Thanks to my daughter and her cousin, who took it upon themselves to set up appointments for their loved ones, I have been fully immunized against COVID-19. I can’t say I had the kick ass response to Pfizer-dose-two that some have had. I haven’t had a fever or chills or fatigue. It’s been more of a slow burn. I feel as if I’ve been day drinking and the euphoria has worn off. My reaction has been lackadaisical.

Since I’m sitting here with an unusually lazy psychology, I got to wondering: can a virus cause depression? The answer is yes.

Numerous viral diseases have been associated with depression. The list is a long one but some known culprits are H1N1 and other influenzas, AIDS, polio, herpes, and hepatitis C. Chicken pox can lead to a long term inflammation of the area of the brain responsible for spinal sensations. It can also cause depression. The COVID-19 virus can reach the brain and has been linked with numerous mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, and even ADHD.

Additionally, your immune response can cause depressive symptoms. “Illnesses like the flu or the common cold can closely mimic and cause depressive symptoms by activating your immune response and inflammation in your body“.

Cytokines are small peptides, chains of amino-acids, that direct your immune response.

They can fight arthritis and cancer.

They initiate wound repair.

They even influence your sleep patterns.

Cytokines and brain inflammation have been linked with depression for at least ten years.

Our immune, neurologic, and psychological systems are closely intertwined. When there is a foreign invader in your body, like the influenza virus, your cells produce proinflammatory cytokines, non-antibody proteins that activate and organize your body’s immune response”

An immune response known as the cytokine storm can result in a harmful over-reaction which may cause, among other things kidney and liver failure, pneumonia, seizures, confusion, and a rash. (Click here for a diagram of all of the associated problems).Most COVID deaths were caused by the cytokine storm reaction.

Some research says that too much sugar and/or stress or a zinc deficiency will cause an over abundance of harmful cytokines. Exercise can help regulate their over production. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the need to explore this further.

One thing professionals predict is that, infected or not, we will all suffer a mass trauma. Those who had to work risky jobs through the pandemic, those who lost loved ones, the lonely, the incarcerated, and those who lost livelihood will all be affected. One by-product to avoid is seeking authoritarian rulers! Yes, trauma of any kind can cause people to seek out authoritarians or become authoritarian themselves. Let’s not go there. it will only make things worse. One solution is to remember the past year, perhaps with a national day of no-work, and to allow ourselves time to recover.

A mean boss or authoritarian ruler will just make your cytokines over produce!

As we return to the classroom, keep in mind that teachers have a higher rate of COVID than most of the population. One reason we don’t know more is that not enough data has been taken. Most states and the federal government have turned their backs on teachers.

How safe is it to open schools? That depends on how fast the cases in the area are rising. K-12 schools do not spread the virus more than any other place in the community, but they are not safe once the virus has gotten a foothold.“Once you get to a certain point of community infection rates, it does look like being in-person … is associated with COVID spread in the community,” said Katharine Strunk, an author of the study and professor at Michigan State University

It goes without saying that teachers are frightened. They will stand in line overnight if they have to to get the vaccine. Additionally, teacher morale has declined.

It also is important to note the importance of having a teacher who is dedicated to learning and knowledge, is kind and sensitive to different learning styles, and who understands the learning environment of the students. Interestingly enough, it is the teacher, and not the classroom, that helps students learn. Being morally fair and respectful is important in helping students learn. Teachers need to feel as if they want to be in the classroom. Teacher engagement and autonomy is at the core of an effective classroom. Keeping teachers safe should be of utmost importance and can be a learning experience in itself. If we want students to value other people and to care about society, we must keep teachers safe.

What are ways to keep teachers and schools safe?

According to the Mayo clinic, things such as outdoor classrooms, sanitizing, wearing masks, one way patterns in classrooms and halls, providing plexiglass barriers, and allowing for flexibility (some classes held remotely if needed), and keeping class sizes small are all ways to cut down on covid spread in classrooms and schools.

One wrinkle to this picture comes from colleges and universities. Colleges and universities HAVE been associated with increased cases locally. Those which isolated students when they returned to campus, tested them upon return and frequently after, and held on-line classes for the first two weeks of return to campus, were less likely to be spreaders than those that took a less stringent approach. Another thing successful colleges did was to switch everyone to on-line instruction when cases rose over 10%. College sports, especially with fans in the stands, are another vector associated with community spread. If sports themselves contribute to spread is not clear, but not all sports are equal. It comes as no surprise that football, wrestling, lacrosse, cheer, and dance are among the riskiest sports.

Many students do as well or better when college courses are on-line, but not all feel this way. However, switching to remote learning when cases rise and keeping students on-campus is safest for the community.

Teachers feel thrown to the wolves, in the lion’s den, and at the mercy of decisions made by those who are not and never have been teachers. They are tired of being “the giving tree.” On a personal level, I’ve had a hard time sleeping, which can manifest into a hard time thinking. I even did a little sleepwalking during which I changed a lightbulb. Hopefully, a vaccine will make this a thing of the past, but schools need to be better prepared for the next time.

When it comes to lurking dangers in your home, have you considered your rubber duckies lately? A 2018 study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ETH Zurich and the University of Illinois published in the Journal Biofilms and Microbiomes says you should. Scientists cut open toys used at bathtime, cultured them, and found almost all of them contained fungi and bacteria, included Legionella (which can cause a fatal pneumonia-like illness) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (which can cause a host of problems, including skin rash and sores with sweet-smelling pus). The toys were so contaminated with a living film of germs, they could not be cleaned, except by boiling them. The scientists concluded that although children might benefit from a little challenge to the immune system, squirting bath toys into their faces should be discouraged because it’s too germy. Only toys that completely dry should be used in the tub! The filthy film can be found in places beyond the rubber duckies.

Cheap plastic such as PVC+ dirty water + soap grows a biofilm. Biofilms are easily detected as a slimy surface. According to Food Poisoning Bulletin, “Biofilm is a kind of slime made of protein that surround the bacteria, allow them to communicate with each other, and protect them from disinfectants. Biofilms are common in Reusable Plastic Containers (RPC). “What was striking about this study, the bacteria “not only attached to the RPC but could not be dislodged by either sanitizers or physical scrubbing.”

Plastic is not an easy to clean material. Biofilms can explain bacterial antibiotic resistance. They are gangs of bacteria. They are why you need to take your full dose of antibiotics. They are on slippery rocks. They are in your mouth as dental plaque. Yup, pretty much everywhere. Bacteria are pretty darn social.

Medical devices such as catheters pacemakers, IUDs, breast implants, and plastic heart valves can harbor biofilms. (Fortunately, antimicrobial plastics are now being used in these devices.) They can lurk under shampoo bottles left in the shower, and at the bottom of shower curtains, in your toilet bowl, in your humidifier, appearing as a pink ring or stain. What other household item regularly sits with water inside? Your garden hose! If soap dispensers are not cleaned regularly, yes, they will grow biofilms inside. The best way to avoid a biofilm in the house is to keep things dry and clean your sinks, showers, and toilets weekly. Keep bottles out of the shower when not in use. Regularly clean soap dispensers.

Biofilms can form on pool toys. If water puddles or soaks into anything plastic, the resulting bacteria can cause a rash or ear infections. Plastics used for pool fun should not be stacked but dried in the sun and disinfected with chlorine or other cleaners periodically. Biofilms can also be formed on decks if they don’t dry out!

Biofilms form on discarded plastic and microparticles of plastic in aqueous environments such as lakes and oceans. Tiny bits of plastic that harbor bacteria on the surface, the plastisphere, has been studied extensively. The particles can transmit disease, especially to aqueous animals, and encourage algae growth, although most of the plastisphere bacteria is not harmful.This is, however, another reason why plastic waste is such a problem in the oceans.

I’m tossing out old plastic bath toys and getting my bottles out of the shower. Hopefully, I will never see the dreaded “pink ring” of biofilm again.

I come from a family of teachers who liked to discuss politics and even argue about it. I have been watching the rise of angry politics. In my own home state, I saw one of the most balanced, fair politicians defeated by someone angry who made accusations against voters that cost the state lots of money. Why and who gravitates to this kind of unsubstantiated rhetoric? It’s a good thing to review as I move forward with my series, Unstable States, which begins with Mixed In.

There has been a good analysis of who supports angry politicians in the Netherlands.

What causes people to vote for the angry blowhards is insecurity. The most insecure people in a society are not at its top or bottom but in the middle. In a group, the people who most want to conform are those in the middle of the pack. People at the top are too secure to conform and those at the bottom don’t like the group enough to adhere to its norms. Thus, angry politicians knowingly play to the middle.

Scapegoating a group of people who can’t easily fight back and blaming them for the middle’s troubles has been a successful tactic of angry politicians practically since time began. Where does the word come from? In ancient days, a goat was selected to represent sins and cast out of the town to remove all evils. Groups of people have also been identified by politicians to be rejected by society. This is always a group without the means to effectively fight back. Thus, the people in the middle will fall for rhetoric that things would be better for them if only some authority figure did something about the lowly scapegoats.

Who likes authoritarians and who resists? This was studied extensively following the Holocaust. The Milgram study created a series of experiments in which volunteers were asked to deliver electric shocks to others who screamed in pain. Shockingly, most button pushers complied, especially if the study took place in an authoritative setting such as Yale.

People who follow authority are not much different than those who don’t. Those attracted to authoritarians tend to think harshly of those lesser than themselves and have less empathy for others. Most of all, cultural factors play a role in the love or distrust of authority figures. People with high insecurity are most likely to be conformists. Thus, creating an unstable society is highly beneficial to those who want conformist followers. Another factor that creates conformity is scrutiny. People tend to conform when others are watching.

Fortunately, egalitarian societies, ones that are best for all, have existed since before scapegoats began. However, they are harder to maintain as populations get larger and there is more competition for food and resources. People tend to share and cooperate with their kin. When it is too hard to identify kin, leaders emerge to make decisions for the group. The best leaders are those others can trust. However, competition gives rise to self aggrandizers who come up with reasons why they deserve more trust and others deserve less. These people are great at claiming the spotlight, motivating others,  and solving problems in the short run. Sadly, mean authoritarians will probably always be with us for these reasons.

A societal factor that plays into the selection of kinder leaders who are more egalitarian is low fertility.  Although the reasons for this aren’t entirely clear, low fertility allows women to take prominent roles in society and become educated. If this happens to the women of a group, it gives a group more social visibility and acceptance.

Egalitarian leaders tend to get less done. Motivating people to share and creating a sense of family is more time consuming than fear based politics. Cooperation takes more work. It is, however, the basis of society. Ironically, egalitarian societies have a lot of social cohesion that could be viewed as conformity.  Yes, even egalitarian societies have conformity although they do not coalesce around anger.

In the case of the Netherlands, educated people rejected angry politics. Why?  “Highly educated people …are socially mobile.. provid(ed) with opportunities rather than threats….Feelings of insecurity, whether justified or not, led people to vote for the PVV (angry party).” Education lessens the likelihood of viewing a politician who is angry as a valid authority figure. This is why, historically, educated people and those who are disenfranchised work together to stand up to any authoritarians who use scapegoating to motivated the “middle.”

What is the best way to reject angry authority and its use of scapegoating? Besides promoting education, the simple act of standing up to it and doing this consistently and repeatedly created heroes in the Milgram experiment. This tactic has been illustrated historically as with the development of the birth control pill and worker safety regulations. Scientists tend to be secure in their knowledge and challenge authority as well. In fact, science can’t move forward without some challenging of the status quo. Science provides a unique problem to authoritarian leaders who both need it and squash it.

In summary, creating a political dystopia involves several factors: insecurity, authoritarianism, scapegoating, scrutiny, conformity, social stratification, anger, encouraging fertility, and anti-intellectualism. Most angry politicians embrace some or all of these policies. If you don’t like these tactics, you must do more than vote against them. Sadly, you must speak out against them as well because when people are silent, these tactics are effective.