HEALTH & WELLNESS

What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19

While most children who get COVID-19 develop little more than a mild illness, several hundred have ended up in hospital intensive care units with alarming symptoms that begin appearing weeks after the initial infection. The view through an electron microscope shows the spikes that create the ‘corona’ effect on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, CC BY-ND This new condition progresses rapidly and can strike multiple organs and systems, including the heart, lungs, eyes, skin and gastrointestinal system. It’s known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C. More than 790 U.S. cases had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Sept. 3, and 16 of those children have died. I have been consulting on M...

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...

Several schools find harmful bacteria in water systems, reminding all reopening buildings to check the pipes

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Several schools find harmful bacteria in water systems, reminding all reopening buildings to check the pipes

As schools cautiously reopen for the fall semester, several have discovered potentially harmful bacteria in their water systems. Parents are likely concerned about what this means for their children, and other districts may be checking their own water’s safety. Schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania have already found Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, in their water systems. Andrew Whelton/Purdue University, CC BY-ND As researchers who investigate water quality in buildings, we warned earlier this year that the pandemic stay-at-home orders could allow bacteria and harmful metals to accumulate in water as it sat unused in buildings’ pipes. Some building managers looked for those problems as they reopened and found them. More than 10 schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania hav...

To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help

5Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help

When Joe Prude called the police on his brother, he was asking for help: Daniel Prude, who suffered from mental health problems, had run almost naked out of his Rochester, New York, house into the snow. When officers arrived, new video footage shows, the March 23 encounter quickly turned violent, and Prude died from asphyxiation under a hood officers had put over his head. Two years prior, in 2018, Shukri Ali Said of Georgia also wound up dead after leaving her house during a mental health crisis on April 23, 2018. Police, called in to help, found Said standing at an intersection holding a knife. Officers shot her five times in the neck and chest, killing her. That same month, in New York, officers answered a 911 call about a black man waving something that looked like a gun. In fact, it...

A man was reinfected with coronavirus after recovery – what does this mean for immunity?

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

A man was reinfected with coronavirus after recovery – what does this mean for immunity?

A 33-year old man was found to have a second SARS-CoV-2 infection some four-and-a-half months after he was diagnosed with his first, from which he recovered. The man, who showed no symptoms, was diagnosed when he returned to Hong Kong after a trip to Spain. I am a virologist with expertise in coronaviruses and enteroviruses, and I’ve been curious about reinfections since the beginning of the pandemic. Because people infected with SARS-CoV-2 can often test positive for the virus for weeks to months, likely due to the sensitivity of the test and leftover RNA fragments, the only way to really answer the question of reinfection is by sequencing the viral genome at the time of each infection and looking for differences in the genetic code. There is no published peer-review report on this man ...

While the US is reeling from COVID-19, the Trump administration is trying to take away health care

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

While the US is reeling from COVID-19, the Trump administration is trying to take away health care

The death toll from COVID-19 keeps rising, creating grief, fear, loss and confusion. Unfortunately for us all, the pain only begins there. Other important health policy news that would ordinarily make headlines is buried under the crushing weight of the coronavirus. Many have not had time to notice or understand the Trump administration’s efforts to wreck health care coverage. We are both professors at Boston University School of Public Health who study health insurance, one using economics and statistics and the other focusing on law and policy. We have researched the big picture of COVID-19’s impact on the safety net and the details of how our federalist system, with states having considerable control over policy, has made a coordinated response to the pandemic more difficult. Here, w...

Forced sterilization policies in the US targeted minorities and those with disabilities – and lasted into the 21st century

5Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Forced sterilization policies in the US targeted minorities and those with disabilities – and lasted into the 21st century

In August 1964, the North Carolina Eugenics Board met to decide if a 20-year-old Black woman should be sterilized. Because her name was redacted from the records, we call her Bertha. She was a single mother with one child who lived at the segregated O'Berry Center for African American adults with intellectual disabilities in Goldsboro. According to the North Carolina Eugenics Board, Bertha had an IQ of 62 and exhibited “aggressive behavior and sexual promiscuity.” She had been orphaned as a child and had a limited education. Likely because of her “low IQ score,” the board determined she was not capable of rehabilitation. Instead the board recommended the “protection of sterilization” for Bertha, because she was “feebleminded” and deemed unable to “assume responsibility for herself” or her...

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, what should you say to someone who refuses to wear a mask? A philosopher weighs in

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, what should you say to someone who refuses to wear a mask? A philosopher weighs in

Multiple studies have shown that masks reduce the transmission of virus-loaded droplets from people with COVID-19. However, according to a Gallup poll, almost a third of Americans say they rarely or never wear a mask in public. This raises a question: Can the anti-maskers be persuaded to wear masks? To some, it might appear that such a question has no ethical dimension. Wearing masks saves lives, so everyone should do it. Some even believe anti-maskers are simply selfish. But as a philosopher who studies ethics and persuasion, I argue that things are more complicated than that. Kant on love and respect To start, consider one of the most influential ethical frameworks in Western thought: that of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. According to Kant, morality is ultimately about respec...

Economic hardship from COVID-19 will hit minority seniors the most

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Economic hardship from COVID-19 will hit minority seniors the most

For Americans 60 and older, COVID-19 is widespread and deadly. Its economic impact could also be devastating. With a recession fast developing, much of the attention on the downturn focuses on working-age adults, but many older Americans – with less time to make up for financial losses – will suffer the most. I am a clinical professor of gerontology. My co-author is a research fellow in gerontology. We believe that recent history, specifically the Great Recession of 2008-09, will demonstrate what’s at stake. In a series of research briefs using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we analyzed the financial status of Americans 60 and older before and after that recession. We reviewed the data from a wide variety of demographic groups: non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, and H...

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

How dangerous heat waves can kill

Heat waves are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, not the more photogenic windstorms and floods. Hotter summers from climate change are causing concerns over new dangers to people. As a medical school professor, I’ve focused on physiology, neuroscience, the evolution of the big brain and, more recently, climate science and civilization’s vulnerability to abrupt shocks from climate change. Today I’m wearing my physiologist’s hat and asking: How do heat waves kill? We can take the heat – usually Thanks to our meat-eating ancestors, who could run down prey in long midday chases on the African savanna, we humans are able to keep our body temperature in the range where we function best in a wide range of conditions, even those combining extreme heat with extreme...