Friday, November 1

COVID-19

Rural Health Cooperatives Are Innovating But Are Challenged By Connectivity And Social Distancing
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Rural Health Cooperatives Are Innovating But Are Challenged By Connectivity And Social Distancing

Rural areas are seeing some of the fastest spread of the COVID-19 in the U.S., taxing already stressed rural health care systems. Researchers Tanisa Adimu and Amanda Phillips Martinez head the Community Health Systems Development team of the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University, providing and evaluating technical assistance to rural health care providers and organizations around the country. Over the past months, they surveyed around 120 rural health care providers about the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are adapting to meet those challenges. Tanisa Adimu and Amanda Philips Martinez talk about the challenges rural health providers are facing. New ways to get health data There has been a drop in the number of patients making in-person vi...
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Pneumonia Vaccines May Reduce Deaths From COVID-19 Until A Coronavirus Vaccine Is Available
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COVID-19

Pneumonia Vaccines May Reduce Deaths From COVID-19 Until A Coronavirus Vaccine Is Available

The yearly influenza season threatens to make the COVID-19 pandemic doubly deadly, but I believe that this isn’t inevitable. There are two commonly given vaccines – the pneumococcal vaccine and the Hib vaccine – that protect against bacterial pneumonias. These bacteria complicate both influenza and COVID-19, often leading to death. My examination of disease trends and vaccination rates leads me to believe that broader use of the pneumococcal and Hib vaccines could guard against the worst effects of a COVID-19 illness. I am an immunologist and physiologist interested in the effects of combined infections on immunity. I have reached my insight by juxtaposing two seemingly unrelated puzzles: Infants and children get SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but very rarely become hospital...
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During The Summer Of COVID, Dementia Deaths Rise Leading To Concern
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

During The Summer Of COVID, Dementia Deaths Rise Leading To Concern

Deaths from dementia during the summer of 2020 are nearly 20% higher than the number of dementia-related deaths during that time in previous years, and experts don’t yet know why. An estimated 61,000 people have died from dementia, which is 11,000 more than usual within that period. “There’s something wrong, there’s something going on and it needs to be sorted out,” Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent interview with Politico. “This is highly unusual.” As a geriatrician, I find this statistic sad but not shocking. I care for dementia patients in my clinical practice. I see firsthand how the isolation caused by the pandemic has changed their lives, whether they’re home alone, living with a caregiver, or in ...
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Man May Be More Susceptible To COVID-19
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COVID-19

Man May Be More Susceptible To COVID-19

If you ask most women about how their male relatives, partners and friends respond to being sick, they’ll often tell you with an accompanying eye roll, “He’s such a baby.” “He’s extra whiny.” Or “he exaggerates so much.” But there may be a biological explanation for this behavior. Dubbed the “man flu,” this phenomenon has been validated in a review of previously published, large epidemiological studies, as well as in studies of influenza in animals. In these studies, males were sick longer, with more severe symptoms and had a weaker response to vaccination. Laboratory tests with animals infected with the influenza virus also underscore that there are sex-based differences in immune response that influence outcomes observed in humans. But are these more severe symptoms and outcomes unique ...
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Food Security For College Students Threaten By Pandemic
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COVID-19

Food Security For College Students Threaten By Pandemic

When university presidents were surveyed in spring of 2020 about what they felt were the most pressing concerns of COVID-19, college students going hungry didn’t rank very high. Just 14% of the presidents listed food or housing insecurity among their top five concerns. Granted, these academic leaders had plenty of other things to worry about. Some 86% said they were worried about fall enrollment – a concern that has shown itself to be a legitimate one, especially in light of the fact that low-income students have been dropping out of college at what one headline described as “alarming rates.” As researchers who specialize in the study of food insecurity, we see the dropout rate as being related to a host of underlying issues. And not having enough to eat is one of them. Data support th...
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Socialized Health Care For Trump. What About the Rest of Us?
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Socialized Health Care For Trump. What About the Rest of Us?

We don’t know what course COVID-19 will take with Donald Trump. The White House insists he is well, even as the barrage of aggressive and even experimental treatments he’s received suggests his case is more severe than they let on. But we do know that if anyone with the virus—not to mention someone with Trump’s increased risk factors—has a good chance of pulling through, it’s him. Trump is tested regularly, so he knew at the earliest possible moment that he was infected (even if he didn’t wear a mask or cancel public events afterward). He has doctors at his side, with their sole focus on him and his wife. He has access to all available treatments and even to treatments that aren’t yet available to the public. Unlike millions of Americans, Trump didn’t have to wait for symptoms to qualif...
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Trump’s Wealth May Be The Best Medicine In Fighting COVID-19
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Trump’s Wealth May Be The Best Medicine In Fighting COVID-19

With President Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus, speculation has begun regarding possible outcomes. The reality is, it’s impossible to say for certain what will happen to an individual once they’ve contracted COVID. Some people might have no symptoms at all, while others might have far worse outcomes. It’s one of the many mysteries of the virus that scientists worldwide are working around the clock to untangle. When it comes to risk, we do know some things, but many remain uncertain. We can change some things, and some we’re stuck with. It’s now common knowledge that age is the most important factor driving the risk of worse outcomes from COVID. Being male, living with obesity, being from a non-White ethnic group and having long-term conditions—such as diabetes and heart dise...
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COVID-19: Where You Sit In A Classroom Matters, How Ventilation Can Help
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COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

COVID-19: Where You Sit In A Classroom Matters, How Ventilation Can Help

It doesn’t take long for airborne coronavirus particles to make their way through a room. At first, only people sitting near an infected speaker are at high risk, but as the meeting or class goes on, the tiny aerosols can spread. That doesn’t mean everyone faces the same level of risk, however. As an engineer, I have been conducting experiments tracking how aerosols move, including those in the size range that can carry viruses. What I’ve found is important to understand as more people return to universities, offices and restaurants and more meetings move indoors as temperatures fall. It points to the highest-risk areas in rooms and why proper ventilation is crucial. As we saw this past week with President Donald Trump and others in Washington, the coronavirus can spread quickly in clo...
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One Small Part Of A Human Antibody Has The Potential To Work As A Drug For Both Prevention And Therapy Of COVID-19
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COVID-19

One Small Part Of A Human Antibody Has The Potential To Work As A Drug For Both Prevention And Therapy Of COVID-19

Although a vaccine could be the ultimate solution to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and stop future ones, it will not be 100% effective. If it is anything like the flu vaccine, it will most likely be slightly more than 50% effective. What is important to recognize is that a vaccine can protect but cannot treat an already infected person. In contrast, drugs including laboratory-made antibodies (Y-shaped proteins that can help fight a foreign substance) can do both – protect and treat. This is why currently many companies are developing antibodies for prevention and therapy of COVID-19. Physicians would inject patients with these antibodies, which would immediately recognize and inactivate the virus. Such a therapy would bridge the lag until the patient’s immune system was able to produce enoug...
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Your child’s vaccines: What you need to know about catching up during the COVID-19 pandemic
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Your child’s vaccines: What you need to know about catching up during the COVID-19 pandemic

This spring, after stay-at-home orders were announced and schools shut down across the nation, many families stopped going to their pediatrician. As a result, kids have fallen behind on important childhood vaccinations. Vaccination rates declined starkly after mid-March, with up to 60% reductions in some areas of the country. Nationwide, vaccination rates dropped by 22% among Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program recipients under 2. Now that kids are coming back to pediatricians like me, many parents have questions about catching up. Why is it a problem that my child is behind on vaccines? Vaccines protect your child from serious communicable diseases including brain infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and, in the case of the HPV and hepatitis B vaccines, even some t...
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