The worldwide struggle to contain a fast-spreading outbreak of monkeypox took on new urgency, with the World Health Organization declaring a global emergency and U.S. experts discussing whether the viral infection is becoming yet another significant sexually transmitted disease that this country is ill-prepared to quell. The WHO declaration, by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,….
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U.S. launches 988 hotline for callers with mental health emergencies
Federal officials have launched a new 988 number for callers with suicidal thoughts or other mental health emergencies, hoping that the public adopts this three-digit alternative and finds it as familiar and useful as 911 has become for medical and other urgent help needs. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which those in distress could reach….
Continue ReadingSuperbug deaths & antibiotic abuse surged during pandemic
With the coronavirus pandemic surging anew due to the highly infectious Omicron BA.5 variant, federal authorities reported recent data that should give Americans plenty of reason to heed public health warnings and avoid hospitalization if they possibly can. That’s in part because institutions, overwhelmed by the pandemic, have taken giant steps backward in preventing patients….
Continue ReadingAs road toll soars, experts see vehicles as ‘candy stores’ of distraction
Anyone who has so much as contemplated buying a vehicle in recent times will quickly catch on to what experts fear may be a root cause of the nation’s spiking road toll: Step back and consider just how much importance manufacturers — and consumers — pay to those rolling infotainment systems. Their screens have grown….
Continue ReadingHealth insurers start to join hospitals in giant disclosure of data on prices
If patients can benefit from price transparency by hospitals, shouldn’t employers and health insurers post online what they are paying for medical services? Yes, say federal regulators, who started requiring this effective July 1. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has ordered parties that act as health payers to make public a wealth….
Continue ReadingEnjoy a great Fourth — safely and without dangerous, illicit fireworks
This great country will celebrate its 246th birthday on July 4, 2022 — a national holiday marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. Here’s hoping one and all have a glorious, fun, and safe Fourth! Wouldn’t the holiday be all the finer if folks, especially those fortunate….
Continue ReadingMomentous developments on abortion, guns, and Americans’ health
Congress has passed a modest gun control law for the first time in three decades. The breakthrough, compromise measure, quickly signed by President Biden, not only provides for background checks for would-be weapons buyers younger than 21 and a push for states to pass laws to take guns away from the dangerous, it also provides….
Continue ReadingU.S. finds high risks in tally of wrecks involving self-driving vehicles
Though it may be tempting for owners of and passengers in expensive, high-tech vehicles to leave the driving to increasingly smarter cars, Americans still must beware of lethal, injurious shortcomings in this new autonomous age. In just 10 recent months, federal officials say, almost “400 crashes in the United States … involved cars using advanced….
Continue ReadingCovid vaccines Okayed for babies and tots. What will parents do?
Parents with little kids — those ages 6 months to 5 years old — now must decide whether, how, and when to get these babies and tots their coronavirus vaccines, newly approved by federal regulators. They should talk with their pediatricians and others with medical expertise and experience. The American Academy of Pediatricians, a leading….
Continue ReadingMore shots coming to battle stubborn, still deadly coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic stubbornly persists, infecting 110,000 Americans daily — and likely many, many more — and hospitalizing 29,000 a day on average. Vaccinations, also, have stayed at the forefront of efforts to deal with the disease, with shots on the brink of being regulator-approved and imminently available for the littlest of kids, and against….
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