Category: Brief Messages or Announcements

Next in The Series: The Next Chapter: Blazing New Trails (1998-2047)

The next and final presentation in The University of Iowa Hawkeye History series is entitled The Next Chapter: Blazing New Trails (1998-2047). I believe you can still register here.

It will be a Zoom presentation from 4:30-6:00 PM tomorrow, February 22, 2022. As in the previous presentations, the guide will be university archivist, David McCartney and will feature the following presenters:

Rod Lehnertz (02MBA), senior vice president for finance and operations

Lynette Marshall, UI Center for Advancement president and CEO

Peter Matthes (00BA, 14MBA), senior advisor to the president and vice president for external relations

Interesting highlights can be previewed below:

Milestones in University of Iowa History

Starting Over

Three Leading Professors on the future of The University of Iowa

Hope you can make it!

FDA Postpones Meeting to Discuss Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine for Children Less Than 5 years Old

The FDA announced today that the meeting to discuss Pfizer’s request for authorization of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children 6 months through 4 years of age, originally scheduled February 15, 2022, will be postponed. This will give Pfizer time to evaluate a third dose of the vaccine in this age group.

Unboxing Tile Lock Scrabble

I just wanted to alert you about the unboxing of the Tile Lock Scrabble game (Hasbro). Sena and I used to play scrabble back in the day, but for the past few years, I’ve been reluctant because the typical board can usually be positioned only so one player can see it right side up. The opponent has to view it upside down-usually Sena, who always says she can read the tiles just fine that way. And the tiles slip all over the place if you move the board.

We used to have a scrabble board that sat on sort of a post on which the board rotated, which made it easier for both players to view right side up. I wonder if that got lost in a move between houses. I have not been able to find one like that lately.

We have a couple of old Scrabble video games on CD and she plays those. It’s easy to forget the rules on some video games because the computer makes moves and scores automatically. I sometimes play cribbage video games that way although the most recent one I got actually has a mode that lets you score your own hand, crib, and pegging. I notice I don’t play cribbage as well with Sena after I’ve played the video cribbage game.

I finally found this Tile Lock Scrabble game at Barnes & Noble the other day. It’s an early Valentine’s Day gift. I telephoned Sena from the store and spilled the beans in order to avoid having to return it if she didn’t like it. Just like a guy.

I couldn’t figure out how to get the box open. That’s how I am. I nearly crushed it before I figured out I could use one finger to flip one end out (you can see the dent in one of the pictures). That’s why I included the slide show below.

You can also see the cool feature, which are the tile locks. Little retainers at the 4 corners of each square hold them in place so they don’t slide off. The rules are included in the box. You can also find the rules at the scrabble web site.

Wait’ll she sees the card

Update: Sena wins the first game on the tile lock scrabble, 291 to 266!

Thoughts So Far on “To Kill a Mockingbird”

I am just getting started reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. As I said in a previous post, I can’t remember ever reading it, but I saw the movie (or most of it). I have seen news reports that some schoolteachers are opposed to keeping the title on required reading lists.

I just finished the 3rd chapter, the one that contains an oft quoted line from Atticus:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

 I found dozens of hits on the web about this quote. There are likely a lot more. I don’t have to explain it to anyone, least of all to schoolteachers.

I can see my bookshelf from my chair where I’m reading Lee’s novel. I see my copy of a book by James Thurber, “The Thurber Carnival.” I occasionally re-read a story in it entitled “Bateman Comes Home.” I think it’s hilarious. There’s a short message ahead of the main text:

“Written after reading several recent novels about the deep south and confusing them a little—as the novelists themselves do—with “Tobacco Road” and “God’s Little Acre.”

And then I searched the web and found a web site, The Library dot org, and on a web page entitled Kids Booklists, there was the message, “If you liked ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’,” you might also enjoy…” Beneath it was a list of books, including “God’s Little Acre” by Erskine Caldwell.  

I noticed the resemblance. I’ll keep you posted.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” Dropped from Seattle School Reading List

This is just a brief announcement about the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee being dropped from the reading list in a Seattle school. We ordered a copy and just got it today. I realized I don’t recall ever reading the book. I did see the movie starring Gregory Peck and Brock Peters, though.

I’ll let you know what I think.

FDA Advisory Meeting on Covid-19 Vaccine for Children Less than 5 years Old

The FDA Advisory Committee will meet February 15, 2022 between 8:30 AM-5:00 PM ET to discuss Pfizer’s proposal to amend the Emergency Use Authorization for administration of the Covid-19 vaccine to children between 6 months through 4 years of age.

UIHC Covid-19 Q&A: Omicron and Vaccines

Here’s a recently published YouTube by University of Iowa Health Care on the Covid-19 virus, the Omicron variant, and vaccines (actually there are two, see update below). Points that grabbed our attention were:

Omicron is more transmissible, but overall seems to cause less severe disease.

Current vaccines, especially with the booster, protect against getting severe disease, although may not protect against infection.

It’s not a great idea to just get it over with by getting infected with Omicron. Getting the disease can lead to severe medical complications (including myocarditis) leading to hospital admission. The vaccines rarely cause myocarditis as a side effect and it generally resolves without treatment.

Vaccines make getting Covid-19 long haul syndrome less likely.

Avoiding getting together in groups of 10 or larger decreases the risk of infection with Omicron. The Swiss Cheese method of protecting yourself against Covid-19 still works best:

Include a slice getting the vaccine with booster: image credit Univ Iowa Health Care

There are medical treatments for Covid-19 disease if you get infected and have to be hospitalized. The treatments are not without side effects. One of them is dexamethasone, a corticosteroid. It can be used to reduce the immune system reaction that Covid-19 infection can eventually cause. Corticosteroids can cause neuropsychiatric side effects that can range from anxiety to frank delirium marked by psychosis. Fortunately, the duration of steroid treatment is relatively short. Vaccines don’t cause side effects of this type. Over the course of my career before I retired, as a psychiatric consultant in the general hospital, I was not infrequently called to assist in the management of extreme psychiatric side effects from high dose steroids (reference: García CAC, Sánchez EBA, Huerta DH, Gómez-Arnau J. Covid-19 treatment-induced neuropsychiatric adverse effects. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2020;67:163-164. doi:10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.06.001: quote : “Short course high-dose corticosteroid treatment, as occurs in COVID-19, may cause delirium and changes in mood (with a frequency of up to 52% of patients treated with more than 20 mg a day of prednisone during 3 months) [5], being mania and hypomania more frequently observed than depression.”)

Wearing a mask is protective. Recently the CDC recommended preferring medical grade or surgical masks over cloth masks. The guidance has a link to a YouTube on how to make the 3 layer disposable surgical mask fit closer to the face to provide a more effective barrier (and tends to reduce fogging on eyeglasses). N95 masks may be more widely available soon.

It takes a little practice

The vaccines are very safe and effective. We had minimal side effects, mainly sore arms.

Update: We watched the UIHC Covid-19 Family Forum last night which ran from 6:30-7:30 PM. I just noticed that it was recorded. It’s similar to the presentation above. It also contains helpful slides with graphs. There were great questions from the audience, which the experts answered and which are helpful to all of us. Many thanks to Dr. Dan Diekema, MD and Dr. Patricia Winokur, MD for this outstanding forum.