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Category: Health

EPA approved toxic chemicals for fracking a decade ago, new files show

EPA approved toxic chemicals for fracking a decade ago, new files show

The New York Times reports: For much of the past decade, oil companies engaged in drilling and fracking have been allowed to pump into the ground chemicals that, over time, can break down into toxic substances known as PFAS — a class of long-lasting compounds known to pose a threat to people and wildlife — according to internal documents from the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. in 2011 approved the use of these chemicals, used to ease the flow of…

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‘Surprising amount of death’ will soon occur in U.S. regions with low vaccination rates, expert says

‘Surprising amount of death’ will soon occur in U.S. regions with low vaccination rates, expert says

CNN reports: As the Delta variant rapidly spreads, US hot spots have seen climbing case numbers — and an expert warns a “surprising amount of death” from Covid-19 could soon follow. The US is averaging about 19,455 new cases over the last seven days, a 47% increase from the week prior, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And a third of those, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said, come from five hot spots: Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and…

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Let’s put community health workers to work

Let’s put community health workers to work

By Miya Barnett, Knowable Magazine It’s no secret that the US health system is less than ideal, and that it is time to think outside the box. Some researchers are starting to evaluate one innovative solution for improving health care — community health workers (CHWs).  In 2017, researchers published the results of a study that included 300 of some of the most disadvantaged patients in Philadelphia — residents of high-poverty neighborhoods who had at least two chronic health issues, such as hypertension and…

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When bacteria kill us, it’s more accident than assassination

When bacteria kill us, it’s more accident than assassination

Ed Yong writes: The classic novel by H G Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898) – a tale of England besieged by Martian conquerors – ends not with a rousing and heroic victory but an accidental one. The aliens subjugate humanity with heat rays and black smoke but, at the height of their victory, they die. Their machines come to a standstill amid the ruins of a deserted London, and the birds pick at their rotting remains. The cause…

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FDA calls for federal investigation into its controversial Alzheimer’s drug approval

FDA calls for federal investigation into its controversial Alzheimer’s drug approval

STAT reports: The head of the Food and Drug Administration has called for a wide-ranging federal investigation into the approval of Biogen’s treatment for Alzheimer’s disease just one month after a decision that sparked the ire of lawmakers, doctors, and public health advocates. In a letter posted Friday, acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock asked the independent Office of Inspector General to investigate how agency staff interacted with Biogen in the run-up to the June 7 approval of Aduhelm. The agency cited…

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How marginalized communities in the South are paying the price for ‘green energy’ in Europe

How marginalized communities in the South are paying the price for ‘green energy’ in Europe

CNN reports: Andrea Macklin never turns off his TV. It’s the only way to drown out the noise from the wood mill bordering his backyard, the jackhammer sound of the plant piercing his walls and windows. The 18-wheelers carrying logs rumble by less than 100 feet from his house, all day and night, shaking it as if an earthquake has taken over this tranquil corner of North Carolina. He’s been wearing masks since long before the coronavirus pandemic, just to…

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Covid has become a disease of the unvaccinated

Covid has become a disease of the unvaccinated

Nature reports: On 21 June, Israel’s Ministry of Health recommended that all individuals aged 12–15 be vaccinated against COVID-19 — making the nation one of the few that have so far approved vaccinations for younger adolescents. The decision came in response to a trend that many countries with high rates of vaccination are experiencing: an ever-increasing proportion of new infections are in younger age groups. Israel’s swift vaccination campaign — which has now reached more than 85% of the adult…

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Delta variant said to be far more widespread than federal estimates

Delta variant said to be far more widespread than federal estimates

Politico reports: The more-transmissible Delta coronavirus variant is believed to be significantly more widespread than the current federal projections, according to two senior Biden administration health officials with knowledge of the situation. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released late Tuesday shows the Delta strain accounted for more than 51 percent of new Covid-19 cases from June 20 to July 3. But the reality on the ground is likely much higher because states and private labs are taking weeks…

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Global experts urge Boris Johnson to delay ‘dangerous’ Covid reopening

Global experts urge Boris Johnson to delay ‘dangerous’ Covid reopening

The Guardian reports: Lifting the remaining Covid restrictions in England this month is “dangerous and premature”, according to international scientists and doctors, who have called on the UK government to pause reopening until more people are vaccinated. Writing in the Lancet, more than 100 global experts warn that removing restrictions on 19 July will cause millions of infections and risk creating a generation with chronic health problems and disability from long Covid, the impact of which may be felt for…

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Covid origins mirror SARS’s genesis in animals, study finds

Covid origins mirror SARS’s genesis in animals, study finds

Bloomberg reports: Early Covid-19 cases traced to markets in Wuhan, China, mirror the initial spread of SARS 17 years earlier, scientists said in a paper that concludes that an animal contagion is the most likely explanation for the pandemic’s genesis. The epidemiological history of SARS-CoV-2 is comparable to previous animal market-associated outbreaks of coronaviruses and offers a simple route for human exposure, Edward Holmes, Andrew Rambaut and 19 other researchers said Wednesday in a review of the scientific evidence pertaining…

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‘Social’ mitochondria, communicating between cells, influence health

‘Social’ mitochondria, communicating between cells, influence health

Katarina Zimmer writes: During his doctoral research on the ties between aging and mitochondria, Martin Picard frequently saw micrographs of those energy-producing organelles. Yet it wasn’t until fairly late in his graduate work that he first watched sped-up video of mitochondria moving inside live human cells, and the sight came as a revelation. Tagged with fluorescent dye, the mitochondria were neon squiggles crawling through the soupy interior of the cells — stretching and contracting, fusing together and splitting up again,…

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Surging global food prices put staple meals out of reach

Surging global food prices put staple meals out of reach

The Washington Post reports: A year of coronavirus pandemic saw a pot of jollof rice grow steadily more expensive in the Nigerian suburb of Nyanya. At Nyanya Market, near Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the price of the rice that forms the base for the dish went up by 10 percent. A small tin of tomatoes? Twenty-nine percent costlier. And the onions? Their price jumped by a third, according to a Nigerian research firm. Surging consumer food prices are a local problem…

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Birthday parties as virus vector

Birthday parties as virus vector

Margot Sanger-Katz writes: At the height of the pandemic, it was easy to worry that strangers would give you the virus. But a new study of what happened after people’s birthdays suggests that people we trust were also a common source of viral spread. Private gatherings have been harder for researchers to measure than big public events — they’re private, after all. And there has been a fierce debate for months among epidemiologists about just how big a factor they…

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The divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated America

The divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated America

Sarah Zhang writes: Last winter, when vaccines were still incredibly scarce in the United States, Ashish Jha told The Atlantic that he was feeling optimistic about summer: By July 4, Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, expected enough people to be vaccinated that he could host a backyard barbecue. Indeed, Jha confirmed to me this week, he will be grilling burgers and hot dogs for friends this Fourth of July. He had predicted back in…

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Calls grow for an investigation into FDA approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug

Calls grow for an investigation into FDA approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug

STAT reports: Former health secretary Donna Shalala called for a federal investigation into the Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing approval of a Biogen treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, citing STAT’s revelation Tuesday that regulators were far more closely aligned with the company than previously disclosed. “When you see a report like this, you have to investigate it,” said Shalala, a former member of Congress who led the Department of Health and Human Services under President Clinton. “You cannot hesitate and you…

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Inside the risky bat-virus engineering that links America to Wuhan

Inside the risky bat-virus engineering that links America to Wuhan

Rowan Jacobsen writes: In 2013, the American virologist Ralph Baric approached Zhengli Shi at a meeting. Baric was a top expert in coronaviruses, with hundreds of papers to his credit, and Shi, along with her team at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had been discovering them by the fistful in bat caves. In one sample of bat guano, Shi had detected the genome of a new virus, called SHC014, that was one of the two closest relatives to the original…

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