Thursday, April 3

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Video: Who should get a COVID-19 vaccine first?
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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...
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How a new way of parsing COVID-19 data began to show the breadth of health gaps between Blacks and whites
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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...
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Big pharma’s safety pledge isn’t enough to build public confidence in COVID-19 vaccine – here’s what will
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BUSINESS, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Big pharma’s safety pledge isn’t enough to build public confidence in COVID-19 vaccine – here’s what will

Americans are increasingly concerned that regulators and manufacturers will rush a vaccine to market without an adequate review. That prompted nine vaccine front-runners, including Pfizer and Merck, to promise to abide by clinical and ethical standards in an effort to increase the public’s confidence in any vaccine that ultimately comes to market. As a scholar of law, public health and bioethics, I have extensively studied vaccine policy, as well as the laws and regulations governing human subject research and FDA-regulated medical products. In my view, the pledge is little more than a public relations strategy, with companies simply reaffirming that they’ll follow FDA guidelines and standard scientific practices. While I doubt the biotech pledge will do much to increase public confiden...
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What’s in your medicine may surprise you – a call for greater transparency about inactive ingredients
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

What’s in your medicine may surprise you – a call for greater transparency about inactive ingredients

There are many more ingredients in every pill you take than what is listed on the bottle label. These other ingredients, which are combined with the therapeutic one, are often sourced from around the world before landing in your medicine cabinet and are not always benign. Earlier this year, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which requires manufacturers to report real or potential drug shortages to the FDA. Manufacturers are now required to report disruptions in the manufacturing of an active pharmaceutical ingredient – the part of the medicine that produces the intended therapeutic benefit. But the CARES Act doesn’t include excipients - the “inactive” ingredients that make up the bulk of a final medicine. It also doesn’t include the materials...
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Coronavirus is hundreds of times more deadly for people over 60 than people under 40
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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...
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Halting the Oxford vaccine trial doesn’t mean it’s not safe – it shows they’re following the right process
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Halting the Oxford vaccine trial doesn’t mean it’s not safe – it shows they’re following the right process

Only days after the federal government announced a A$1.7 billion vaccine deal to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to Australians in 2021, one of the two candidates has halted its phase 3 trials after a participant became ill. The AZD1222 vaccine, considered one of the frontrunners in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine, was developed by the University of Oxford and has been undergoing testing with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Melbourne-based biotechnology company CSL has committed to producing and supplying more than 30 million doses of the vaccine to Australians if it’s found to be safe and effective. But this pause in the trials doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not safe. Rather, it indicates the testing is progressing as it should, with due consideration of safety. Wh...
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What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19
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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...
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How the Civil War drove medical innovation – and the pandemic could, too
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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...
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Several schools find harmful bacteria in water systems, reminding all reopening buildings to check the pipes
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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...
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To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help
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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...
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