us and to posterity, though we should be spared from that portion of this bitter cup. That bitter cup has come out of its cupboard.

In 1665, the skittish fled to the country, and alike the wise, and those who tarried had reason for remorse: by the time they decided to leave, there was hardly a Horse to be bought or hired in the whole City, Defoe recounted, and, in the event, the gates had been shut, and all were trapped. Everyone behaved badly, though the rich behaved the worst: having failed to heed warnings to provision, they sent their poor servants out for supplies. This Necessity of going out of our Houses to buy Provisions, was in a great Measure the Ruin of the whole City, Defoe wrote. One in five Londoners died, notwithstanding the precautions taken by merchants. The butcher refused to hand the cook a cut of meat; she had to take it off the hook herself. And he wouldnt touch her money; she had to drop her coins into a bucket of vinegar. Bear that in mind when you run out of Purell.

Sorrow and sadness sat upon every Face, Defoe wrote. The governments stricture on the publication of terrifying books proved pointless, there being plenty of terror to be read on the streets. You could read the weekly bills of mortality, or count the bodies as they piled up in the lanes. You could read the orders published by the mayor: If any Person shall have visited any Man known to be infected of the Plague, or entered willingly into any known infected House, being not allowed: The House wherein he inhabiteth shall be shut up. And you could read the signs on the doors of those infected houses, guarded by watchmen, each door marked by a foot-long red cross, above which was to be printed, in letters big enough to be read at a distance, Lord, Have Mercy Upon Us.

Reading is an infection, a burrowing into the brain: books contaminate, metaphorically, and even microbiologically. In the eighteenth century, ships captains arriving at port pledged that they had disinfected their ships by swearing on Bibles that had been dipped in seawater. During tuberculosis scares, public libraries fumigated books by sealing them in steel vats filled with formaldehyde gas. These days, you can find out how to disinfect books on a librarians thread on Reddit. Your best bet appears to be either denatured-alcohol swipes or kitchen disinfectant in a mist-spray bottle, although if you stick books in a little oven and heat them to a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit theres a bonus: you also kill bedbugs. (Doesnt harm the books!) Or, as has happened during the coronavirus closures, libraries can shut their doors, and bookstores, too.

But, of course, books are also a salve and a consolation. In the long centuries during which the plague ravaged Europe, the quarantined, if they were lucky enough to have books, read them. If not, and if they were well enough, they told stories. In Giovanni Boccaccios Decameron, from the fourteenth century, seven women and three men take turns telling stories for ten days while hiding from the Black Deaththat last Pestilentiall mortality universally hurtfull to all that beheld ita plague so infamous that Boccaccio begged his readers not to put down his book as too hideous to hold: I desire it may not be so dreadfull to you, to hinder your further proceeding in reading.

The literature of contagion is vile. A plague is like a lobotomy. It cuts away the higher realms, the loftiest capacities of humanity, and leaves only the animal. Farewell to the giant powers of man, Mary Shelley wrote in The Last Man, in 1826, after a disease has ravaged the world. Farewell to the arts,to eloquence. Every story of epidemic is a story of illiteracy, language made powerless, man made brute.

But, then, the existence of books, no matter how grim the tale, is itself a sign, evidence that humanity endures, in the very contagion of reading. Reading may be an infection, the mind of the writer seeping, unstoppable, into the mind of the reader. And yet it is alsoin its bidden intimacy, an intimacy in all other ways banned in times of plaguean antidote, proven, unfailing, and exquisite.

Stories about plagues run the gamut from Oedipus Rex to Angels in America. You are the plague, a blind man tells Oedipus. Its 1986 and theres a plague, friends younger than me are dead, and Im only thirty, a Tony Kushner character says. There are plagues here and plagues there, from Thebes to New York, horrible and ghastly, but never one plague everywhere, until Mary Shelley decided to write a follow-up to Frankenstein.

The Last Man, which is set in the twenty-first century, is the first major novel to imagine the extinction of the human race by way of a global pandemic. Shelley published it at the age of twenty-nine, after nearly everyone she loved had died, leaving her, as she put it, the last relic of a beloved race,my companions, extinct before me. The books narrator begins as a poor and uneducated English shepherd: primitive man, violent and lawless, even monstrous. Cultivated by a nobleman and awakened to learningAn earnest love of knowledge... caused me to pass days and nights in reading and studyhe is elevated by the Enlightenment and becomes a scholar, a defender of liberty, a republican, and a citizen of the world.

Then, in the year 2092, the plague arrives, ravaging first Constantinople. Year after year, the pestilence dies away every winter (a general and never-failing physician), and returns every spring, more virulent, more widespread. It reaches across mountains, it spreads over oceans. The sun rises, black: a sign of doom. Through Asia, from the banks of the Nile to the shores of the Caspian, from the Hellespont even to the sea of Oman, a sudden panic was driven, Shelley wrote. The men filled the mosques; the women, veiled, hastened to the tombs, and carried offerings to the dead, thus to preserve the living. The nature of the pestilence remains mysterious. It was called an epidemic. But the grand question was still unsettled of how this epidemic was generated and increased. Not understanding its operation and full of false confidence, legislators hesitate to act. England was still secure. France, Germany, Italy and Spain, were interposed, walls yet without a breach, between us and the plague. Then come reports of entire nations, destroyed and depopulated. The vast cities of America, the fertile plains of Hindostan, the crowded abodes of the Chinese, are menaced with utter ruin. The fearful turn to history too late, and find in its pages, even in the pages of the Decameron, the wrong lesson: We called to mind the plague of 1348, when it was calculated that a third of mankind had been destroyed. As yet western Europe was uninfected; would it always be so? It would not always be so. Inevitably, the plague comes, at last, to England, but by then the healthy have nowhere left to go, because, in the final terror of pandemic, there is no refuge on earth: All the world has the plague!

Go here to read the rest:
What Our Contagion Fables Are Really About - The New Yorker

The Be My Eyes app which connects the blind and low-vision community to sighted volunteers

In the age of coronavirus, it is more important than ever before to help the blind and low-vision community feel supported and safe. Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers (over 3.7 million and counting) and companies from all over the world through a live video call.

Progressive and forward thinking brands like Microsoft, Google and Procter and Gamble have also started partnering with Be My Eyes to create dedicated customer experiences. According to the WHO, the estimatednumberofpeople visually impairedin theworldis 285 million: 39 millionblindand 246 million having low vision. They represent a hugely underserved market for brands wishing to reach new customers and build unique new experiences and content.

I caught up with Will Butler, VP of Community to find out more about his journey and how brands can work with this inspiring platform.

Afdhel Aziz: Will, welcome. Please tell us about your personal journey, and how it lead you to your work at Be My Eyes?

Will Butler: Ive been dealing with changing vision most of my life. I used only one eye all throughout high school, but mostly maintained as a regular "sighted" person. I drove a car, did all the normal things a sighted person would do. It wasn't until I was 19 that my "good eye" finally gave out on me that I had to really start confronting the idea. But it took me four more years to finally take the most important step: adopting a white cane.

I wrote about this in this Times piece, but the cane is so stigmatized, it is really hard for us as newly blind people to admit that we need the tools that are available. It's like accepting defeat. But once you adopt the tools, it's far beyond defeat: it's total empowerment.

That's what I'd like to think we're doing here with Be My Eyes: giving people a tool that can change their life. An app that allows you to randomly harness the power of someone else's eyes for on-demand assistance with no strings attached? That means not leaning on friends, loved ones, or colleagues to overcome your most common daily barriers. That's pretty powerful when utilized, and I think many of our users who use the app often would testify that it has changed their lives for the better.

Will Butler, VP of Community for Be My Eyes

Aziz: Thank you for sharing that Will. Is it true that Be My Eyes is the largest online blind community out there? How do we get more members of the blind or low vision community to join?

Butler: Yes there are very few communities that have a self-selecting blind/low vision membership like ours, and certainly none that serve users in almost 200 languages. With the power of crowdsourced volunteerism and translation, we were able to scale up our UI quickly in terms of translation to meet the needs of a global community, not just a U.S.-based or westernized community. We're very proud of that and it's particularly rewarding to see Be My Eyes utilized in parts of the world where there are little to no services it truly becomes a lifeline for blind people in rural and underdeveloped parts of the world.

Due to regulations around medical data and privacy considerations, many companies have no idea who their blind users are. That's why companies even big ones with their own video chat apps, like Microsoft and Google come to Be My Eyes for that portal into the blindness community. Be My Eyes is known around the world as the go-to hub for getting support as a blind person, and for that reason companies join our platform as support providers to meet customers and users where they already are.

At the end of the day, we grow as a community by word of mouth: the power of our message, both from the volunteers and other blind users, is what propels us forward as a community. Growing the blind community is a fascinating and difficult challenge which is one that I take most of the responsibility for at Be My Eyes. We have strong connections with blindness organizations around the world who provide direct services, making sure they know about us. We attend and speak at conferences. And we use the same digital marketing tools as anyone else!

Historically blind people have been very isolated having a very custodial relationship with their sighted friends and family and haven't been directly connected to traditional information channels. Today, it's different. Blind people have incredible accessible technology natively running on iOS and Android devices. So you can reach blind people directly, searching by interests, the same way you reach someone who likes cats or sports or golf. That's pretty cool, and a sign that blind people have come a long way in terms of participation in society.

Aziz: That is pretty cool. There is something heartwarming about the fact that you have so many sighted volunteers (4 million) - why do you think that is?

Butler: I don't care what anyone says: Helping other people is the most fundamental aspect of human nature. We all tend to our needs: food, water, sleep, etc. But helping others having an understanding of ourselves in relation to other beings is the thing that elevates us beyond animals. Be My Eyes gives people who are searching for meaning and let's be honest that's all of us an opportunity to get out of the "smartphone zombie" loop and connect with a real human in a powerful way.

There's the simple task at hand: a straightforward, solvable A to B interaction. Then there's the knowledge that you helped someone, the feeling of connection and meaning it provides. I've never seen such a dopamine rush come from any other app. That's why we're approaching 4 million volunteers, and it's why people so freely and openly take to social media to share their experiences. I couldn't think of a better bridge between humans for these strange virtual times we're now living in.

In Part 2 of this interview (click here), we explore how brands like Microsoft, Google and others are working with Be My Eyes to create unique customer experiences.

See the rest here:
The Power Of Purpose: How Brands Can Work With Be My Eyes To Help The Blind And Low-Vision Community (Part 1) - Forbes

Posted March 21, 2020

Although we may have the gift of physical sight, we are all born blind blind to our pride, our sinfulness, and above all, to our true dignity as beloved children of God.

Andrew Lane, a seminarian at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania shares how Christs miraculous healing of a man born blind invites us to let ourselves be healed by Gods love, that we in turn might help to heal others and the wounded world in which we live.

If youre accessing this podcast on a mobile device and do not wish to download the SoundCloud app, simplyclick on the Listen in browser option. You can also find us onStitcher,Google Play, andiTunes.

Please join in the church's vital mission of communications by offering a gift in whatever amount that you can -- a single gift of $40, $50, $100, or more, or a monthly donation. Your gift will strengthen the fabric of our entire Catholic community.

Make your donation by check:CatholicPhilly.com222 N. 17th StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19103

Or by credit card here:

Read the original:
Letting the Lord heal our blindness - CatholicPhilly.com

Louisiana Techs Institute on Blindness has received grant approval for Structured Discovery Cane Travel (SDCT) and Structured Discovery rehabilitation training, a development that brings more depth and opportunity to the Institutes education programs that are specialized for teaching individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

Louisiana Tech University is the only university in Louisiana to offer graduate certifications and master programs in Teaching Blind Students (TBS), Orientation and Mobility (O&M), and Rehabilitation Teaching for the Blind Counseling and Guidance. These graduate certifications and master programs train individuals to become teachers who help give independence to the blind community. The innovative and effective SDCT and Structured Discovery rehabilitation training programs will offer more opportunities to improve mobility and daily living skills for individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

Dr. Edward Bell, Director of the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness (PDRIB),expressed that he has seen great success from previous years and through the renewed grant he anticipates exponential growth.

Over the past five years, Louisiana Tech has benefited from this grant and has trained 35 individuals who have gone on to be employed across the country in professional careers, Bell said. With this new grant, we are excited to train as many as 40 new and eager students who are ready to change the world by bringing independence to blind kids and adults nationwide.

The PDRIB, housed in Techs College of Education, prepares highly qualified professionals to educate and rehabilitate individuals who are blind or visually impaired. The PDRIB also conducts thorough research that broadens perspectives, deepens the overall understanding of blindness, and seeks the best methods to increase independence for individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

However, there is a nationwide shortage of educators for the blind and visually impaired community.With a 90% illiteracy rate and a 75% unemployment rate nationwide within the blind community, there is a dire need to increase the number of educators trained in teaching students with visual impairments.Job opportunities have grown exponentially for teaching blind or visually impaired students; currently there are four times the number of teaching jobs available than there are the number of qualified educators and instructors to fill those positions.

Through their job assistance placement services and new program offerings, Bell and his team seek to do their part to fill this hiring need and empower educators to change lives within the visually impaired community.

All tuition and fees are covered for the Structured Discovery Cane Travel (SDCT) and Structured Discovery rehabilitation training programs. Scholarships are available on a competitive basis for those who pursue these programs. Students who receive scholarship funding must work in the field of rehabilitation for two years for each year of their scholarship support.

To become an educator for the blind and visually impaired community, contact Bell at ebell@latech.edu. For more details on how to make a difference in the national shortage of teachers for the blind and visually impaired, visit pdrib.com.

Read more from the original source:
Institute on Blindness gets grant extension for improved mobility and rehabilitation programs - News at Louisiana Tech

In his 1995 novel, Blindness, author Jose Saramago tells a story about a world in which nearly everyone is stricken with blindness.

The epidemic brings out the worst, and sometimes the best, of humanity. Panic overtakes reason. Self preservation replaces care for others. Order is eclipsed by chaos.

The pandemic weve come to know as COVID-19 is bringing out our best and our worst. Some folks have been fighting over toilet paper. Others are hoarding garages full of hand sanitizer. And a few are even vilifying sick people who unknowingly exposed others to the virus.

There are also stories of care and compassion: neighbors reaching out to neighbors. Employers caring for workers. Teachers serving their students.

Were all authors and characters in this non-fiction thriller, so we get to decide whether or not it will be a story of blindness.

In Saramagos book, one person keeps her sight in the midst of the epidemic: a woman who feigns blindness in order to accompany her husband into a makeshift, and horrific, quarantine. As the story unfolds, she uses her sight to lead a small band of blind followers through the apocalyptic scenes of a lawless city.

Imagine being a person who could see in an epidemic that steals sight. How would you use your vision? Would you aim to preserve your life or serve others? Is it possible to do both?

How you answer those questions will depend a lot on where you look for answers.

This virus, and other large-scale disasters, are physical problems that require physical solutions like hand sanitizer, social distancing and self quarantine.

But our world is more than just physical. Its both physical and spiritual. We are more than just living hosts for opportunistic viruses. Were living souls. And even though were naturally susceptible to self preservation, we also have a strong desire to help others, especially when life is at stake. Its a tension between physical and spiritual reality, and were not the first to feel it.

Martin Luther lived through a plague more brutal than the one in Blindness and more sinister than COVID-19. When the bubonic plague swept through Europe in the 16th century, Luther penned a letter he titled, Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague. His answer brings vivid clarity to how we see our physical and spiritual world. I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.

He trusted God and took medicine. He practiced social distancing before it was a term. But he also practiced incarnational proximity, by serving the sick when they needed him. He and his wife even welcomed patients into their home. Not everyone is called to that response, but acknowledging the tension will draw our eyes to the one who turns blindness into sight.

Jesus doesnt distance himself from our viruses or our fears. He takes them on. His incarnation brought Him into close proximity with the sick, the lame and the lepers. His teaching opens our eyes to the reality of trusting God and serving others. That seems more useful than fighting over toilet paper.

Were writing history here. Lets make sure it isnt a story of blindness.

Gregg Madsen is the Lead Pastor of Steadfast Gretna. Reach him at gmadsen@steadfastgretna.org.

Read more from the original source:
Don't let COVID-19 be a story of blindness - Omaha World-Herald

Priest and Martyr (1903-1940)

His life

+ Marian was born in Poznan, Poland. He entered the army at age 17, fighting in the Polish-Bolshevik War.

+ After leaving military service, he entered the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1928. After serving as associate pastor in Leszno, Poland, he became prefect of the seminary in Kozmin and Wolsztyn.

In 1933, Marian was assigned to serve the Polish community in Gdansk. The city, whose population were largely German, were sympathetic to the rise of the Nazis and the Polish minority was often subject to harassment and, at times, physical violence.

+ On September 1, 1939, the day the Nazis invaded Poland, Father Marian and other priests were arrested, beaten, and sent to various concentration camps.

+ Blessed Marian Grecki was shot to death in a field outside the Stutthof concentration camp on Good Friday, March 22, 1940. He was beatified with other martyrs in 1999.

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also honor Saint Lea of Rome. A wealthy widow, she supported a community of consecrated virgins under the direction of Saint Marcella, and she later served as the leader of the community. Following her dead in 384, Saint Jerome praised her for her dedication to prayer and her simple way of life.

Prayer

Almighty and merciful God, who brought your Martyr blessed Marian to overcome the torments of his passion, grant that we, who celebrate the day of his triumph, may remain invincible under your protection against the snares of the enemy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Martyrs)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.

Excerpt from:
Saint of the Day: Blessed Marian Grecki - Sunday, March 22 - Aleteia EN

Editors note: Grace Lutheran Pastor Russ Glaser shared his home worship packet with us this week and we are sharing it with our readers who might want to worship at home. There are two attachments at the bottom for download or printing.

Dear Grace Friends,

In place of Sunday worship on the Grace Lutheran campus, I am offering three items to assist you in home worship this March 22, 2020, weekend.

They are:

Home Worship for Sunday, March 22, with message, see below.Gospel reading of John 9 in large print, pdf below.Wordsearch puzzle, pdf below.

The church building will be open 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Sunday if anyone wishes to stop by and spend any time in individual prayer.

As always, feel free to contact me or church leaders for any concerns or needs you have during this time. Again, we are doing our part with the community to address and slow down the effects of COVID-19.

In Christs love,

Pastor Russ GlaserGrace Lutheran E.L.C.A.210 Holliday St.Osage City, KS 66523

From Pastor Russ:

While acting to limit our exposure to the spread of the coronavirus, we may be separated in time and location. But we are united together in Jesus Christ.

Please use the provided devotional and message as your home substitute this coming Sunday. It is based on two of the readings assigned for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. If there are two or more at home, take turn reading or speaking parts. Have fun with it!

Sunday March 22, 2020For Home Worship

Breathing In

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.Everything exposed by the light becomes light.You have brought your sin into the light of Christ.Your sins are forgiven.Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

May our eyes be opened in new ways to Gods glory, Gods light and our place in Gods purposes as we worship this week.

Gospel Reading John 9:1-41: Jesus heals a man who was born blind, and, because this was done on the Sabbath, the religious leaders start an investigation, calling in the mans parents and ultimately throwing the man out of the synagogue. Then, Jesus teaches that he came to bring sight to the blind and to reveal the blindness of those who think they see.

Read from your Bible or download attachment John 9.

Message

Now I See

How quickly the world changes. In just the past week or so, schools and universities around the country are now closed. Many libraries, restaurants, cafes, and cultural centers are shutting their doors. Its hard to find hand sanitizer, bathroom tissue, or other staples at the local grocery.

I am learning to maintain a six foot distance from every human being I encounter. Welcome to life in the shadow of Covid-19. Like I said, how quickly the world changes.

How do we respond to change? How do we respond when something challenges the way we are used to seeing or doing things? Are we quick to adapt ourselves to the change or do we stubbornly stand our ground?

In Johns Gospel, Jesus heals a ruined man on the Sabbath, a man who has been blind since birth. When Jesus sees him, he kneels down, spits on the ground, makes a muddy paste with his saliva, rubs the paste on the mans eyes, and instructs him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. When the man obeys, his sight is restored.

Though this is a miracle story, the Gospel writer doesnt spend too long on the healing itself. The focus of the lection is on the religious communitys response, both to the mans blindness, and to his restored sight. In other words, one of the most barren and desolate places we can occupy as Christians is a place of smugness. Of rightness. Of certainty. The more convinced we are that we have full insight, comprehension, and knowledge, the less we will see and experience the truth.

We saw that in many of our nations leaders who dismissed COVID-19 as a partisan hoax. Some stubbornly felt it was just another flu and would be gone in a week. In their righteous smugness (which is often anti-science or any other thing which could challenge their strongly held positions) our nation lost precious time in preparing for and meeting the demands this coronavirus strain will have on us and the world. It is what it is.

And in our story, even the disciples of Jesus held their own strongly held lenses in viewing the blind man. The disciples assume that his blindness is his own fault somehow. So they ask Jesus who has sinned and incurred Gods displeasure the man himself, or his parents. But Jesus rejects the entire premise of their question.

There is no relationship between the mans condition and his sinfulness, Jesus says. God does not make people sick in order to punish them for wrongdoing. To step away from our brother or sisters suffering because we assume its divinely ordained, is not righteous. Its reprehensible.

In the story John tells, Jesus sees the blind man a man whom no one else really sees. In the eyes of his peers, the man is contaminated, burdensome, and expendable. In his communitys calculus of human worth, the blind man barely registers hes not a human being; hes Blindness. The condition itself, with all of its accumulated meanings.

Which is why, when the mans sight is restored by Jesus, his own townspeople the people he has lived and worshipped with for years dont recognize him. They dont know how to see him without his disability. To do so would be to recognize a common humanity, a bond, a kinship. And that would be intolerable.

So, of course, when the man shows up at the Temple healed and whole, the community rallies to discredit him. To restore order, re-establish the social hierarchy, and reinforce the status quo.

But why? Why does the community feel such an urgent need to silence the healed man? I wonder if the core reason is fear. A fear so primal and so deep, it drives away all compassion, all empathy, all tenderness, all sense of kinship.

If the mans blindness isnt a punishment for sin, then what does that mean about how the world works? Anyone might get sick, or suffer from a disability, or face years of undeserved pain and suffering for no discernible reason whatsoever.

That wouldnt be fair would it? That would be a version of reality the good religious folks cant control. A terrifying, destabilizing version. Who among us can bear to surrender the illusion of control?

Not only does the communitys legalistic approach to faith prevent them from seeing the healed man; it also prevents them from seeing Gods love and power at work in their midst.

Notice that no one in the story rejoices when the man is healed. No one not even the mans parents expresses joy, or wonder, or gratitude, or awe. No one says, I am so happy for you! or asks, What is it like to see for the first time? Does the sunlight hurt your eyes? What are you excited to look at first?

Instead, the community responds with contempt, its need to preserve its own sense of righteousness more important than celebrating a fellow human beings restoration to life. Hard and cynical. Hard and suspicious. Hard and stingy.

This suggests to me that vulnerability, softness, curiosity, and openness are essential to real seeing. The Gospels tell us that Jesuss true identity eludes just about everyone until after his Resurrection. Even his disciples struggle to understand who and what their Teacher is.

Most of the people who encounter Jesus are too busy seeing what they want to see a magician, a heretic, a political and military leader, a carpenters son, a wise man, a phony, a clerical threat to notice what the blind man, free of all such filters, discerns by the end of the story. The blind man alone sees Jesus as the Son of Man and calls him, Lord.

We might say, then, that this is one of the rare and beautiful moments in the Gospels when Jesus himself is truly seen. The blind man sees Jesus as wholly and purely as Jesus sees him; the gaze and the recognition in this story are mutual. Because the healed man has no bias or preconceptions(remember he was blind from birth), because the spiritual ground he stands on is soft and supple, he is able to see God as God is. This allows the whispers of Gods Spirit to bring forth new life.

Whether we want to or not over the coming weeks, we will face a choice the choice to see or to turn away. Will we allow the ground we stand on to remain pliable, or will we harden our stance and refuse to grow and change?

During these hard days, who are the people we might render invisible with our cherished theologies, our dogmatic political views, our legalistic approaches to justice, fairness, generosity, and sympathy? Why are tests found for NBA athletes and not for the common person. Who might we deem expendable during this season of mass illness and fear? The homeless, the elderly? Whose joys will we be unwilling to celebrate, because were so busy hoarding our own?

Will we be flexible in the ways we extend love across distances, or will we hunker down in fear and suspicion? Will we dare to be the Church in new ways, even as we practice quarantines and social distancing or will we forget that we are one body, connected and interdependent, incomplete without each other? Will we have eyes to see God in our neighbors, regardless of whether they are sick or healthy, insured or uninsured, citizen or foreigner, protected or vulnerable? Will we be brave enough to look our own vulnerability our own mortality in the eye, and trust that God is with us even in the valley of the shadow of death? Or will we yield to cynicism, panic, and despair?

I am in awe of the trust the healed man has in Jesus by the end of this weeks Gospel story a trust deep enough to enable him to bear honest, radical witness to his experience, even at the risk of censure and excommunication from his religious community. In shedding his identity as the man blind from birth, the healed man becomes a disciple, a traveler, a pilgrim. He commits himself without looking back, straining forward instead of clinging to what others tell him is right and true. He is, in the truest sense, born again.

During this Lenten season, may we drop any sense of righteous smugness we might stand on. During this season, may we, too, confess our blindness and receive sight. May we also praise the one who kneels in the dirt and gets his hands dirty in order to heal us. May we also soften and prepare the ground we stand on, so that when new life appears in whatever surprising guise God chooses, we will embrace, cherish, celebrate, and share the good news, too!

Breathing OutGo ahead and sing the hymn. Youre at home after all!

Amazing GraceAmazing grace! how sweet the sound,That saved a wretch; like me!I once was lost, but now am found,Was blind, but now I see.Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,And grace my fears relieved;How precious did that grace appearThe hour I first believed!The Lord hath promised good to me,His word my hope secures;He will my shield and portion beAs long as life endures.When weve been there ten thousand years,Bright shining as the sun,Weve no less days to sing Gods praiseThan when we first begun.

A Prayer on Coronavirus

Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages curing every disease and illness. At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid now, in the midst of the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experience your healing love.

Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength and health through quality medical care.

Heal us from our fear, which prevents nations from working together and neighbors from helping one another.

Heal us from our pride, which can make us claim invulnerability to a disease that knows no borders.

Jesus Christ, healer of all, stay by our side in this time of uncertainty and sorrow.

Be with those who have died from the virus. May they be at rest with you in your eternal peace.

Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, defend them from illness and despair. May they know your peace.

Be with the doctors, nurses, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and help those affected and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they know your protection and peace.

Be with the leaders of all nations. Give them the foresight to act with charity and true concern for the well-being of the people they are meant to serve. Give them the wisdom to invest in long-term solutions that will help prepare for or prevent future outbreaks. May they know your peace, as they work together to achieve it on earth.

Whether we are home or abroad, surrounded by many people suffering from this illness or only a few, Jesus Christ, stay with us as we endure and mourn, persist and prepare. In place of our anxiety, give us your peace.

Jesus Christ, heal us.Amen.

Source: Kerry Weber, Executive Editor of America: The Jesuit Review

Ephesians 5: 8-10

For you were oncedarkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light(for the fruitof the light consists in all goodness,righteousness and truth)and find out what pleases the Lord.

Sending

The kingdom of love is coming because:

somewhere someone is kind when others are unkind,somewhere someone shares with another in need,somewhere someone refuses to hate, while others hate,somewhere someone is patient and waits in love,somewhere someone returns good for evil,somewhere someone serves another, in love,somewhere someone is calm in a storm,somewhere someone is loving everybody.Is that someone you?

Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Gospel reading of John 9 in large print, pdf download or print.

Wordsearch puzzle 3-22-20, pdf download or print.

Read the original post:
Feeling confined? Home worship with Grace Lutheran | Osage County Online - Osage County Online | Osage County News

There has been a swift backlash against the "Hoarding Brothers," two brothers from Tennessee who bought nearly 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer in an effort to profit off fears relating to the coronavirus.

After publicly whining that Amazon and Facebook Marketplace prevented them from selling their stock, the brothers Matt and Noah Colvin have been harshly shamed on social media, and the Tennessee attorney general accused them of "price gouging" during a national emergency before confiscating and redistributing their stash.

And yet, dramatic photos of empty shelves in grocery and retail stores, and signs shaming people for how much toilet paper they've bought, indicate that the Hoarding Brothers may only be an exaggerated version of general American behavior.

Hoarding is so commonplace that President Donald Trump has addressed the issue. "You don't need to buy so much," counseled the president. "Take it easy. Relax."

Such pleas reveal how in times of national emergency, few domestic actors have been the object of more scorn than hoarders and black-market traders, and this has been by government design.

During World War II, when rationing of essential supplies took effect, wartime propaganda inserted morality into the marketplace to ensure the effectiveness of the program. It worked. Hoarders took center stage as the dastardly villains.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the Office of War Information to explain rationing to the public in a "positive, thought-provoking but nonthreatening manner." Indeed, the OWI's educational campaigns often appealed to citizenship and patriotism in its efforts to explain why hoarding or trading on the black market contributed to inflation, caused shortages and undermined the war effort.

But the OWI also used guilt and shaming techniques against the selfish hoarder and greedy black-market trader.

Films such as the Department of Agriculture's "It's Up to You," portrayed a shopper being browbeaten by her conscience after soliciting a "dishonest butcher" for a black-market steak. Some of these scenarios took place with images of Adolf Hitler, the ultimate beneficiary of ration violations, lurking in the background.

Hollywood studios followed suit. "Letter from Bataan," a "victory short" produced by Paramount Pictures, dramatized the results of hoarding through a letter from a soldier named Johnny to his family. The film begins with Johnny's neighbor bragging that the authorities "didn't catch me" when she managed to amass 28 pounds of canned goods and 200 pounds of sugar.

But the elderly woman slinks off in shame after Johnny describes the death of his buddy, who perished when Johnny's night blindness, a result of "a lack of fresh vegetables," prevented him from accurately shooting down Japanese planes.

In the feature "Since You Went Away," Agnes Moorehead played an acerbic socialite who hoarded sugar and wasted goods as she antagonized the film's resilient protagonist, the lovely Claudette Colbert.

Even Popeye the Sailor got in the action in an animated short titled "Ration fer the Duration." In a dream sequence reminiscent of Jack and the Beanstalk, Popeye fought the giant who not only held captive the golden goose but was also stockpiling sugar, rubber tires, silk stockings, cola, gasoline and empty toothpaste tubes.

Such propaganda did not always work. When the government announced new rations, consumers often invaded the stores and caused new shortages. Black market trading persisted.

Between 1941 and 1947, the OPA issued 259,966 citations, and the agency estimated that in 1943 alone consumers bought $1 billion worth of goods illegally.

But the social pressure remained and appeals to morality proved effective at unifying the country, keeping inflation in check and mitigating shortages during a national emergency.

Complying with rationing, resisting hoarding and avoiding the black market complemented many other activities undertaken by Americans during World War II, including planting victory gardens, participating in salvage campaigns and volunteering their services.

This volunteerism gave Americans pride in knowing that individual actions contributed to the public good, and show that even while the temptation to hoard persists during our current crisis, social and political pressure play an important role in keeping such impulses in check.

Emilie Raymond is an associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Original post:
Raymond: US has long history of dealing with the villainous hoarder - Lexington Dispatch

By REP. DAVID EASTMAN

The mess in our Legislature in Juneau today is far greater than any one legislator will be able to fix, but that does not mean that every single legislator should not be working earnestly today to do their part to fix it. I am committed to doing my part, day in and day out, which sets me at odds with the status quo in Juneau.

When I first expressed concern about the coronavirus in January, I cautioned those in Juneau and other parts of the state to take this virus seriously. The response was sadly predictable. The responsefrom ADN and the political blogswas to mock the one legislator who was willing to call attention to it at the time.

When I wrotein Januaryabout the censorship of doctors in China, who were trying to warn their countrymen about the disease, there was still significant reluctance to talking about it in the state capitol building.

When I highlightedthe first discussionabout the virus in the U.S. Senate, and then passed on advice thatThe Time to Prepare is NOWon February 3rd, Juneau was still not ready to take this virus seriously.

I responded by simply reminding the critics that All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

It is a very familiar progression, as it is a path that I have walked down many times since first becoming a legislator. We walked down that path for three long years in the effort to repeal SB91.We were repeatedly told that it was impossible, that there was no stopping it, that we would simply have to let SB91 run its course, that those in Juneau who supported it were too powerful. Thankfully, there were some in Juneau (including then Sen. Mike Dunleavy) who were willing to persevere anyway, and SB91 is now repealed.

I have been walking a similar path with the Coronavirus for the last two months, and we have now reached the point where the crisis of the coronavirus is now accepted as being self-evident everywhere; everywhere except Juneau that is.

To Juneau, everything is political. The political angle is the focus. Everything else is blurry. This is what is meant when you hear someone say that those in Juneau are blind. Its not actual blindness, its simply an extreme case of tunnel-vision. This becomes painfully clear with something as tangible and as terrible as the coronavirus. It is coming. We know it is coming. It is coming to Juneau, just as it is coming to any community in Alaska that maintains passenger traffic with other parts of the state and nation.

And yet, the legislature has literally done nothing to prepare for the arrival of the virus in Juneau. If the coronavirus were to be identified in the capitol building this morning, unlike legislatures in other states, the Alaska Legislature has no contingency for how to conduct business without assembling all legislators together into a single room.

The White House has advised all Americans to avoid groups of more than ten people due to the extremely contagious nature of the coronavirus. The response in Juneau has largely been it wont happen to me, and so, other than shutting the capitol building to the public, we have largely continued with business as usual.

Each day, the House of Representatives assembles, as usual, putting more than 50 people in the same room, a number of whom are senior legislators in the 70s.

Yesterday,the entire Georgia legislaturewas urged to self-quarantine after a Georgia senator tested positive for the coronavirus. Do we think this wont happen here?

Over the last ten days, we have debated bills onelectric bicycles,notaries, andchanging the name of a road. This is Juneau. You arent dreaming; this is what its really like. While other nations are enduring conditions not seen since World War II, we have prioritized debating a new law for electric bicycles.

Im sure, simply for writing this, my colleagues in the legislature will be looking for new ways topunish and silence me, but if no one has the courage to call a spade a spade, legislators will continue to walk the streets of Juneau wearing little more thanthe invisible clothesthat exist only in their imagination.

The first item of business when the legislature gathers today should be passage of a bill that establishes legal authority for the legislature to conduct business without physically assembling more than 50 people in the same room. Thats it. That should be our first order of business. No exceptions.

Other states have passed similar bills. Why not Alaska?

It hasnt happened in Alaska yet because doing so would deprive some legislators of a helpful excuse to rush their favorite bills through the process unvetted.

Juneau is so hopelessly mired in politics today that, rather than spur the legislature to action, the threat of the virus is simply seen as a political tool to accomplish old political agendas. Last week, it was used as an excuse to push through an absolutely awful mental health budget (what fighting against the U.S. Supreme CourtsJanusdecision has to do with mental health is your guess as well as mine), and was used yesterday as an excuse to pass thelargest supplemental budget in state history, only a small fraction of which had anything to do with responding to the coronavirus.

Juneau needs help today. It needs concerned Alaskans to take note of the mind-boggling decisions that legislators are making. It needs concerned Alaskans willing to ask legislators the hard questions that few in Juneau seem willing to ask. And when legislators offer unsatisfactory answers, it needs individual Alaskans who wont take a non-answer for an answer and, when the time comes, will be willing to vote against maintaining the status quo in Juneau.

Perhaps most of all, Alaska needs a handful of good men and women who are willing to make the personal sacrifice to take a tour of duty and deploy to Juneau for six months or more each year to protect their neighbors from the damaging, long-term decisions the legislature will continue to make if they do not. Otherwise, the status quo will continue.

It didnt have to be this way. But it is. So lets deal with it and each do our part to fix this mess.

Rep. David Eastman represents District 10, Wasilla.

Like Loading...

View post:
Legislature's response to coronavirus is predictable, and irresponsible - Must Read Alaska

Friday, March 13, 2020 5:48 p.m. EDT by Thomson Reuters

By Linda Carroll

(Reuters Health) - The proportion of U.S. adults at high risk for blindness has grown over a 15-year period and so has the share who say they cannot afford eyeglasses, according to a new study.

Between 2002 and 2017, the number of people at high risk for vision loss - seniors, people with diabetes and those with eye disorders - rose from 65 million to 93 million, but 40% of adults said they hadn't been getting yearly eye exams, researchers report in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Nearly 1 in 10 also said they couldn't afford eyeglasses.

"We have a large number of adults at high risk for vision loss and at high risk for not receiving recommended eye care," said study leader Sharon Saydah of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The solution is to really improve access, awareness and the affordability of eye care."

Saydah and colleagues looked at nationally-representative surveys of 31,000 adults in 2002 and nearly 33,000 adults in 2017.

The proportion at increased risk for vision loss grew between the two surveys: adults over age 65 rose from about 51% to 53% of the total, and those with a diabetes diagnosis rose from about 21% to 25%.

People reporting vision problems or eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or eye injury grew from 9% in 2002 to almost 11% in 2017, the study found.

Among all adults, the proportion who said they couldn't afford eyeglasses rose from 8.3% in 2002 to 8.7% in 2017.

While not having corrective lenses won't lead to vision damage, it can lead to injury, Saydah said. "Having poor vision and not being able to see properly can contribute to falls and can lead to other disabilities," she said.

A major factor leading to vision loss in seniors is high blood sugar, Saydah said. "But if diabetes is managed properly and blood sugar levels are controlled, that can help reduce vision loss," she added.

While U.S. seniors are covered by Medicare, the original version of the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older doesn't cover regular eye exams unless the patient has diabetes or is at high risk for glaucoma.

In 2017, among adults at high risk of blindness, 57% reported visiting an eye care professional annually and 60% had received a dilated eye examination.

"This study highlights critical gaps in eye care access and affordability in the United States, and indicates these gaps have persisted despite shifts in our health insurance landscape," Bonnielin Swenor, of the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said in an email.

"This study is not examining a question about improving eye conditions, but instead focuses on access and affordability of eyeglasses," said Swenor, who wasn't involved in the study. "Currently most medical insurance and Medicare do not cover the costs of eyeglasses, which this data support as an important gap for the American population."

Unless something changes, the problem is likely to get worse, said Dr. Syed Mahmood Ali Shah, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

While there was a slight increase over the past 15 years in the percentage of patients getting examined, the number of elderly with diabetes is expected to double by 2040, said Shah, who was not involved in the new research.

Shah suspects cost is the big reason for patients skipping eye exams. Even among those with some coverage, there can be a significant copay, he said, which "not everyone can afford."

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/33o0OFm JAMA Ophthalmology, online March 12, 2020.

Visit link:
Number of U.S. adults at risk for blindness on the rise - WHTC News

Women in the Highlands region of Papua New Guinea have higher rates of blindness than in other parts of the country.

A hut in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

This was revealed by the President of PNG's Prevention of Blindness Committee at a launch of the World Health Organisation's global report on vision.

EMTV reports Dr Jambi Garap saying over 11 percent of women in the Highlands are faced with the prospect of blindness.

"It's like if we equated to the rest of the Pacific, it's like the countries of Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and maybe Samoa, all put together, all blind. That's how many of our people that are blind."

Dr Garap said the problem was exacerbated by a lack of specialist care, with only one eye doctor for every 800,000 people in PNG.

PNG has the highest rate of blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific - one in 18 adults over 50-years-old are blind, with women more likely to be blind than men.

Meanwhile, the committee has identified four major barriers impeding PNG people from getting treatment for blindness and vision impairment:

Read the original:
Women in PNG's Highlands more prone to blindness - RNZ

Donald Trumps position heading into Novembers presidential election is surprisingly strong. He remains personally unpopular, of course, but he heads toward reelection withfor nowa strong economy andfor nowno major foreign policy crisis.

Notice that I keep saying for now. Theres one glaring weakness that could bring Trump down hard, and were seeing it on full display in his reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak.

I am not just talking about the outbreak itself. Rather, I mean the authoritarian blindness that is driving Trumps erratic public statements on the outbreakbecause it indicates a more intractable problem with his way of thinking and making decisions.

Podcast March 16 2020

On today's 300th episode of the Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller, Ben Parker, and Jim Swift join guest host Jonathan V. Last ...

What is authoritarian blindness? Its a term for the well-documented tendency of an authoritarian state to be unaware of what is happening in the world around it and unable to respond appropriately. The paradox of authoritarian regimes is that the more efficient and all-pervasive the surveillance state, the less it knows about what is going on. The regime becomes blinded because people are afraid to tell the truth.

A fascinating article by Zeynep Tufekci described how this phenomenon was a factor in the Chinese governments initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Because an authoritarian system is designed to suppress information, rather than absorb it, the doctors on the front lines who initially warned about the disease were ignored and sometimes punished: If people are too afraid to talk, and if punishing people for rumors becomes the norm, a doctor punished for spreading news of a disease in one province becomes just another day, rather than an indication of impending crisis.

Tufekci provides a great analogy:

An Orwellian surveillance-based system would be overwhelming and repressive, as it is now in China, but it would also be similar to losing sensation in parts of ones body due to nerve injuries. Without the pain to warn the brain, the hand stays on the hot stove, unaware of the damage to the flesh until its too late.

You can begin to see how this might apply to the Trump administration. No, we do not live under an authoritarian system, and there is no well-developed surveillance state or regime of censorship in America. But Donald Trump has developed and promoted two key concepts that produce much the same effect as authoritarian blindness: fake news and the deep state.

The point of the fake news concept is to describe information from any media not obsequiously friendly to the president as some kind of conspiracy intended to hurt him. Veteran reporter Lesley Stahl says Trump told her he uses the term to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.

The point of the deep state concept is to describe information coming to the president from within the federal bureaucracy as a partisan conspiracy to overthrow him by means of a coup. (Thats the presidents word, not mine.) Thus, some of Trumps prominent supporters dismissed a warning from a CDC official by spinning a conspiracy theory connecting her to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The practical effect of these two concepts is that they create a voluntarily accepted, self-induced authoritarian blindness, in which the administration and its circle of sycophants will accept no information from outside their bubble.

You can already see this blindness manifesting itself in the administrations muddled messages about COVID-19. As recently as Monday morning, Trump was still offering what one observer called the mayor from Jaws routine, exulting that COVID-19 is not that big a deal because so far its smaller than the regular fluas if this were the end of the outbreak and not the beginning.

Trump also dismissed concerns about the virus as a product of the Fake News Media trying to inflame the situation. This ties in to a view peddled by his supporters in the conservative media that COVID-19 is just the common cold and that the forces arrayed against Donald Trump are doing everything they can to weaponize this to harm the economy, to harm the stock market in hopes of harming President Trump. This last bit is from amateur epidemiologist Rush Limbaugh.

That is how Trump has been treating the outbreak, too: as more of a danger to the stock market and to his re-election than a danger to human lives. This is why his initial reaction was to send Larry Kudlow out to tell people to buy the dip in the stock market. (This also turned out not to be good investment advice.)

Then there is the way Trump spews misinformation about the virus and the governments response, while repeating in a self-satisfied tone his underlings real or imagined flattery. Every one of these doctors said, How do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.

His glib confidence that he understands complicated systems completely is the clearest sign that he hasnt got a clueand that everyone around him is too busy shoring up his fragile ego to tell him the truth.

Note particularly the closed information loop created by the presidents symbiosis with friendly news sources such as Fox News Channel, from which Trump regularly draws information on crucial issues. The president wont believe COVID-19 is a crisis until he sees it described that way on Fox & Friends or by Sean Hannityand they wont describe it that way if they think it will contradict the line coming from the White House.

COVID-19 is not quite a crisis yet. It is a situation that could grow into a full-blown crisis if the virus continues to spreadwhich it almost certainly will. Even more likely is the probability that local and federal officials will rally and undertake heroic measures to slow the spread of the virus regardless of what is going on in the White House.

But we dont really know yet, and Im not going to play armchair epidemiologist. While some of the reactions in the public sphere have bordered on panic, many people and institutions are making rational responses to uncertainty.

Regardless of the outcome of this outbreak, we have already seen the basic weakness of Trumps administration: its slowness and reluctance to respond to any information outside its bubble. If its not this crisis, it will be some other crisis: the economy, our disastrous capitulation to the Taliban, or just some ordinary back-and-forth during the campaign. Trump wont know hes losing independent voters until they are already lost, because the only people he listens to are those who tell him hes doing great and that all the voters think hes a very stable genius.

Theres a bitter irony here in the role the conservative press now plays. For years, conservatives warned that the leftward bias of the mainstream media actually hurt Democrats, because the press was telling them what they wanted to hear and this blinded them to unpleasant realities. This was even codified as the Taranto Principle: the presss failure to hold left-wingers accountable for bad behavior merely encourages the lefts bad behavior to the point that its candidates are repellent to ordinary Americans.

That was back when conservatives were still struggling to create their own alternative media in an attempt to break the left-wing information bubble. But as outlets like Fox gained large audiences and became the sole, automatically trusted news source for millions of voters, they created their own bubble. Trumps diatribes about fake news and the deep state have turned that bubble into an impenetrable bunker.

The result is that pro-Trump Republicans now suffer from their own Taranto effect, leaving them blissfully unaware how much the rest of the country doesnt like their man.

Read this article:
Trumps Authoritarian Blindness Comes Home to Roost - The Bulwark

There are different responses to unexpected hardship, and when Marion Sheppard began to go blind, she cycled through many of them.

She pitied herself and cried long and hard, because this wasnt right this wasnt fair. Her hearing had been severely impaired since early childhood and shed endured schoolyard teasing about that, so hadnt she paid her dues? Done her time?

She raged. Why me? she asked, many times. Its a clich, but for a reason. She really did want to know why shed been singled out.

She trembled. This was the end, wasnt it? Not of life, but of independence. Of freedom.

She spent months wrestling with those emotions, until she realized that they had pinned her in place. Time was marching on and she wasnt moving at all. Her choice was clear: She could surrender to the darkness, or she could dance.

She danced.

Thats what she was doing on a Monday morning a month and a half ago when I stopped by a Manhattan community center for blind people thats run by Visions, a nonprofit social services agency. Marion, 73, was leading her weekly line-dancing class.

She was teaching about a dozen students the steps to the electric slide and similar favorites. But, really, she was teaching them defiance. She was teaching them delight. She was teaching them not to shut down when life gives you cause to, not to underestimate yourself, not to retreat. Shed briefly done all of that, and it was a waste.

Ladies and gentlemen, I need your attention, please! she shouted over the music. Most of her students are people over 60 whose eyesight deteriorated when they were already adults and who can remember different, easier times. She told them: Just because we cant see well, we can still do things, and one of those things is dance. Her chin was high, her shoulders pulled back and her chest pushed forward. Thats how she approaches the world now: ebulliently. Emphatically.

Weve got to keep moving, she continued. You know why? Because were alive! As long as were alive, we have to keep moving.

I met Marion because, as Ive described in previous columns, Ive had my own brush with blindness or at least with the specter of it. The vision in my right eye was severely and irreversibly diminished about two and a half years ago, by a condition that puts me in danger of losing the vision in my left eye as well. Since then Ive educated myself about blindness, seeking out visually impaired people and the professionals who work with them.

I asked the executive director of Visions, Nancy Miller, about programs that upend assumptions about people with disabilities and that illustrate their tenacity, optimism, resilience.

My dance instructor is deaf and blind and in her 70s, she said.

Your dance instructor? I responded. That didnt fit my ignorant vision of Visions.

I dropped in on Marions class. Her students are devoted regulars, and while Marion cant make out their faces, she knows them by their shapes and their voices, which her hearing aids render sufficiently audible.

She calls many of them baby or sweetheart. As best I can tell, she calls most everybody baby or sweetheart, a tic in tension with her big, brassy voice, which she uses in class to trumpet orders: To the right! To the left! Back it up! Tuuuuuuuurn! Cross a drill sergeant with a life coach, add a vocabulary heavy on the sorts of endearments stamped on heart-shaped candies and you get Marion.

She and her students have memorized the layout of the basement room in which the class is held, and she figures out which of her discs of music to load into the boom box by placing them under a machine, the Aladdin Ultra, that functions as a gigantic magnifying glass. It enlarges the letters on a discs case to a point where Marion can make them out. Blindness is a spectrum, and for many blind people, the world isnt all cloud; its just foggy enough to pose formidable challenges and force clever adaptations.

Marion uses her fingers to read the controls of the boom box. She uses her hands to determine if her students are moving as instructed. The students with more sight automatically help the ones with less, in accordance with an unspoken covenant.

Sometimes, though, someone just bluntly asks for assistance, as Marion did when fiddling with an attendance sheet. I need you for a second, she told a student standing nearby. I need your eyes. Can I borrow your eyes?

Marions own eyes were fine until she was in her 40s, she said, and began to experience episodes of scarily compromised vision. She got a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive disease that usually shows up at an earlier age. For her, blindness was delayed, but it was coming all the same.

And it was hardly the first test of her strength. Marion didnt tally her misfortunes for me, but her daughter, Kokeda Sheppard, filled me in, to communicate how tough her mom is how indomitable. Marion, who has lived most of her life in the Bronx and still resides there, never really knew her father and was just 14 when her mother died, according to Kokeda. While relatives stepped in to help, Marion nonetheless functioned as a sort of parent to her younger siblings.

She got a college degree and, as it happens, worked for decades at The Times, though we didnt know each other. She was first a key punch operator and then a library clerk. She left about two decades ago. By then, her vision had degenerated badly.

Kokeda is her only child and remembers how hard Marion, who separated from Kokedas father, always worked to make sure that she didnt want for anything. Marion routinely drove nearly four hours from their apartment in the Bronx to the private boarding school in Pennsylvania that Kokeda attended and then made nine-hour road trips to visit Kokeda in college in Virginia.

My mom is one of the most reliable people Ive ever met in my life, said Kokeda, 47, who now lives in New Jersey. I think shes awesome, in case you havent gotten that. If I can be half the woman she is, Ill be OK.

It was partly because Marion was so active and proud of her autonomy that her failing vision devastated her at first. She felt powerless. Vulnerable. I was really terrified, she told me, and that terror was distilled into a recurring thought: Unable to see a strangers approach, shed be mugged.

She also couldnt shake the worry that people were going to look at me differently, act differently toward me, she said. And people do.

For a while, as her vision faded, she rarely left her apartment. But on one occasion when she did, attending a social event where she encountered other blind people, she was struck by how physically withdrawn they were, how still. I said, Oh, no, she recalled. This is the way my life is going to be? Oh, no.

She resolved not to be self-conscious, not about anything related to her blindness. She didnt merely make peace with the cane that she sometimes uses to walk; she made friends with it. I always said if I ever had a boy, Id name him Tyreek, and I never had a boy, so Tyreek is my cane, she said. Tyreek is my best friend.

Line dancing had long been a hobby of hers, and after she started going to events run by Visions and met Miller, she proposed a line-dancing class. Miller was agreeable, provided that Marion could attract a following.

Marion did, and she has maintained it over the past decade. She attributes that less to her music (Hot Hot Hot, Cupid Shuffle, Blurred Lines) than to her mission: Shes creating a rare environment outside their own homes where blind people can be physically uninhibited, where they can move through space not with caution but with joy. Isnt that the very essence of dance?

When you go blind, you lose your confidence, Marion said. What I want them to do is to have confidence.

And they do. They find it in the warmth of how she greets them, in her yelps of encouragement Owwwww! Yeah! Hit it! as they dip and turn. At the second of the two classes I watched, an 87-year-old student of hers told me that she was all nerves and hesitation before she started line dancing with Marion about two years ago. She shuffled everywhere. Now she sashays.

A 55-year-old student told me, This has revived me.

There was a moment in both classes when Marion instructed all of the participants, who were arranged in parallel lines, to form a circle instead. Then, one by one, each of them took a turn in the center, busting moves for his or her clapping, hooting, stomping peers.

Marion took a turn, too. She corkscrewed from a standing position to a crouch. She twisted this way and that. She was fearless. Even better than that, she was limitless.

The rest is here:
She Went Blind. Then She Danced. - The New York Times

Dr. Louise Hamill tells us more about the progress she has witnessed in the fight to control, and eventually eliminate, river blindness, and how this is a clear example of the impact the intensified efforts are having on neglected tropical diseases.

Louise Hamill 17 Mar 2020

A woman who is blind due to river blindness is led by her grandchild. Democratic Republic of Congo CBM

As Bug Bitten reported recently, January saw the first ever World Neclected Tropical Diseases Day a sign of just how far those working to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases have come since the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs saw key players from across the world commit to tackling these ancient diseases.

Sightsavers in action. Source:Tommy Trenchard, Sightsavers

At Sightsavers I provide technical advice to Ministries of Health and local partners working to control and eventually eliminate river blindness (also known as onchocerciasis). The progress I have witnessed is a clear example of the impact the intensified efforts on NTDs are having.

River blindness is a parasitic infection spread by river-based flies. It causes severe skin irritation and can lead to irreversible blindness; yet its entirely preventable and treatable. If people who have the infection get timely access to the right medicine (called Mectizan) there will be no lasting impact on their skin or eyesight. If those who are at risk of infection take the drug one or two times a year over a prolonged period, they will also be protected.

Treatment using a measuring stick to work out dosage. Source: Moses Poiki

River blindness treatment now reaches record-breaking numbers, with 151.8 million people treated globally in 2018. One out of every four people who receive river blindness treatment do so through a Sightsavers-supported programme, and I have seen close-up the colossal, collaborative effort that is required to deliver treatment on such a huge scale. The right mechanisms now exist to ensure mass drug administration is successful, making the elimination of river blindness as a public health threat entirely feasible.

Progress is certainly impressive, but how did we get here?

The first steps to conquer river blindness were taken more than 20 years ago. In 1987, pharmaceutical company Merck & Co committed to donating river blindness treatment across the world for as long as it takes to eliminate the disease, through something that would eventually be known as the Mectizan Donation Programme.

Sightsavers, alongside national governments and other NGO partners, participated in multi-country research to develop the best method for providing treatment to communities on mass over a number of years. This resulted in something called the CDTi approach, which now forms the bedrock of river blindness control and elimination work.

Drugs used to cure and prevent river blindness. Source: Moses Opiki, Sightsavers

CDTi stands for community-directed treatment with ivermectin (another name for Mectizan) and it has been successful because it enables at-risk communities to distribute treatment at a time, using a method best suited to their circumstances. The CDTi approach works because it puts people in control of their own health, enabling those from at-risk communities to be instrumental in distributing and monitoring treatment. Because communities have ownership of the process, treatment distribution is more likely to continue and be effective, enabling progress to be sustained.

Community action. Source: Moses Opiki, Sightsavers

As the CDTi approach began to take off it became apparent there was a need to ensure mass drug administrations were well coordinated and best practice shared. Thats why, in 1991, the NGDO Coordination Group for the Control of Onchocerciasis was established to assist national programmes. Sightsavers was a founding member, and it was a proud day in 2013 when the groups name was changed the word control replaced with elimination , indicating just how far efforts have come in the 20 years since its inception.

In 2013, Colombia became the first country to be declared free of river blindness by the World Health Organization, followed by Ecuador in 2014, Mexico in 2015, and Guatemala in 2016.

Other countries are making important progress. Nigeria is home to around one quarter of all those at-risk of river blindness, and last year the government there announced the disease had been eliminated from Kaduna, Nassarawa and Plateau states, where 4.2 million people had previously been vulnerable.

Thanks to the high level of treatment coverage, it is has also become incredibly rare for new cases of vision loss caused by river blindness to occur.

Larvae of the Similiam blackfly, which transmits river blindness, are seen on reeds taken from the Agogo river in northern Uganda. Source: Moses Opiki, Sightsavers

A lot has been achieved in the last few decades, but more remains to be done. Currently, at least 217.5 million people are still at risk of contracting river blindness thats more than three times the population of the UK.

In 2019, WHO highlighted several priority areas that, if addressed, will help speed up elimination in countries where the disease remains endemic. One key area is to ensure all those in need of treatment are receiving it. To this end, we are supporting river blindness elimination mapping, working with partners in Ghana, Nigeria and Mozambique to determine whether areas that have not been offered treatment so far would benefit from it.

By responding to challenges such as these, and always working in partnership, the effort to reach more people with river blindness treatment will continue until all those affected have access to it.

Read the rest here:
How the global response to river blindness gained pace - BugBitten - BMC Blogs Network

A surprising relationship between air pollution and eye health has been uncovered by University College London researchers.

People living in cities with high pollution levels, like Philadelphia, have a 6% greater chance of developing glaucoma, a serious eye disease that can lead to blindness.

"Air pollution may cause inhaled particles to get into blood vessels," study co-author Paul Foster, a professor of glaucoma studies, told Men's Journal.

Those air particles travel into the nerves in the eyes, causing gradual damage to the retina. Higher particle concentration was associated with thinner macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer, which is a characteristic of glaucoma.

Blindness caused by glaucoma is irreversible. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, most people don't realize they have it until it is well advanced. There is no cure for glaucoma and early treatment is important to slow down the progression of the disease. That's why people need to know their risk factors.

Philadelphia continues to rank among the nation's 25 worst cities for ozone and year-round particle pollution. Every year, outdoor air pollution cuts the lives of about 100,000 U.S. residents short by a decade or two.

Last summer,an explosion and fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery produced the highest concentration of benzene, a dangerous chemical linked to cancer, among 114 U.S. refineries, according to an Environmental Integrity Project report.

So how can you better protect yourself? Try to avoid being outside for long periods of time during peak pollution hours. Make sure you have a good air filtration system in your home and that you change the filter frequently. Also, get regular eye checkups to monitor your health.

The study's findings were published in the journalInvestigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.

View original post here:
Air pollution increases the chance of going blind, study finds - PhillyVoice.com