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An article titled  Johns Hopkins Researcher Releases Shocking Report On Flu Vaccines  made it around Facebook about how you shouldn’t get the flu vaccine for a variety of reasons. The article used several dubious pseudoscientific scare tactics but I kept reading. Way down the list, it hit on an idea that looks pretty important. I’ve done some research and I am surprised to say that, in my mind, the jury is still out on the usefulness of the flu vaccine for many people.

Short form:

The CDC (a usually reliable source) says that getting the flu vaccine each year will reduce your chance of getting the flu by about 50% and it will usually shorten any flu you do get. But then I found another usually reliable source (Cochrane) that says flu vaccines are not worthwhile unless you are sick or a youth between 2 and 18 years-old. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmm. Cochrane didn’t find any real downside to the vaccine so if you’re worried for your long term health, getting it is still the safer bet.

Long form:

First, here is Snopes tearing apart the article I found, calling it “mostly false.” So that’s not a good start!

In the “Johns Hopkins” article, they write  “… a study by the Cochrane group studied hundreds of thousands of people and found it offered zero protection for those three things in the general community.” I tracked that study down  here   (no thanks to the author, they need to cite their references!!! grrr).  This large meta-analysis reported “The preventive effect of parenteral [injected or inhaled] inactivated influenza vaccine on healthy adults is small: at least 40 people would need vaccination to avoid one ILI [influenze like illness] case”

The main conclusion of this Cochrane-backed meta-analysis with lots of participants is that  getting the flu vaccine decreases an adult’s (18-65 year-old) chance of getting the flu by 1 in 40, or a measly 2.5%!  That’s not worth $20 and feeling yucky for a week!

I went looking for other Cochrane meta-analyses:
Children – The flu vaccine probably doesn’t help kids 0-2 years-old. The flu vaccine helps kids 2-18 years-old.
Elderly – They looked for research on flu vaccines for people over 65 years-old but found, astoundingly, very poor evidence of the  safety, efficacy or effectiveness of vaccines for this population!

So at this point it’s not looking good for the flu vaccine for anyone except kids aged 2-18. But the CDC reports the flu vaccine is quite effective! This article   reports that it is roughly 50% effective, and works pretty well across all age ranges. Googling “cdc influenza vaccine effectiveness” turns up reports each year of how the vaccine saved thousands of lives!

Is the flu vaccine valuable? Probably, maybe, no. I don’t know.

I’ve been making and teaching bread baking for a while. I just put the instruction sheet I use for the class (which also happens to be my own cheat sheet) online. Find it on my recipe site here. And please browse my other recipes on my personal recipe wiki.

Fun and  Free: Crucible Open House Sept 9, noon to 5pm

There’s always lots of fun free demos and presentations. Build real things!

EmoniNail is a new topical nail fungus treatment.  Only, it isn’t. It’s a scam.

Why do I think it’s a scam?

1. Their website is vague about its (common, inexpensive) ingredient list, and  about how it works.
2. The website makes vague but compelling promises that not even the best doctor and medical treatment could keep.
3. It is expensive enough for you to hope that it might work but not break-the-bank expensive.
4. The company has created a bunch of fake review sites saying how great their product is, trying to hide critical reviews like mine.
5. Their web design looks so much like many other scam anti-fungal treatments that it is clearly the same bad people trying to market the same bad product under a fresh name. Similar scam products are Funginix, and Zeta Clear.

Do not buy EmoniNail. For more information about nail fungus products that work and don’t work, read my blog posts about nail fungus.

Here is a short summary of all my blog posts on the subject of nail fungus:  the over-the-counter topicals at your local pharmacy ($20) sometimes clear up nail fungus. It appears that is what’s in Emoninail (undecylenic acid). Lamisil (generic terbinafine) topical ($30) or oral ($2000) is one drug that has better than average results. Going to a podiatrist and getting drugs, or your nail ripped out, or both ($50-$3000) might work. Sadly, modern science doesn’t have a guaranteed cure for nail fungus. Don’t believe anyone that says otherwise.

Dr. Zarkov! There’s no sun! It’s 8:24 in the morning, and there’s no sun!
Happy Solar Eclipse!

Megan loves her Contigo mugs for drinking coffee in the car every day. I’ve been hand-cleaning them for a while and the insides kept getting more and more brown despite scrubbing. An abrasive pad and a lot of elbow grease worked well enough but I wasn’t keen on doing that again. So I tried soaking the mug in Oxi Clean for an hour and it worked super duper great! The inside of the mug got to sparkling silver clean! Actually, it worked too great, the little bits of Oxi-Clean that spilled over to the outside made the paint bubble off the mug! As a last ditch effort, I used Oxi Clean to remove the paint completely and it actually looks pretty cool.

The best part is something I just read from Contigo…

Contigo travel mug lids and any unpainted stainless steel bodies are top-rack dishwasher safe for a quick, easy clean. Painted stainless steel bodies are hand wash only.

The mug is now fully dishwasher safe! Woot!
In the image, notice the last remnants of the purple paint embedded in the word “Contigo” on the one on the right.

Today I tried to install an EPUB reader to read my friend TJIC’s new books.  After more than an hour of trying this has stopped being fun. I just want to read a book and I’ve wasted a few hours pushing buttons. This is why paper is not dead yet. Or maybe this is why single-purpose Kindle readers are a good idea.

I have an  Amazon Fire HD 8 (5th Generation) and it continues to be a a pain in the ass. Every time I try to do something that isn’t akin to watching television on it, I get sucked into this vortex of things that don’t work. Here was today’s adventure:

I went to the Amazon Appstore and installed eLibrary Manager, which is billed as being “actually free” from Amazon. It worked OK but the default font is a horribly bland san serif font and the option to change the font didn’t work! Not happening.

I tried Overdrive, which has lots of tie-ins with public and university libraries. That seemed like a safe bet. But I couldn’t figure out how to get the book into into the app! How it’s supposed to work is that I install Adobe Digital Editions on my computer, link my account to my computer, and move it over to my Kindle. I spent 15 minutes wrangling with Adobe and some insane user registration system. Then I couldn’t get Adobe Digital Editions to see my Kindle when I plugged it into USB. I gave up.

Calibre Companion (demo version). After 15 minutes I figured out that it isn’t an ebook reader, just a way to move ebooks around. It works great, it just doesn’t do anything. Ugh.

Aldiko seemed like a really good bet. Super pretty. But I can’t create an account with the app. This is likely because the Amazon Appstore gave me a version of the software that is 3 years old and I’m not able to update it. I wrote to customer support. (update 9-1-17: they never wrote back :-(  )

Blah!

I hear that avocado toast is why I can’t afford a mortgage. To that I say “Yum!”

Studying for my occupational therapy board exam at Philz Coffee, drinking high-test and eating like a millennial!

[update 2020: read this post!]

I’ve been using a CPAP for mild obstructive sleep apnea since January 2015. It definitely helps me get a good night’s rest and keeps me from snoring which helps Megan sleep. I still take it off in my sleep most nights. Megan prods me and I put it back on (update December 2017: I wear all night most of the time now! Hurray!). Here is a list of hints, most of which I’ve tried, to keep my mask on. Do you have any tips to add? Email or comment!

– keep a log of good and bad nights and what I’m doing about it
– Set an alarm in the middle of the night to put it on
– cough syrup (helpful when I have a cold!)
– antihistamine pills (when I have a runny nose or cough)
– nasal allergy spray… Flonase, saline
– turn the temperature up to 80 degrees (didn’t help me)
– use distilled water in the humidifier (I don’t usually use the humidifier but the chamber potentially won’t get as much crud in it if I use distilled water)
– higher pressure… ramp pressure from medium to higher (waiting for the doctor to change the settings is for chumps. I fiddled with the settings a little and it helped. Just 1 small change every 2 nights and a log book helped dial it in for me!)
– Set a timer when going to bed so I don’t forget (I wait til I’m almost asleep to put it on. I sometimes fall asleep forgetting. So I set a 10 min timer when getting into bed for a while)
– Chin strap (didn’t help)
– shave before bed for a smooth face (helps! I do it nightly now)
– wash the facemask every few days with soap and/or isopropyl alcohol (if I don’t, I have to keep pulling it tighter to keep it from leaking… wash every week. My masks have lasted 3-12 months)
– rinse my nostrils with water and blow my nose before bed for clear nose.

I went to a few doctors to try to help improve my sleeping with it. Every time, they’d look at the CPAP’s computerized log, ask some obvious dumb questions and say, “I dunno. Keep trying, you’ll get it.” and charge me a hundred bucks. Every time, I left the office MUCH more discouraged than when I went in. Most recently at an office visit, I asked to try some different masks. I tried 3 masks in the office and ended up with a size Large instead of the Medium that I previously had. That has helped!

I’m glad I have a CPAP. Good luck to you!

These are the two most seminal comedy shows in my world, and they are (gulp!) 30 years old!
These are just links to IMDB, not the actual shows.

Emo Philips Live  at the Hasty Pudding 1987
I found the LP record of this when I was working at the Tufts radio station and I pretty much memorized it.

A Steven Wright Special  for HBO,  1985
He came to Tufts and completely killed it!