COVID-19 – Page 8

Despite Tide In Public Support For Paying Athletes Having Turned – NCAA Amateurism Appears Immune To COVID-19

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, SPORTS

Despite Tide In Public Support For Paying Athletes Having Turned – NCAA Amateurism Appears Immune To COVID-19

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, college sports have mostly chugged along – albeit with cancellations, postponements and pauses in play. While many college athletes are grateful for the opportunity to compete, the pandemic has laid bare just how few basic rights they possess. College athletes are navigating this strange sports season with increased health risks, but with little leverage or say about the conditions under which they’ll play. In contrast, their professional counterparts in leagues such as the NBA, WNBA, MLB and NFL, thanks to their respective unions, actively negotiated special accommodations, health measures, truncated seasons and the ability to opt out of playing. They also continually negotiate their economic rights, such as how their sport’s revenue is split up and the...

Nursing Home Aides Aren’t Taking Sick Leave After Exposure To COVID-19 – Why?

25Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, IN OTHER NEWS

Nursing Home Aides Aren’t Taking Sick Leave After Exposure To COVID-19 – Why?

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated America’s nursing homes, but the reasons aren’t as simple as people might think. To understand how nursing homes became the source of over one-third of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, you have to look beyond just the vulnerability of the residents and examine how nursing homes pay and manage their employees. The average nursing aide earns just $14.25 an hour, less than $30,000 a year. Many are women who work at multiple nursing homes to make ends meet. Partly as a result of that, the typical nursing home has staff connections to 15 other facilities – each an opportunity for the coronavirus to spread. That risk is magnified by a reluctance among many nursing aides to take sick days when they are ill, even though federal law currently requires employers to provid...

A Global Game Changer, The Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

A Global Game Changer, The Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine

In the long dark tunnel that has been 2020, November stands out as the month that light appeared. Some might see it as a bright light, others as a faint light – but it is unmistakably a light. On November 9, Pfizer announced the interim results of its candidate vaccine, showing it to be “more than 90% effective” in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in late-stage human trials. The news was greeted with joy. A couple of days later, the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the candidate vaccine they are funding – dubbed Sputnik V – showed 92% efficacy in late-stage trials. Not to be outdone, Moderna then announced that its candidate vaccine showed 94.5% efficacy. The latest COVID-19 vaccine announcement comes from Oxford University. And, as with all of the above announcements, it ca...

What Doctors Are Facing, In Their Own Words – Rural Hospitals Are Under Siege From COVID-19

20Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

What Doctors Are Facing, In Their Own Words – Rural Hospitals Are Under Siege From COVID-19

It’s difficult to put into words how hard COVID-19 is hitting rural America’s hospitals. North Dakota has so many cases, it’s allowing asymptomatic COVID-19-positive nurses to continue caring for patients to keep the hospitals staffed. Iowa and South Dakota have teetered on the edge of running out of hospital capacity. Yet in many communities, the initial cooperation and goodwill seen early in the pandemic have given way to COVID-19 fatigue and anger, making it hard to implement and enforce public health measures, like wearing face masks, that can reduce the disease’s spread. Rural health care systems entered the pandemic in already precarious financial positions. Over the years, shifting demographics, declining revenue and increasing operating expenses have made it harder for rural hosp...

Why Vaccines From Pfizer And Moderna Are A Breakthrough, How They Work And Why They Need To Be Kept So Cold

18Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Why Vaccines From Pfizer And Moderna Are A Breakthrough, How They Work And Why They Need To Be Kept So Cold

As the weather cools, the number of infections of the COVID-19 pandemic are rising sharply. Hamstrung by pandemic fatigue, economic constraints and political discord, public health officials have struggled to control the surging pandemic. But now, a rush of interim analyses from pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have spurred optimism that a novel type of vaccine made from messenger RNA, known as mRNA, can offer high levels of protection by preventing COVID-19 among people who are vaccinated. Although unpublished, these preliminary reports have exceeded the expectations of many vaccine experts, including mine. Until early this year, I worked on developing vaccine candidates against Zika and dengue. Now I am coordinating an international effort to collect reports on adult...

Wearing Masks Saves Lives, The Earlier You Start The Better, A New Data-Driven Model Shows

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Wearing Masks Saves Lives, The Earlier You Start The Better, A New Data-Driven Model Shows

Dr. Biplav Srivastava, professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina, and his team have developed a data-driven tool that helps demonstrate the effect of wearing masks on COVID-19 cases and deaths. His model utilizes a variety of data sources to create alternate scenarios that can tell us “What could have happened?” if a county in the U.S. had a higher or lower rate of mask adherence. In this interview, he explains how the model works, its limitations and what conclusions we can draw from it. Computer scientist Biplav Srivastava provides a demo of the simulation to show that earlier policies to recommend mask-wearing make a bigger difference on the spread of the coronavirus. What does this computer model do? This is a nationwide tool which can show the effect that weari...

Obesity Creates Problems For COVID-19 Vaccine

6Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Obesity Creates Problems For COVID-19 Vaccine

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the obesity epidemic once again into the spotlight, revealing that obesity is no longer a disease that harms just in the long run but one that can have acutely devastating effects. New studies and information confirm doctors’ suspicion that this virus takes advantage of a disease that our current U.S. health care system is unable to get under control. In most recent news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 73% of nurses who have been hospitalized from COVID-19 had obesity. In addition, a recent study found that obesity could interfere with the effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine. I am an obesity specialist and clinical physician working on the front lines of obesity in primary care at the University of Virginia Health System. In t...

Support From Schools Can Reduce Parents Anxiety During The Pandemic

4Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, EDUCATION

Support From Schools Can Reduce Parents Anxiety During The Pandemic

Our recent survey found that schools can affect the mental health and well-being of not just students but their parents, too. From April through June 2020, we surveyed 152 parents – primarily mothers – in Detroit, Michigan, who were managing the new demands of remote schooling for their children. Not surprisingly, they reported high levels of anxiety (34%) and depression (27%) during this stressful period, but some indicated that support from their child’s school played an important role in reducing their mental health difficulties. Generally speaking, the more school support parents in our survey felt they had received, the less anxiety and depression they reported. However, this finding did not extend to families that were highly affected by COVID-19 due to lost income, food insecurity ...

Air Pollution And COVID-19 Deaths – Studies Raising Questions About EPA’s ‘Acceptable Risk’

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Air Pollution And COVID-19 Deaths – Studies Raising Questions About EPA’s ‘Acceptable Risk’

The pandemic is putting America’s air pollution standards to the test as the COVID-19 death toll rises. The U.S. government sets limits on hazardous air pollutants to try to protect public health, but it can be difficult to determine where to draw the line for what is considered “acceptable risk.” Power plants, factories and other pollution sources release hundreds of million pounds of hazardous pollutants into the air every year. As the coronavirus spreads, the pattern of deaths suggests there are serious weaknesses in the current public safeguards. Several studies have explored connections between air pollution and severe cases of the respiratory illnesses. The latest, published on Oct. 26, estimates that about 15% of people who died from COVID-19 worldwide had had long-term exposure ...

Even Though Telehealth Demand Is Way Up Due To COVID-19 Health Insurers Are Starting To Roll Back Coverage

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Even Though Telehealth Demand Is Way Up Due To COVID-19 Health Insurers Are Starting To Roll Back Coverage

In less than a year, telehealth has gone from a niche rarity to a common practice. Its ability to ensure physical distance, preserve personal protective equipment and prevent the spread of infection among health care workers and patients has been invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic. As health care specialists and researchers, we have long seen the potential of telehealth, providing health care remotely with technology, which has been around for several decades. Despite evidence it could safely treat and manage a range of health conditions in a cost-effective manner, widespread adoption of the practice had been limited by issues including insurance coverage, restrictions on prescribing and technology access. On March 27, 2020, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or ...