Two interesting pieces:Why Simply Hustling Harder Won’t Help You With the Big Problems in Life (from GQ)
A conversation with author and self-help historian Kate Bowler about how productivity culture is a lot like a religion.
The Bizarre Social History of Beds, from The Conversation
Today, beds are thought of as bastions of privacy. But not long ago, they were the perches from which kings ruled and places where travelers hunkered down with complete strangers.
Five Healthcare-Related Ones:
WHO Overturns Dogma on Airborne Disease Spread. The CDC Might Not Act on It, from KFF Health News
...
The WHO concluded that airborne transmission occurs as sick people exhale pathogens that remain suspended in the air, contained in tiny particles of saliva and mucus that are inhaled by others.
While it may seem obvious, and some researchers have pushed for this acknowledgment for more than a decade, an alternative dogma persisted — which kept health authorities from saying that covid was airborne for many months into the pandemic.
Specifically, they relied on a traditional notion that respiratory viruses spread mainly through droplets spewed out of an infected person’s nose or mouth. These droplets infect others by landing directly in their mouth, nose, or eyes — or they get carried into these orifices on droplet-contaminated fingers. Although these routes of transmission still happen, particularly among young children, experts have concluded that many respiratory infections spread as people simply breathe in virus-laden air.
“This is a complete U-turn,” said Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, who advised the WHO on the report. He also helped the agency create an online tool to assess the risk of airborne transmission indoors...
A Doctor at Cigna Said Her Bosses Pressured Her to Review Patients’ Cases Too Quickly. Cigna Threatened to Fire Her, from ProPublica
Cigna tracks every minute that its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. Dr. Debby Day said her bosses cared more about being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your numbers,” Day said.
Three more from the NYT:
(gift links, so you can read if you don't have a subscription ;)
Skepticism Is Healthy, but in Medicine, It Can Be DangerousWomen Are Calling Out ‘Medical Gaslighting’Studies show female patients and people of color are more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by medical providers. Experts say: Keep asking questions.
The Moral Crisis of America’s DoctorsThe corporatization of health care has changed the practice of medicine, causing many physicians to feel alienated from their work.
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