Health

Louisiana nursing homes, families say they are more prepared as coronavirus cases rise again | Coronavirus

Ella Castle 9 hours ago

Last spring, the novel coronavirus had Michelle Bourque worried. Not just because she feared catching it, although that was a big concern, but more because her 81-year-old mother was in Chateau de Notre Dame, a New Orleans-nursing home with one of the earliest confirmed clusters of the virus.

Locked out after the federal government recommended that nursing homes ban visitors, Bourque worried about her mom’s health and wondered why authorities weren’t doing more to test residents and staff and ensure stringent infection control procedures.

The politically powerful nursing home industry, which pockets about $1.2 billion annually, is seeking a minor

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White House largely silent on health precautions for Thanksgiving

Ella Castle 1 day ago

The White House is struggling to offer a clear message on how Americans should approach Thanksgiving as coronavirus cases surge around the country and experts worry holiday gatherings could produce yet another spike in infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance on best practices for holding Thanksgiving gatherings, and the agency followed that up on Thursday by advising against traveling for the holiday.

But the White House has done little to elevate the recommendations from the country’s top public health agency, while some administration officials have outright contradicted the CDC’s advice.

“The CDC has excellent

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Donald Trump Jr. Tests Positive for Coronavirus

Ella Castle 2 days ago

UPDATE: One day after the news broke that Donald Trump Jr. tested positive for the coronavirus, he went on social media to tell followers that he is doing well and is currently asymptomatic. 

In an Instagram video posted on Nov. 21, the businessman stated he will follow the regular protocols and isolate, despite feeling healthy. He shared that he only got tested in order to go on a trip with his son, which has since been postponed. He asked followers for e-book and Netflix show recommendations during his “solo” time away from family, as “there are only so many

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What Happened When This Guy Fasted for 48 Hours to Cut Weight

Ella Castle 3 days ago

In the aftermath of a recent cheat day challenge during which he consumed a staggering 20,000 calories and gained more than 16 pounds, fitness YouTuber Will Tennyson is keen to lose some of that new weight, fast. Literally. He commits to fasting for 48 hours, and documents the results in his latest video.

Following the “wet fast ” model, Will consumes herbal tea, black coffee, and water during the 48-hour period, but nothing else. “It’s very important not to overdo it, and just drink when you’re thirsty,” he explains. “When you drink a lot, it’s very hard for the body

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FDA OKs emergency use of antibody drug Trump received | Nation

Ella Castle 4 days ago

U.S. health officials Saturday agreed to allow emergency use of a second antibody drug to help the immune system fight COVID-19, an experimental medicine that President Donald Trump was given when he was sickened last month.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized use of the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. drug to try to prevent hospitalization and worsening disease from developing in patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms.

The drug is given as a one-time treatment through an IV. The FDA allowed its use in adults and children 12 and over who weigh at least 88 pounds (40 kilograms) and who are at high

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Remote learning students feeling cheated in school reopening plans

Ella Castle 5 days ago

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Going back to school amid COVID-19 outbreaks means uncertainty and fear for students and teachers, but staying home presents problems too.

USA TODAY

It was the second week of the fall semester when Cassandra Wooten realized her teenage daughter was sinking. The high school junior often spent hours a day on her computer for online school, only to tell her mom at day’s end that she wasn’t sure she’d learned anything at all.

Wooten had decided to enroll her daughter in the remote learning plan at Mississippi’s DeSoto County School District last summer, when infection rates were surging and

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The Logistical Challenges Of Covid-19 Vaccines

Ella Castle 1 week ago

The United States could be the first country to launch one of the most ambitious vaccine operations in history: distributing and administering up to 600 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in just a few months.

Massive vaccine campaigns are nothing new — they have been carried out for decades in the fight against the measles and flu, for example.

But stamping out the coronavirus is a distinctly new challenge due to three factors: the short time frame for inoculating a huge number of people, the fact that most vaccines will require two doses, and the very low temperature at

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TYK2 Inhibition Promising in Psoriatic Arthritis

Ella Castle 1 week ago

The oral tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor deucravacitinib was effective for the treatment of active psoriatic arthritis in a phase II placebo-controlled trial.

At week 16, only 31.8% of patients who had been randomized to receive placebo met the 20% response criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR20), compared with 52.9% of those receiving 6 mg of deucravacitinib per day (P=0.0134) and 62.7% of those given 12 mg per day (P=0.0004), reported Philip Mease, MD, of Swedish Medical Center and the University of Washington in Seattle.

In addition, ACR50 responses were observed at week 16 in

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Amgen, AstraZeneca say experimental asthma drug meets trial goal

Ella Castle 1 week ago

FILE PHOTO: The company logo for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

(Reuters) – Drugmakers Amgen Inc and AstraZeneca Plc said on Tuesday a pivotal trial found that their experimental medication tezepelumab significantly reduced asthma attacks for people with severe forms of the respiratory condition compared to a placebo.

The partners said that the year-long trial met its primary goal in patients with severe asthma who were also receiving standard care, including medium- or high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus at

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The coronavirus pandemic continues to be predictably deadly

Ella Castle 2 weeks ago

On Tuesday, the country recorded more than 135,000 new infections, according to data compiled by The Washington Post, reaching a seven-day average of nearly 121,000 new cases. In other words, since Election Day, about 850,000 new coronavirus cases have been detected, or 1 in 390 Americans.

The number of deaths had averaged more than 1,000 each day for the past week, with 1,400 dying Tuesday. According to data from the COVID Tracking Project, the country also hit a high, 62,000, in the number of people hospitalized with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Seventeen states, mostly in the

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Companies Need to Better Align Risk and Compliance Departments, Advisory Group Says

Ella Castle 2 weeks ago

Companies should create closer links between their compliance departments and risk managers who focus on an array of corporate hazards, according to an influential organization that guides companies on enterprise risk-management practices.

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, whose recommendations are followed closely by public companies, issued voluntary guidance Tuesday aimed at helping boards, executives and lower-level managers better identify, monitor and mitigate compliance risks.

The guidance encourages organizations to better coordinate risk management, compliance and ethics functions to strengthen protections against legal and regulatory pitfalls.

“You need to integrate those together,” COSO Chairman Paul Sobel said.

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How Some Skinks Lost Their Legs and Then Evolved New Ones

Ella Castle 2 weeks ago

In the rainforest in the Philippines, scientists laid out a tiny racetrack, just for skinks.

The racetrack and the high speed cameras surrounding it were part of research into a mysterious state of affairs. Skinks are lizards, but some species have lost their limbs over eons of evolution, giving them a snakelike look. However, other skinks whose ancestors jettisoned limbs have, for reasons still unknown, brought them back. They break an old rule of thumb in evolutionary biology, which holds that if you lose a complicated structure, you are unlikely to evolve it back.

Now, the researchers behind the racetrack

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Busy Des Moines hospitals plead with public to take COVID precautions

Ella Castle 2 weeks ago

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Gov. Kim Reynolds, Dr. David Williams of UnityPoint, and Dr. Hijinio Carreon of MercyOne spoke at a news conference on Thursday.

Des Moines Register

Des Moines hospitals are already jammed with COVID-19 patients, but the number could double again by Thanksgiving unless Iowans take immediate precautions to help curb the outbreak, an expert warned local leaders Tuesday. 

“We’re at a critical point,” said Dr. Meghan Schaeffer, an epidemiologist working as a consultant for Polk County. 

On Tuesday morning, 195 COVID-19 patients were being treated in Des Moines hospitals, more than double the number from two weeks ago, Schaeffer said.

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Trump officials promise fair distribution of new covid-19 antibody drug, but limited supply and logistical problems loom

Ella Castle 2 weeks ago

The federal government Monday granted emergency use authorization for the drug, seen as a powerful tool that could save people from developing the worst symptoms of covid-19 until a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is widely available.

The federal government has more than 80,000 doses ready for allocation and distribution this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a briefing Tuesday. The medication “has the potential to save thousands of lives and significantly reduce the disease’s burden on the health-care system,” he said.

The government has negotiated a contract to buy 300,000 doses through December, with an

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Cases of Covid-19 in children on rise in the US, with highest 1-week spike yet

Ella Castle 3 weeks ago

Soaring case counts around the country are impacting children at “unprecedented levels,” according to new numbers released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, which are tracking data reported by state health departments.



a police car parked in a parking lot: An attendant talks to a person waiting in their car at a coronavirus testing site October 31 in El Paso, Texas.

© Cengiz Yar/Getty Images
An attendant talks to a person waiting in their car at a coronavirus testing site October 31 in El Paso, Texas.

There were 61,000 new cases in children during the last week of October, “which is larger than any previous week in the pandemic,” the AAP said in a statement. From the onset of the pandemic through October

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People With COVID-19 Can Still Vote In Person, CDC Says

Ella Castle 3 weeks ago

KEY POINTS

  • The CDC said people infected with COVID-19 may still exercise their right to vote
  • Sick voters would be asked to follow safety guidelines
  • The recommendations come as case numbers continue to increase in 40 states

People who have been infected or are currently sick with the novel coronavirus may vote in person, according to a statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In an email written on Monday, the health agency said Americans who are or have been infected with COVID-19 can exercise their right to vote as long as they follow proper safety

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As rich countries hoard potential coronavirus vaccine doses, rest of world could go without

Ella Castle 3 weeks ago

As a result, relatively wealthy nations will likely be able to vaccinate their entire populations, with billions of others relegated to the back of the line. People in low-income countries could be waiting until 2024.

These deals between countries and drug manufacturers, known as advance purchase agreements, are undermining a World Health Organization-linked initiative to equitably distribute vaccines, the study suggests.

“Where we are headed is a situation where high-income countries have enough, and low-income countries just don’t,” said Andrea Taylor, the lead researcher.

Since the vaccine race got underway, experts have warned of the dangers of “vaccine nationalism” and

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San Antonio among the worst cities for allergies, report says

Ella Castle 3 weeks ago

A recent report from an air filter brand listed San Antonio as one of the worst cities in the country to live in for allergy sufferers.

In a report last week, Filterbuy ranked the Alamo City as the seventh-worst city for allergies out the top 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. On a 100-point scale in which a higher score will land a city among the worst, San Antonio received a score of 87.21.

Researchers ranked the cities based on three key factors: pollen counts, allergy medicine use, and the number of allergists in the area. In the report,

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Maradona Admitted To Hospital In Argentina

Ella Castle 3 weeks ago

Argentine football great Diego Maradona was admitted to hospital Monday for medical checks, his personal doctor announced.

“It’s not a serious situation and we didn’t come for an emergency,” Leopoldo Luque told reporters outside the clinic in La Plata, south of Buenos Aires.

Though he gave no details of Maradona’s condition, Luque said his patient would undergo a series of medical check-ups.

“He’s an elderly patient with many pressures in his life. It’s a time when we must help him. It’s very difficult to be Maradona,” Luque said of the star, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Friday.

The doctor

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