Healthcare

WHO gives new names to COVID variants to avoid ‘stigmatizing’ countries

Published

2 years ago

June 1, 2021

The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that it has replaced COVID variant names with Greek letters. This is their attempt to transition to “easy-to-pronounce and non-stigmatizing labels” rather than naming them after the countries from which the variants originated.

First, a variant of the virus began in the United Kingdom. Therefore, that virus will now be referred to as “Alpha” rather than the UK virus. Next, South Africa saw a new variant, now known as “Beta,” then Brazil, which is now called “Gamma.” Then, in October of 2020, India found the variant “Delta.” All of these are labeled “of concern” by the WHO.

Now, there are six variants, two of which originated in the United States, that are “of interest” to the WHO. They are named, in the order that they were discovered, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota and Kappa. The most recent variant is Theta, found in the Philippines in January of 2021.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.

Healthcare

Nebraska woman who detransitioned sues doctors who facilitated removal of ‘healthy breasts’ when she was a teen battling mental health

Published

5 days ago

September 18, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

Nebraska woman Luka Hein is suing Nebraska Medicine, the Nebraska Medical Center, and University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Physicians who facilitated in her gender transition when she was a teenager; Hein has since detransitioned.

Hein, who is being represented by the Center for American Liberty, filed the suit last week, for removal of her healthy breasts when she was a depressed teenager who struggled with mental health.

“Proceeding straight to breast amputation in a depressed, anxiety-ridden, gender-confused adolescent, who was incapable of understanding the lasting consequences of her decision, constitutes negligence for which Defendants are jointly and severally liable,” the lawsuit states.

Fox News reports:

Throughout adolescence, Hein struggled with her mental health and traumatic experiences, including being allegedly groomed and threatened by an adult man. She had serious mental-health struggles at age 13. By 15 she was diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” and put on a fast track to have her breasts removed, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that despite Hein’s history, doctors rushed her into gender transition without considering her psychological comorbidities. It says the defendants used deceptive euphemisms and unscientific terminology to sell gender-transition procedures to Hein.

For instance, their use of the phrase “masculinizing hormone therapy” was misleading as the process does not heal the patient but does “inflict harm that causes malfunctioning and malformation of the teenage body and brain,” according to the lawsuit. Testosterone injections, which Hein received as part of her attempted sex change, can cause many negative side effects including high blood pressure and permanent bodily changes such as the development of an Adam’s apple, deepening of the voice, abnormal hair growth, and male pattern balding of the scalp.

The lawsuit says defendants were also negligent in other ways, such as in their shifting from a standard medical diagnosis to the “affirming care” model, which embraces a person’s gender delusion as fact and discourages questioning.

Allegedly one doctor, Nahia J. Amoura, was prepared to go even further. “About a year after starting Luka on testosterone, Dr. Amoura recommended to Luka that she surgically remove her uterus in a partial hysterectomy as the next step in her ‘transition,’” the lawsuit states. The hysterectomy would have permanently sterilized Hein and created hormonal imbalances that would have required long-term medical follow-ups.