Nostr notes by Brian Vastag

I get so incensed at all of the security theater for fucking ...

2025-02-09T05:34:13+01:00

I get so incensed at all of the security theater for fucking banks, medical providers and the like when these monopolistic corporations are constantly hemorrhaging our data.

Oh, the burden is on me to jump through these hoops..make new passwords... type in fucking 12 digit 2-factor codes...endless catpchas....& when THEIR TERRIBLE FUCKING SECURITY leads to terabytes of personal data getting posted for LULZ & profit, I will get $22, which was my share of the Equifax settlement.

#rant

Science reporters have the hard job of balancing ...

2025-02-07T20:20:59+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…majk
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Science reporters have the hard job of balancing readability/legibility for non-experts with precision and detail, and usually have to do so under tight space restrictions. Also, all of the detail you provided that did not appear directly in the article may deepened her understanding of the subject in ways that may pay off later. But you probably know all that.

The Pina Colada song from your grandpa's 8-track player will ...

2025-02-07T01:00:18+01:00

The Pina Colada song from your grandpa's 8-track player will now be a major motion picture. And people say Hollywood producers are creatively bankrupt. The endless scenes of people caught in the rain will be amazing.

#movies

https://deadline.com/2025/02/rupert-holmes-developing-escape-movie-alloy-entertainment-1236278477/

I tried "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" and I know ...

2025-02-07T00:32:29+01:00

I tried "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" and I know it's beloved in certain quarters but it's just so...so...so stultifyingly English. More English than anything has ever Englished. I just can't.

#books #bookstodon

One of my favorites. I only see them at one specific place on ...

2025-01-27T18:30:50+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…tsk8
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One of my favorites. I only see them at one specific place on Kauai.

Eagles - Chiefs is such a barfy Superbowl. 🤮 #NFL

2025-01-27T03:51:55+01:00

Eagles - Chiefs is such a barfy Superbowl.

🤮

#NFL

Heidi has done some metabolic calculations in her head and ...

2025-01-25T22:25:06+01:00

Heidi has done some metabolic calculations in her head and decided that since her next calories are not until 5pm, she must conserve energy.

#cats #caturday

Commanders-Rams is the NFC Championship game we've all ...

2025-01-19T22:54:22+01:00

Commanders-Rams is the NFC Championship game we've all dreamed of.

#NFL #sportsball

But if you work for yourself or as a contractor - do yourself a ...

2024-12-09T20:32:19+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…m3da
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But if you work for yourself or as a contractor - do yourself a favor and pay for an individual disability policy. Individual policies are *not* governed by ERISA, and if the insurer treats you the way Prudential treated me, you can get a jury trial & punitive damages. But it won't be easy & you'll have to hire a lawyer.

/end

I ended up with less than 3 years' salary in my bank account. ...

2024-12-09T20:31:11+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…h8c5
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I ended up with less than 3 years' salary in my bank account. For a policy that was supposed to pay me 70% of my salary until 2036.

And Barbara assured me my outcome was one of the *best case outcomes* a person could have.

Anyone with group disability plans through your jobs - If you ever become disabled, and you sue, there is no jury allowed and you cannot win punitive damages. Because Congress wrote the law governing these plans, called ERISA, to heavily favor insurers.

9/

So after 4 years of zero income, I was suddenly in the highest ...

2024-12-09T20:29:19+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…ge9x
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So after 4 years of *zero* income, I was suddenly in the highest tax bracket and had to pay huge taxes on the lump sum that Prudential gave me (which was not the total value of the policy...long legal story here). It was infuriating. I wrote a 6-figure check to the IRS for a disability payment that was supposed to be income replacement for 20+ years (until age 65).

8/

My only recourse was to sue in federal court. I had advantages: ...

2024-12-09T20:28:03+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…n8wk
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My only recourse was to sue in federal court. I had advantages: Funds to pay for a lawyer & access to public venues like The Washington Post, where I told parts of my story.

The judge who got the case was very sympathetic to me.

After we won, I ended up with less than 20% of the value of the disability policy. Much of it went to Barbara - she earned it, but it sucks to have to hire a laywer to get disability payments. And all of it was taxed as income.

7/

I sued Prudential in 2014 after they denied my appeal to my ...

2024-12-09T20:25:23+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…f6ex
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I sued Prudential in 2014 after they denied my appeal to my appeal. They *ignored* the objective medical evidence we provided. I paid out of pocket for a 2-day cardio-pulmonary exercise test and a neuropsychiatric battery (cognitive testing). The final denial from Prudential *did not address these tests at all*.

6/

..."We’ve always had a high volume of cases. Quite a few of ...

2024-12-09T20:23:15+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…vu8q
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..."We’ve always had a high volume of cases. Quite a few of them were ME/CFS cases. We did a case, Vastag v. Prudential, in 2018. Brian Vastag, who was a science writer for *The Washington Post,* was my client, and I could not get over how aggressively Prudential was just dismissing him because it was an ME/CFS case.

And the same is happening with Long COVID. We do cases all over the country on Long COVID and ME/CFS."

/4

..."I did, for many years, advocacy for ME/CFS cases. I ...

2024-12-09T20:22:42+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…e06j
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..."I did, for many years, advocacy for ME/CFS cases. I represented thousands of people… A lot of my colleagues say, 'Long COVID social security cases are almost impossible,' because they don’t know what to do with them. My office hasn’t found that to be the case. I think the difference is, you have to document these cases with as much objective documentation of symptoms that people have… Get neuropsych testing, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and other tests."

3/

..."But over the years, and really starting after 2001 with ...

2024-12-09T20:22:00+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…7lsk
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..."But over the years, and really starting after 2001 with September 11, all hell broke loose. They [insurance companies] began to get very aggressive. Every time there is an economic downfall, whatever it is, they get extremely aggressive. So you can imagine, with the onset of the pandemic, they knew what was coming."

2/

I want to highlight this interview with the lawyer who won my ...

2024-12-09T20:21:19+01:00

I want to highlight this interview with the lawyer who won my #disability case against Prudential. Barbara Comerford has been taking on the insurance industry for a long time. Tom Kindlon (npub1km4…yhzg) brought to my attention this interview by Betsy Ladyzhets for The Sick Times.

Excerpts: "And I can tell you that 38 years ago, these [disability claims] were not problem cases. I used to do them for free for my litigation clients…"

https://thesicktimes.org/2024/12/03/we-talked-to-a-veteran-lawyer-about-applying-for-disability-insurance-with-long-covid-and-me

1/

Here's my experience with Medicare, which is single-payer ...

2024-12-06T03:33:48+01:00

Here's my experience with Medicare, which is single-payer health insurance in the US for seniors and disabled people: I got diagnosed with a condition that has expensive immunotherapy on the Medicare formulary as the first-line treatment.

My doc prescribed it and Medicare pays for it.

That's it.

The propaganda against Medicare is so strong because UHC and the like make tens of billions of dollars denying care like mine.

#healthcare #insurance #UHC

The #covid vaccines we have are not great because they ...

2024-10-12T00:22:54+02:00

The #covid vaccines we have are *not great* because they don't produce durable protection and they are not good at preventing transmission. We're getting some answers as to why and it goes beyond the rapidly evolving variants. But the incentive for new vaccines using different tech is low....

https://www.science.org/content/article/missing-immune-cells-may-explain-why-covid-19-vaccine-protection-quickly-wanes

I wrote 500 possibly usable words today on a piece. This is as ...

2024-10-01T02:50:21+02:00

I wrote 500 possibly usable words today on a piece. This is as much work as my brain can hande. Having the kind of cognitive dysfunction that happens with ME/CFS and #longcovid is the weirdest thing. I think most of my skills & abilities are still there but after a very short time I can't access them anymore & I develop a debilitating headache. Thinking literally hurts. It's been 12 years but a person never gets used to it.

#disability

I did that a few times and...I was actually quite happy to let ...

2024-09-30T20:36:38+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…9pyw
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I did that a few times and...I was actually quite happy to let someone else better at it handle it.

Do you want to know a secret about ice cream? It has air in it. ...

2024-09-14T02:41:34+02:00

Do you want to know a secret about ice cream? It has air in it. In the biz it's called 'overrun.' Cheap ice cream has 100% overrun, meaning the volume has been doubled with air.

Premium brands like Ben & Jerry's and Haagen Dazs typically have 20-30% overrun. Less air, denser ice cream.

My dad worked for Good Humor/Breyer's. :)

Follow me for more ice cream insights. 🍦🍨

People are still writing articles describing #longcovid as ...

2024-09-13T00:10:51+02:00

People are still writing articles describing #longcovid as something that happens for "weeks and even months" after initial infection.

The words the writer wants here are "for months and years after infection, and includes conditions known to be lifelong and incurable."

So many people have put so much effort - with very little energy themselves - into trying to educate the world and it just feels like the message is too unsettling to penetrate many skulls.

https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/09/09/new-eu-commission-program-to-study-long-covid/

Bifurcated sleep with an hour of reading in the middle is ideal ...

2024-09-10T20:27:51+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…t25n
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Bifurcated sleep with an hour of reading in the middle is ideal for me.

Where are you getting that threads blocked the entire fediverse?

2024-06-28T00:54:06+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…ze72
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Where are you getting that threads blocked the entire fediverse?

Hello sciencemastodon. Just migrated over from another instance. ...

2022-11-11T23:26:24+01:00

Hello sciencemastodon. Just migrated over from another instance. Many of you know me, but for those who don't, I'm a former science reporter in DC, now disabled & living in Hawaii. I write occasionally, usually about the neglected illness myalgic encephalomyelitic/chronic fatigue syndrome & long covid (which often strongly resembles ME/CFS). Looking forward to seeing how mastodon works out for folks.