Providentia

School in the Philippines Closed Due to "Evil Spirits"

Classes at an integrated school in the Philippines have been suspended after twenty students collapsed in class and began showing symptoms suggesting that they were possessed.    

According to one teacher at the Father Gratian Murray Integrated School in Bacolod City. the first incident occurred earlier this month when a female Grade Eight student collapsed in class and reportedly began speaking in a male voice.    After the student began rambling about a 2016 accident that occurred nearby, she was taken to a medical clinic and then to a chapel until her parents could take her home.   Three other girls began experiencing similar symptoms though classes continued as usual.

On the following day, a group of students who were praying the rosary at a school field also collapsed.  “Their bodies weakened, and they were hysterically shouting,” said head teacher Ariel Sablaon.   Following reports that the symptoms were due to demonic possession, the school principal called in a priest to see the affected children and determine whether an exorcism was needed.   After the priest dismissed possession claims, ten of the children were sent to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Barcolad for observation.

According to hospital psychologist, Dr. Joeanne Marie Jomalesa, the cause of the outbreak has still not been determined though she is not prepared to rule out mass hysteria.  "We have to verify it first because we don’t know if it’s related to a spiritual aspect or a psychiatric case. We need to get into the details first before we evaluate and proceed with the intervention phase wherein we can be able to talk to the students,” she said.  She also pointed out that cases of mass hysteria could often affect a group of persons  coping with unusual excitement or anxiety and trigger  irrational behavior, beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness.

Belief in demonic possession is widespread across much of the Philippines.   Similar outbreaks occurred in 2018 involving schools in the province of Cebu.  Apparently triggered by the sighting "black figure" on school grounds, students began collapsing with reports of violence and abdominal pain.  In 2017, Father Ambrosio Nonato Legaspi, chief exorcist of the Philippines, gave a public warning about "cursed rosaries" being distributes by  “Illuminati satanists” to entrap unsuspecting Catholics.   Similar alarms have also been raised about wearing Halloween costumes and other "potentially satanic" activities that could attract possession. 

 

 

The Life and Times of the Chevalier D'Eon

One of the most memorable figures of the eighteenth century must surely be the Chevalier Charles D'Eon(or Chevaliere Charlotte D'Eon as he became more famously known).

Born in Tonnerre, France in 1728 to a distinguished family, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée Éon de Beaumont completed his education in 1749 and began a diplomatic career. He also became a spy for King Louis XV and took part in an espionage mission to the Russian court.  As he would later claim in his memoirs,  he became a close associate of the then-Empress sice he happened to be posing as a woman at the time.   Years later, this time posing as the uncle of the woman he had previously pretended to be, he allegedly convinced the Empress to sign an important treaty with France. After returning from Russia in 1761, he became a military officer and fought in the Seven Years War.

When the war ended in 1763, along with a decoration for bravery, he also earned the rank of Chevalier and a position with the French embassy in London. As a favourite of English society, D'Eon was in a good position to remain in England after a quarrel with the new ambassador prevented him from returning to France. He took revenge by writing a best-selling book that scandalized the English and French courts and D'Eon lived in England as an exile for fourteen years.

Until the rumours started...

D'Eon's boyish appearance, absence of facial hair, and lack of interest in female companionship led to speculation that he was really a woman. Allegations concerning his gender arose in England and in France and with numerous wagers on the subject being placed on both sides of the English Channel. It was a trial in 1777 before Lord Mansfield that forced these rumours out into the open. The grounds for the trial were straightforward enough: a surgeon named Hayes had made a substantial bet with a broker over whether D'Eon was really a woman. While D'Eon was not directly involved, the humiliation caused by the trial led him to quit England and return to France. King Louis XV had died by this time and his successor, Louis XVI was less kindly disposed towards him. D'Eon was told on arriving in France that the King had issued a decree that he "should resume the dress of his sex"

The Chevalier took the King at his word and, for the rest of his life, dressed and behaved like a proper French lady (in addition to a pension, the King also provided D'Eon with funds for a new wardrobe). He later claimed that he had been born a girl but that his father had raised him as a boy to ensure an inheritance from his in-laws. In 1779, Chevaliere D'Eon (as he was then called), published his (probably ghostwritten) memoirs La Vie Militaire, politique, et privée de Mademoiselle d'Eon.

When the American Revolution broke out, D'Eon asked for permission to abandon his female dress and join the military but his offer was rebuffed. D'Eon returned to England in 1785 and stayed in London until his death in 1810. The French Revolution brought an end to the royal pension on which he had been living and he spent the last years of his life supporting himself by participating in fencing demonstrations (until an injury forced an end to his fencing career). His efforts to complete another autobiography never got past the planning stage and he died in poverty.

It was only when his body was laid out for burial that (as one contemporary writer described it): "death proved the folly of those who had forced him into petticoats; for his manhood was placed beyond all doubt by an anatomical examination of his body". Even though he had lived with a woman, Mrs. Mary Cole, for the last fifteen years of his life, she had never suspected that he was really a man. He is buried in St. Pancras Cemetery in London where his grave still attracts visitors.

Despite various attempts at attaching a proper diagnostic label to describe the Chevalier's gender-bending life, he continues to defy classification. His case gave rise to an early term for cross-dressing, eonism, although it is has since fallen into disuse. Was D'Eon a transvestite or something more? His absence of facial hair and effeminate features suggest that he may have been a intersexual although there is insufficient information to tell either way. So, much like James Barry with whom he has been often compared, the Chevalier D'Eon remains a mystery long after his death.

Perhaps that's the way that he would have wanted it.

The Kitty Genovese Murder

Kitty Genovese's murder on March 13, 1964 shocked the world.

While the 29-year old bar manager was returning to her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queen's, New York, she was brutally attacked and killed.  Her assailant, Winston Moseley, was a serial offender who would later confess to two other murders.  In describing the murder, the New York Times reported that thirty-eight of Genovese's neighbours had watched the killing but did nothing.  The Times article was quick to emphasize that "Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead."   Later investigations would show that very few of the thirty-eight neighbours who had heard some part of the attack were really aware of what was going on (many thought it was just a lovers' quarrel). Only one eyewitness would admit to even seeing a knife.

Still, the idea that Kitty Genovese's murder was fully observed by numerous neighbours who "didn't want to get involved" quickly took on a life of its own.  Public outrage against the "Bad Samaritans" who allegedly watched and did nothing was fierce.  One Times letter writer insisted that the names and addresses of the delinquent thirty-eight be published in the paper to expose them to the world.  The years following the Genovese murder and Moseley's conviction saw more than a thousand books, articles, plays, and several television movies based on the tragedy.  Headlines about the callous, unfeeling New Yorkers who ignored Kitty Genovese's dying screams led to wide-scale soul-searching over declining social values and the dangers of urban life.  

In a later critique of the Times coverage, Jim Rasenberger stressed that only six or seven people were actual eyewitnesses, not the thirty-eight that the Times originally claimed.  When the New York Times later came under fire for misrepresenting the actual facts of the murder, they stood by their version of events.  In a 2004 interview, Times editor, A. M. Rosenthal went on record as stating that "there may have been 38, there may have been 39, but the whole picture, as I saw it, was very affecting.”   Rosenthal also wrote his own book on the case titled Thirty-Eight Witnesses.  

Whatever the actual facts, a brutal murder did take place which had a profound impact on New York City life.  Publicity over the Genovese murder and other high-profile crimes helped spur the implementation of 911 as a universal help number by 1968.  Community activists responding to the murder also organized the first Neighbourhood Watch program, eventually leading to the formation of chapters across the country.  Political pressure later led to the passage of "bad samaritan" laws in some jurisdictions (with limited success). 

Academic psychologists took a keen interest in the murder and what it seemed to indicate about human nature. In 1968, social psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley launched a series of classic experiments investigating bystander intervention in emergencies.  Using New York University students, they varied experimental conditions under controlled circumstances to investigate factors that seemed to increase the likelihood of bystanders helping.  Simulated emergencies ranged from a theft to smoke filling the interview room to cries of distress from an adjoining room.  In a finding that they would later term the bystander effect, Darley and Latane found that individuals were slower to respond as the number of others that the participants thought were present increased.  Participants who were alone in a room during the simulated emergency were far more likely to respond and response time was significantly slower in groups ranging from two to six participants in size.  The only other factor that seemed to affect responding dealt with the size of the participant's home community, i.e., participants who grew up in large cities were less likely to respond than participants who grew up in smaller towns (make of that what you will).

Essentially, responsibility for acting in emergencies diminishes as more people are involved in the decision-making process (hence the term diffusion of responsibility). Latane and Darley suggested that people often looked to the people around them to see how they react to the emergency.  If other bystanders seem unconcerned, then people are less likely to react (their term for this was pluralistic ignorance).  Participants often found themselves in a classic approach-avoidance conflict (another of those pesky social psychology terms) in which they were torn between a desire to act  and not wanting to appear foolish by jumping to conclusions.  The researchers also proposed specific decision-making models to increase the likelihood of emergency responding:  notice the incident, interpret it as an emergency, decide on level of personal responsibility to intervene, carry out the required behaviour.  Variations on this model have since been incorporated into standard first-aid training classes

Despite the controversy surrounding the Latane-Darley findings, questions as to the actual prevalence of "bystander apathy", and the failure by later researchers to replicate these results consistently, the bystander effect has become one of the most well-recognized concepts in modern psychology.  As such, it has been taught to introductory psychology students ever since (myself included).  The spectre of Kitty Genovese is often invoked in newspaper accounts of similar crimes in which bystanders failed to intervene.  Latane and Darley documented several of these accounts in a 1970 book that they later wrote on their research.  

So, next time you're witnessing someone in danger, don't look to others for guidance.  Take the lead and, possibly, save a life.

The Effect of Disaster Trauma on Smoking

Natural disasters increase nicotine dependence and cigarette consumption, but the exact mechanisms and conditions responsible for this increase are relatively unclear. A study recently published in the journal Addictive Behaviors explored whether posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms were pathways to increased nicotine dependence and cigarette consumption after disaster exposure using a representative sample of current smokers who were living in New Orleans at the time Hurricane Katrina struck (n = 175), and a comparison sample of smokers from Memphis (n = 222) who were not directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Researchers assessed whether nicotine dependence and daily cigarette consumption differed by city and evaluated potential mediators and moderators of this association using conditional process analysis. Results showed that though nicotine dependence (B = 0.46, SE = 0.20, p = .02) and average daily cigarette consumption (B = 2.19, SE = 0.80, p = .01) were higher among New Orleans than Memphis smokers 27 months after Hurricane Katrina, hurricane exposure did not indirectly affect nicotine dependence and average daily cigarette consumption through increases in posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. Smokers who are exposed to disasters may not be increasing their cigarette use and their dependency on nicotine because of post-disaster psychological distress. Future studies should investigate other mechanisms and conditions to explain post-disaster changes in smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Breaking the Silence on "Period Poverty"

" Pain is a big part of women’s lives. We are not comfortable articulating to a doctor — we can’t even say the word “vagina” — and a lot of us end up suffering in silence. There are many myths and straight-up wrong information about periods. People are very superstitious. It’s really important, I think, for us to first of all, break the silence. This “hush-hush” attitude to female reproductive health is dangerous. If we are able to talk openly, there are a lot of benefits. Your quality of life is improved. The silence stops you from getting help."   Shelly-Ann Weeks

Among Jamaican women, the very subject of menstruation and just about everything else associated with reproductive health remains taboo to talk about openly.   This is something that Shelley-Ann Weeks (also known as "Dr. Sexy-Ann" on social media) is trying to change.  As the executive director of the Her Flow Foundation, a non-profit organization opposing stigma and shame associated with menstruation, she has become outspoken in her fight against the "period poverty"  that is undermining the health of countless Jamaican woman.

"One girl told me she was able to make one menstrual pad last five days, "  she said in a recent media interview. "I am not often speechless, but that shocked me! I thought, “Okay, I am going to get this girl some pads!” Talking to women while I was writing my first book, I realized so many have problems affording the products they need every month. And for the woman who has daughters, she literally has to choose between buying them pads and feeding them...I realised that internationally there is a conversation going on around period poverty…the need is much greater than I had thought. I wanted to create a space where women could get access to pads free of cost, no questions asked. Because it’s a dignity issue as well."

According to Weeks, the problem is hard for women to deal with because of the sheer amount of misinformation and taboos surrounding female reproduction.  As for the chief cause for this rigid taboo, Weeks has no trouble naming the prime culprit:  " A lot of Jamaicans’ feelings about female reproductive health — or even the rules about what women are allowed or not allowed to do — come from religion. And in Jamaica, that’s Christianity. If you think about the way the Bible talks about periods, the word ‘unclean’ comes up a lot. Even some Rastafarians in Jamaica actually do believe that a woman should be shut away and not allowed to come out until her period blood has been passed. Girls are taught to wash their underwear as soon as they remove it and not to let anyone know that she’s on her period. She needs to keep it to herself. Men and women are taught this way. But women push it more than men do."   

While many school counselors and teachers support Weeks' crusade and encourage teens to read her book, she also admits that much of the resistance comes from parents, especially the mothers.  But Weeks and her fellow activists are  continuing to put out the message through social media, interviews on radio and television, and live presentations.    She also has a full calendar for the months to come:

"In September, in partnership with Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, we are planning a Live Safe college tour of 20 community and teachers’ colleges where we will offer free STD and HIV tests, period education sessions, condom distribution and more.

October is our Period Awareness Month. On Period Awareness Day, October 24, we will seek to spark a national conversation to seriously address the stigma and shame associated with menstruation through public awareness events. Our second Healthy Pelvis Conference on October 27 will address a range of female reproductive health issues.

In November, we are planning a Period Conference to help parents, guardians, and children. Men, especially fathers, will be encouraged to attend and participate."  

But period poverty is hardly limited to Jamaica.  The cultural shame attached to menstruation is a common feature in many world religions and cultures around the world continue to  impose rigid restrictions on women as a result.    In developing countries, women often have difficulty gaining access to sanitary products or even adequate handwashing facilities.  For that matter, bizarre examples of barriers faced by women dealing with menstruation can be found even in many industrialized nations.   In the United States, for example, federal prisons only made sanitary products free to female prisoners in 2018.   Even public use of the word "vagina" by elected officials has led to formal censure in at least one prominent episode.  

While the fight against period poverty continues to be an uphill battle, crusaders such as Shelley-Ann Weeks remain encouraged by the support they receive.    It's a good start.

The Last Alchemist

Alchemy has a very long history.

First believed to have been practiced in Ancient Persia, the ancient dream of endless wealth and immortality has enticed practitioners for thousands of years. While attempts to transmute lead into gold or create the elixir of life have always ended in failure, the lure was enough to entice famous scientists such as Roger Bacon, Tycho Brahe and Isaac Newton to give it a try. Still, by the 18th century, there was enough skepticism for alchemy to be dismissed as a fantasy by the scientific community.

Which brings us to James Price...

Born in 1752, his original name was actually Higginbotham but he changed it to Price when a wealthy relative left him a legacy. After distinguishing himself at Oxford by earning various degrees, he became a member of the Royal Society at the age of 29. Although Price seemed set for an eminent career in science, he began to concentrate a more unconventional line of research: transmuting base metals into precious metals (particularly turning mercury into gold).  Which was a pity, since, as I've already mentioned, whatever respect alchemists claimed in previous centuries had long since evaporated by Price's time.

After telling a few of his friends that he had been successful in his strange research, Price became the subject of some fearful whispering among fellow chemists. It was this public skepticism that caused Price to begin a series of public demonstrations of his transmutation process. The process centered on a special "powder of production" that could transform mercury and other base metals into gold or silver "under special circumstances". He conducted seven public experiments beginning on on May 6, 1782 and ended on May 25th. With various peers, baronets, clergymen and chemists in attendance, Price mixed borax, nitre, mercury, and other assorted chemicals and produced small amounts of gold and silver that he later presented to King George III.

The initial reaction was certainly positive. Oxford University bestowed a Doctor of Medicine degree on Price and there was tremendous demand for the written account of his experiments. Anyone remembering the cold fusion debacle a few years back can appreciate the tremendous enthusiasm resulting from the news of Price's discovery. The notion of endless wealth being produced for England through alchemy was certainly intoxicating (setting aside the fact that gold was mainly valuable because it was scarce). Since James Price was a respected and wealthy scientist who came from a distinguished family, the possibility that he might have faked his results seemed unthinkable.

Unfortunately for Price, the Royal Society remained skeptical.They insisted that Price repeat his experiments under controlled conditions to rule out the possibility of error. Price's hesitation made them even more suspicious. He attempted to downplay his earlier success and insisted that his powder of production was too expensive to make in large quantities. He added that the process of creating gold wasn't as cost-effective as he had previously assumed and that the cost of ingredients was greater than the cost of the gold produced. While his experiments were of scientific value, Price insisted that there would be no point in repeating them.

The president of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks, flatly told Price that his scientific reputation was at stake as well as the reputation of the Royal Society itself.   Price, in return, began to insist that he was the victim of persecution and that his reputation should rule out any thought of deceit. By then, even Price's friends had become distressed by his refusal and finally persuaded him to produce more of his powder of production for the Royal Society to examine. He left London in January, 1783 and returned to his Guildford laboratory. Although he had promised to return in a month, nothing more was heard from him for six months when he finally returned to London. Inviting as many members of the Royal Society as he could to his Guildford laboratory, he arranged for a demonstration on August 3rd of that same year.

Price's reputation had already been damaged by his long delay and even most of his friends had deserted him by the time of his demonstration. That only three members of the Royal Society showed up on August 3rd probably told Price all he needed to know. After greeting his guests cordially, he stepped away from them and drank a vial of what would later turn out to be laurel water. When he began to collapse, his visitors tried to help him but it was too late.  Before they could arrange for medical attention, James Price was dead.

An investigation would later find that Price had recently written his last will and testament and wrapped up his affairs before calling for the demonstration. Despite intense speculation over why Price had staked his professional reputation (and his life) on his strange fixation with alchemy, no real explanation was ever found. It's probably likely that he had deceived himself into believing that he was successful and, little by little, resorted to deception to avoid disgrace. Suicide may have been the only solution for the mess that he had created for himself.

James Price's suicide marked the end of alchemy in the United Kingdom (though it lingered on in other parts of the world). His sad fate represents an object lesson in how easy it is to be seduced by the prospect of fame and fortune as well as how hard it is to admit that you're wrong. Too many other would-be discoverers have learned this the hard way.

The Man Who Had Visions

It's hard to think of the right word to describe Emmanuel Swedenborg.  Complex doesn't even come close.

Born in 1688, Swedenborg's father was a bishop who often claimed to see spirits and made claims of miraculous cures (he also did exorcisms). His religious upbringing didn't prevent Emmanuel Swedenborg from traveling extensively and immersing himself in the natural sciences.  Despite a stuttering problem that made him extremely reluctant to speak in public, he devoted the next two decades of his life to projects in astronomy, physics, and mineralogy including various attempts to reconcile philosophy and the physical sciences (he even proposed early versions of a flying machine and a submarine). After turning down an appointment as professor of mathematics at Uppsala University (his stuttering made the idea of public lectures unthinkable), he turned to the life sciences in 1736.

Traveling to medical centres in France and Italy, he went on to do extensive research in anatomy and physiology. It was Swedenborg who first proposed that the cerebral cortex could be divided into specific regions that controlled different parts of the body. These specialized "cortical territories" were highly interconnected and enable the brain to function as a coherent whole. He also identified the role of cortical region at the back of the frontal lobes in voluntary muscle control, and even suggested that the frontal lobes of the brain were linked to intellectual functions (including imagination, memory, and thought).

Although many of Swedenborg's discoveries were revolutionary, the mainstream medical community in other countries didn't really become aware of them until the late 19th century (his treatises on the brain weren't fully translated for decades). By then, most of his astounding discoveries had been made by other researchers working independently. His lack of an academic post worked against him as well but Swedenborg might still have become one of the pioneers of medical science if he had persisted in his research. Unfortunately, all of his scientific activities had ended by 1743.

Which was when the visions started...

While he had been a religious man all his life,  Swedenborg was fifty-five when first began experiencing a strange spiritual crisis. After taking a leave of absence from his research and traveling to the Netherlands, he was haunted by strange dreams that he faithfully recorded in his journal. In one story that was often retold years later, Swedenborg was eating in a London tavern when "a darkness fell upon his eyes and the room shifted character. Suddenly he saw a person sitting at a corner of the room, telling him: "Do not eat too much!".  Frightened by what happened, he hurried home. Later that night, the same man appeared in his dreams. The man told Swedenborg that He was the Lord, that He had appointed Swedenborg to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write.  He reportedly became so agitated that the physician who was treating him had six men guard him as he slept.

After arranging for a government pension to support him, Swedenborg devoted himself to his strange visions and the religious books that he wrote based on what he experienced (and which he later claimed were dictated to him by an angel). He spent the remaining years of his life traveling between London, Stockholm, and the Netherlands and wrote fourteen books on various spiritual topics. The visions that he described took him from Heaven to Hell and across the solar system (and meeting the inhabitants he found there). Most of his works were published during his lifetime and he quickly developed a reputation as a mystic (or a lunatic depending on who you asked).His books were remarkably consistent and his descriptions of the nature of Heaven, Hell and the universe has had a tremendous influence over the years. Although some of Swedenborg's writings were bizarre (he claimed that the moon was inhabited by a race of creatures who spoke through their stomachs), his sincere manner and reputed psychic ability won over many doubters. Other critics were more skeptical (Immanuel Kant wrote that Swedenborg should be in a madhouse and two of his supporters were tried for heresy in Sweden), but Swedenborg's crusade continued.

The bulk of his spiritual writings focused on God's plan to initiate His kingdom on earth but he denied that anything he wrote was theological (they were based on his personal experiences after all). In later years, Swedenborg became increasingly deranged and lived on a diet of milk and bread. Evil spirits continually harassed him with temptations although he was comforted and protected by good spirits. Although  already a lifelong bachelor, he became so frightened of women that he would never see them alone. By the time of his death in 1772, Swedenborg was one of the most well-known mystical writers of his time and his works have since been translated into numerous languages. His works inspired later writers including William Blake, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Henry James Senior (father of William and Henry James), and Carl Jung.  Swedenborg's supporters founded the New Jerusalem Church in 1778 (a branch in the United States was founded in 1792). Despite the inevitable schisms over interpretations of his writings, he still has a devoted following and the Swedenborg Society (founded in 1810) is actively engaged in disseminating his works.

The question of why an accomplished scientist like Swedenborg made such an abrupt change in his later life from science to mysticism has baffled later writers and researchers. While it's tempting to link Swedenborg's experiences to the mystical visions and religious grandiosity often experienced by schizophrenics and patients with certain neurological conditions, the available evidence doesn't really indicate a clear diagnosis. If there was a neurological basis to these visions, then it would be especially ironic that it would occur in someone who might well have become one of the great pioneers in brain research had his life not take such a strange direction.

Understanding Troll Personalities

The sub-clinical personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and everyday sadism (i.e., the dark triad/tetrad) are known to predict subversive behaviours. Given increases in the prevalence of social media and internet use, and the growing knowledge about the negative consequences of their use, it is important to understand how these traits relate to online behaviours. A recent article in Personality and Individual Differences presents a systematic review of the evidence for these relationships and found 26 studies which reveal these traits are related to trolling, cyber-aggression, cyber-loafing, sending unsolicited explicit images, the non-consensual dissemination of ‘sexts’, cyberbullying, problematic social media usage, problematic online gaming, problematic internet use, internet-use disorder, social media addiction, intimate partner cyberstalking, technology facilitated sexual violence, and technology facilitated infidelity. The review revealed evidence that psychopathy is the trait most strongly associated with these behaviours - Machiavellianism and everyday sadism were also consistently related to these behaviours, albeit to a lesser degree. Narcissism is the trait least consistently related to antisocial online behaviours. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Scientists Challenge Social Media Giants to help Combat Vaccine Misinformation to End "Unnecessary Crisis"

In the wake of massive anti-vaccination campaigns being waged around the world, the World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as a major public health issue jeopardizing countless lives.  Recognizing the role that social media sites play in spreading vaccine misinformation, a group of global scientists are calling on companies such as Google and Facebook to help spread the word about vaccine safety.    A recent issues of the  Journal of Health Communication has published the Salzburg Statement on Vaccination Acceptance outlining the major health benefits resulting from vaccine use internationally.  This includes the total eradication of diseases such as smallpox as well as the millions of lives being saved yearly through vaccination campaigns intended to control Hepatitis B, meningitis, measles, and polio.   Not only is vaccination saving lives but it also makes good economic sense given that every dollar spent on vaccination is repaid many times over in reduced demand on health care services, lost time from work, and overall health improvement in most populations.

But the rising incidence of vaccine hesitancy threatens to reverse many of these gains.   In 2017 alone, 110,000 people around the world died of measles, an otherwise preventable disease.   And most of these deaths occurred in children younger than five years of age.   In that same year, measles vaccinations across European nations fell below the 95 percent threshold needed to maintain herd immunity.  As a result, measles cases have surged across much of Europe with dozens of children having died already.

"We are alarmed that the WHO this year declared vaccine hesitancy a top-ten international public health problem," says Scott Ratzan, founding editor of the Journal of Health Communication, in a recent news release.  "This is a man-made, dangerous and wholly unnecessary crisis." 

In the United States, measles outbreaks have occurred in eleven states with more than one thousand measles cases being reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   Though the United Nations has already implicated vaccine-averse parents in the crisis, finding real solutions continues to be a challenge.    

Meanwhile, Facebook groups such as  Stop Mandatory Vaccinations continue to share inflammatory posts outlining perceived dangers of vaccines, including videos from parents blaming vaccines for health problems in their children.  Such groups mainly serve as an "echo chamber" to help anti-vaccine advocates collect more false stories about vaccines to bolster their arguments.   That many of these stories are exaggerated and most studies finding health problems in vaccines have been discredited hardly seems to matter to the anti-vaccine lobby.   While Facebook has already told media interviewers that it is fighting misinformation, little has been done to date.    Other platforms, including  Pinterest, and YouTube, have already acted to censure people knowingly spreading misinformation,

Though the anti-vaccine campaigns will likely continue, medical authorities and social media companies are doing what they can to ensure the actual facts about vaccination are getting out.    Ultimately, every social media user  needs to be skeptical about any new information they hear and be certain about the facts before passing it on to others.   

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"The Worst Woman on Earth"

Despite the controversy over Lizzie Borden's acquittal in 1893,  her supporters continued to defend her by insisting that a woman couldn't possibly by guilty of a brutal axe murder.   So, there has to be a certain irony that another Lizzie would be arrested that same year for crimes even more gruesome than the crimes Borden supposedly committed.   And there would be absolutely no doubt that this other Lizzie was guilty as charged.

Born in 1859 in Ireland under the name Eliza Margaret McNally,  the early childhood of the woman most commonly known as Lizzie Halliday seemed ordinary enough.  After she and her family emigrated to the United States when she was a small child, she would marry her first husband at the age of twenty but, as later events would soon prove, Lizzie didn't have a lot of luck with marriage.   Or with motherhood considering that her only child, a son born to her first husband, was reportedly born "feeble minded".    Not one to let herself be tied down; Lizzy had her son committed to a state institution as soon as her husband died of "natural causes."  

Lizzie's next two marriages scarcely merit mentioning, aside from the fact that her husbands either died or disappeared not long after Lizzie married them.   That all of her husbands were older men with generous military pensions didn't seem as remarkable as the fact that she managed to go through five marriages by the time she reached her late twenties, sometimes being married to more than one husband at a time.   That she was able to marry so often wasn't nearly as remarkable as the fact that she could find willing candidates considering the stories that came out about how Lizzie treated her various husbands, including allegations of verbal and physical abuse.

Remarkably though, her fourth husband, George Smith, was lucky enough to survive after Lizzie tried to poison him with arsenic.  When the murder attempt was exposed, Lizzie promptly fled to Vermont and managed to marry a fifth husband, this time someone closer to her own age.  Whatever her reasons for marrying this new man, she disappeared once more after only two weeks of wedded bliss.

Lizzie finally surfaced again in 1888, this time with her son in tow (he had recently been released from the institution).   She stayed for a time in New York with a childhood friend, Margaret McQuinlan (this name will be important later).   She then moved to Philadelphia without her son, and  rented a store with its own apartment until a devastating fire destroyed her building and the buildings on both sides.  After an investigation, Lizzie was promptly convicted of fraud and arson and spent two years in Eastern State Penitentiary.   Lizzie being Lizzie, she managed to marry yet another elderly admirer not long after her release in 1891.

Paul Halliday, her newest husband (number six, in case you lost count), was in his seventies when he married Lizzie and already had two sons from his first marriage.   While his first son was married and living on his own, the second son was a life-long invalid and, as such, needed to live with his father and new wife.   If Lizzie objected to being a nursemaid to this stepson, she didn't say anything.    Instead, the family home went up in flames soon afterward and the disabled son died in the fire.  Nobody suspected arson despite Lizzie's colourful history and the Hallidays simply moved to another house.   But if Paul Halliday was hoping for some domestic bliss to ease the pain of losing his son, he would be sadly mistaken.    

When he was reported missing in 1893, police became suspicious enough to search the house where he had been living with Lizzie.    While they eventually found the body of the unfortunate Mr. Halliday, they also found two other bodies buried in the born.    They were identified as Lizzie's old friend, Margaret McQuinlan, and her daughter, Sarah.   Both women had both gone missing some time previously and police were still searching for them when their bodies were discovered.   A coroner determined that Paul Halliday had been mutilated and shot at least twice while both McQuinlans had also been shot repeatedly.    To make things even more macabre, a fourth body was discovered on the property, this one belonging to a local peddler who had also gone missing.    Lizzie Halliday was charged with four murders and police also started taking a closer look at the other "convenient" deaths that had occurred in her past.

Even as Lizzie was waiting for trial, she needed regular police protection to prevent her from being lynched by people who had known the Hallidays and the McQuinlans.   In the meantime, Lizzie, well aware that an insanity defense was her only hope,  did her best to convince everyone that she was quite insane.  This included ranting and raving in her cell, refusing to take care of herself, and letting her hair grown disheveled and matted.   She also tried cutting her own throat and hanging herself with a rope she managed to find someplace.   The sheriff, who had grown tired of her antics, had her chained to the floor in her cell but Lizzie simply switched to starving herself instead.   To ensure that she lived long enough to stand trial, the court ordered her to be force-fed.

But Lizzie wasn't just suspected of the murders for which she had been charged.   Since she was known to have been in Europe in 1888 when the Whitechapel Murders were taking place and had mentioned them while she was raving, at least a few newspapers began openly speculating that Lizzie might actually be Jack the Ripper.   While the sheriff even went so far as to ask Lizzie whether she had committed those crimes, she simply replied that the murders had been done by a man and, lacking any real evidence,  nothing more came of it.   

As for Lizzie's trial, which began on June 18, 1894, it proved to be quite a spectacle.   Lizzie insisted that she wasn't guilty and that murders had actually been committed by a band of "gypsy-like brigands" who preyed on peddlers and other travelers so they could steal their possessions.   She also insisted that these brigands had drugged her and forced her to watch her husband's murder.  Despite some speculation that Lizzie may have been part of a "gipsy gang" that had committed the murders she had arranged, all of the evidence from her trial showed that she had acted alone. 

According to witnesses, Lizzie had lured Margaret McQuinlan from her home by asking for her help in cleaning a large boarding house she would be running.   Margaret's husband testified that Lizzie returned to the McQuinlan home and told them that Margaret had fallen ill and needed Sarah to help care for her.   Neither women was ever seen alive again after leaving with her.  As well, personal property belonging to both McQuinlans was found in Lizzie's home by police.

With all the evidence presented in court, it didn't take long for a jury to decide that Lizzie was guilty, and, on June 27, she was sentenced to be executed.     As it happened, she took this news rather hard and, as she was being led out of the courtroom, bit the sheriff escorting her so badly that he developed a serious infection due to the bite.   Stories vary on whether he died or simply lost his arm due to infection, but, either way, this was one crime for which Lizzie was never charged.

While the original plan was for Lizzie to be sent to the electric chair (which would have made her the first woman to be executed this way), a last-minute plea for clemency to then-Governor Roswell Flower succeeded and she was instead sent to the Mattewean Prison for the Criminally Insane (now the Fishkill Correctional Facility).    But Lizzie was still as dangerous as ever and even her fellow inmates avoided her.   In one graphic incident just a few years later, she attacked an attendant that she felt had treated her badly and, with the help of another inmate almost as crazy as Lizzie, left the attendant unconscious and badly scratched by the time of her rescue.   The attendant, Catherine Ward, managed to recover (presumably Lizzie didn't bite this one.)

But there was an even grimmer incident that occurred in 1906.   A 24-year-old nurse named Nellie Wicks had recently been promoted to the head of the unit where Lizzie was being housed.   Not only was Nurse Wicks exceptionally kind, but she also gave Lizzie special privileges which she appreciated.   In return,  Lizzie developed a maternal affection for the young nurse.   Unfortunately, this changed rapidly when Nurse Wicks announced that she would be leaving Mattewean and her patients.   According to one new story, she was planning to return to school to continue her nursing training and Lizzie, furious at losing her, insisted that she stay.    Nellie Wicks' refusal apparently upset Lizzie greatly and she began muttering threats that other inmates reported to staff.   Even the superintendent heard about the threats but, given that Lizzie had been problem-free for years, decided that the threats weren't serious. 

Big mistake.

On October 21, 1906, Lizzie followed Nurse Wicks as she was walking through Lizzie's ward as usual when Lizzie, grabbing the nurse's keys out of her hand, used them to lock them both inside a bathroom.   There Lizzie attacked Nurse Wicks and, using a pair of scissors that she had somehow managed to acquire, then proceeded to stab Nellie Wicks repeatedly.   By the time staff realized that something was wrong and broke down the door, Lizzie had managed to stab the hapless nurse two hundred times.   

Even after staff tried to pull her away from her victim, she responded by attacking them instead.   Her violence only ended after she was wrestled to the floor, but it was too late for Nellie Wicks.   She died minutes later despite all the medical treatment the doctors could provide.  As for Lizzie, she was placed in solitary confinement once again and there she would remain until her death on June 28, 1918.  Ironically, her stepson Paul, the only member of the Halliday family that Lizzie hadn't killed, died just a year later.   

According to Lizzie's obituary (which referred to her as the "worst woman on Earth"), she was known to have killed at least five people but likely killed many more, including various husbands.   While she could technically be classified as a serial killer, all of her murders had been for profit, aside from the death of Nellie Wicks,  and she lacked the psychosexual features seen in many male serial killers.  As for why she resorted to murder, one of her many newspaper obituaries may have described her motivation best of all:   she was "born with the desire to kill."