COVID-19 – Page 10

Pregnancy during a pandemic: The stress of COVID-19 on pregnant women and new mothers is showing

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Pregnancy during a pandemic: The stress of COVID-19 on pregnant women and new mothers is showing

Pregnancy is stressful, to say the least, but COVID-19 brings new challenges to parents of newborns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified pregnant women as a vulnerable population. If infected, they are more likely to be hospitalized and require ventilation and their risk of preterm birth goes up. Economists predict that the U.S. may have at least 500,000 fewer births because of the pandemic. Deciding not to become pregnant during a pandemic is understandable, particularly in the U.S., as it is one of five countries worldwide and the only country classified as high-income by the World Bank, that does not mandate paid maternity leave for non-federally employed workers. As scholars who study prenatal and postnatal stress, maternal nutrition and the brain developmen...

LA’s Office Of Immigrant Affairs Aims To Help Immigrant Business Owners And Essential Workers Affected by COVID

21Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

LA’s Office Of Immigrant Affairs Aims To Help Immigrant Business Owners And Essential Workers Affected by COVID

Seville Dry Cleaners is in Huntington Park, a working class, heavily Latinx neighborhood in Los Angeles County. A hair salon and a dental clinic sit on either side of the building, and across the street is a large United States post office. Pre-COVID, these businesses helped to draw foot traffic to the area. But since Californians have had to shelter in place, the once bustling street has gone quiet. Isabel Delgadillo, who opened Seville with her husband in the early 1990s after immigrating from Mexico, estimated their income has dropped by 40%. “There are no clients,” Delgadillo says, adding that she’s worried because the business is the only source of income for her family. L.A. County has more than 3.6 million immigrants, a third of the population, according to a recent report from th...

Video: Who should get a COVID-19 vaccine first?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Video: Who should get a COVID-19 vaccine first?

A committee of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is readying a report with recommendations for equitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. In this Q&A, bioethicist Dr. Nicole Hassoun of Binghamton University breaks down the elements in the recently published draft report from the committee and explains the key questions around vaccine distribution. Why is there a need for guidelines on how to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine? It’s clear that there won’t be enough vaccines for everybody initially. It just takes a long time to get 300 million doses of vaccine made, and if we’re looking at November as a potential date for a new vaccine, then people start thinking about, “Well, what are we going to do when there’s not enough?” And that’s where this proposal and o...

How a new way of parsing COVID-19 data began to show the breadth of health gaps between Blacks and whites

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

How a new way of parsing COVID-19 data began to show the breadth of health gaps between Blacks and whites

Physicians and public health experts know that older adults are more susceptible to the flu than those in other age groups. We also know the health of Black Americans is worse than that of almost all other groups for not only flu, but for chronic conditions and cancer. These are two examples of health disparities, or health gaps – when demographic groups show differences in disease severity. As we analyze the latest data from the COVID-19 pandemic, a more complete picture on infections, hospitalizations and death rates has emerged, along with new conversations about health disparities. The COVID data underscore what social scientists, epidemiologists and other public health researchers have long said: It is not enough to look at a lump sum of data about any health issue, including COVID-1...

Smoke from wildfires can worsen COVID-19 risk, putting firefighters in even more danger

11Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Smoke from wildfires can worsen COVID-19 risk, putting firefighters in even more danger

Two forces of nature are colliding in the western United States, and wildland firefighters are caught in the middle. Emerging research suggests that the smoke firefighters breathe on the front lines of wildfires is putting them at greater risk from the new coronavirus, with potentially lethal effects. At the same time, firefighting conditions make precautions such as social distancing and hand-washing difficult, increasing the chance that, once the virus enters a fire camp, it could quickly spread. As an environmental toxicologist, I have spent the last decade expanding our understanding of how wood smoke exposure impacts human health. Much of my current research is focused on protecting the long-term health of wildland firefighters and the communities they serve. Air pollution and ling...

Coronavirus is hundreds of times more deadly for people over 60 than people under 40

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Coronavirus is hundreds of times more deadly for people over 60 than people under 40

How deadly is SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? And what are the risks of death for people of different ages and demographics? These have been hard numbers to calculate during this pandemic. To calculate the true death rate – more accurately called the infection–fatality ratio (IFR) – you would simply divide the total number of coronavirus deaths by the total number of infections. The problem is that with so many asymptomatic cases and limited testing for much of the pandemic, finding the true number of infections has been very difficult. The easiest way to calculate more accurate infection and death rates is to perform random testing. I am a professor of health policy and management. In April, in partnership with the Indiana State Department of Health, I led a team of researc...

How the Civil War drove medical innovation – and the pandemic could, too

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

How the Civil War drove medical innovation – and the pandemic could, too

The current COVID-19 pandemic, the largest public health crisis in a century, threatens the health of people across the globe. The U.S. has had the most diagnosed cases – surpassing 6 million – and more than 180,000 deaths. But six months into the pandemic, the U.S. still faces shortages of personal protective equipment for both front-line medical workers and the general public. There is also great need for widely available inexpensive, rapid tests; the infrastructure to administer them; and most importantly, safe, effective vaccines. Moving forward, medical innovation can play a substantial role in controlling and preventing infection – and treating those who have contracted the virus. But what’s the best way to catalyze and accelerate public health developments? Research and history sh...

Why COVID-19 vaccines need to prioritize ‘superspreaders’

4Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Why COVID-19 vaccines need to prioritize ‘superspreaders’

Once safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines are available, tough choices will need to be made about who gets the first shots. A committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health – has proposed an equitable way to allocate the vaccine. They recommend first responders and health care workers take top priority. Older adults in congregate living situations would also be part of a first vaccination phase, according to the plan. We are faculty at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California who have spent decades studying health economics and epidemiology. One of us is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Having seen firsthand the real risk...

Will the new 15-minute COVID-19 test solve US testing problems?

2Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Will the new 15-minute COVID-19 test solve US testing problems?

On Aug. 26, the Food and Drug Administration granted an Emergency Use Authorization to a new rapid antigen test for COVID-19 called the BinaxNOW test. I study public health policy to combat infectious disease epidemics. Testing is one of the most powerful tools available to fight the spread of COVID-19. The new test is inexpensive, rapid and easy to use. It will massively scale up access to testing, but hurdles remain in achieving widespread, frequent COVID-19 testing. The Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen test claims to give results in 15 minutes. Abbott What type of test is BinaxNOW? The credit-card-sized test is an antigen test that detects a specific viral protein from SARS-CoV-2. It costs US$5 and doesn’t require a lab or a machine for processing. Performing the test is simple. A health...

COVID-19 lockdowns expose the digital have-nots in rural areas – here’s which policies can get them connected

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, POLITICS

COVID-19 lockdowns expose the digital have-nots in rural areas – here’s which policies can get them connected

The current public health emergency has shown just how critical adequate and affordable broadband infrastructure is for communities and individuals trying to work, access health care and attempt to teach kids from home. Yet over one-fifth of rural Americans lack access to broadband, while some estimates suggest that figure could be much higher. The problem has spurred many state governments to take an active role in trying to connect more rural communities to high-speed internet, whether it’s by incentivizing providers to serve rural areas or creating dedicated offices aimed at helping more people get online. As part of our ongoing research on how broadband access affects economic development, we conducted a study that examined which of these state policies are actually working. Why bro...