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Science & Technology

Covid-19 Is Creating a Wave of Heart Disease

2020-08-18

h/t Hot Air By Haider Warraich Dr. Warraich is a cardiologist. [NYT] - ...Eduardo Rodriguez was poised to start as the No. 1 pitcher for the Boston Red Sox this season. But in July the 27-year-old tested positive for Covid-19. Feeling "100 years old," he told reporters: "I’ve never been that sick in my life, and I don’t want to get that sick again." His symptoms abated, but a few weeks later he felt so tired after throwing about 20 pitches during practice that his team told him to stop and rest. Further investigation revealed that he had a condition many are still struggling to understand: Covid-19-associated myocarditis. Mr. Rodriguez won’t be playing baseball this season. Myocarditis means inflammation of the heart muscle. Some patients are never bothered by it, but for others it can have serious implications. And Mr. Rodriguez isn’t the only athlete to suffer from it: Multiple college football players have possibly developed myocarditis from Covid-19, putting the entire college football landscape in jeopardy. I recently treated one Covid-19 patient in his early 50s. He had been in perfect shape with no history of serious illness. When the fevers and body aches started, he locked himself in his room. But instead of getting better, his condition deteriorated and he eventually accumulated gallons of fluid in his legs. When he came to the hospital unable to catch a breath, it wasn’t his lungs that had pushed him to the brink — it was his heart. Now we are evaluating him to see if he needs a heart transplant. An intriguing new study from Germany offers a glimpse into how SARS-CoV-2 affects the heart. Researchers studied 100 individuals, with a median age of just 49, who had recovered from Covid-19. Most were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. An average of two months after they received the diagnosis, the researchers performed M.R.I. scans of their hearts and made some alarming discoveries: Nearly 80 percent had persistent abnormalities and 60 percent had evidence of myocarditis. The degree of myocarditis was not explained by the severity of the initial illness. 0.05%????

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Caribbean-Latin America

Mayhem in Monterrey: 1 Dead, 3 Cops Wounded in 3 Shootings

2011-01-01

Google Translate Three separate shootings in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon have claimed the life of one police officer and left three others wounded, according to Mexican news reports. The headquarters of Guadalupe municipal police was attacked by armed suspects riding aboard a vehicle at about 1830 hrs. Placido Baltazar Gerardo Cazares was on foot near the police building near the intersection of calles Loma Alta and San Miguel Torres and was hit by gunfire. Gerardo Cazares died later at a local hospital. A second attack took place a short time later on avenida Ruiz Cortines where traffic police José Alvarado Marroquin and Marco Antonio Perez Celeron were struck by gunfire, apparently by the same group that attacked and killed another officer. Earlier in the evening at about 1815 hrs, a patrol vehicle of the San Nicholas de la Garza, also a suburb of Monterrey, was fired on in the Azteca colony, wounding one municipal police officer. The patrol was stopped at a convenience store near the intersection of avenidas Lopez Mateos and Xictoencatl when they were fired on by four armed suspects aboard a Chevrolet Malibu. Reports say the firing lasted for several minutes. The officer wounded, identified as Eduardo Rodriguez Torres, 27, was listed in critical condition having been struck three times.

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Caribbean-Latin America

The (obsolete) Missiles of October

2006-01-18

Outgoing President Eduardo Rodriguez fired Bolivia's army chief on Tuesday over his decision to have 28 Chinese shoulder-launched missiles destroyed in the United States. Gen. Marcelo Antezana later appeared on Bolivian television to say Rodriguez had made a "bad interpretation" of his role in the October destruction of the missiles, which led to accusations of treason by Evo Morales, then a presidential candidate. Morales — who later won elections in December — revealed the destruction of the missiles by the United States and said it had left Bolivia with almost no air defense. Rodriguez said he made the decision to destroy the missiles on the recommendation of the United Nations and the Organization of American States after receiving information from the army that they were obsolete and a safety hazard. Morales' Movement Toward Socialism Party That's a bad sign, right there. filed a suit against Rodriguez in October, with some members claiming the missiles were in working condition. Party members have distanced themselves from the suit in recent weeks. The United States has been campaigning to rid Latin America of portable arms that could fall into the hands of terrorists. A State Department spokesman earlier said Bolivia requested U.S. help in removing the deteriorating Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles. On Tuesday, government news agency ABI reported that Rodriguez would make a formal inquiry with the U.S. Embassy to investigate their role in the matter. The firing comes as Rodriguez, a caretaker president appointed after the resignation of Carlos Mesa in June, prepares to hand power to Morales this Sunday.

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Caribbean-Latin America

Bolivian Presidential Candidate Wants to Legalize Coca Production

2005-12-16

The leftist front-runner for Sunday's election in Bolivia, Evo Morales, has ended his campaign saying his movement is "a nightmare for the United States". "Yeah! You think Chavez is a pain in the ass? Just wait, gringos..." Mr Morales has vowed to end free-market policies and legalise the growing of coca, which has traditional uses but is also used in the production of cocaine. His main rival, the conservative Jorge Quiroga, ended his campaign promising to create jobs and prosperity. Bolivia has had five presidents in four years and is a deeply divided nation. Situation: normal for that country, actually. It is currently governed by interim President Eduardo Rodriguez, who took office after Carlos Mesa was ousted amid popular protests. Eight candidates are running in Sunday's election. Polls suggest that Mr Morales - an Aymara Indian who is hoping to become the country's first indigenous head of state - has a slight lead over Mr Quiroga, a former president. However, Mr Morales appears unlikely to obtain 50% of the vote, meaning that congress will have to choose a president between the two top candidates in January. On Thursday, he told a large crowd in the city of Cochabamba that it was time for those humiliated by history to run the country, the poorest in South America. "And with my plan, we can become the most wretched country in the hemisphere! Watch out, Haiti!" Washington has said it expects any future Bolivian government to honour previous commitments to fight the production of illegal drugs. Mr Quiroga, a US-educated engineer, has called for a "zero coca" policy. A former World Bank and International Monetary Fund consultant, Mr Quiroga has said he will concentrate on getting Bolivia's foreign debt cancelled. Bolivians are also due on Sunday to elect a new congress and new prefects, or governors, in all of the country's nine departments. I remember when I was a tiny tot, and my mother told me why they cancelled the revolution in Bolivia when it rained. The guerrillas hate it when their bullets get wet.

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Caribbean-Latin America

Bolivian President Under Fire for Missiles

2005-11-24

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Presidential candidate Evo Morales on Wednesday criticized Bolivia's leader for sending 30 surface-to-air missiles to the United States for deactivation. The debate over the missiles began last month when Morales said that President Eduardo Rodriguez had given up the shoulder-launched missiles. Morales maintains that Bolivia needs those missiles because it has no other air defense missiles and lacks a military radar system. In comments to Congress Tuesday, Defense Minister Gonzalo Mendez Gutierrez said the missiles, purchased from China in the 1990s, had become obsolete and were sent to the United States to be deactivated. He said they presented ``a high risk'' because they had not properly cared for. Yep, proper care is something you'd want to do to SAM's. The destruction of the missiles, apparently linked to a U.S.-led campaign to rid the region of portable arms that could fall into the hands of terrorists, increasingly has become a campaign issue for Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism party. Rodriguez is not a candidate. The president ``told me the missiles weren't in the United States, that they had been deactivated and were in Bolivia. I think the president lied to me,'' Morales told reporters. He said he would start a legal process to have Rodriguez and Mendez charged with treason. ``You can't permit this kind of treachery toward the country,'' Morales said. They could have given the missiles to France, China, Spain or Qatar for proper deactivation and no one would say boo. I think I know what the problem is.

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Caribbean-Latin America

US behind Bolivia crisis - Chavez

2005-06-13

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has blamed Washington's brand of capitalism for the recent troubles in Bolivia. Speaking on his weekly TV programme, he said US open market policies in Latin America had led to "exclusion, misery and destabilisation". He called President George W Bush's proposal for a regional free trade agreement a "medicine of death". Bolivia was brought to a virtual standstill by protesters calling for economic and constitutional reforms. "Look at Bolivia. Fortunately the Bolivians opened the door toward a peaceful path, but they were on the verge of a civil war," said Mr Chavez. They're always on the verge of civil war. The Venezuelan leader, who is an outspoken and kooky critic of Mr Bush's foreign policy, was responding to suggestions by some US officials that he was stirring up the Bolivian protests. US assistant secretary of state Roger Noriega said President Chavez's support for the Bolivian indigenous leader Evo Morales might be partly to blame for the mass protests there. But a report in the Argentinian newspaper Clarin quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that Mr Chavez may have played a key part in achieving a solution to Bolivia's crisis. The report said that a frenetic exchange of phone calls with Caracas encouraged Mr Morales to accept the constitutional outcome. Clarin also carried an interview with former Bolivian President Carlos Mesa, who said that although the sympathy between Mr Chavez and Mr Morales was widely known, he had not seen any evidence of Venezuelan interference. Mr Mesa's predecessor as president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who was ousted in 2003, told the BBC on Monday he blamed Colombian drug trade interests for stirring up division in Bolivia with an eye to controlling cocaine production there. During his programme on Sunday, which lasted more than seven hours, Mr Chavez said Latin American countries were moving towards socialist economic models instead of US-style capitalism. Yes, we noticed. He said Mr Bush's idea for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone, mooted last week at a meeting of the Organisation of American States in Florida, would lead to more poverty and protests in the region. "We say no Mr Bush, no sir... I'm sorry for you," he said. "The people of Latin America are saying 'no' to you, Mr Danger, they are saying no to your medicine. "Capitalism is the road to destabilisation, violence and war between brothers." Whereas socialisum leads to pretty flowers and puppies for everyone The blockades in Bolivia starved the capital La Paz of fuel and food, and forced the resignation of President Mesa last Thursday. He was replaced by Eduardo Rodriguez, who on Sunday met representatives of the protesters. They have now put their action on hold. They told Mr Rodriguez that they would maintain the truce if he agreed to demands to nationalise the natural gas industry and increase political representation for the country's Indian majority.

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Caribbean-Latin America

Bolivia's New Leader Meets With Activists

2005-06-13

Bolivia's caretaker president met Sunday with activists in the opposition stronghold of El Alto, and appealed for calm as labor leaders promised more crippling protests if he does not meet their demands. Interim President Eduardo Rodriguez spent nearly two hours with the coalition of Indian and labor activists whose nearly month-long blockade cut off the main food and gasoline supply route from the slum city of El Alto to the capital, La Paz. They demanded he nationalize the country's oil and gas industries and hold early elections. "We must re-establish the peace," Rodriguez told strike leaders.

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-Short Attention Span Theater-

Venezuela's Chavez blames Bush for Bolivia crisis

2005-06-12

Venezuela's Chavez blames Bush for Bolivia crisis Soooooo predictable and booooooring! By Pascal Fletcher 1 hour, 45 minutes ago CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blamed President Bush on Sunday for Bolivia's crisis and said Bush's "poisoned medicine" of free-market democracy was being rejected by Latin America. The left-wing Venezuelan leader said the protests that shook the Andean nation this week were triggered by popular opposition to capitalist free-trade policies advocated by Bush. Chavez condemned as "poisoned medicine" a speech given by Bush to the Organization of American States last week in which he recommended a mix of representative democracy, integration of world markets and individual freedoms. "That is what is killing the peoples of Latin America. ... This is the path of destabilization, of violence, of war between brothers," Chavez said, speaking on his "Hello President" weekly television and radio show. The Venezuelan leader is a fierce critic of U.S. policies although his country, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, sells billions of dollars worth of oil to the United States each year. Chavez rejected charges by some U.S. officials that he and Cuban President Fidel Castro were directing the Bolivian miners, rural peasants and labor groups who are demanding the nationalization of their country's rich gas resources. "What's the cause? Is Fidel? Is it Chavez? No, Bush is the cause ... and what he represents," he said. Addressing Bush in broken English and calling him "Mr. Danger," he added, "We, the people of Latin America are saying 'No Sir, Mr. Danger,' your poisoned medicine has failed." Chavez welcomed signs the Bolivia protests were easing following the inauguration as president on Thursday of Eduardo Rodriguez. He replaced Carlos Mesa who resigned. Chavez, a firebrand nationalist first elected in 1998, says free-market economic policies have increased not reduced poverty in Latin America. He proposes as an alternative his self-styled "revolution" in Venezuela, which channels oil income into health, education and job training for the poor. He spoke while inaugurating one of 600 new medical treatment centers which his government was opening with help from Communist Cuba. During his program lasting more than seven hours, Chavez received a phone call from Castro, which was broadcast live. The two leaders mocked U.S. accusations that they had created an anti-U.S. alliance to destabilize Latin America and that it was being financed by Venezuela's oil income. "You're the malevolent genius and I'm the rich financier of revolutions, what do you think?" Chavez told Castro. "Well, it's marvelous," the Cuban leader replied. Venezuela ships up to 90,000 barrels per day of oil to Cuba and more than 20,000 Cuban doctors, dentists, teachers and technicians, including sugar experts, are working in the South American oil exporter under a broad cooperation program. The United States has criticized Chavez's close alliance with Castro, a longtime foe of Washington, and says it fears his rule in Venezuela is becoming increasingly authoritarian.

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Caribbean-Latin America

New Bolivian president calls early election

2005-06-11

SUCRE: Bolivia's supreme court chief, Eduardo Rodriguez, took office as president Thursday and vowed to hold early elections, fighting to quell a three-week uprising by masses of poor people demanding a share of the country's natural gas riches. Rodriguez, 49, was sworn in as the 84th president late Thursday at an emergency session of Congress, convened in the colonial capital of Sucre as violent protests gripped Bolivia, unleashing a warning of a military crackdown. Is this like the 134th government in 89 years or the 113th government in 76 years? For three weeks, tens of thousands of farmers, workers and indigenous people have clamoured on the streets of La Paz and other cities for the nationalisation of the gas and oil industry and a more equitable distribution of the country's meagre wealth. Bolivia's social meltdown pits poorer Andean regions in and around La Paz against interests in the more modern, relatively prosperous eastern and southern plains, where most of the natural gas wealth is located.

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