What do big wave surfing and the National Football League playoffs and upcoming Super Bowl have in common? They share the challenges of confronting the significant health harms that can occur with head trauma, especially repeated impacts and outright concussions. The rich, powerful, and influential NFL also may be illustrating how preventable damage to athletes,….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2022
Deaths no longer a lagging indicator of Omicron variant’s grim toll
The lethal toll of the latest Omicron surge in the coronavirus pandemic lags no more. But even as overwhelmed doctors, nurses, hospitals, and clinics record new highs in disease deaths (see chart, courtesy the New York Times), exceeding some of the worst daily fatality numbers in what has become the planet’s worst public health crisis….
Continue ReadingHigh costs of failures in U.S. food safety simply cannot be ignored
While regular folks may tolerate the occasional sickness that follows a catered company event, church potluck, or dining on take-out or sit-down meals from all manner of meal providers, all-too-common food-borne illnesses must get greater attention from public health officials because of the major but less publicized damage that tainted foods can cause. Consider what….
Continue ReadingFinancial tangles can trap poorer residents in costly nursing homes
As experts drill down to discover why nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are not playing a vital role in the U.S. health system by admitting improving patients from costly care in overwhelmed hospitals, a disconcerting explanation is emerging on who is filling some of the invaluable institutional space. They might be called system….
Continue ReadingUniversity of Michigan settles 1,000+ sex abuse claims against dead doctor for $490 million
Michigan’s top academic institutions now share a dubious distinction, with the University of Michigan joining Michigan State University in agreeing to pay out whopping settlements totaling almost $1 billion for big numbers of claims of sexual abuse by doctors working with the schools’ athletic programs. UM has just agreed to pay $490 million to more….
Continue ReadingAs Omicron rips through hospitals, new governor lifts Virginia pandemic measures
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has thrust Virginia into the ferocious battles over evidence-based efforts to quell the coronavirus pandemic, with the newly installed Republican issuing executive orders to bar schools from requiring face coverings and forbidding state employers from having vaccine requirements. His decisions, in keeping with what has become a GOP policy orthodoxy and reversing….
Continue ReadingBone and joint surgery? Consider other options too
Even as patients in a giant and rapidly graying generation throng orthopedic surgeons’ offices seeking relief from aging’s pain and discomfort, the evidence for these pricey and invasive medical interventions is slim at best and too often is simply unpersuasive. Those are the findings of an expansive, rigorous “meta examination” of major medical databases and….
Continue ReadingDeadly fires and carbon monoxide deaths emphasize need for winter safety steps
The return of harsh winter conditions also has provided a tough reminder for homeowners and renters to redouble their fire safety and carbon monoxide precautions. It’s a must to triple-check alarms, indoor space heaters, and power generators, and ensure that everyone in the household knows about the deadly risks. News organizations on the East Coast….
Continue ReadingMedicare curbs Alzheimer’s drug coverage, fueling regulatory turmoil
As the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to head the federal Food and Drug Administration advances, he and the agency already are confronting a major regulatory crisis over Aduhelm, a prescription drug targeted for Alzheimer’s treatment and approved on the thinnest of evidence. An FDA sister agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),….
Continue ReadingU.S. has hit blood crisis and donors needed urgently, Red Cross says
It has no artificial replacement. Patients can require enormous amounts of it, suddenly and quickly, as well as on a sustained basis. But safe, abundant supplies of blood are desperately needed now, the Red Cross says, having declared what it says is its first-ever national crisis with the country facing its most dire shortages in….
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