Thursday, May 16

COVID-19

In Medical Laboratories Across The US The Omicron Variant Is Deepening Severe Staffing Shortages
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COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

In Medical Laboratories Across The US The Omicron Variant Is Deepening Severe Staffing Shortages

Medical laboratory professionals form the backbone of health care and the public health system. They conduct some 13 billion laboratory medicine tests annually in the U.S. As of January 2022, these individuals had also performed more than 860 million COVID-19 tests and counting during the pandemic. Why should anyone care? Laboratory testing is the single highest-volume medical activity affecting Americans, and it drives about two-thirds of all medical decisions made by doctors and other health care professionals. Simply put, every time you enter a hospital or health care facility for care, your life is in the hands of a medical laboratory professional. Like other health care and health professionals, these lab workers are experiencing dangerously low staffing numbers as a result of the p...
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Without The Child Tax Credit Expansion Many Families Could Be Left Without Enough Food On The Table
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COVID-19

Without The Child Tax Credit Expansion Many Families Could Be Left Without Enough Food On The Table

The discontinuation of the Biden administration’s monthly payments of the child tax credit could leave millions of American families without enough food on the table, according to our new study in JAMA Network Open. The first missed payment on Jan. 15, 2022, left families that had come to rely on them wondering how they would make ends meet, according to many news reports. The American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed in March 2021, made significant changes to the existing child tax credit. It increased the size of the credit by 50% or more, depending on a child’s age, to either $3,000 or $3,600 per year. It also made more low-income families eligible and paid half of this money out as a monthly “advance” payment. Biden’s Build Back Better plan calls for a ...
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4 Questions Answered – What Supreme Court’s Block Of Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate, For Large Businesses Will Mean For Public Health
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COVID-19

4 Questions Answered – What Supreme Court’s Block Of Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate, For Large Businesses Will Mean For Public Health

The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13, 2022, blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate, which applied to virtually all private companies with 100 of more employees. But it left in place a narrower mandate that requires health care workers at facilities receiving federal funds to get vaccinated. The ruling comes at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates continues to soar throughout the United States as a result of the omicron variant. We asked Debbie Kaminer, a professor of law at Baruch College, CUNY, to explain the ruling’s impact. 1. What did the Supreme Court decide? The court’s six conservative justices held that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration exceeded its power in issuing the mandate on private companies, which would have co...
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An epidemiologist answers 6 questions – How effective are vaccines against omicron?
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COVID-19

An epidemiologist answers 6 questions – How effective are vaccines against omicron?

The pandemic has brought many tricky terms and ideas from epidemiology into everyone’s lives. Two particularly complicated concepts are vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. These are not the same thing. And as time goes on and new variants like omicron emerge, they are changing, too. Melissa Hawkins is an epidemiologist and public health researcher at American University. She explains the way researchers calculate how well a vaccine prevents disease, what influences these numbers and how omicron is changing things. 1. What do vaccines do? A vaccine activates the immune system to produce antibodies that remain in your body to fight against exposure to a virus in the future. All three vaccines currently approved for use in the U.S. – the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vacc...
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During The Pandemic Surveys Of Scientists Show Women And Young Academics Suffered Most And May Face Long-Term Career Consequences
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COVID-19

During The Pandemic Surveys Of Scientists Show Women And Young Academics Suffered Most And May Face Long-Term Career Consequences

Surveys of scientists show women and young academics suffered most during pandemic and may face long-term career consequences. On March 6, 2020, universities across the U.S. announced systematic laboratory closures, social distancing policies and travel bans to cope with the growing coronavirus epidemic. These actions, while prudent and necessary, had immediate negative impacts on the academic enterprise of science in the U.S. and around the world. We are a team of researchers who study the role of science and technology in society. We are also part of a collaborative, multi-university project, called SciOPS, that seeks to improve how scientists communicate with the public. As the pandemic wore on, researchers began telling us about the work stoppages, data losses and other hardships they...
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Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant
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COVID-19

Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant

Scientists around the world have been racing to learn more about the new omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, first declared a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26, 2021 by the World Health Organization. Officials cautioned that it would take several weeks before they’d know whether the recently emerged coronavirus variant is more contagious and causes more or less serious COVID-19 than delta and other earlier variants, and whether current vaccines can ward it off. Peter Kasson is a virologist and biophysicist at the University of Virginia who studies how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 enter cells and what can be done to stop them. Here he explains what lab-based scientists are doing to help answer the outstanding questions about omicron. Does prior immunity protect against omicron? These are the key lab...
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What Researchers Know And What They Don’t Know About The New Coronavirus Variant – Will Omicron Be More Contagious Than Delta? A Virus Evolution Expert Explains
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COVID-19

What Researchers Know And What They Don’t Know About The New Coronavirus Variant – Will Omicron Be More Contagious Than Delta? A Virus Evolution Expert Explains

Suresh V. Kuchipudi, Penn State A new variant named omicron (B.1.1.529) was reported by researchers in South Africa on Nov. 24, 2021, and designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization two days later. Omicron is very unusual in that it is by far the most heavily mutated variant yet of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The omicron variant has 50 mutations overall, with 32 mutations on the spike protein alone. The spike protein – which forms protruding knobs on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – helps the virus adhere to cells so that it can gain entry. It is also the protein that all three vaccines currently available in the U.S. use to induce protective antibodies. For comparison, the delta variant has nine mutations. The larger number of mutations in the...
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Encouraging Vaccination By Black And Latino Angelenos Using Filmmaking
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COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

Encouraging Vaccination By Black And Latino Angelenos Using Filmmaking

Jeremy Kagan, University of Southern California; Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, University of Southern California, and Sheila Murphy, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism People have recognized the power of storytelling for thousands of years. The Bible relies on parables like the prodigal son because stories successfully convey the underlying message in a memorable way that’s easy to pass along to future generations. But when public health leaders and medical professionals need to communicate crucial, potentially life-saving health information, they can fail to harness the strength of storytelling. That’s why we, a filmmaking professor, a health communications scholar and a public health professor specializing in community outreach, wanted to see if we could help once CO...
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Announcement By White House – Pandemic Relief Funds Totaling $785 Million Relief Funds Will Support Communities Of Color
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COVID-19

Announcement By White House – Pandemic Relief Funds Totaling $785 Million Relief Funds Will Support Communities Of Color

Originally published by The 19th The Biden administration announced Wednesday that $785 million of the American Rescue Plan will go toward the communities that were hit hardest by the pandemic, following the recommendations of a COVID-19 health equity report that was released last month. “COVID-19 made it clear that in this country, a person’s ZIP code is a stronger driver of their health than their genetic code,” said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who headed the administration’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. “And so we set out to find ways to address and overcome those social and structural drivers and forge a path forward rooted in what is fundamentally fair.” President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first full day in office to establish the task force. Members worked 1...
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From Pandemic To Endemic – Is COVID-19 Here To Stay?
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COVID-19

From Pandemic To Endemic – Is COVID-19 Here To Stay?

Sara Sawyer, University of Colorado Boulder; Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero, University of Colorado Boulder, and Cody Warren, University of Colorado Boulder Now that kids ages 5 to 11 are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination and the number of fully vaccinated people in the U.S. is rising, many people may be wondering what the endgame is for COVID-19. Early on in the pandemic, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) might just go away, since historically some pandemic viruses have simply disappeared. For instance, SARS-CoV, the coronavirus responsible for the first SARS pandemic in 2003, spread to 29 countries and regions, infecting more than 8,000 people from November 2002 to July 2003. But thanks to quick and effective public health interventions, SAR...
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