HEALTH & WELLNESS

Older people are at more risk from COVID-19 because of how the immune system ages

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Older people are at more risk from COVID-19 because of how the immune system ages

The rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic is taking a particularly harsh toll on older people. Data from the initial outbreak in China and then Italy show that infected people under the age of 60 are at low – but not no – risk of dying from COVID-19. Curiously, young children do not appear to be at increased risk of serious COVID-19 complications, in contrast to what happens with other viruses, like the seasonal flu. However, the statistics get grimmer as the patients get older. Whereas people in their 60s have a 0.4% chance of dying, people in their 70s have a 1.3% chance of dying, and people over 80 have a 3.6% chance of dying. While this may not sound like a high chance of death, during the current outbreak in Italy, 83% of those who succumbed to COVID-19 infection were over the age ...

Vodka won’t protect you from coronavirus, and 4 other things to know about hand sanitizer

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Vodka won’t protect you from coronavirus, and 4 other things to know about hand sanitizer

As concern about coronavirus grows, hand sanitizer is in high demand. Biologist Jeffrey Gardner explains why alcohol is a key ingredient in hand sanitizer, and why he doesn’t recommend making your own supply at home. 1. Why is alcohol the main ingredient in most hand sanitizers? Alcohol is effective at killing different types of microbes, including both viruses and bacteria, because it unfolds and inactivates their proteins. This process, which is called denaturation, will cripple and often kill the microbe because its proteins will unfold and stick together. Heat can also denature some proteins – for example, when you cook an egg, the solidified egg whites are denatured proteins. 2. Alcohol doesn’t kill some microbes very well - why not? There are different types of bacteria and viruses, ...

I Understand Why Black People May Trust Their Intuition Over the Government On COVID-19

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

I Understand Why Black People May Trust Their Intuition Over the Government On COVID-19

I’m ashamed to admit it: I laughed when I saw the news story of the Black woman who wore plastic bags as she picked up a student from a Memphis school where an employee had contact with a patient who had tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. As a Black woman and a practicing physician who works on Chicago’s South Side, I shouldn’t make light of the way a fellow Black woman attempts to protect herself in a country that often does little to protect her. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends frequent hand-washing, social distancing including avoiding crowds, keeping hands away from the face, and suggests wearing a mask only if you are sick.) Doctors are certainly not immune to panic or fear. But we are trained to remain calm in the face of uncertainty. We a...

The homeless could be hit hard by Coronavirus and that could hit everyone hard

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

The homeless could be hit hard by Coronavirus and that could hit everyone hard

As the number of cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, continues to grow, the nation is on edge. Doctors and scientists do not know what percentage of the general population has been infected and what percentage of the infected develops symptoms. State and local governments and the federal public health system are deploying strategies to contain the spread of the virus and consider ways to mitigate the effects of the disease on vulnerable groups, the health care system and the economy. But amid all the planning, and a growing sense of panic, the impact of the spread of COVID-19 among homeless people is not being widely discussed. It should, however, be of special concern to local officials. I am a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at the Keck School ...

High School Health Workers A Medical School And Georgia Students

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

High School Health Workers A Medical School And Georgia Students

As part of his training to become a certified community health worker, 10th-grader Malachi Ward needed to monitor family or community members—checking their vital signs and setting health goals. When Ward first asked his mother, Fayron Epps, if he could monitor her, she expressed ambivalence. Epps considered herself to be in good health. Although she didn’t have a primary care physician, she always attended her annual women’s health checkup and, despite the occasional headache, felt fine. She agreed to be a study participant because Ward needed five people to monitor. “I was like ‘OK, you can monitor me, but you’re not going to find anything’,” she recalls. Except Ward did find something. “I was really taken aback,” Epps admitted. Her blood pressure was dangerously high. Over the course...

Coronavirus control measures aren’t pointless – just slowing down the pandemic could save millions of lives

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Coronavirus control measures aren’t pointless – just slowing down the pandemic could save millions of lives

Anywhere from 20% to 60% of the adults around the world may be infected with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. That’s the estimate from leading epidemiological experts on communicable disease dynamics. Even the best-case scenario using those numbers means nearly 40,000,000 adults will be infected in the United States alone. Some people may start to feel fatalistic in the face of those kinds of statistics. There are no vaccines and no specific treatments for people who get sick. What’s the point of fighting something that’s bound to happen anyway? Why not just let the epidemic run its course? But public health officials and medical professionals have been advocating for rapid and decisive efforts to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 as much an...

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together

The mere act of growing up brings special challenges to young African Americans, particularly those living in rural areas. Resources there are often limited, compared to what’s offered in the city. There’s more chronic poverty and economic stress, and less of almost everything else: employment opportunities, public transportation, recreational facilities, families with discretionary income, and health care, both physical and mental. There are bright spots, however, as I’ve learned from over 20 years of research. One was the caregiving practices of many African American families. That nurturing has helped their children avoid major problems, including behaviors that place them at risk for HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies. With that in mind, I developed the Strong African American Famili...

What to expect as colleges and universities move classes online amid coronavirus fears: 4 questions answered

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

What to expect as colleges and universities move classes online amid coronavirus fears: 4 questions answered

Rising concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus have led a growing number of colleges and universities to cancel in-person classes and move them online. Vanessa Dennen, who studies teaching and learning on the web, discusses what going online will mean for college students and instructors. 1. How hard will it be? Moving classes online in the midst of an emergency isn’t unprecedented. It’s been done before with local disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. But contending with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is a different situation. This is a global problem. A sudden shift to temporary or long-term online learning poses a challenge for brick-and-mortar universities to quickly scale up their online learning offerings under less than ideal conditions. It w...

Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

AI, COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, TECHNOLOGY

Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats

Canadian artificial intelligence firm BlueDot has been in the news in recent weeks for warning about the new coronavirus days ahead of the official alerts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The company was able to do this by tapping different sources of information beyond official statistics about the number of cases reported. BlueDot’s AI algorithm, a type of computer program that improves as it processes more data, brings together news stories in dozens of languages, reports from plant and animal disease tracking networks and airline ticketing data. The result is an algorithm that’s better at simulating disease spread than algorithms that rely on public health data – better enough to be able to predict outbreaks. The company uses the t...

Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal flu

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal flu

The spread of the new coronavirus, which has infected over 80,000 people worldwide and resulted in the death of more than 3,000, has raised alarms around the world. At the same time, the seasonal influenza, known as the flu, causes severe illness in between 3 million and 5 million people, with hundreds of thousands of deaths every year worldwide. With so many fewer cases than the flu, what explains the dramatic response to COVID-19 and worry around the globe? And how would a person know whether seasonal influenza-like symptoms are COVID-19? As an epidemiologist, here’s how I look at these questions. Difficult to distinguish The first thing to realize is that the emergence of the novel coronavirus isn’t a rare “black swan” event. Rather, this is a product of evolution; there have been ab...