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Category: Health

Free beer offer in Buffalo results in more vaccinations than all Erie County, NY first-dose clinics last week

Free beer offer in Buffalo results in more vaccinations than all Erie County, NY first-dose clinics last week

The Buffalo News reports: The idea of getting vaccinated had been rolling around in the back of Tyler Morsch’s mind for weeks. As a 28-year-old, he didn’t feel in any particular danger, but he finally decided he should start looking for a Covid-19 vaccination clinic this week. Then he heard the magic words. “Free beer,” he said. Saturday was the first day that Erie County worked with a local microbrewery to host its Shot and a Chaser program, offering individuals…

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Why did it take so long for Covid aerosol transmission to be officially confirmed?

Why did it take so long for Covid aerosol transmission to be officially confirmed?

Zeynep Tufekci writes: A few sentences have shaken a century of science. A week ago, more than a year after the World Health Organization declared that we face a pandemic, a page on its website titled “Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): How Is It Transmitted?” got a seemingly small update. The agency’s response to that question had been that “current evidence suggests that the main way the virus spreads is by respiratory droplets” — which are expelled from the mouth and quickly…

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Stopping drug patents has stopped pandemics before

Stopping drug patents has stopped pandemics before

Laurie Garrett writes: U.S. President Joe Biden’s waiver of patent protections for U.S.-made COVID-19 drugs and vaccines is a historic milestone and a moral imperative. It is also an overdue acknowledgement of recent experiences. Contrary to prognostications from the pharmaceutical sector that side-stepping the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) component of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will mark the death knell of the drug industry, the world’s response to HIV/AIDS long ago demonstrated that patents stymie accessible treatment,…

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If we want to save the planet, the future of food is insects

If we want to save the planet, the future of food is insects

Richard Godwin writes: My first attempts at feeding insects to friends and family did not go down well. “What the hell is wrong with you?” asked my wife when I revealed that the tomato and oregano-flavoured cracker bites we had been munching with our G&Ts were made from crickets. “Hang on, I’m vegetarian!” cried our friend – which prompted a slightly testy discussion on whether insects count as meat, how many thousand arthropods equate to one mammal and considering almost…

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India is hiding its Covid crisis – and the whole world will suffer for it

India is hiding its Covid crisis – and the whole world will suffer for it

Ankita Rao writes: A few years ago, as Narendra Modi came into power, I worked on an investigative report about India hiding its malaria deaths. In traveling from tribal Odisha to the Indian national health ministry in New Delhi, my colleague and I watched thousands of cases disappear: some malaria deaths, first noted in handwritten local health ledgers, never appeared in central government reports; other malaria deaths were magically transformed into deaths of heart attack or fever. The discrepancy was…

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New study estimates more than 900,000 people have died from Covid in U.S.

New study estimates more than 900,000 people have died from Covid in U.S.

NPR reports: A new study estimates that the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is more than 900,000, a number 57% higher than official figures. Worldwide, the study’s authors say, the COVID-19 death count is nearing 7 million, more than double the reported number of 3.24 million. The analysis comes from researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, who looked at excess mortality from March 2020 through May 3, 2021,…

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U.S. support for Covid vaccine patent waivers puts pressure on EU and UK

U.S. support for Covid vaccine patent waivers puts pressure on EU and UK

Sarah Boseley writes: It was a “seismic decision” by Joe Biden, the US president, say campaigners who have fought for the demolition of patent protection on vaccines and drugs for decades. The US administration has amazed supporters and critics alike by throwing its considerable weight behind the pleas of South Africa, India and about 100 developing countries at the World Trade Organization to overturn patents on Covid vaccines in the interests of getting more of them, more cheaply and faster,…

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‘Turning the corner’: U.S. Covid outlook reaches most hopeful point yet

‘Turning the corner’: U.S. Covid outlook reaches most hopeful point yet

The New York Times reports: After weeks of coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spot in the nation, hospitalizations are finally falling. On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new coronavirus deaths — a brief but promising respite from the onslaught of the past year. And in New York and Chicago, officials encouraged by the recent progress have confidently vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks, conjuring…

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Covid in Varanasi: Anger rises as coronavirus rages in Modi’s constituency

Covid in Varanasi: Anger rises as coronavirus rages in Modi’s constituency

BBC News reports: City residents say the first signs of trouble became visible in March. As cases spiked in Delhi and Mumbai and authorities there began imposing restrictions, migrant workers began returning home to their villages in and around Varanasi [whose MP, Narendra Modi, is India’s prime minister] on overcrowded trains, buses and trucks. Many came home for the Holi festival on 29 March or to vote in the village council elections on 18 April – held against advice from…

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Once a Covid hotspot, Italian village now intrigues researchers with ‘super-immune’ cases

Once a Covid hotspot, Italian village now intrigues researchers with ‘super-immune’ cases

NBC News reports: Paola Bezzon thought her sniffles in December were just a seasonal cold until a serology test months later found coronavirus antibodies in her blood. And not just normal levels of antibodies. Researchers say she is “super-immune” — a person whose body seems to make more antibodies than normal. “I don’t know why I have all these antibodies, but they are such a lifeline for me,” she said. “They make me feel safe even though I haven’t had…

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Reaching ‘herd immunity’ is unlikely in the U.S., experts now believe

Reaching ‘herd immunity’ is unlikely in the U.S., experts now believe

The New York Times reports: Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term “herd immunity” came to signify the endgame: the point when enough Americans would be protected from the virus so we could be rid of the pathogen and reclaim our lives. Now, more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are…

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Why are millions of Americans saying no to vaccines?

Why are millions of Americans saying no to vaccines?

Derek Thompson writes: Several days ago, the mega-popular podcast host Joe Rogan advised his young listeners to skip the COVID-19 vaccine. “I think you should get vaccinated if you’re vulnerable,” Rogan said. “But if you’re 21 years old, and you say to me, ‘Should I get vaccinated?’ I’ll go, ‘No.’” Rogan’s comments drew widespread condemnation. But his view is surprisingly common. One in four Americans says they don’t plan to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and about half of Republicans under…

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We still don’t know who the coronavirus’s victims were

We still don’t know who the coronavirus’s victims were

Ibram X. Kendi writes: To reflect on the racial pandemic of the past year is to reflect on the ravages of multiple viruses, all mutating from the original American virus: racism. People of color—already forced into the shadows of society—were infected, hospitalized, impoverished, and killed at the highest rates by COVID-19. All the while, they received the fewest medical and economic protections—prolonging, deepening, and spreading their suffering. The groups of people who suffered the most from COVID-19 in the United…

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With citizens desperate for oxygen, India’s politicians deny there’s even a problem

With citizens desperate for oxygen, India’s politicians deny there’s even a problem

Reuters reports: A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters. Despite the warning, four of the scientists said the federal government did not seek to impose major restrictions to stop the spread of the virus. Millions of largely unmasked people attended religious festivals and political rallies that…

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Severe Covid in young people can mostly be explained by obesity – new study

Severe Covid in young people can mostly be explained by obesity – new study

By Nerys M Astbury, University of Oxford; Carmen Piernas, University of Oxford, and Min GAO, University of Oxford From the start of the pandemic, it was clear that some people who were infected with the coronavirus were experiencing more severe illness, which increased their chances of being hospitalised, admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) or dying. As we age, a weaker immune system and chronic health conditions could influence the way our body responds to the virus. Indeed, age…

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Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

Scientific American reports: Since the novel coronavirus began its global spread, influenza cases reported to the World Health Organization have dropped to minuscule levels. The reason, epidemiologists think, is that the public health measures taken to keep the coronavirus from spreading also stop the flu. Influenza viruses are transmitted in much the same way as SARS-CoV-2, but they are less effective at jumping from host to host. As Scientific American reported last fall, the drop-off in flu numbers was both…

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