The insulting conclusion of the authors of the 2023 systematic review on long term effects of head impact exposure concludes that "some studies" suggest an increased risk from ALS and Dementia. Let's be clear: all of the people in those studies have names. Its well-known in the history of neurology that denials of peoples' lived experiences, minimizing their suffering, and marginalizing their caregivers begins by unreasonably denying them a name for their condition. Here is how the NYTs put matters in 1983.

2 pages of citations; 2 citations to a known plagiarist; Zero recognition of concern

Oh dear. Even attentive readers of the Consensus will likely miss how this little gem is justified in footnotes 60-61. The authors cite:

Concussion and its afterlives, 1928-Present. A history for those of you trying to get caught up on the day's events. [Thread]. (1) Concussions have long been recognized as dangerous injuries. They have also long been clinical events with legal meaning. Consider that the first history of the topic was published in 1953.

I thought I would help all of my fellow teachers with a one stop shop list of teaching tricks I’ve used to help me prep. Generally, keep it simple and easy to mark and remember it’s about learning not grades. (1) concept maps. always fun. students like them. Give students a concept. Ask them to connect ideas together and find related ideas. Variations: do it collectively on a chalk board; do it start of term, middle and end. Ask students to compare them across time. Talk about it.

22 April 2017 Paul McCrory submitted an Expert Report in "the Matter of the NHL" for the defense. He stated under oath that I did not understand the history of CTE. He was the lead author of the Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport from 2001 until today. The Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport from 2001 until now has been relied on by individuals across the world to provide a standard of care for athletes exposed to concussive injuries. It has resolutely denied a relationship between hits to the head and CTE.

2022 arrives soon. I’d like to give you a prediction about what you will know about COVID by next Christmas. 1st you’re looking for a comparison & keep hearing about flu. By next Christmas you will realize that the correct comparison is “tuberculosis before antibiotics existed.” Omicron is going to change our whole theory of adaptation and force fatalism. Pandemic fatigue will force some of it, but basically the more informed you are the more fatalistic you will likely be by next Christmas.

Since you are all contemplating port and cheese and may have exhausted conversation with people you were content to not see for two years, I offer the following conversation starter: which is worse? “Baby it’s cold outside” or “Santa Clause is coming to town.” Thread/ Normally it would seem obvious. Lyrics like “Baby it's bad out there; Say what's in this drink?” And I ought to say no, no, no sir; Mind if move in closer? At least I'm gonna say that I tried” and “Okay fine, just another drink then” ought to win hands down for most awful carol.

In 1955 standard recommendations for concussions in American football included X-Ray, encephalography, and disqualification. Of course no one paid any attention. Why am I a pessimist about players being able to protect themselves now? Because since the 1950s they haven’t been able to - that’s why.

Just a note about the academic market. It sucks. So here’s the deal. If you get a job, realize that you got something a hundred other people wanted. Badly. Now for some bad news. Thread 1/ Having gotten the job you may well discover that it’s not great. All kinds of things about it are stressful. You very likely came from a place with resources. You are very likely going to a place with few. 2/

While I certainly applaud journalism focused on epidemiologists, journalists might want to survey American historians of medicine for their opinions about how we are doing. nytimes.com/2020/12/04/ups… When you sit down and look at this collective failure historically, you can see that one of the honest-to-god causes of our problems has been science communication by our leadership in the sciences and in politics.

Someone close to me has COVID19. His employer doesn’t offer sick leave. His wife stays at home with small children. The whole family has it. The CDC lowered guidance for workers from 2 weeks leave to 7-10 days. So now his employer gives 7 days leave following the positive test. Of course his wife got it three days later. So now both people are really ill. Grandparents obviously cannot help. What exactly are families like his supposed to do? This is another perfect example of how unbelievably inhuman we Americans are being to each other. It’s a pandemic!

1/ Thread. Imagine #COVID19 shuts down universities for a full year. From September! Imagine, too, that by some miracle of God, you are partially responsible for continuing education virtually. Now. Here's the question. 2/ What does science without a lab look like? And what does research without labs look like?

Everyone needs to stop thinking COVID19 numbers today are today’s numbers. They’re not. They reflect: a) transmission between 12-18 days ago, b) onset and course of illness 7-14 days ago, c) hospitalization and testing, 7-1 days ago. Strictly: the present is the past. Don’t say: we don’t want to look like New York. Say we don’t want to look like New York three weeks from now. Chances are you already look like New York now. Diseases fragment time and space. This is not hard. What is not written is the future. But delays write futures.

Life in the time of #COVID19 Over the years I have interviewed former neurological patients. Among them one that I recall was a Minnesotan woman in her seventies who had survived a polio outbreak in 1949. In those days, rural Minnesota was all farm country, and her family were successful but hardly wealthy farmers and she had a big family. When the polio came, everyone was scared for the kids. Eventually the small farming town schools were closed. But still polio came.

@ArmenKeteyian @TheAthletic In 1962 neurologist Charles Symonds wrote a major review in The Lancet entitled "Concussion and Its Sequelae." @ArmenKeteyian @TheAthletic He closed it observing that in slight concussion there was a possibility: "that a small number of neurones may have perished-a number so small as to be negligible at the time, but leaving the brain more susceptible as a whole to the effects of further damage of the same kind."

The year was 1983. Representative Dennis Eckart, a member of the Democratic Party, representing Ohio's 11th congressional district from 1983 to 1993 found himself in an unlike committee hearing on boxing safety. Thread/ Broadcasted on PBS on Feb. 15th 1983 on The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and entitled Ring Commission Hearings, Dennis Eckart was about to ask a very important question about concussions. 2/ americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aa…

A recent opinion published in Nature Reviews Neurology includes a "CTE" timeline which is sort of "truthy". So I'd like to offer a bit of historical comment on it: /thread Let's start with the 1954 "first neuropathological description." This is undoubtedly a reference to Brandenburg and Hallervorden's 1954 classic paper. In it, the authors have no problem indicting repeated blows to the head as a cause. But is it the first?