In an unbelievable fiscal oasis surrounding a spot that a newspaper columnist dubbed Baghdad by the Bay, slick dudes who call themselves VCs (as in venture capitalists) scurry around carrying the equivalent of magic wands and sacks of money in pursuit of elusive unicorns — rare start-up enterprises that Wall Street will value at $1….
Continue ReadingArchives for August 2021
As Delta variant slams hospitals, forecast warns of 100,000 more virus deaths
The coronavirus keeps ripping through the country with a fourth, Delta-variant fueled surge that also is producing confounding, confused behaviors that only add to the pandemic’s considerable gloom. The pandemic, which already has killed at least 635,000 Americans and infected just under 40 million of us, is slamming hospitals. More than 100,000 coronavirus patients, including….
Continue ReadingSpiking deaths, health crises, and amputations: Diabetes is ‘out of control’
More than 100,000 people in this country died last year due to diabetes. That’s 17% more than the year before. And in younger age groups, it’s even worse: deaths from diabetes climbed 29% last year among those ages 25-44, federal data show. The figures should raise huge alarms that diabetes, as exposed by the coronavirus….
Continue ReadingA million bucks of surgical machinery? It’s not proven better — at least for patients
If big hospitals really want to keep surgeons happy and provide them with greater comfort during procedures, why not build giant, sanitary glass garages next to operating rooms and let docs park their Bentleys, Lamborghinis, and Bugattis there for ogling and maybe even to take a break under the vehicles’ hoods? Okay, maybe we’re being….
Continue ReadingDelta surge gets grimmer as both public health steps and resistance stiffen
The coronavirus has killed almost 630,000 Americans, with the pandemic adding in its fourth surge now under way 1,000 deaths a day or 42 fatalities per hour. The disease has infected almost 38 million of us, with more than 145,000 new cases occurring each day in recent weeks. More than 90,000 coronavirus patients were in hospitals nationwide….
Continue ReadingMillions stuck in nightmarish recalls of sleep apnea breathing devices
Millions of patients with serious, diagnosed sleep disorders now are wrestling with a daytime nightmare: Medical devices designed to help them avoid damage from their conditions have been recalled for major and concerning defects. But consumers complain that they’re getting poor and too little information about their health options until the device maker more fully….
Continue ReadingQuestions grow about billions flowing to specialists over medical hardware
Patients, regulators, hospitals, and doctors themselves need to open their eyes and ask tougher questions about the eyebrow-raising trend occurring among a specialized set of “sawboneses” — orthopedists and neurosurgeons. Hundreds of them are profiting handsomely, not on their medical skills but rather their investments in and relationships with surgical hardware. The specialists also are….
Continue ReadingVA, in a slap at FDA, will decline to cover newly approved Alzheimer’s drug
The nation’s largest integrated health system has declined to cover a drug approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease. The action is not only a rebuke by the Department of Veterans Affairs to the FDA, it also offers support of sorts to a plea by President Biden for….
Continue ReadingSenate Democrats tackle nursing home menaces that also made virus so lethal
Senate Democrats, including chairs of two powerful committees, have started to tackle the nightmarish problems that experts blame for allowing the coronavirus pandemic to take a terrible toll on vulnerable residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Under a bill introduced by Ron Wyden, an Oregon senator and chair of the Senate Finance….
Continue ReadingTo battle pandemic, vaccine boosters, more mandates and fights with the resistant
As the latest coronavirus surge worsens, public health efforts to quell the pandemic are targeting two groups that might be dubbed the can’t-s and won’t-s. Federal regulators sought to assist the first group by approving coronavirus vaccination booster shots for a select group of patients — those whose compromised immune systems could not generate sufficient….
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