The federal Food and Drug Administration has created an instant medical and regulatory morass by giving an accelerated approval to Biogen’s costly prescription medication targeted at patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This is the first drug to win the precious official nod from the FDA in almost two decades. But the agency’s OK to market aducanumab….
Continue ReadingArchives for June 2021
Covid shots are voluntary. Mostly. But pressures are growing on unvaccinated.
In the crunch to quell the coronavirus pandemic and to do so by getting as many people as possible their protective shots, public health officials consistently have stressed a big V in the national vaccination campaign: Voluntary. But as hundreds of millions of people around the globe have willingly gotten them and the vaccines have….
Continue ReadingBeer, donuts, childcare, rides, lotto prizes — will vaccination incentives work?
With the Fourth of July just weeks away, federal officials have ramped up their campaign to hit President Biden’s announced goal of having 70% of adults in this country vaccinated against the coronavirus. The aim is for the rapidly opening nation to safely and fully declare its independence from the deadly pandemic. Biden, while thanking….
Continue ReadingU.S. consumer agency cracks down on baby sleepers tied to dozens of deaths
One of the federal government’s top consumer watchdogs has roused itself from its torpor and, finally, moved to ban what a leading independent group calls “dangerous infant sleepers and other products that do not align with expert medical recommendations for safe sleep.” As Consumer Reports said of the new orders by the federal Consumer Product….
Continue ReadingPlaintiffs’ fortitude: It’s an admirable must when battling corporate fat cats
While too many of us get overdosed with clownish depictions — from doctors, hospitals, insurers, and corporations, especially Big Pharma firms — of how the civil justice system operates, it’s always worth a reminder of the tremendous fortitude ordinary folks show in pursuing malpractice and other personal injury or liability claims. Yes, the cases, on….
Continue ReadingTop medical journals, ob-gyns, and NFL all face tough reckoning with racism
Racial inequities roiled an array of health-related situations in recent days, showing how far the nation still must go to deal with pervasive injustices in medical systems nationwide. The reported matters include: The editor-in-chief departed a leading medical journal after one of his chief deputies, in a purported “education” session for which practitioners could earn….
Continue ReadingCongresswoman discloses her health emergency to warn against OTC drugs
Just because myriad drugs and supplements are sold over the counter does not mean these pills are safe. They can pose serious health risks and cause major damage, a prominent Midwestern congressman has reminded by sharing her own near-disaster with a well-known OTC drug. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, told the Washington Post that she….
Continue ReadingIn quelling pandemic, officials confront perilous chasm with the unvaccinated
Even as millions of us glide into a summer with high hopes of putting the pandemic behind us and returning to greater normality, huge public health challenges persist in quelling coronavirus infections, chief among them being — how the heck do we get the unwilling vaccinated now? Just before the long Memorial Day holiday weekend….
Continue ReadingWhoa, summer sneaked in! Here’s how to make it a safe, healthy, fun time
In these uncertain times, the start of summer — marked unofficially by the just-passed, long Memorial Day weekend — may have caught more than a few of us by surprise. Seasonal health and safety precautions, however, should be well considered and carefully carried out, especially by parents. All of us, for example, must step up….
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