Why The Hell Is So Much Science Research Pay for View Only?

[McCamy Taylor]

Seriously. I am trying to do my part as a physician who also has a masters public health to search the medial literature for hints about how COVID kills and how we could stop the deaths. However, I keep stumbling across roadblocks in the form of "You have to pay us if you want to read this." One article even blacked out most of the abstract! Grrr! How do you know if you want to pay for it if you don't know even know what the study is about?

I know what I have to do. I am part of a huge healthcare organization so I just have to sign up for our system's online library, something I have been putting off because it is a hassle. But what about people who are retired?

[Beakybird]

1. Two suggestions: 1) Sign into your local library website.

My little library is part of a group of libraries that has access to the Medline database - scientific journals, etc.
If not, 2) Call your alma mater and explain your situation, and ask if you can get a temporary library card account.

[Hoyt]

2. Bugs me too. Some of the outlets-- like Washington Post, Lancet --are making C-virus news free.

[sweetloukillbot]

3. I've read that you can contact the author and they'll usually send you a copy for free

Apparently it's an old grad student trick for getting around expensive journals.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. Here is an example

They want me to pay $39 for a article from 1981 "Myasthenia Gravis following Viral Infections"

https://www.karger.com/Article/PDF/115275

The reason I want to read this is I am doing a literature search for a hypothesis that one of the reasons COVID kills the elderly/those with underlying health problems and is commonly described as presenting with "weakness" is that COVID affects acetylcholine junctions the way that influenza has been shown to affect these junctions. Acetylcholine junctions are necessary for nerve impulses to reach muscles. If the nerve impulse cannot get to your diaphragm you cannot breath---that is how botulism toxin kills you. COVID does not paralyze but what if the muscle involved in swallowing, clearing the airway and breathing get even a little bit weak? People affected would begin to aspirate--choke on food,liquids and even their own saliva. Aspiration then leads to pneumonia--and could explain why people with COVID get patchy pneumonia all over their lungs and why some of them seem to be getting better and then all of a sudden take a turn for the worse.

If true, this would have immediate applications. Elevate the head of the bed when you sleep--less likely to aspirate. Swallow slowly. Avoid overeating. Stop smoking (that causes GERD) avoid excessive alcohol (also causes gerd). Stay sitting or standing up after eating. Consider H2 antagonists or proton pump inhibitors (famotidine or omeprazole) to neutralize stomach acid so you do not accidentally choke of hydrochloric acid.

[Igel]

5. Because it's how they make money.

Read the abstract. It's what most people stop at, anyway.

Blogs are good.

For some physical sciences there's arxiv.org (I think there's a medarxiv or something like that). Preprints, often with the final revision prior to printing.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Animal studies are more likely to be free.

I have found a big list of studies about coronavirus in bats all of which are free.

Why look up coronavirus and bats? Because West Nile Virus has been associated with a host of neurological symptoms including new onset Myasthenia Gravis (note that this article which is about a human disease is not free)

https://www.karger.com/Article/PDF/115275

The flavivirus that causes WNV turns the mosquitoes food (humans birds rats etc) into a helpless buffet. Victims just lie there is a stupor with fever so they are breathing fast, exhaling lots of CO2 which is how the mosquitoes find them.

Bats are one of the oldest most successful mammalian species on earth. Bats are also the likely source of coronavirus, which they carry and which is able to mutate within the bats to produce new strains of virus that can in turn infect other mammals.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879625716301341

While numerous animals have been surveyed in the past decade, bats continue to be among the most abundant source for novel viral sequences [7]. Bat species are among the oldest mammals and represent 20% of mammalian diversity [8]; they exist and occupy diverse niches from isolated individuals to large commensal colonies with broad geographic ranges that can span thousands of miles. Importantly, their great diversity and long co-evolutionary relationships with pathogens provide the opportunity for cross species mixing and maintenance of quasi-species pools of viruses that can infect a range of hosts [9, 10]. Yet, despite harboring such a diverse assortment of viruses, surveyed bats rarely exhibit signs of disease. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain these asymptomatic infections. One postulates that bats, the only flying mammal, produce large amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and, in response, have modulated genes to limit oxidative stress [11], which may result in reduced viral replication and pathogenesis [12]. Similarly, a modified innate immune response may also contribute to the diverse viral pools harbored by bats. Known PYHIN (PYRIN and HIN domain-containing) genes within the inflammasome pathway and natural killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are absent or significantly reduced in some surveyed bat species, potentially limiting disease and damage following infection [11, 13]. In addition, constitutive expression of bat interferon subtypes likely limits disease but permits low-level viral infection to remain intact [14]. A third possibility suggests a commensal relationship between the harbored viruses and bat species [15].

How would carrying a virus that can make other mammals sick help bats? What bat is like a mosquito? The vampire bat.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-86702008000600003

We are focusing on the coronaviruses effects of the respiratory organs however I think we also need to look into its effects on the nervous system. What is sauce for the blood drinking mosquito could also be sauce for the blood drinking bat. Parallel evolution gave squids and mammals eyes and huge brains because these are things that aid survival.

[redstatebluegirl]

7. Contact the University library close to you

Tell them you are a doctor and ask for access, if it is a state school or better yet one you graduated from they may give you access.

[obamanut2012]

11. Almost all university libraries are currently closed

They are helping their universities communities as best they can remotely, and are stretched very thin doing that.

Many publishers have dropped their paywalls for two weeks.

[Jamastiene]

8. Isn't most research funded by our tax dollars?

If it is, it should be free to view.

Either way, I think right now, ALL of it, whether it is supposed by tax dollars or not, should be free. The more we can learn, the better chance we might have of saving the species.

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Results of my searches today---does coronavirus exist to serve bats?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181334277

I posted this over the Lounge due to is all hypothetical. There are lots of links. The link that I find most interesting is this one. The point of this article--veterinarians may already have many of the answers we need to fight coronavirus due to they have been studying these infections for decades. Luckily, those who restrict our access to journal articles only seem to do it for human studies and have not (yet) applied this censorship to animal studies. I guess because they are targeting lay journalists who search for only human studies. Medical researchers will all have access to huge online libraries. This reminds me a bit of the of Catholic Church policy of only allowing members of the clergy to possess a Bible. It discourages free/creative thinking:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0a6d/2d51211b4ab745f0af000920a700cecbf820.pdf

Animal coronaviruses: what can they teach us about the severe acute respiratory syndrome?

Lessons a) Coronaviruses were long-recognised and studied by veterinary scientists as major causes of potentially fatal respiratory and enteric infections in animals. Moreover, such studies emphasised the potential of CoVs for interspecies transmission, but the medical research community was largely unaware of these findings or their implications for public health based on experiences with low impact human CoV infections. This knowledge base from research on animal CoVs contributed significantly to the rapid progress in the characterisation of SARS CoV and will enhance the future development and testing of vaccines and antivirals for SARS. b) Given that an estimated 75% of newly emerging pathogens in humans are zoonotic and based on experiences with SARS CoV, veterinary scientists are essential partners for disease control and public health management. Their input and assistance should involve the identification and management of animal reservoirs for newly emerged zoonotic pathogens.

[msongs]

10. as a physician do u charge your patients for services rendered? nt

[McCamy Taylor]

12. Actually no. I am in a public funded clinic.

I am never going back into for profit health care again. Wall Street is shameless.