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‘Behind the Times’: Washington Tries to Catch Up With AI’s Use in Health Care
Lawmakers and regulators in Washington are starting to puzzle over how to regulate artificial intelligence in health care — and the AI industry thinks there’s a good chance they’ll mess it up. “It’s an incredibly daunting problem,” said Bob Wachter, the chair of the Department of Medicine...
America Worries About Health Costs — and Voters Want to Hear From Biden and Republicans
President Joe Biden is counting on outrage over abortion restrictions to help drive turnout for his reelection. Former President Donald Trump is promising to take another swing at repealing Obamacare. But around America’s kitchen tables, those are hardly the only health topics voters want to hear about in the 2024...
Long COVID Surveys From a FDA/NIH Initiative Ask Which Drugs Help Alleviate Symptoms
Last month, a U.S. government initiative launched a pair of surveys to collect information about how people with long COVID are managing their symptoms. Data from these surveys, one for people with long COVID and one for their doctors, will inform priorities for clinical trials. Called CURE ID, this federal...
With Medical Debt Burdening Millions, a Financial Regulator Steps In to Help
When President Barack Obama signed legislation in 2010 to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he said the new agency had one priority: “looking out for people, not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses.”. Since then, the CFPB has done its share of policing mortgage brokers, student loan...
CDC Updates and Simplifies Respiratory Virus Recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released today updated recommendations for how people can protect themselves and their communities from respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. The new guidance brings a unified approach to addressing risks from a range of common respiratory viral illnesses, such as COVID-19, flu, and RSV, which can cause significant health impacts and strain on hospitals and health care workers. CDC is making updates to the recommendations now because the U.S. is seeing far fewer hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19 and because we have more tools than ever to combat flu, COVID, and RSV.
Older Adults Can Now Receive Additional Dose of Updated COVID-19 Vaccine
On February 28, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendation for adults ages 65 years and older to receive an additional updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine dose. The recommendation acknowledges the increased risk of severe disease from COVID-19 in older adults, along with the currently available data on vaccine effectiveness.
PolyBio Announces $15 Million in Long COVID Research Funding
PolyBio Research Foundation, a leading organization in supporting research for long COVID and related chronic diseases, announced a new round of funding focused on identifying potential long COVID treatments on Thursday. The research projects, which received a total of $15 million in funding, plan to study the potential biological underpinnings of long COVID and begin testing promising therapies.
COVID-19 Vaccination and Boosting During Pregnancy Protects Infants for Six Months
Women who receive an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination or booster during pregnancy can provide their infants with strong protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection for at least six months after birth, according to a study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. These findings, published in Pediatrics, reinforce the importance of receiving both a COVID-19 vaccine and booster during pregnancy to ensure that infants are born with robust protection that lasts until they are old enough to be vaccinated.
Southern Lawmakers Rethink Long-Standing Opposition to Medicaid Expansion
As a part-time customer service representative, Jolene Dybas earns less than $15,000 a year, which is below the federal poverty level and too low for her to be eligible for subsidized health insurance on the Obamacare marketplace. Dybas, 53, also does not qualify for Medicaid in her home state of...
COVID-19 Reinfections Are Further Disabling People With Long COVID
Becky Letts and her 12-year-old son, Alex, have both had long COVID since early 2020. While the debilitating disease drastically reduced the quality of life for both of them, Becky said multiple reinfections led to new and worse symptoms. So far, she has had six confirmed COVID infections, while Alex has had five.
NIH Study Offers New Clues Into the Causes of Post-Infectious ME/CFS
In a detailed clinical study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found differences in the brains and immune systems of people with post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-ME/CFS). They also found distinct differences between men and women with the disease. The findings were published in Nature Communications. “People...
How do we know that HIV causes AIDS?
Four decades into the epidemic, skeptics still periodically question whether HIV is really cause of AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Early in the epidemic in the 1980s, as AIDS ravaged the gay community, several potential causes were suggested. Some, for example, hypothesized that the use of recreational drugs—including inhaled nitrites, or poppers—or frequent anal sex might damage the immune system. In fact, the condition was so closely associated with gay men that it was initially dubbed Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID).
Is there a vaccine for cancer?
On February 14, Reuters reported that President Vladimir Putin said Russian scientists “have come very close” to creating vaccines for cancer that could soon be available to patients. Putin’s comments were too optimistic about the timeline, but scientists in many countries are indeed working on vaccines to treat...
Clinical Trial Aims to Improve Long COVID Care for Latinos
Physicians and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are working to improve and increase care for Latinos with long COVID, who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, they’re conducting a clinical trial to study the efficacy of the medication fluvoxamine as a potential...
Women and Minorities Bear the Brunt of Medical Misdiagnosis
Charity Watkins sensed something was deeply wrong when she experienced exhaustion after her daughter was born. At times, Watkins, then 30, had to stop on the stairway to catch her breath. Her obstetrician said postpartum depression likely caused the weakness and fatigue. When Watkins, who is Black, complained of a cough, her doctor blamed the flu.
NIH Analysis Reveals Rising Use of Complementary Health Approaches
An analysis conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) reveals a substantial increase in the overall use of complementary health approaches by American adults from 2002 to 2022. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, highlights a...
How Fringe Anti-Science Views Infiltrated Mainstream Politics — And What It Means in 2024
Rates of routine childhood vaccination hit a 10-year low in 2023. That, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, puts about 250,000 kindergartners at risk for measles, which often leads to hospitalization and can cause death. In recent weeks, an infant and two young children have been hospitalized amid an ongoing measles outbreak in Philadelphia that spread to a day care center.
Federal Program to Save Rural Hospitals Feels Growing Pains
Folks in this Mississippi River town hope a new federal program can revive the optimism engraved long ago in a plaque on the side of their hospital. “Dedicated to the Future of Health Care in the Tri-State Area,” the sign declares. “May 11, 1981.”. More recent placards posted...
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COVID Health is here to help people navigate the unknowns of a COVID-19 diagnosis and what lies beyond. The site is also designed to help people learn how to prevent transmission of the new coronavirus, which is called SARS-CoV-2.
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