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Category: Health

Covid-19 has killed more law enforcement officers this year than all other causes combined

Covid-19 has killed more law enforcement officers this year than all other causes combined

CNN reports: More police officers have died from Covid-19 this year than have been killed on patrol. That’s according to the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), a nonprofit organization that tracks law enforcement fatalities in the line of duty. At least 101 officers have died from Covid-19, while at least 82 have died by other means, as of Thursday, according to ODMP. The organization is working to verify an additional some 150 officers who are presumed to have died after…

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Women are more effective leaders than men in tackling the pandemic, the data shows

Women are more effective leaders than men in tackling the pandemic, the data shows

By Supriya Garikipati, University of Liverpool and Uma S Kambhampati, University of Reading Over the last few months, there has been much discussion of leadership during the pandemic. What constitutes good leadership? Who has performed better and which countries have been worse? One pattern that emerged early on was that female leaders were seen to have handled the crisis remarkably well. Whether it has been New Zealand under Jacinda Ardern or Taiwan under the presidency of Tsai Ing-Wen or Germany…

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Seven out of ten new coronavirus cases are emerging in red states

Seven out of ten new coronavirus cases are emerging in red states

Philip Bump writes: It’s hard to overstate the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has been saturated with partisan politics. Simple recommendations like wearing a face mask have been recast as acts of devout patriotism or as mandates for fealty to an insidious federal government. It’s a direct and indirect function of the president: Everything President Trump touches becomes partisan, both intentionally and not, and Trump’s got his hands all over the pandemic. We are therefore no longer surprised when…

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Tactics of fiery White House trade adviser draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel

Tactics of fiery White House trade adviser draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel

The Washington Post reports: Amid the Trump administration’s troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic, senior White House aide Peter Navarro has refashioned himself as a powerful government purchasing chief, operating far beyond his original role as an adviser on trade policy. But U.S. officials say the abrasive figure’s shortcomings as a manager could influence how well prepared the United States is for a second wave of coronavirus infections expected this fall. Navarro’s harsh manner and disregard for protocol have alienated…

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Will a Covid-19 vaccine be rushed through FDA approval this fall?

Will a Covid-19 vaccine be rushed through FDA approval this fall?

STAT reports: There is growing concern that the Food and Drug Administration, under political pressure, could approve a Covid-19 vaccine before it has robust safety and efficacy data. The consequences of such a decision could be significant, particularly if the vaccine is ultimately shown to be less effective than early data suggest. But an approval before the completion of large, Phase 3 trials does not have to be problematic. Experts aren’t ruling out the possibility that a vaccine could be…

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U.S. says it won’t join global effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine

U.S. says it won’t join global effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved, a decision that could shape the course of the pandemic and the country’s role in health diplomacy. More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development and secure doses for all countries and…

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White House covered up Covid-19 public health risks while privately warning states of the threat

White House covered up Covid-19 public health risks while privately warning states of the threat

Politico reports: Senior Trump administration officials in June privately warned seven states about dangerous coronavirus outbreaks that put them in the highest risk “red zone” while publicly dismissing concerns about a second wave of Covid-19, according to White House documents House Democrats released on Monday. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released eight weeks of previously confidential reports obtained from the White House coronavirus task force that Democrats said showed the administration acting over the summer to willfully…

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New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials

New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials

The Washington Post reports: One of President Trump’s top medical advisers is urging the White House to embrace a controversial “herd immunity” strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The administration has already begun to implement some policies along these lines,…

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Ayahuasca helps traumatized war veterans rediscover their humanity

Ayahuasca helps traumatized war veterans rediscover their humanity

The New York Times reports: Before their first ayahuasca ceremony, the veterans met individually with two Peruvian “maestros,” or healers, from the Shipibo community in Peru. “Their hearts are hardened,” said Teobaldo Ochavano, who helps run the nighttime ceremonies alongside his wife, Marina Sinti. “They seemed unable to experience love or joy.” Ms. Sinti said years of interacting with foreigners on retreats had made it painfully clear why these rituals are in such high demand. “People in the United States…

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Inside Trump’s pressure campaign on federal scientists over a covid-19 treatment

Inside Trump’s pressure campaign on federal scientists over a covid-19 treatment

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s accusatory tweet barreled in at 7:49 a.m. a week ago Saturday: The “deep state” at the Food and Drug Administration was trying to sandbag his election prospects by slowing progress on coronavirus treatments and vaccines until after Nov. 3. Shocked and upset, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who was tagged in the tweet, immediately began calling his contacts at the White House to find out why the president was angry. During his conversations, he mentioned…

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The usual diagnostic tests may simply be too sensitive and too slow to contain the spread of the coronavirus

The usual diagnostic tests may simply be too sensitive and too slow to contain the spread of the coronavirus

The New York Times reports: Some of the nation’s leading public health experts are raising a new concern in the endless debate over coronavirus testing in the United States: The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus. Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time. But researchers say the…

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Reports of several cases of Covid-19 reinfection — but the implications are complicated

Reports of several cases of Covid-19 reinfection — but the implications are complicated

STAT reports: Following the news this week of what appears to have been the first confirmed case of a Covid-19 reinfection, other researchers have been coming forward with their own reports. One in Belgium, another in the Netherlands. And now, one in Nevada. What caught experts’ attention about the case of the 25-year-old Reno man was not that he appears to have contracted SARS-CoV-2 (the name of the virus that causes Covid-19) a second time. Rather, it’s that his second…

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University of Arizona says it caught a dorm’s covid-19 outbreak before it started by screening sewage

University of Arizona says it caught a dorm’s covid-19 outbreak before it started by screening sewage

The Washington Post reports: As 5,000 students prepared for move-in day at the University of Arizona this week, the school warned they would be tested periodically for the coronavirus. One test, though, doesn’t involve a nose swab. The university is regularly screening the sewage from each dorm, searching for traces of the virus. On Thursday, officials said the technique worked — and possibly prevented a sizable outbreak on campus. When a wastewater sample from one dorm came back positive this…

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Cloth masks do protect the wearer – breathing in less coronavirus means you get less sick

Cloth masks do protect the wearer – breathing in less coronavirus means you get less sick

When people wear masks, they can still get infected, but they’re more likely to have milder symptoms. Wenmei Zhou/Digital Vision Vectors via Getty Images By Monica Gandhi, University of California, San Francisco Masks slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by reducing how much infected people spray the virus into the environment around them when they cough or talk. Evidence from laboratory experiments, hospitals and whole countries show that masks work, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends face coverings…

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CDC makes ‘potentially dangerous’ guidelines change for people exposed to coronavirus

CDC makes ‘potentially dangerous’ guidelines change for people exposed to coronavirus

The New York Times reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus. Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious. Models suggest that about half of transmission events can be…

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How Mike Pence slowed down the coronavirus response

How Mike Pence slowed down the coronavirus response

Politico reports: Mike Pence had just accepted the biggest assignment of his political life, overseeing the nation’s response to the emerging Covid-19 virus, when White House officials confronted the vice president with an urgent question: what to do about the cruise ships? It was the last weekend of February, and the nation’s top health officials had concluded that cruise lines were a major factor in spreading the virus — each vessel a potential hothouse of invisible infections. Hundreds of passengers…

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