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Category: Health

Amid threats and political pushback, public health officials are leaving their posts

Amid threats and political pushback, public health officials are leaving their posts

The Washington Post reports: For Lauri Jones, the trouble began in early May. The director of a small public health department in Washington state was working with a family under quarantine because of coronavirus exposure. When she heard one family member had been out in the community, Jones decided to check in. The routine phone call launched a nightmare. “Someone posted on social media that we had violated their civil liberties [and] named me by name,” Jones recalled. “They said,…

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How many needless Covid-19 deaths were caused by delays in responding? Most of them

How many needless Covid-19 deaths were caused by delays in responding? Most of them

Isaac Sebenius and James K. Sebenius write: More than 120,000 Americans have now perished from Covid-19, surpassing the total number of U.S. dead during World War I. Had American leaders taken the decisive, early measures that several other nations took when they had exactly the same information the U.S. did, at exactly the same time in their experience of the novel coronavirus, how many of these Covid-19 deaths could have been prevented? That isn’t a hypothetical question. And the answer…

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N.Y.C. hired 3,000 workers for contact tracing. It’s off to a slow start

N.Y.C. hired 3,000 workers for contact tracing. It’s off to a slow start

The New York Times reports: New York City’s ambitious contact-tracing program, a crucial initiative in the effort to curb the coronavirus, has gotten off to a worrisome start just as the city’s reopening enters a new phase on Monday, with outdoor dining, in-store shopping and office work resuming. The city has hired 3,000 disease detectives and case monitors, who are supposed to identify anyone who has come into contact with the hundreds of people who are still testing positive for…

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In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm

In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm

The Washington Post reports: As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored. “It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,” said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has…

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You may have antibodies after coronavirus infection. But not for long

You may have antibodies after coronavirus infection. But not for long

The New York Times reports: It’s a question that has haunted scientists since the pandemic began: Does everyone infected with the virus produce antibodies — and if so, how long do they last? Not very long, suggests a new study published Thursday in Nature Medicine. Antibodies — protective proteins made in response to an infection — may last only two to three months, especially in people who never showed symptoms while they were infected. The conclusion does not necessarily mean…

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COVID-19’s deadliness for men is revealing why researchers should have been studying immune system sex differences years ago

COVID-19’s deadliness for men is revealing why researchers should have been studying immune system sex differences years ago

Reports show that the mortality rate among men with COVID-19 is higher than women. Marco Mantovani/Getty Images By Adam Moeser, Michigan State University When it comes to surviving critical cases of COVID-19, it appears that men draw the short straw. Initial reports from China revealed the early evidence of increased male mortality associated with COVID. According to the Global Health 50/50 research initiative, nearly every country is now reporting significantly higher COVID-19-related mortality rates in males than in females as…

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Coronavirus cases rise sharply in prisons even as they plateau nationwide

Coronavirus cases rise sharply in prisons even as they plateau nationwide

The New York Times reports: Cases of the coronavirus in prisons and jails across the United States have soared in recent weeks, even as the overall daily infection rate in the nation has remained relatively flat. The number of prison inmates known to be infected has doubled during the past month to more than 68,000. Prison deaths tied to the coronavirus have also risen, by 73 percent since mid-May. By now, the five largest known clusters of the virus in…

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In Tulsa, Trump invites his followers inside a coronavirus petri dish

In Tulsa, Trump invites his followers inside a coronavirus petri dish

Virginia Heffernan writes: President Trump’s zeal for rally mode is rising almost as steeply as coronavirus cases in Tulsa, Okla., where his campaign plans to hold a little get-together on Saturday. The weather in Tulsa is expected to be muggy and nearly 90 degrees, with a high chance of thunder and lightning. You don’t say. “Bad idea” doesn’t begin to capture how reckless and vicious it is to pack an arena on a steamy night with thousands of rambunctious hotheads…

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Drinking water: Trump administration drops planned limit for toxin that damages infant brains

Drinking water: Trump administration drops planned limit for toxin that damages infant brains

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration on Thursday rejected imposing federal drinking-water limits for a chemical used in fireworks and other explosives and linked to brain damage in newborns, opting to override Obama administration findings that the neurotoxin was contaminating the drinking water of millions of Americans. The contaminant is perchlorate, a component in rocket fuel, ammunition and other explosives, including fireworks. The Associated Press found one high-profile example of that on Thursday, reviewing a 2016 U.S. Geological Survey…

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The invisible world of airborne particles

The invisible world of airborne particles

The New York Times reports: When Linsey Marr’s son started attending day care 12 years ago, she noticed that he kept getting sick with the sniffles and other minor illnesses. But unlike most parents, Dr. Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech, tried to figure out why. “When I’d pick him up, I’d find out that more than half the kids in the room were sick too,” said Dr. Marr. “I was really curious, and wondered, if it was spreading…

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Rising Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations underscore the long road ahead

Rising Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations underscore the long road ahead

STAT reports: The U.S. is now confronting what public health experts have been warning about but many in the public had not absorbed: the coronavirus pandemic will be with us for many months, and lapses in vigilance will lead to more sickness and death. The country as a whole is tacking on about 20,000 new Covid-19 cases to its 2.1 million infection tally each day, a clip that’s been steady for weeks, according to STAT’s Covid-19 Tracker. But cases are…

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People of color account for majority of coronavirus infections, new CDC study says

People of color account for majority of coronavirus infections, new CDC study says

Yahoo News reports: African-Americans and Latinos are vastly overrepresented when it comes to coronavirus infections, according to an analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday morning. The findings provide additional confirmation that, as the CDC’s own report says, black and brown communities have been “disproportionately affected” by the pandemic. African-Americans account for only 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau, but the CDC says they accounted for 22 percent of coronavirus…

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Growing consensus on how people contract Covid-19

Growing consensus on how people contract Covid-19

The Wall Street Journal reports: Six months into the coronavirus crisis, there’s a growing consensus about a central question: How do people become infected? It’s not common to contract Covid-19 from a contaminated surface, scientists say. And fleeting encounters with people outdoors are unlikely to spread the coronavirus. Instead, the major culprit is close-up, person-to-person interactions for extended periods. Crowded events, poorly ventilated areas and places where people are talking loudly—or singing, in one famous case—maximize the risk. These emerging…

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‘They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic

‘They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic

CNN reports: President Donald Trump has largely tuned out the persistent coronavirus contagion — which is causing spikes in new cases across 21 states and daily death tolls that reach into the hundreds — to focus instead on reviving both the economy and his own political prospects. The insistence on pressing forward with reopening and a return to normal, even as cases increase in some areas, has led to concern among some administration officials that Trump and his aides are…

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To understand who’s dying of Covid-19, look to social factors like race more than preexisting diseases

To understand who’s dying of Covid-19, look to social factors like race more than preexisting diseases

STAT reports: While early studies of who was dying of Covid-19 identified risks such as obesity and having diabetes, there is a growing realization that those initial conclusions might have been misleading, obscuring a more significant explanation. As researchers pull back their lens from individuals to population-level risk factors, they’re finding that, in the U.S., race may be as important as age in gauging a person’s likelihood of dying from the disease. The higher the percentage of Black residents in…

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Trump’s Covid data crunchers see coronavirus racing down America’s major highways

Trump’s Covid data crunchers see coronavirus racing down America’s major highways

The Daily Beast reports: Doctors behind a COVID-modeling study used by the president’s coronavirus task force are now warning that virus hot spots are beginning to converge and jump from county to county as people increase their travel for work and summer vacation. According to doctors working on a study put together by PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the virus is moving along major highways and interstates—such I-10 in California, I-85 in the south and I-95 on the East…

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