title: Chickenpox

text: Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease caused by the initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV). The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which eventually scab over. It usually starts on the chest, back, and face. It then spreads to the rest of the body. The rash and other symptoms, such as fever, tiredness, and headaches, usually last five to seven days. Complications may occasionally include pneumonia, inflammation of the brain, and bacterial skin infections. The disease is usually more severe in adults than in children.


title: Chickenpox

text: Chickenpox is an airborne disease which spreads easily from one person to the next through the coughs and sneezes of an infected person. The incubation period is 10–21 days, after which the characteristic rash appears. It may be spread from one to two days before the rash appears until all lesions have crusted over. It may also spread through contact with the blisters. Those with shingles may spread chickenpox to those who are not immune through contact with the blisters. The disease can usually be diagnosed based on the presenting symptom; however, in unusual cases it may be confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of the blister fluid or scabs. Testing for antibodies may be done to determine if a person is immune. People usually only get chickenpox once. Although reinfections by the virus occur, these reinfections usually do not cause any symptoms.


title: Chickenpox

text: Since its introduction in 1995, the varicella vaccine has resulted in a decrease in the number of cases and complications from the disease. It protects about 70–90 percent of people from disease with a greater benefit for severe disease. Routine immunization of children is recommended in many countries. Immunization within three days of exposure may improve outcomes in children. Treatment of those infected may include calamine lotion to help with itching, keeping the fingernails short to decrease injury from scratching, and the use of paracetamol (acetaminophen) to help with fevers. For those at increased risk of complications, antiviral medication such as aciclovir are recommended.


title: Chickenpox

text: Chickenpox occurs in all parts of the world. In 2013 there were 140 million cases of chickenpox and shingles worldwide. Before routine immunization the number of cases occurring each year was similar to the number of people born. Since immunization the number of infections in the United States has decreased nearly 90%. In 2015 chickenpox resulted in 6,400 deaths globally – down from 8,900 in 1990. Death occurs in about 1 per 60,000 cases. Chickenpox was not separated from smallpox until the late 19th century. In 1888 its connection to shingles was determined. The first documented use of the term "chicken pox" was in 1658. Various explanations have been suggested for the use of "chicken" in the name, one being the relative mildness of the disease.


title: Chickenpox

text: The early (prodromal) symptoms in adolescents and adults are nausea, loss of appetite, aching muscles, and headache. This is followed by the characteristic rash or oral sores, malaise, and a low-grade fever that signal the presence of the disease. Oral manifestations of the disease (enanthem) not uncommonly may precede the external rash (exanthem). In children the illness is not usually preceded by prodromal symptoms, and the first sign is the rash or the spots in the oral cavity. The rash begins as small red dots on the face, scalp, torso, upper arms and legs; progressing over 10–12 hours to small bumps, blisters and pustules; followed by umbilication and the formation of scabs.


title: Chickenpox

text: At the blister stage, intense itching is usually present. Blisters may also occur on the palms, soles, and genital area. Commonly, visible evidence of the disease develops in the oral cavity and tonsil areas in the form of small ulcers which can be painful or itchy or both; this enanthem (internal rash) can precede the exanthem (external rash) by 1 to 3 days or can be concurrent. These symptoms of chickenpox appear 10 to 21 days after exposure to a contagious person. Adults may have a more widespread rash and longer fever, and they are more likely to experience complications, such as varicella pneumonia.


title: Chickenpox

text: Because watery nasal discharge containing live virus usually precedes both exanthem (external rash) and enanthem (oral ulcers) by 1 to 2 days, the infected person actually becomes contagious one to two days before recognition of the disease. Contagiousness persists until all vesicular lesions have become dry crusts (scabs), which usually entails four or five days, by which time nasal shedding of live virus ceases. The condition usually resolves by itself within a week or two. The rash may, however, last for up to one month.


title: Chickenpox

text: Chickenpox is rarely fatal, although it is generally more severe in adult men than in women or children. Non-immune pregnant women and those with a suppressed immune system are at highest risk of serious complications. Arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) associated with chickenpox in the previous year accounts for nearly one third of childhood AIS. The most common late complication of chickenpox is shingles (herpes zoster), caused by reactivation of the "varicella zoster" virus decades after the initial, often childhood, chickenpox infection.


title: Chickenpox

text: During pregnancy the dangers to the fetus associated with a primary VZV infection are greater in the first six months. In the third trimester, the mother is more likely to have severe symptoms.


title: Chickenpox

text: For pregnant women, antibodies produced as a result of immunization or previous infection are transferred via the placenta to the fetus.


title: Chickenpox

text: Varicella infection in pregnant women could lead to spread via the placenta and infection of the fetus. If infection occurs during the first 28 weeks of gestation, this can lead to fetal varicella syndrome (also known as "congenital varicella syndrome"). Effects on the fetus can range in severity from underdeveloped toes and fingers to severe anal and bladder malformation. Possible problems include:


title: Chickenpox

text: Infection late in gestation or immediately following birth is referred to as ""neonatal varicella"". Maternal infection is associated with premature delivery. The risk of the baby developing the disease is greatest following exposure to infection in the period 7 days before delivery and up to 8 days following the birth. The baby may also be exposed to the virus via infectious siblings or other contacts, but this is of less concern if the mother is immune. Newborns who develop symptoms are at a high risk of pneumonia and other serious complications of the disease.


title: Chickenpox

text: Exposure to VZV in a healthy child initiates the production of host immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin M (IgM), and immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies; IgG antibodies persist for life and confer immunity. Cell-mediated immune responses are also important in limiting the scope and the duration of primary varicella infection. After primary infection, VZV is hypothesized to spread from mucosal and epidermal lesions to local sensory nerves. VZV then remains latent in the dorsal ganglion cells of the sensory nerves. Reactivation of VZV results in the clinically distinct syndrome of herpes zoster (i.e., "shingles"), postherpetic neuralgia, and sometimes Ramsay Hunt syndrome type II. Varicella zoster can affect the arteries in the neck and head, producing stroke, either during childhood, or after a latency period of many years.


title: Chickenpox

text: After a chickenpox infection, the virus remains dormant in the body's nerve tissues for about 50 years. This, however, does not mean that VZV cannot be contracted later in life. The immune system usually keeps the virus at bay, however it can still manifest itself at any given age between 1 and 60, causing a different form of the viral infection called shingles (also known as herpes zoster). Since the human immune system efficacy decreases with age, the United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) suggests that every adult over the age of 50 years get the "herpes zoster" vaccine.


title: Chickenpox

text: Shingles affects one in five adults infected with chickenpox as children, especially those who are immune-suppressed, particularly from cancer, HIV, or other conditions. Stress can bring on shingles as well, although scientists are still researching the connection. Adults over the age of 60 who had chickenpox but not shingles are the most prone age demographic.


title: Chickenpox

text: The diagnosis of chickenpox is primarily based on the signs and symptoms, with typical early symptoms followed by a characteristic rash. Confirmation of the diagnosis is by examination of the fluid within the vesicles of the rash, or by testing blood for evidence of an acute immunologic response.


title: Chickenpox

text: Vesicular fluid can be examined with a Tzanck smear, or by testing for direct fluorescent antibody. The fluid can also be "cultured", whereby attempts are made to grow the virus from a fluid sample. Blood tests can be used to identify a response to acute infection (IgM) or previous infection and subsequent immunity (IgG).


title: Chickenpox

text: Prenatal diagnosis of fetal varicella infection can be performed using ultrasound, though a delay of 5 weeks following primary maternal infection is advised. A PCR (DNA) test of the mother's amniotic fluid can also be performed, though the risk of spontaneous abortion due to the amniocentesis procedure is higher than the risk of the baby's developing fetal varicella syndrome.


title: Chickenpox

text: The spread of chickenpox can be prevented by isolating affected individuals. Contagion is by exposure to respiratory droplets, or direct contact with lesions, within a period lasting from three days before the onset of the rash, to four days after the onset of the rash. The chickenpox virus is susceptible to disinfectants, notably chlorine bleach (i.e., sodium hypochlorite). Like all enveloped viruses, it is sensitive to drying, heat and detergents.


title: Chickenpox

text: Chickenpox can be prevented by vaccination. The side effects are usually mild, such as some pain or swelling at the injection site.


title: Chickenpox

text: A live attenuated varicella vaccine, the Oka strain, was developed by Michiaki Takahashi and his colleagues in Japan in the early 1970s. In 1981, Merck & Co. licensed the "Oka" strain of the varicella virus in the United States, and Maurice Hilleman's team at Merck invented a varicella vaccine in the same year.


title: Chickenpox

text: The varicella vaccine is recommended in many countries. Some countries require the varicella vaccination or an exemption before entering elementary school. A second dose is recommended five years after the initial immunization. A vaccinated person is likely to have a milder case of chickenpox if they become infected. Immunization within three days following household contact reduces infection rates and severity in children. Being exposed to chickenpox as an adult (for example, through contact with infected children) may boost immunity to shingles. So it was thought, that when the majority of children are vaccinated against chickenpox, adults might lose this natural boosting, so immunity would drop and more shingles cases would occur. On the other hand, current observations suggest that exposure to children with varicella is not a critical factor in the maintenance of immunity. Multiple subclinical reactivations of varicella zoster virus may occur spontaneously and, despite not causing clinical disease, may still provide an endogenous boost to immunity against zoster.


title: Chickenpox

text: It is part of the routine immunization schedule in the US. Some European countries include it as part of universal vaccinations in children, but not all countries provide the vaccine. In the UK as of 2014, the vaccine is only recommended in people who are particularly vulnerable to chickenpox. This is to keep the virus in circulation thereby exposing the population to the virus at an early age, when it is less harmful, and to reduce the occurrence of shingles in those who have already had chickenpox by repeated exposure to the virus later in life. In populations that have not been immunized or if immunity is questionable, a clinician may order an enzyme immunoassay. An immunoassay measures the levels of antibodies against the virus that give immunity to a person. If the levels of antibodies are low (low titer) or questionable, reimmunization may be done.


title: Chickenpox

text: Treatment mainly consists of easing the symptoms. As a protective measure, people are usually required to stay at home while they are infectious to avoid spreading the disease to others. Cutting the fingernails short or wearing gloves may prevent scratching and minimize the risk of secondary infections.


title: Chickenpox

text: Although there have been no formal clinical studies evaluating the effectiveness of topical application of calamine lotion (a topical barrier preparation containing zinc oxide, and one of the most commonly used interventions), it has an excellent safety profile. Maintaining good hygiene and daily cleaning of skin with warm water can help to avoid secondary bacterial infection; scratching may increase the risk of secondary infection.


title: Chickenpox

text: Paracetamol (acetaminophen) but not aspirin may be used to reduce fever. Aspirin use by someone with chickenpox may cause serious, sometimes fatal disease of the liver and brain, Reye syndrome. People at risk of developing severe complications who have had significant exposure to the virus may be given intra-muscular varicella zoster immune globulin (VZIG), a preparation containing high titres of antibodies to varicella zoster virus, to ward off the disease.


title: Chickenpox

text: If aciclovir by mouth is started within 24 hours of rash onset, it decreases symptoms by one day but has no effect on complication rates. Use of aciclovir therefore is not currently recommended for individuals with normal immune function. Children younger than 12 years old and older than one month are not meant to receive antiviral drugs unless they have another medical condition which puts them at risk of developing complications.


title: Chickenpox

text: Treatment of chickenpox in children is aimed at symptoms while the immune system deals with the virus. With children younger than 12 years, cutting fingernails and keeping them clean is an important part of treatment as they are more likely to scratch their blisters more deeply than adults.


title: Chickenpox

text: Aspirin is highly contraindicated in children younger than 16 years, as it has been related to Reye syndrome.


title: Chickenpox

text: Infection in otherwise healthy adults tends to be more severe. Treatment with antiviral drugs (e.g. aciclovir or valaciclovir) is generally advised, as long as it is started within 24–48 hours from rash onset. Remedies to ease the symptoms of chickenpox in adults are basically the same as those used for children. Adults are more often prescribed antiviral medication, as it is effective in reducing the severity of the condition and the likelihood of developing complications. Adults are advised to increase water intake to reduce dehydration and to relieve headaches. Painkillers such as paracetamol (acetaminophen) are recommended, as they are effective in relieving itching and other symptoms such as fever or pains. Antihistamines relieve itching and may be used in cases where the itching prevents sleep, because they also act as a sedative. As with children, antiviral medication is considered more useful for those adults who are more prone to develop complications. These include pregnant women or people who have a weakened immune system.


title: Chickenpox

text: The duration of the visible blistering caused by varicella zoster virus varies in children usually from 4 to 7 days, and the appearance of new blisters begins to subside after the fifth day. Chickenpox infection is milder in young children, and symptomatic treatment, with sodium bicarbonate baths or antihistamine medication may ease itching.


title: Chickenpox

text: In adults, the disease is more severe, though the incidence is much less common. Infection in adults is associated with greater morbidity and mortality due to pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia), bronchitis (either viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis), hepatitis, and encephalitis. In particular, up to 10% of pregnant women with chickenpox develop pneumonia, the severity of which increases with onset later in gestation. In England and Wales, 75% of deaths due to chickenpox are in adults. Inflammation of the brain, encephalitis, can occur in immunocompromised individuals, although the risk is higher with herpes zoster. Necrotizing fasciitis is also a rare complication.


title: Chickenpox

text: Varicella can be lethal to individuals with impaired immunity. The number of people in this high-risk group has increased, due to the HIV epidemic and the increased use of immunosuppressive therapies. Varicella is a particular problem in hospitals when there are patients with immune systems weakened by drugs (e.g., high-dose steroids) or HIV.


title: Chickenpox

text: Secondary bacterial infection of skin lesions, manifesting as impetigo, cellulitis, and erysipelas, is the most common complication in healthy children. Disseminated primary varicella infection usually seen in the immunocompromised may have high morbidity. Ninety percent of cases of varicella pneumonia occur in the adult population. Rarer complications of disseminated chickenpox include myocarditis, hepatitis, and glomerulonephritis.


title: Chickenpox

text: Hemorrhagic complications are more common in the immunocompromised or immunosuppressed populations, although healthy children and adults have been affected. Five major clinical syndromes have been described: febrile purpura, malignant chickenpox with purpura, postinfectious purpura, purpura fulminans, and anaphylactoid purpura. These syndromes have variable courses, with febrile purpura being the most benign of the syndromes and having an uncomplicated outcome. In contrast, malignant chickenpox with purpura is a grave clinical condition that has a mortality rate of greater than 70%. The cause of these hemorrhagic chickenpox syndromes is not known.


title: Chickenpox

text: Primary varicella occurs in all countries worldwide. In 2015 chickenpox resulted in 6,400 deaths globally – down from 8,900 in 1990. There were 7,000 deaths in 2013. Varicella is highly transmissible, with an infection rate of 90% in close contacts.


title: Chickenpox

text: In temperate countries, chickenpox is primarily a disease of children, with most cases occurring during the winter and spring, most likely due to school contact. In such countries it is one of the classic diseases of childhood, with most cases occurring in children up to age 15; most people become infected before adulthood, and 10% of young adults remain susceptible.


title: Chickenpox

text: In the United States, a temperate country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do not require state health departments to report infections of chickenpox, and only 31 states volunteered this information . A 2013 study conducted by the social media disease surveillance tool called Sickweather used anecdotal reports of chickenpox infections on social media systems Facebook and Twitter to measure and rank states with the most infections per capita, with Maryland, Tennessee and Illinois in the top three.


title: Chickenpox

text: In the tropics, chickenpox often occurs in older people and may cause more serious disease. In adults, the pock marks are darker and the scars more prominent than in children.


title: Chickenpox

text: How the term "chickenpox" originated is not clear but it may be due to it being a relatively mild disease. It has been said to be derived from "chickpeas", based on resemblance of the vesicles to chickpeas, or to come from the rash resembling chicken pecks. Other suggestions include the designation "chicken" for a child (i.e., literally 'child pox'), a corruption of "itching-pox", or the idea that the disease may have originated in chickens. Samuel Johnson explained the designation as "from its being of no very great danger".


title: Chickenpox

text: Because chickenpox is usually more severe in adults than it is in children, some parents deliberately expose their children to the virus, for example by taking them to "chickenpox parties". Doctors say that children are safer getting the vaccine, which is a weakened form of the virus, than getting the disease, which can be fatal or lead to shingles later in life. Repeated exposure to chickenpox may protect against zoster.


title: Chickenpox

text: Humans are the only known species that the disease affects naturally. However, chickenpox has been caused in other primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas.


title: Chickenpox

text: Sorivudine, a nucleoside analog, has been reported to be effective in the treatment of primary varicella in healthy adults (case reports only), but large-scale clinical trials are still needed to demonstrate its efficacy. There was speculation in 2005 that continuous dosing of aciclovir by mouth for a period of time could eradicate VZV from the host, although further trials were required to discern whether eradication was actually viable.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: 10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Dan Trachtenberg in his directorial debut, produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber and written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, and Damien Chazelle. The second film in the "Cloverfield" franchise, it stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. The story follows a young woman who, after a car crash, wakes up in an underground bunker with two men who insist that an event has left the surface of Earth uninhabitable.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: The film was developed from a script titled "The Cellar"; but under production by Bad Robot, it was turned into a spiritual successor to the 2008 film "Cloverfield". It is presented in a third-person narrative, in contrast to its predecessor's found-footage style. Principal photography took place under the title "Valencia" in New Orleans, Louisiana, from October 20 to December 15, 2014.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: "10 Cloverfield Lane" premiered in New York City on March 8, 2016, and was released in select countries on March 10. It was released in the United States on March 11, 2016, in both conventional and IMAX formats. The film grossed over $110 million worldwide. A successor, "The Cloverfield Paradox", was released on February 4, 2018.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: After an argument with her fiancé Ben, Michelle hurriedly packs a suitcase, leaves behind a diamond ring, and departs New Orleans. While she is driving through rural Louisiana at night, Ben calls, begging her to return. The news reports of blackouts in several major cities. Her car is suddenly struck and flips off the road.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Awakening in a concrete room, Michelle finds she has an injured leg and is chained to the wall. A man named Howard enters and unchains her. She later unsuccessfully ambushes him, and he explains that there has been a massive attack, perhaps by Russians or Martians, and he had found her wreck and saved her life by bringing her to his underground bunker. He tells a doubtful Michelle that they cannot leave for one or two years because the air is poisoned and everyone outside is dead.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Howard takes Michelle on a tour of the well-stocked bunker he built, which houses a third resident, Emmett, whose left arm is in a sling. Through a viewport, Howard shows her his two decayed pigs outside as evidence of the fallout, but she also sees Howard's truck, and regains the memory of it forcing her off the road. She privately relays this to Emmett, who dismisses it. He says he came to the bunker voluntarily, which he had helped Howard build, after actually seeing the attack happen and injuring his arm while fighting his way inside.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: During their first dinner together, Howard shows little tolerance for Emmett and flashes of jealousy and rage. Michelle antagonizes him and steals his keys, but just before she opens the outer door a woman covered with lesions appears, screaming to be let inside. Horrified, Michelle retreats back. Howard confesses he accidentally struck Michelle's car while in a panic to get to the bunker. She uses her fashion design skills to stitch the cut she caused on his forehead, and Howard opens up about his daughter.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: The trio begins to adapt to life underground. The air ventilation system fails after something loud passes overhead, and Howard sends Michelle through a small duct to turn it back on. In the mechanical room, she finds a padlocked skylight with "HELP" scratched on the inside and an earring she had seen in a picture Howard showed her of his daughter. She shares this with Emmett, who recognizes the girl in the picture as a local girl who had gone missing two years earlier. They decide to seek help and Michelle begins to fashion a makeshift hazmat suit so one of them can go outside.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Howard finds some of the hidden tools Michelle and Emmett are using for their plan and threatens to immerse them both in perchloric acid. Emmett takes responsibility, claiming he was building a weapon to use to get Howard's gun and impress Michelle. Howard accepts Emmett's apology before shooting him in the head, telling a shocked Michelle that now they can be a family of two. While Howard cleans up, Michelle works to finish the suit. He discovers the suit, but she flees and is able to upend the barrel of acid onto him, which disfigures him and starts a fire. She dons the suit and narrowly escapes outside. When she sees birds overhead, she removes her gas mask, but then observes an alien biomechanical craft floating in the distance. When the bunker explodes, the craft turns in her direction and drops off a quadrupedal creature. Michelle shelters in Howard's truck from the creature and from a flammable green gas the craft emits. The craft's tentacles draw the truck toward its maw, but Michelle finds materials for a Molotov cocktail and destroys it.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Michelle drives off. A radio broadcast says there has been some success in the fight against the invaders and instructs survivors to seek safety in Baton Rouge, but also requests the help of anyone with medical or combat training in Houston. Michelle heads for Houston while a larger alien craft is revealed by lightning.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: "10 Cloverfield Lane" originated from an "ultra low budget" spec script penned by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, titled "The Cellar". The Tracking Board included the script in "The Hit List" of 2012 – an annually published list of spec scripts written within the year that have impressed its voting members. In 2012, Paramount Pictures bought the script and commenced further development under Bad Robot Productions for Insurge Pictures, Paramount's specialty label for films with a micro-budget. When Bad Robot became involved, the film was assigned the codename "Valencia" to keep exact details of the production a secret.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Damien Chazelle was brought in to rewrite Campbell and Stuecken's draft and direct the film. Chazelle dropped out from directing when his "Whiplash" project received funding. On April 3, 2014, it was reported production for "Valencia" was greenlit to begin in the fall of 2014, under the direction of Dan Trachtenberg with the latest draft being written by an uncredited Daniel Casey. A budget of about $5 million was reported to be expected, in keeping with the mandate of Paramount's Insurge division of producing micro-budgeted films.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: On July 8, 2014, "Variety" reported John Goodman was in negotiations to star in the film. On August 25, 2014, they reported Mary Elizabeth Winstead had entered negotiations, and on September 22, 2014, John Gallagher Jr. reportedly joined the cast.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: During production, the filmmakers noticed core similarities to "Cloverfield", and decided to make the picture what Abrams calls "a blood relative" or "spiritual successor" of that film. "The spirit of it, the genre of it, the heart of it, the fear factor, the comedy factor, the weirdness factor, there were so many elements that felt like the DNA of this story were of the same place that "Cloverfield" was born out of," said Abrams. In other interviews he explained: "Those characters and that monster [from "Cloverfield"] are not in this movie, but there are other characters and other monsters," and "This movie is very purposefully not called "Cloverfield 2", because it's not "Cloverfield 2", [...] So if you're approaching it as a literal sequel, you'll be surprised to see what this movie is. But while it's not what you might expect from a movie that has the name "Cloverfield" in it, I think you'll find that you'll understand the connection when you see the whole thing." Winstead and Gallagher mentioned that during production they were aware that the film had thematic similarities to "Cloverfield", but did not learn that there would be an official connection until they were informed of the chosen title, only a few days before the release of the trailer. Abrams came up with the title after finishing "".


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: In a March 2015 interview, a few months after production wrapped, Winstead was asked about her experience during "Valencia" and described it as a "really contained film", reiterating the premise of "The Cellar" about a woman being trapped with her mysterious savior in a supposed post-nuclear fallout world. Later in the month, Insurge Pictures was reported to have been dismantled and its staff absorbed by its parent company. Insurge's only film that had yet to be released was reported to be "Valencia". Speaking of rewrites that took place during production, Winstead called them "nothing that was major".


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: During an interview with Abrams to promote "10 Cloverfield Lane", he said the creative team behind the original had some ideas on developing "Cloverfield 2", but the release of films such as "Godzilla" and "Pacific Rim" led them to abandon them as they found the concept of kaiju films played out.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Principal photography on the film began on October 20, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Filming took place in chronological order on only one set. Scenes involving explosions, fire, and smoke were shot in early December 2014 in Hahnville, Louisiana. Filming ended on December 15, 2014.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Bear McCreary composed the music for the film. The soundtrack was digitally released on March 11, 2016.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: The film's title was revealed on January 15, 2016, in a trailer attached to "". As with "Cloverfield", a viral marketing campaign was used that included elements of an alternate reality game. Bad Robot kick-started the campaign in early February 2016 by updating the Tagruato.jp website used for the original film. The campaign revealed backstory information about the character Howard Stambler and his daughter.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: The film was released in select countries on March 10, 2016, in regular and IMAX theaters, before its official release in North America on March 11, also in conventional and IMAX theaters. Those who attended screenings of the film at AMC IMAX theaters were eligible to receive collectible movie posters, which illustrated the three main characters separately. The film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic material including frightening sequences of threat with some violence, and brief language".


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: "10 Cloverfield Lane" grossed $72.2 million in the United States and $38.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $110.2 million.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: In the United States and Canada, the film made $1.8 million from its Thursday night previews at 2,500 theaters, and $8 million on its first day (including Thursday previews). In its opening weekend, it earned $24.7 million, finishing in second place at the box office behind "Zootopia" ($51.3 million), which was in its second weekend.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Outside North America, "10 Cloverfield Lane" received a staggered release, across 54 countries. It earned $1.5 million in its opening weekend from six international markets with a bulk of it coming from Australia ($1 million). Overall, the top openings were in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($2.2 million), South Korea ($1.7 million), and France ($1.4 million).


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 312 critic reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, solidly crafted, and palpably tense, "10 Cloverfield Lane" makes the most of its confined setting and outstanding cast—and suggests a new frontier for franchise filmmaking." According to Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 43 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Bill Zwecker of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave "10 Cloverfield Lane" four stars out of four, commending the film as "continually gripping and extremely engrossing ... [Dan Trachtenberg] helmed this film with artistry, imagination and skillful precision." Jeannette Catsoulis of "The New York Times" praised the cast's performance and Jeff Cutter's cinematography, while writing: "Sneakily tweaking our fears of terrorism, '10 Cloverfield Lane,' though no more than a kissing cousin to its namesake, is smartly chilling and finally spectacular. A sequel is virtually a given." Alan Scherstuhl of the "Village Voice" also praised the acting and technical aspects, but wrote that the film "is less compelling in terms of character and meaning."


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: In a mixed review for "Slant", Chuck Bowen found a lack of character development between the three leads, and labeled the film's ending as anticlimactic. Bowen also writes: "The film hits its expositional narrative marks and nothing else ... "10 Cloverfield Lane" will almost immediately evaporate from the mind, before J.J. Abrams commences in selling you the same thing all over again." Soren Andersen of the "Seattle Times", who gave "10 Cloverfield Lane" one and half stars out of four, similarly criticized the film's ending, labeling it as "full-bore" and "Too little. Too late." James Verniere of the "Boston Herald" disapproved of the characters and pacing, and he ultimately described the film as "a crummy, low-rent, intellectually bereft thriller."


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: Having originally planned the film as a direct sequel to "Cloverfield", Abrams suggested that he had thought of something which, if they were lucky enough to get it made, "could be really cool [insofar as it] connects some stories" in a third film, even teasing a larger "Cloverfield" universe. Interviews with Trachtenberg and Winstead confirm that the movie is, and always was intended to be, an expansion of the first film, with Trachtenberg calling it the "Cloververse". Winstead has voiced her interest in returning for another installment.


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: In October 2016, it was revealed that the Abrams-produced "God Particle" would be the third installment in the "Cloverfield" franchise. After several postponements of the film's release date, it was released as a Netflix Original on February 4, 2018, under the new title "The Cloverfield Paradox".


title: 10 Cloverfield Lane

text: In "The Cloverfield Paradox", Donal Logue cameos as Mark Stambler, a conspiracy theorist discussing the "Cloverfield Paradox"; reviewers observed that the character shares the same surname as Howard Stambler in "10 Cloverfield Lane". Suzanne Cryer, who appeared as Leslie in "10 Cloverfield Lane", also appears in a brief cameo role as a newscaster who interviews Stambler.


title: Ali Wong

text: Alexandra Dawn Ali Wong (born April 19, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She is best known for her Netflix stand-up specials "Baby Cobra" (2016), "Hard Knock Wife" (2018), and "Don Wong" (2022). She starred in the film "Always Be My Maybe" (2019), on which she also served as a writer and producer.


title: Ali Wong

text: Wong was also a cast member on the ABC show "American Housewife" and has previously appeared on "Inside Amy Schumer", "Black Box", and "Are You There, Chelsea?" She was a writer for the first three seasons of the sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat". She voices the title character Roberta "Bertie" Songthrush on the animated series "Tuca & Bertie" and Ali on the animated series "Big Mouth". She was included in "Time"s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.


title: Ali Wong

text: Alexandra Dawn Wong was born in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, on April 19, 1982, the youngest of four children. Her Vietnamese mother, Tam "Tammy" Wong, relocated from Huế in 1960 to work as a social worker in the U.S. Her Chinese-American father, Adolphus Wong (1937–2011), was an anesthesiologist who worked for Kaiser Permanente for 30 years.


title: Ali Wong

text: In 2000, Wong graduated from San Francisco University High School, where she was student body class president. She enrolled at UCLA, where she majored in Asian-American studies and discovered her love of performing as a member of the university's LCC Theatre Company, the country's largest and oldest Asian-American collegiate theater company. She spent a summer working at The Lair of the Golden Bear, a UC Berkeley alumni summer family camp and, during her junior year, spent time in Hanoi. She graduated "summa cum laude" with a BA in Asian-American studies in 2005. After college, she studied in Vietnam through a Fulbright program.


title: Ali Wong

text: After graduating from college, Wong first tried stand-up comedy at the age of 23. She soon moved to New York City to pursue comedy, and began to perform up to nine times a night.


title: Ali Wong

text: In 2011, "Variety" named her one of the "10 Comics to Watch". Soon after, she appeared on "The Tonight Show", "John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show" and Dave Attell's "Comedy Underground Show". She was also cast as series regular in the NBC comedy series "Are You There, Chelsea? " and appeared on "Chelsea Lately". After that, she was in VH1's "Best Week Ever" and MTV's "Hey Girl" in 2013. Additionally, she starred in Oliver Stone's "Savages", opposite Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek, and as Kate in the film "Dealin' with Idiots".


title: Ali Wong

text: In 2014, Wong played Dr. Lina Lark in the ABC medical drama series "Black Box", opposite Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave. Since then, she has guest-starred in several episodes of "Inside Amy Schumer". Wong has been a writer on "Fresh Off the Boat" since 2014. Randall Park, who is on the main cast, had suggested Wong for the writing role.


title: Ali Wong

text: On Mother's Day 2016, Netflix released a stand-up special called "Baby Cobra"; the special was filmed in September 2015, when Wong was seven months pregnant with her first child at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. According to "New York Magazine", "The special's arrival on Netflix is the sort of star-making moment that unites the tastes of the unlikeliest fans." On September 11, 2016, Wong spoke at, and walked the runway during New York Fashion Week for Opening Ceremony's show. In October 2016, Wong began starring in the ABC sitcom "American Housewife". On May 13, 2018, Wong's second Netflix special, "Hard Knock Wife," was released. It was filmed in late September 2017 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto when she was seven months pregnant with her second child. In 2018, she voiced the character Citrus Twisty, a soda genie, in an episode of "OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes".


title: Ali Wong

text: Wong starred with Randall Park in the 2019 Netflix film "Always Be My Maybe", a film directed by Nahnatchka Khan, and written by Wong, Park, and Michael Golamco. Wong voiced a titular character Bertie in the Netflix animated show "Tuca & Bertie".


title: Ali Wong

text: On October 15, 2019, Wong came out with a book entitled "". She dubs it as a life guide for her two daughters to read when they're adults.


title: Ali Wong

text: In February 2022, Wong released her third Netflix stand-up special, "Don Wong". This is her first stand-up special in which she is not visibly pregnant.


title: Ali Wong

text: Wong met Justin Hakuta, vice president of product at healthcare company GoodRx and the son of inventor Ken Hakuta, at the wedding of their mutual friends in 2010. They married in 2014. They have two daughters named Mari and Nikki, and Wong has been open about miscarrying twins prior to becoming pregnant with her first daughter. She stated that making jokes about her miscarriage has helped her cope.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin (, "") is an antiparasitic drug. After its discovery in 1975, its first uses were in veterinary medicine to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis. Approved for human use in 1987, today it is used to treat infestations including head lice, scabies, river blindness (onchocerciasis), strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, ascariasis and lymphatic filariasis. It works through many mechanisms to kill the targeted parasites, and can be taken orally, or applied to the skin for external infestations. It belongs to the avermectin family of medications.


title: Ivermectin

text: William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for its discovery and applications. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an antiparasitic agent. In 2018, it was the 420th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 100,000 prescriptions. It is available as a generic medicine.


title: Ivermectin

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation has been widely spread claiming that ivermectin is beneficial for treating and preventing COVID-19. Such claims are not backed by credible scientific evidence. Multiple major health organizations, including the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the European Medicines Agency, and the World Health Organization have stated that ivermectin is not authorized or approved to treat COVID-19.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is used to treat human diseases caused by roundworms and a wide variety of external parasitess.


title: Ivermectin

text: For river blindness (onchocerciasis) and lymphatic filariasis, ivermectin is typically given as part of mass drug administration campaigns that distribute the drug to all members of a community affected by the disease. For river blindness, a single oral dose of ivermectin (150 micrograms per kilogram of body weight) clears the body of larval "Onchocerca volvulus" worms for several months, preventing transmission and disease progression. Adult worms survive in the skin and eventually recover to produce larval worms again; to keep the worms at bay, ivermectin is given at least once per year for the 1015-year lifespan of the adult worms. For lymphatic filariasis, oral ivermectin (200 micrograms per kilogram body weight) is part of a combination treatment given annually: ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine citrate and albendazole in places without onchocerciasis; and ivermectin and albendazole in places with onchocerciasis.


title: Ivermectin

text: The World Health Organization (WHO) considers ivermectin the drug of choice for strongyloidiasis. Most cases are treated with two daily doses of oral ivermectin (200 μg per kg body weight), while severe infections are treated with five to seven days of ivermectin. Ivermectin is also the primary treatment for "Mansonella ozzardi" and cutaneous larva migrans. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends ivermectin, albendazole, or mebendazole as treatments for ascariasis. Ivermectin is sometimes added to albendazole or mebendazole for whipworm treatment, and is considered a second-line treatment for gnathostomiasis.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is also used to treat infection with parasitic arthropods. Scabies – infestation with the mite "Sarcoptes scabiei" – is most commonly treated with topical permethrin or oral ivermectin. A single application of permethrin is more efficacious than a single treatment of ivermectin. For most scabies cases, ivermectin is used in a two dose regimen: a first dose kills the active mites, but not their eggs. Over the next week, the eggs hatch, and a second dose kills the newly hatched mites. The two dose regimen of ivermectin has similar efficacy to the single dose permethrin treatment. Ivermectin is, however, more effective than permethrin when used in the mass treatment of endemic scabies.


title: Ivermectin

text: For severe "crusted scabies", where the parasite burden is orders of magnitude higher than usual, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends up to seven doses of ivermectin over the course of a month, along with a topical antiparasitic. Both head lice and pubic lice can be treated with oral ivermectin, an ivermectin lotion applied directly to the affected area, or various other insecticides. Ivermectin is also used to treat rosacea and blepharitis, both of which can be caused or exacerbated by "Demodex folliculorum" mites.


title: Ivermectin

text: The only absolute contraindication to the use of ivermectin is hypersensitivity to the active ingredient or any component of the formulation. In children under the age of five or those who weigh less than , there is limited data regarding the efficacy or safety of ivermectin, though the available data demonstrate few adverse effects. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics cautions against use of ivermectin in such patients, as the blood-brain barrier is less developed, and thus there may be an increased risk of particular CNS side effects such as encephalopathy, ataxia, coma, or death. Such patients should be monitored very closely when given ivermectin. The American Academy of Family Physicians also recommends against use in these patients, given a lack of sufficient data to prove drug safety. Ivermectin is secreted in very low concentration in breast milk. It remains unclear if ivermectin is safe during pregnancy.


title: Ivermectin

text: Side effects, although uncommon, include fever, itching, and skin rash when taken by mouth; and red eyes, dry skin, and burning skin when used topically for head lice. It is unclear if the drug is safe for use during pregnancy, but it is probably acceptable for use during breastfeeding.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is considered relatively free of toxicity in standard doses (around 300 µg/kg). Based on the data drug safety sheet for ivermectin, side effects are uncommon. However, serious adverse events following ivermectin treatment are more common in people with very high burdens of larval "Loa loa" worms in their blood. Those who have over 30,000 microfilaria per milliliter of blood risk inflammation and capillary blockage due to the rapid death of the microfilaria following ivermectin treatment.


title: Ivermectin

text: One concern is neurotoxicity after large overdoses, which in most mammalian species may manifest as central nervous system depression, ataxia, coma, and even death, as might be expected from potentiation of inhibitory chloride channels.


title: Ivermectin

text: Since drugs that inhibit the enzyme CYP3A4 often also inhibit P-glycoprotein transport, the risk of increased absorption past the blood-brain barrier exists when ivermectin is administered along with other CYP3A4 inhibitors. These drugs include statins, HIV protease inhibitors, many calcium channel blockers, lidocaine, the benzodiazepines, and glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone.


title: Ivermectin

text: During the course of a typical treatment, ivermectin can cause minor aminotransferase elevations. In rare cases it can cause mild clinically apparent liver disease.


title: Ivermectin

text: To provide context for the dosing and toxicity ranges, the of ivermectin in mice is 25 mg/kg (oral), and 80 mg/kg in dogs, corresponding to an approximated human-equivalent dose LD50 range of 2.02-43.24 mg/kg, which is far in excess of its FDA-approved usage (a single dose of 0.150-0.200 mg/kg to be used for specific parasitic infections). While ivermectin has also been studied for use in COVID-19, and while it has some ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, achieving 50% inhibition in vitro was found to require an estimated oral dose of 7.0 mg/kg (or 35x the maximum FDA-approved dosage), high enough to be considered ivermectin poisoning. Despite insufficient data to show any safe and effective dosing regimen for ivermectin in COVID-19, doses have been taken far in excess of FDA-approved dosing, leading the CDC to issue a warning of overdose symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension, decreased level of consciousness, confusion, blurred vision, visual hallucinations, loss of coordination and balance, seizures, coma, and death. The CDC advises against consuming doses intended for livestock or doses intended for external use and warns that increasing misuse of ivermectin-containing products is resulting in an increasing rate of harmful overdoses.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is routinely used to control parasitic worms in the gastrointestinal tract of ruminant animals. These parasites normally enter the animal when it is grazing, pass the bowel, and set and mature in the intestines, after which they produce eggs that leave the animal via its droppings and can infest new pastures. Ivermectin is only effective in killing some of these parasites, this is because of an increase in anthelmintic resistance. This resistance has arisen from the persistent use of the same anthelmintic drugs for the past 40 years.


title: Ivermectin

text: In dogs, ivermectin is routinely used as prophylaxis against heartworm. Dogs with defects in the P-glycoprotein gene ("MDR1"), often collie-like herding dogs, can be severely poisoned by ivermectin. The mnemonic "white feet, don't treat" refers to Scotch collies that are vulnerable to ivermectin. Some other dog breeds (especially the Rough Collie, the Smooth Collie, the Shetland Sheepdog, and the Australian Shepherd), also have a high incidence of mutation within the "MDR1" gene (coding for P-glycoprotein) and are sensitive to the toxic effects of ivermectin. Clinical evidence suggests kittens are susceptible to ivermectin toxicity. A 0.01% ivermectin topical preparation for treating ear mites in cats is available.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is sometimes used as an acaricide in reptiles, both by injection and as a diluted spray. While this works well in some cases, care must be taken, as several species of reptiles are very sensitive to ivermectin. Use in turtles is particularly contraindicated.


title: Ivermectin

text: A characteristic of the antinematodal action of ivermectin is its potency: for instance, to combat "Dirofilaria immitis" in dogs, ivermectin is effective at 0.001 milligram per kilogram of body weight when administered orally.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin and its related drugs act by interfering with the nerve and muscle functions of helminths and insects. The drug binds to glutamate-gated chloride channels common to invertebrate nerve and muscle cells. The binding pushes the channels open, which increases the flow of chloride ions and hyper-polarizes the cell membranes, paralyzing and killing the invertebrate. Ivermectin is safe for mammals (at the normal therapeutic doses used to cure parasite infections) because mammalian glutamate-gated chloride channels only occur in the brain and spinal cord: the causative avermectins usually do not cross the blood–brain barrier, and are unlikely to bind to other mammalian ligand-gated channels.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin can be given by mouth, topically, or via injection. It does not readily cross the blood–brain barrier of mammals due to the presence of P-glycoprotein (the "MDR1" gene mutation affects the function of this protein). Crossing may still become significant if ivermectin is given at high doses, in which case brain levels peak 2–5 hours after administration. In contrast to mammals, ivermectin can cross the blood–brain barrier in tortoises, often with fatal consequences.


title: Ivermectin

text: Fermentation of "Streptomyces avermitilis" yields eight closely related avermectin homologues, of which B and B form the bulk of the products isolated. In a separate chemical step, the mixture is hydrogenated to give ivermectin, which is an approximately 80:20 mixture of the two 22,23-dihydroavermectin compounds.


title: Ivermectin

text: The avermectin family of compounds was discovered by Satoshi Ōmura of Kitasato University and William Campbell of Merck. In 1970, Ōmura isolated a strain of "Streptomyces avermitilis" from woodland soil near a golf course along the south east coast of Honshu, Japan. Ōmura sent the bacteria to William Campbell, who showed that the bacterial culture could cure mice infected with the roundworm "Heligmosomoides polygyrus". Campbell isolated the active compounds from the bacterial culture, naming them "avermectins" and the bacterium "Streptomyces avermitilis" for the compounds' ability to clear mice of worms (in Latin: "a" 'without', "vermis" 'worms'). Of the various avermectins, Campbell's group found the compound "avermectin B" to be the most potent when taken orally. They synthesized modified forms of avermectin B to improve its pharmaceutical properties, eventually choosing a mixture of at least 80% 22,23-dihydroavermectin B and up to 20% 22,23-dihydroavermectin B, a combination they called "ivermectin".


title: Ivermectin

text: The discovery of ivermectin has been described as a combination of "chance and choice." Merck was looking for a broad-spectrum anthelmintic, which ivermectin is indeed; however, Campbell noted that they "...also found a broad-spectrum agent for the control of ectoparasitic insects and mites."


title: Ivermectin

text: Merck began marketing ivermectin as a veterinary antiparasitic in 1981. By 1986, ivermectin was registered for use in 46 countries and was administered massively to cattle, sheep and other animals. By the late 1980s, ivermectin was the bestselling veterinary medicine in the world. Following its blockbuster success as a veterinary antiparasitic, another Merck scientist, Mohamed Aziz, collaborated with the World Health Organization to test the safety and efficacy of ivermectin against onchocerciasis in humans. They found it to be highly safe and effective, triggering Merck to register ivermectin for human use as "Mectizan" in France in 1987. A year later, Merck CEO Roy Vagelos agreed that Merck would donate all ivermectin needed to eradicate river blindness. In 1998, that donation would be expanded to include ivermectin used to treat lymphatic filariasis.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin earned the title of "wonder drug" for the treatment of nematodes and arthropod parasites. Ivermectin has been used safely by hundreds of millions of people to treat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis.


title: Ivermectin

text: Half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Campbell and Ōmura for discovering avermectin, "the derivatives of which have radically lowered the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, as well as showing efficacy against an expanding number of other parasitic diseases".


title: Ivermectin

text: The initial price proposed by Merck in 1987 was per treatment, which was unaffordable for patients who most needed ivermectin. The company donated hundreds of millions of courses of treatments since 1988 in more than 30 countries. Between 1995 and 2010, using donated ivermectin to prevent river blindness, the program is estimated to have prevented seven million years of disability at a cost of .


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is considered an inexpensive drug. As of 2019, ivermectin tablets (Stromectol) in the United States were the least expensive treatment option for lice in children at approximately , while Sklice, an ivermectin lotion, cost around for .


title: Ivermectin

text: It is sold under the brand names Heartgard, Sklice and Stromectol in the United States, Ivomec worldwide by Merial Animal Health, Mectizan in Canada by Merck, Iver-DT in Nepal by Alive Pharmaceutical and Ivexterm in Mexico by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. In Southeast Asian countries, it is marketed by Delta Pharma Ltd. under the trade name Scabo 6. The formulation for rosacea treatment is sold under the brand name Soolantra. While in development, it was assigned the code MK-933 by Merck.


title: Ivermectin

text: ivermectin was studied as a potential antiviral agent against chikungunya and yellow fever. In chikungunya, ivermectin showed a wide in vitro safety margin as an antiviral.


title: Ivermectin

text: Ivermectin is also of interest in the prevention of malaria, as it is toxic to both the malaria plasmodium itself and the mosquitos that carry it. A direct effect on malaria parasites could not be shown in an experimental infection of volunteers with "Plasmodium falciparum". Use of ivermectin at higher doses necessary to control malaria is probably safe, though large clinical trials have not yet been done to definitively establish the efficacy or safety of ivermectin for prophylaxis or treatment of malaria. Mass drug administration of a population with ivermectin to treat and prevent nematode infestation is effective for eliminating malaria-bearing mosquitos and thereby reducing infection with residual malaria parasites.


title: Ivermectin

text: One alternative to ivermectin is moxidectin, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in people with river blindness. Moxidectin has a longer half-life than ivermectin and may eventually supplant ivermectin as it is a more potent microfilaricide, but there is a need for additional clinical trials, with long-term follow-up, to assess whether moxidectin is safe and effective for treatment of nematode infection in children and women of childbearing potential.


title: Ivermectin

text: There is tentative evidence that ivermectin kills bedbugs, as part of integrated pest management for bedbug infestations. However, such use may require a prolonged course of treatment which is of unclear safety.


title: Ivermectin

text: In 2013, ivermectin was demonstrated as a novel ligand of the farnesoid X receptor, a therapeutic target for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.


title: Ivermectin

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, ivermectin was researched for possible utility in preventing and treating COVID-19, but no good evidence of benefit was found.


title: Wicca

text: Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.


title: Wicca

text: Wicca has no central authority figure. Its traditional core beliefs, principles, and practices were originally outlined in the 1940s and 1950s by Gardner and an early High Priestess, Doreen Valiente. The early practices were disseminated through published books and in secret written and oral teachings passed along to their initiates. There are many variations on the core structure, and the religion grows and evolves over time. It is divided into a number of diverse lineages, sects and denominations, referred to as "traditions", each with its own organisational structure and level of centralisation. Due to its decentralized nature, there is some disagreement over what actually constitutes Wicca. Some traditions, collectively referred to as British Traditional Wicca (BTW), strictly follow the initiatory lineage of Gardner and consider the term "Wicca" to apply only to similar traditions, but not to newer, eclectic traditions.


title: Wicca

text: Wicca is typically duotheistic, worshipping and/or working with a Goddess and a God. These are traditionally viewed as the Triple Goddess and the Horned God, respectively. These deities may be regarded in a henotheistic way, as having many different divine aspects which can in turn be identified with many diverse pagan deities from different historical pantheons. For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as the "Great Goddess" and the "Great Horned God", with the adjective "great" connoting a deity that contains many other deities within their own nature. Some Wiccans refer to the goddess deity as the "Lady" and the god deity as the "Lord"; in this context, when "lord" and "lady" are used as adjectives, it is another way of referring to them as a divine figure. These two deities are sometimes viewed as facets of a greater pantheistic divinity, which is regarded as an impersonal force or process rather than a personal deity. While duotheism or bitheism is traditional in Wicca, broader Wiccan beliefs range from polytheism to pantheism or monism, even to Goddess monotheism. Others view them as the Universal God and Goddess Who proceed from the One.


title: Wicca

text: Wiccan celebrations encompass both the cycles of the Moon, known as Esbats and commonly associated with the Goddess (female deity), and the cycles of the Sun, seasonally based festivals known as Sabbats and commonly associated with the Horned God (male deity). An unattributed statement known as the Wiccan Rede is a popular expression of Wiccan morality, although it is not universally accepted by Wiccans. Wicca often involves the ritual practice of magic, though it is not always necessary.


title: Wicca

text: Scholars of religious studies classify Wicca as a new religious movement, and more specifically as a form of modern Paganism. Cited as the largest, best known, most influential, and most academically studied form of modern Paganism, within the movement it has been identified as sitting on the eclectic end of the eclectic to reconstructionist spectrum.


title: Wicca

text: Several academics have also categorised Wicca as a form of nature religion, a term that is also embraced by many of its practitioners, and as a mystery religion. However, given that Wicca also incorporates the practice of magic, several scholars have referred to it as a "magico-religion". Wicca is also a form of Western esotericism, and more specifically a part of the esoteric current known as occultism. Academics like Wouter Hanegraaff and Tanya Luhrmann have categorised Wicca as part of the New Age, although other academics, and many Wiccans themselves, dispute this categorisation.


title: Wicca

text: Although recognised as a religion by academics, some evangelical Christians have attempted to deny it legal recognition as such, while some Wiccan practitioners themselves eschew the term "religion" – associating the latter purely with organised religion – instead favouring "spirituality" or "way of life". Although Wicca as a religion is distinct from other forms of contemporary Paganism, there has been much "cross-fertilization" between these different Pagan faiths; accordingly, Wicca has both influenced and been influenced by other Pagan religions, thus making clear-cut distinctions between them more difficult for religious studies scholars to make.


title: Wicca

text: In Wicca, denominations are referred to as "traditions", while non-Wiccans are often termed "cowans".


title: Wicca

text: When the religion first came to public attention, its followers commonly called it "Witchcraft". Gerald Gardner—the man regarded as the "Father of Wicca"—referred to it as the "Craft of the Wise", "Witchcraft", and "the Witch-cult" during the 1950s. Gardner believed in the theory that persecuted witches had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion, but this has now been disproven. There is no evidence that he ever called it "Wicca", although he did refer to its community of followers as "the Wica" (with one "c"). As a name for the religion, "Wicca" developed in Britain during the 1960s. It is not known who first used this name for the religion, although one possibility is that it might have been Gardner's rival Charles Cardell, who was calling it the "Craft of the Wiccens" by 1958. The first recorded use of the name "Wicca" was in 1962, and it had been popularised to the extent that several British practitioners founded a newsletter called "The Wiccan" in 1968.


title: Wicca

text: Although pronounced differently, the Modern English term "Wicca" is derived from the Old English "wicca" and "wicce" , the masculine and feminine term for witch, respectively, that was used in Anglo-Saxon England. By adopting it for modern usage, Wiccans were both symbolically linking themselves to the ancient, pre-Christian past, and adopting a self-designation that would be less controversial than "Witchcraft". The scholar of religion and Wiccan priestess Joanne Pearson noted that while "the words 'witch' and 'wicca' are therefore linked etymologically,[…] they are used to emphasize different things today."


title: Wicca

text: In early sources "Wicca" referred to the entirety of the religion rather than specific traditions. In ensuing decades, members of certain traditions – those known as British Traditional Wicca – began claiming that only they should be termed "Wiccan", and that other forms of the religion must not use it. From the late 1980s onwards various books propagating Wicca were published that again used the former, broader definition of the word. Thus, by the 1980s, there were two competing definitions of the word "Wicca" in use among the Pagan and esoteric communities, one broad and inclusive, the other smaller and exclusionary. Although there are exceptions, among scholars of Pagan studies it is the older, inclusive use of the term which has gained wider usage. Conversely, in various forms of popular culture, such as television programs "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Charmed", the word "Wicca" has been used as a synonym for witchcraft more generally, including in non-religious and non-Pagan forms.


title: Wicca

text: Alongside "Wicca", some practitioners still call the religion "Witchcraft" or "the Craft". Using the word "Witchcraft" in this context can result in confusion with other, non-religious meanings of "witchcraft" as well as other religions—such as Satanism and Luciferianism—whose practitioners also sometimes describe themselves as "Witches". Another term sometimes used as a synonym for "Wicca" is "Pagan witchcraft", although there are also other forms of modern Paganism—such as types of Heathenry—which also use the term "Pagan witchcraft". From the 1990s onward, various Wiccans began describing themselves as "Traditional Witches", although this term was also employed by practitioners of other magico-religious traditions like Luciferianism.


title: Wicca

text: Theological views within Wicca are diverse. The religion encompasses theists, atheists, and agnostics, with some viewing the religion's deities as entities with a literal existence and others viewing them as Jungian archetypes or symbols. Even among theistic Wiccans, there are divergent beliefs, and Wicca includes pantheists, monotheists, duotheists, and polytheists. Common to these divergent perspectives, however, is that Wicca's deities are viewed as forms of ancient, pre-Christian divinities by its practitioners.


title: Wicca

text: Most early Wiccan groups adhered to the duotheistic worship of a Horned God and a Mother Goddess, with practitioners typically believing that these had been the ancient deities worshipped by the hunter-gatherers of the Old Stone Age, whose veneration had been passed down in secret right to the present. This theology derived from Egyptologist Margaret Murray's claims about the witch-cult in her book "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe" published by Oxford University Press in 1921; she claimed that this cult had venerated a Horned God at the time of the Early Modern witch trials, but centuries before it had also worshipped a Mother Goddess. This duotheistic Horned God/Mother Goddess structure was embraced by Gardner – who claimed that it had Stone Age roots – and remains the underlying theological basis to his Gardnerian tradition. Gardner claimed that the names of these deities were to be kept secret within the tradition, although in 1964 they were publicly revealed to be Cernunnos and Aradia; the secret Gardnerian deity names were subsequently changed.


title: Wicca

text: Although different Wiccans attribute different traits to the Horned God, he is most often associated with animals and the natural world, but also with the afterlife, and he is furthermore often viewed as an ideal role model for men. The Mother Goddess has been associated with life, fertility, and the springtime, and has been described as an ideal role model for women. Wicca's duotheism has been compared to the Taoist system of yin and yang.


title: Wicca

text: Other Wiccans have adopted the original Gardnerian God/Goddess duotheistic structure but have adopted deity forms other than that of the Horned God and Mother Goddess. For instance, the God has been interpreted as the Oak King and the Holly King, as well as the Sun God, Son/Lover God, and Vegetation God. He has also been seen in the roles of the Leader of the Wild Hunt and the Lord of Death. The Goddess is often portrayed as a Triple Goddess, thereby being a triadic deity comprising a Maiden goddess, a Mother goddess, and a Crone goddess, each of whom has different associations, namely virginity, fertility, and wisdom. Other Wiccan conceptualisations have portrayed her as a Moon Goddess and as a Menstruating Goddess. According to the anthropologist Susan Greenwood, in Wicca the Goddess is "a symbol of self-transformation - she is seen to be constantly changing and a force for change for those who open themselves up to her."


title: Wicca

text: Gardner stated that beyond Wicca's two deities was the "Supreme Deity" or "Prime Mover", an entity that was too complex for humans to understand. This belief has been endorsed by other prominent practitioners, who have referred to it as "the Cosmic Logos", "Supreme Cosmic Power", or "Godhead". Gardner envisioned this Supreme Deity as a deist entity who had created the "Under-Gods", among them the God and Goddess, but who was not otherwise involved in the world; alternately, other Wiccans have interpreted such an entity as a pantheistic being, of whom the God and Goddess are facets.


title: Wicca

text: Although Gardner criticised monotheism, citing the Problem of Evil, explicitly monotheistic forms of Wicca developed in the 1960s, when the U.S.-based Church of Wicca developed a theology rooted in the worship of what they described as "one deity, without gender". In the 1970s, Dianic Wiccan groups developed which were devoted to a singular, monotheistic Goddess; this approach was often criticised by members of British Traditional Wiccan groups, who lambasted such Goddess monotheism as an inverted imitation of Christian theology. As in other forms of Wicca, some Goddess monotheists have expressed the view that the Goddess is not an entity with a literal existence, but rather a Jungian archetype.


title: Wicca

text: As well as pantheism and duotheism, many Wiccans accept the concept of polytheism, thereby believing that there are many different deities. Some accept the view espoused by the occultist Dion Fortune that "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" – that is that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal God and Goddess. With this mindset, a Wiccan may regard the Germanic Ēostre, Hindu Kali, and Catholic Virgin Mary each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess and likewise, the Celtic Cernunnos, the ancient Greek Dionysus and the Judeo-Christian Yahweh as aspects of a single, archetypal god. A more strictly polytheistic approach holds the various goddesses and gods to be separate and distinct entities in their own right. The Wiccan writers Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have postulated that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally Pagan worldview. Some Wiccans conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical archetypes or thoughtforms, thereby technically allowing them to be atheists. Such a view was purported by the High Priestess Vivianne Crowley, herself a psychologist, who considered the Wiccan deities to be Jungian archetypes that existed within the subconscious that could be evoked in ritual. It was for this reason, she said "The Goddess and God manifest to us in dream and vision."


title: Wicca

text: Many Wiccans also adopt a more explicitly polytheistic or animistic world-view of the universe as being replete with spirit-beings. In many cases these spirits are associated with the natural world, for instance as "genius loci", fairies, and elementals. In other cases, such beliefs are more idiosyncratic and atypical; the prominent Wiccan Sybil Leek for instance endorsed a belief in angels.


title: Wicca

text: Belief in the afterlife varies among Wiccans and does not occupy a central place within the religion. As the historian Ronald Hutton remarked, "the instinctual position of most [Wiccans] ... seems to be that if one makes the most of the present life, in all respects, then the next life is more or less certainly going to benefit from the process, and so one may as well concentrate on the present". It is nevertheless a common belief among Wiccans that human beings have a spirit or soul that survives bodily death. Understandings of what this soul constitutes vary among different traditions, with Feri Wicca, for instance, having adopted a belief from Hawaiian religion that the human being has three souls.


title: Wicca

text: Although not accepted by all Wiccans, a belief in reincarnation is the dominant afterlife belief within Wicca, having been originally espoused by Gardner. Understandings of how the cycle of reincarnation operates differ among practitioners; the prominent Wiccan Raymond Buckland for instance insisted that human souls would only incarnate into human bodies, whereas other Wiccans believe that a human soul can incarnate into any life form. There is also a common Wiccan belief that any Wiccans will come to be reincarnated as future Wiccans, an idea originally expressed by Gardner. Gardner also articulated the view that the human soul rested for a period between bodily death and its incarnation, with this resting place commonly being referred to as "The Summerland" among the Wiccan community. This allows many Wiccans to believe that mediums can contact the spirits of the deceased, a belief adopted from Spiritualism.


title: Wicca

text: Many Wiccans believe in magic, a manipulative force exercised through the practice of "spellcraft". Many Wiccans agree with the definition of magic offered by ceremonial magicians, such as Aleister Crowley, who declared that magic was "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will", while another prominent ceremonial magician, MacGregor Mathers stated that it was "the science of the control of the secret forces of nature". Many Wiccans believe magic to be a law of nature, as yet misunderstood or disregarded by contemporary science, and as such they do not view it as being supernatural, but a part of what Leo Martello calls the "super powers that reside in the natural". Some Wiccans believe that magic is simply making full use of the five senses to achieve surprising results, whilst other Wiccans do not claim to know how magic works, merely believing that it does because they have observed it to be so.


title: Wicca

text: During ritual practices, which are often staged in a sacred circle, Wiccans cast spells or "workings" intended to bring about real changes in the physical world. Common Wiccan spells include those used for healing, for protection, fertility, or to banish negative influences. Many early Wiccans, such as Alex Sanders, Sybil Leek and Alex Winfield, referred to their own magic as "white magic", which contrasted with "black magic", which they associated with evil and Satanism. Sanders also used the similar terminology of "left-hand path" to describe malevolent magic, and "right-hand path" to describe magic performed with good intentions; terminology that had originated with the occultist Helena Blavatsky in the 19th century. Some modern Wiccans, however, have stopped using the white/black magic and left/right-hand-path dichotomies, arguing for instance that the colour black should not necessarily have any associations with evil.


title: Wicca

text: Scholars of religion Rodney Stark and William Bainbridge claimed in 1985 that Wicca had "reacted to secularisation by a headlong plunge back into magic" and that it was a reactionary religion which would soon die out. This view was heavily criticised in 1999 by the historian Ronald Hutton who claimed that the evidence displayed the very opposite: that "a large number [of Wiccans] were in jobs at the cutting edge [of scientific culture], such as computer technology."


title: Wicca

text: Traditionally, the term "witchcraft" has meant the use of magic to cause harm and misfortune to others, as opposed to helpful "white magic" or "cunning craft". However, historian Wouter Hanegraaff noted that the Wiccan view of witchcraft was "an outgrowth of Romantic (semi)scholarship", especially the 'witch cult' theory. It proposed that historical alleged witches were actually followers of a surviving pagan religion, and that accusations of infanticide, cannibalism, Satanism "etc" were either made up by the Inquisition or were misunderstandings of pagan rites. This theory that accused witches were actually pagans has now been disproven. Nevertheless, Gardner and other founders of Wicca believed the theory was true, and saw the witch as a ""positive antitype" which derives much of its symbolic force from its implicit criticism of dominant Judaeo-Christian and Enlightenment values".


title: Wicca

text: Pearson suggested that Wiccans "identify with the witch because she is imagined as powerful - she can make people sleep for one hundred years, she can see the future, she can curse and kill as well as heal[…] and of course, she can turn people into frogs!" Pearson says that Wicca "provides a framework in which the image of oneself as a witch can be explored and brought into a modern context".


title: Wicca

text: Identifying as a witch also enables Wiccans to link themselves with those persecuted in the witch trials of the Early Modern period, often referred to by Wiccans as "the Burning Times". Various practitioners have made the historically inaccurate claim that nine million people were executed as witches in the Early Modern period, thus drawing comparisons with the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust and presenting themselves, as modern witches, as "persecuted minorities".


title: Wicca

text: Wicca has been characterised as a life-affirming religion. Practitioners typically present themselves as "a positive force against the powers of destruction which threaten the world".


title: Wicca

text: There exists no dogmatic moral or ethical code followed universally by Wiccans of all traditions, however a majority follow a code known as the Wiccan Rede, which states "an it harm none, do what ye will". This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions and minimising harm to oneself and others.


title: Wicca

text: Another common element of Wiccan morality is the Law of Threefold Return which holds that whatever benevolent or malevolent actions a person performs will return to that person with triple force, or with equal force on each of the three levels of body, mind, and spirit, similar to the eastern idea of karma. The Wiccan Rede was most likely introduced into Wicca by Gerald Gardner and formalised publicly by Doreen Valiente, one of his High Priestesses. The Threefold Law was an interpretation of Wiccan ideas and ritual, made by Monique Wilson and further popularised by Raymond Buckland, in his books on Wicca.


title: Wicca

text: Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente's "Charge of the Goddess", these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power, and compassion. In Valiente's poem, they are ordered in pairs of complementary opposites, reflecting a dualism that is common throughout Wiccan philosophy. Some lineaged Wiccans also observe a set of Wiccan Laws, commonly called the "Craft Laws" or "Ardanes", 30 of which exist in the Gardnerian tradition and 161 of which are in the Alexandrian tradition. Valiente, one of Gardner's original High Priestesses, argued that the first thirty of these rules were most likely invented by Gerald Gardner himself in mock-archaic language as the by-product of inner conflict within his Bricket Wood coven – the others were later additions made by Alex Sanders during the 1960s.


title: Wicca

text: In British Traditional Wicca, "sex complementarity is a basic and fundamental working principle", with men and women being seen as a necessary presence to balance each other out. This may have derived from Gardner's interpretation of Murray's claim that the ancient witch-cult was a fertility religion. Thus, many practitioners of British Traditional Wicca have argued that gay men and women are not capable of correctly working magic without mixed-sex pairings.


title: Wicca

text: Although Gerald Gardner initially demonstrated an aversion to homosexuality, claiming that it brought down "the curse of the goddess", it is now generally accepted in all traditions of Wicca, with groups such as the Minoan Brotherhood openly basing their philosophy upon it.


title: Wicca

text: The scholar of religion Joanne Pearson noted that in her experience, most Wiccans take a "realistic view of living in the real world" replete with its many problems and do not claim that the gods "have all the answers" to these. She suggested that Wiccans do not claim to seek perfection but instead "wholeness" or "completeness", which includes an acceptance of traits like anger, weakness, and pain. She contrasted the Wiccan acceptance of an "interplay between light and dark" against the New Age focus on "white light". Similarly, the scholar of religion Geoffrey Samuel noted that Wiccans devote "a perhaps surprising amount of attention to darkness and death."


title: Wicca

text: Many traditions hold a belief in the five classical elements, although they are seen as symbolic representations of the phases of matter. These five elements are invoked during many magical rituals, notably when consecrating a magic circle. The five elements are air, fire, water, earth, and aether (or spirit), where aether unites the other four elements. Various analogies have been devised to explain the concept of the five elements; for instance, the Wiccan Ann-Marie Gallagher used that of a tree, which is composed of earth (with the soil and plant matter), water (sap and moisture), fire (through photosynthesis) and air (the formation of oxygen from carbon dioxide), all of which are believed to be united through spirit.


title: Wicca

text: Traditionally in the Gardnerian Craft, each element has been associated with a cardinal point of the compass; air with east, fire with south, water with west, earth with north, and the spirit with centre. However, some Wiccans, such as Frederic Lamond, have claimed that the set cardinal points are only those applicable to the geography of southern England, where Wicca evolved, and that Wiccans should determine which directions best suit each element in their region. For instance, those living on the east coast of North America should invoke water in the east and not the west because the colossal body of water, the Atlantic ocean, is to their east. Other Craft groups have associated the elements with different cardinal points, for instance Robert Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain associated earth with south, fire with east, water with west and air with north, and each of which were controlled over by a different deity who were seen as children of the primary Horned God and Goddess. The five elements are symbolised by the five points of the pentagram, the most prominently used symbol of Wicca.


title: Wicca

text: The Wiccan high priestess and journalist Margot Adler stated that Wiccan rituals were not "dry, formalised, repetitive experiences", but performed with the intent of inducing a religious experience in the participants, thereby altering their consciousness. She noted that many Wiccans remain skeptical about the existence of the supernatural but remain involved in Wicca because of its ritual experiences: she quoted one as saying that "I love myth, dream, visionary art. The Craft is a place where all of these things fit together – beauty, pageantry, music, dance, song, dream." The Wiccan practitioner and historian Aidan Kelly claimed that the practices and experiences within Wicca were more important than the beliefs, stating: "it's a religion of ritual rather than theology. The ritual is first; the myth is second." Similarly, Adler stated that Wicca permits "total skepticism about even its own methods, myths and rituals".


title: Wicca

text: The anthropologist Susan Greenwood characterised Wiccan rituals as "a form of resistance to mainstream culture". She saw these rituals as "a healing space away from the ills of the wider culture", one in which female practitioners can "redefine and empower themselves."


title: Wicca

text: Wiccan rituals usually take place in private. The Reclaiming tradition has utilised its rituals for political purposes.


title: Wicca

text: Many rituals within Wicca are used when celebrating the Sabbats, worshipping the deities, and working magic. Often these take place on a full moon, or in some cases a new moon, which is known as an Esbat. In typical rites, the coven or solitary assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle. Casting the circle may involve the invocation of the "Guardians" of the cardinal points, alongside their respective classical elements; air, fire, water, and earth. Once the circle is cast, a seasonal ritual may be performed, prayers to the God and Goddess are said, and spells are sometimes worked; these may include various forms of 'raising energy', including raising a cone of power to send healing or other magic to persons outside of the sacred space.


title: Wicca

text: In constructing his ritual system, Gardner drew upon older forms of ceremonial magic, in particular, those found in the writings of Aleister Crowley.


title: Wicca

text: These rites often include a special set of magical tools. These usually include a knife called an athame, a wand, a pentacle and a chalice, but other tools include a broomstick known as a besom, a cauldron, candles, incense and a curved blade known as a boline. An altar is usually present in the circle, on which ritual tools are placed and representations of the God and the Goddess may be displayed. Before entering the circle, some traditions fast for the day, and/or ritually bathe. After a ritual has finished, the God, Goddess, and Guardians are thanked, the directions are dismissed and the circle is closed.


title: Wicca

text: A central aspect of Wicca (particularly in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca), often sensationalised by the media is the traditional practice of working in the nude, also known as "skyclad". Although no longer widely used, this practice seemingly derives from a line in "Aradia", Charles Leland's supposed record of Italian witchcraft. Many Wiccans believe that performing rituals skyclad allows "power" to flow from the body in a manner unimpeded by clothes. Some also note that it removes signs of social rank and differentiation and thus encourages unity among the practitioners. Some Wiccans seek legitimacy for the practice by stating that various ancient societies performed their rituals while nude.


title: Wicca

text: One of Wicca's best known liturgical texts is "The Charge of the Goddess". The most commonly used version used by Wiccans today is the rescension of Doreen Valiente, who developed it from Gardner's version. Gardner's wording of the original "Charge" added extracts from Aleister Crowley's work, including "The Book of the Law", (especially from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess) thus linking modern Wicca irrevocably to the principles of Thelema. Valiente rewrote Gardner's version in verse, keeping the material derived from "Aradia", but removing the material from Crowley.


title: Wicca

text: Other traditions wear robes with cords tied around the waist or even normal street clothes. In certain traditions, ritualised sex magic is performed in the form of the Great Rite, whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess to possess them before performing sexual intercourse to raise magical energy for use in spellwork. In nearly all cases it is instead performed "in token", thereby merely symbolically, using the athame to symbolise the penis and the chalice to symbolise the womb.


title: Wicca

text: Gerald Gardner, the man many consider the father of Wicca, believed strongly in sex magic. Much of Gardner's witch practice centered around the power of sex and its liberation, and that one of the most important aspects of the neo-Pagan revival has been its ties, not just to sexual liberation, but also to feminism and women's liberation.


title: Wicca

text: For some Wiccans, the ritual space is a "space of resistance, in which the sexual morals of Christianity and patriarchy can be subverted", and for this reason they have adopted techniques from the BDSM subculture into their rituals.


title: Wicca

text: Publicly, many Wiccan groups have tended to excise the role of sex magic from their image. This has served both to escape the tabloid sensationalism that has targeted the religion since the 1950s and the concerns surrounding the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria in the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Wicca

text: Some Wiccan Traditions substitute a Communion style rite in honor of the God and Goddess rather than the symbolic Great Rite in their Esbat ritual.


title: Wicca

text: Wiccans celebrate several seasonal festivals of the year, commonly known as Sabbats. Collectively, these occasions are termed the Wheel of the Year. Most Wiccans celebrate a set of eight of these Sabbats; however, other groups such as those associated with the Clan of Tubal Cain only follow four. In the rare case of the Ros an Bucca group from Cornwall, only six are adhered to. The four Sabbats that are common to all British derived groups are the cross-quarter days, sometimes referred to as "Greater Sabbats". The names of these festivals are in some cases taken from the Old Irish fire festivals and the Welsh God Mabon, though in most traditional Wiccan covens the only commonality with the Celtic festival is the name. Gardner himself made use of the English names of these holidays, stating that "the four great Sabbats are Candlemass, May Eve, Lammas, and Halloween; the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated also." In the Egyptologist Margaret Murray's "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe" (1921) and "The God of the Witches" (1933), in which she dealt with what she believed had been a historical Witch-Cult, she stated that the four main festivals had survived Christianisation and had been celebrated in the Pagan Witchcraft religion. Subsequently, when Wicca was first developing in the 1930s through to the 1960s, many of the early groups, such as Robert Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain and Gerald Gardner's Bricket Wood coven adopted the commemoration of these four Sabbats as described by Murray.


title: Wicca

text: The other four festivals commemorated by many Wiccans are known as "Lesser Sabbats". They are the solstices and the equinoxes, and they were only adopted in 1958 by members of the Bricket Wood coven, before they were subsequently adopted by other followers of the Gardnerian tradition. They were eventually adopted by followers of other traditions like Alexandrian Wicca and the Dianic tradition. The names of these holidays that are commonly used today are often taken from Germanic pagan holidays. However, the festivals are not reconstructive in nature nor do they often resemble their historical counterparts, instead, they exhibit a form of universalism. The rituals that are observed may display cultural influences from the holidays from which they take their names as well as influences from other unrelated cultures.


title: Wicca

text: Various rites of passage can be found within Wicca. Perhaps the most significant of these is an initiation ritual, through which somebody joins the Craft and becomes a Wiccan. In British Traditional Wiccan traditions, there is a line of initiatory descent that goes back to Gerald Gardner, and from him is said to go back to the New Forest coven; however, the existence of this coven remains unproven. Gardner himself claimed that there was a traditional length of "a year and a day" between when a person began studying the Craft and when they were initiated, although he frequently broke this rule with initiates.


title: Wicca

text: In BTW, initiation only accepts someone into the first degree. To proceed to the second degree, an initiate has to go through another ceremony, in which they name and describe the uses of the ritual tools and implements. It is also at this ceremony that they are given their craft name. By holding the rank of second degree, a BTW is considered capable of initiating others into the Craft, or founding their own semi-autonomous covens. The third degree is the highest in BTW, and it involves the participation of the Great Rite, either actual or symbolically, and in some cases ritual flagellation, which is a rite often dispensed with due to its sado-masochistic overtones. By holding this rank, an initiate is considered capable of forming covens that are entirely autonomous of their parent coven.


title: Wicca

text: According to new-age religious scholar James R. Lewis, in his book "Witchcraft today: an encyclopaedia of Wiccan and neopagan traditions", a high priestess becomes a queen when she has successfully hived off her first new coven under a new third-degree high priestess (in the orthodox Gardnerian system). She then becomes eligible to wear the "moon crown". The sequence of high priestess and queens traced back to Gerald Gardner is known as a lineage, and every orthodox Gardnerian High Priestess has a set of "lineage papers" proving the authenticity of her status.


title: Wicca

text: This three-tier degree system following initiation is largely unique to BTW, and traditions heavily based upon it. The Cochranian tradition, which is not BTW, but based upon the teachings of Robert Cochrane, does not have the three degrees of initiation, merely having the stages of novice and initiate.


title: Wicca

text: Some solitary Wiccans also perform self-initiation rituals, to dedicate themselves to becoming a Wiccan. The first of these to be published was in Paul Huson's "Mastering Witchcraft" (1970), and unusually involved recitation of the Lord's Prayer backwards as a symbol of defiance against the historical Witch Hunt. Subsequent, more overtly pagan self-initiation rituals have since been published in books designed for solitary Wiccans by authors like Doreen Valiente, Scott Cunningham and Silver RavenWolf.


title: Wicca

text: Handfasting is another celebration held by Wiccans, and is the commonly used term for their weddings. Some Wiccans observe the practice of a trial marriage for a year and a day, which some traditions hold should be contracted on the Sabbat of Lughnasadh, as this was the traditional time for trial, "Telltown marriages" among the Irish. A common marriage vow in Wicca is "for as long as love lasts" instead of the traditional Christian "till death do us part". The first known Wiccan wedding ceremony took part in 1960 amongst the Bricket Wood coven, between Frederic Lamond and his first wife, Gillian.


title: Wicca

text: Infants in Wiccan families may be involved in a ritual called a Wiccaning, which is analogous to a Christening. The purpose of this is to present the infant to the God and Goddess for protection. Parents are advised to "give children the gift of Wicca" in a manner suitable to their age. In accordance with the importance put on free will in Wicca, the child is not expected or required to adhere to Wicca or other forms of paganism should they not wish to do so when they reach adulthood.


title: Wicca

text: In Wicca, there is no set sacred text such as the Christian Bible, Jewish Tanakh, or Islamic Quran, although there are certain scriptures and texts that various traditions hold to be important and influence their beliefs and practices. Gerald Gardner used a book containing many different texts in his covens, known as the Book of Shadows (among other names), which he would frequently add to and adapt. In his Book of Shadows, there are texts taken from various sources, including Charles Godfrey Leland's "Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches" (1899) and the works of 19th–20th century occultist Aleister Crowley, whom Gardner knew personally. Also in the Book are examples of poetry largely composed by Gardner and his High Priestess Doreen Valiente, the most notable of which is the "Charge of the Goddess".