Sunday, December 22

Tag: covid

In The COVID-19 Era, Older Adults See Time Differently And Are Doing Better Than Younger People
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

In The COVID-19 Era, Older Adults See Time Differently And Are Doing Better Than Younger People

Time in the era of COVID-19 has taken on new meaning. “Blursday” is the new time word of the year – where every day seems the same when staying home and restricting socializing and work. As a public health and aging expert and founding director of the Texas A&M Center of Population Health and Aging, I have been studying the impacts of COVID-19 with an interest in debunking myths and identifying unexpected positive consequences for our aging population. It is common to view older adults as especially vulnerable. Public health statistics reinforce the picture of older adults infected with SARS-CoV-2 as more likely to have serious complications, to be hospitalized and to die. But what do we know about how older adults themselves are responding to social distancing restrictions in place...
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Race For A COVID-19 Vaccine International Statistic Of The Year
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Race For A COVID-19 Vaccine International Statistic Of The Year

Scientists in China published the complete genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 on Jan. 10, 2020. On Dec. 8, 2020, health officials in London began administering an effective coronavirus vaccine to the public. The global scientific community successfully developed a COVID-19 vaccine in just 332 days. CC BY-ND I am a statistician, and this year I was on the judging panel for the Royal Statistical Society’s International Statistic of the Year. Much like Oxford English Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” competition, we choose one statistic that is meant to capture the zeitgeist of the year. The statistic 332 days was the clear, standout winner. After a year of terrible tragedy, economic hardship and sorrow, this number represents an unparalleled collaboration in the history of medicine that gives ho...
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Inequalities In The Global Financial System Exposed By COVID-19
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BUSINESS, COVID-19

Inequalities In The Global Financial System Exposed By COVID-19

To stem the economic fallout from COVID-19, developed countries have injected an unprecedented US$9 trillion into their economies. The International Monetary Fund has recommended sustained fiscal support, emphasizing greater spending on health care and environmental protection projects. Meanwhile, countries in the “global south” – broadly, low- and middle-income countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa – face more dire circumstances. They don’t have the ability to inject that level of cash into their economies. And it’s not only because their economies are poorer. As an economics professor, I focus on the systemic inequalities in the global financial system that block such access in developing economies. With a greater public awareness of soaring inequality within countries, it is ...
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Here’s How My Team Will Be Getting COVID-19 Vaccines Doses Into Arms Soon
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Here’s How My Team Will Be Getting COVID-19 Vaccines Doses Into Arms Soon

In late October, I received an email from a member of the California Department of Public Health. I called the number in the email and a bright happy voice answered and asked if the University of California, San Francisco would be interested in the early release and distribution of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Of course, I said yes. I am the chief pharmacy executive at UCSF Health and associate dean and clinical professor at the School of Pharmacy. My team and I are responsible for the distribution of all medications and vaccines throughout the health system, and I am also the person running much of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution for UCSF. UCSF will be receiving our first allocation of the Pfizer vaccine around Dec. 15 and the Moderna vaccine sometime soon after that. We project that ...
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Questions Parents Are Asking, When Can Children Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Questions Parents Are Asking, When Can Children Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?

The first U.S. COVID-19 vaccines are expected in clinics in mid-December, and states are drawing up plans for who should get vaccinated first. But one important group is absent: children. While two vaccines are expected to be cleared soon for adult use in the U.S., testing is only now getting started with children – and only with adolescents. There are still a lot of unknowns. As an infectious disease pharmacist and professor who helps manage patients hospitalized with COVID-19, I frequently hear questions about vaccines. Here’s what we know and don’t know in response to some common questions about vaccinating kids for COVID-19. When can my child be vaccinated? Right now, it appears unlikely that a vaccine will be ready for children before the start of the next school year in August. A...
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COVID-19 Racial Health Gap 4 Ways To Close It
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COVID-19

COVID-19 Racial Health Gap 4 Ways To Close It

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the reality that health in the U.S. has glaring racial inequities. Since March, people of color have been more likely to get sick and more likely to die from COVID-19 infection because they have been living and working in social conditions that worsen their physical health and mental health. These conditions are rooted in structural inequalities that are also responsible for the severity and progression of COVID-19. While the issues are complex, research has suggested some ways to repair the broken system. Now, at the dawn of a new administration, more effective strategies that look at the realities of these affected communities can be implemented. As research psychologists who study the social influences of health and mental health among marginalized gr...
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Research Projects Are Also Victims Of COVID-19 Pandemic – From Permafrost Microbes To Survivor Songbirds
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COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

Research Projects Are Also Victims Of COVID-19 Pandemic – From Permafrost Microbes To Survivor Songbirds

What do you do when COVID-19 safety protocols and travel restrictions mean you can’t do your research? That’s what these three scientists have had to figure out this year, as the global pandemic has kept them from their fieldwork. Missing a field season can be devastating if your research subject is melting away. Karen Lloyd, CC BY-ND A microbiologist describes the frustration of missing a sampling season in the Arctic at a time when climate change means the permafrost is an endangered resource. A biologist writes about missing for the first time the annual census of a bird population she’s been studying for 35 years and the hole that leaves in her data. And natural events aren’t the only ones researchers are forced to skip. An environmental scientist explains how postponing a global gath...
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Nursing Home Aides Aren’t Taking Sick Leave After Exposure To COVID-19 – Why?
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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...
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Are These Game-Changing COVID-19 Vaccines Safe? They Were Developed In Record Time
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IN OTHER NEWS

Are These Game-Changing COVID-19 Vaccines Safe? They Were Developed In Record Time

There are now two COVID-19 vaccines that, at least according to preliminary reports, appear to be 94.5% and 95% effective. Both were developed in a record-breaking 11 months or so. I am an infectious diseases specialist and professor at the University of Virginia. I care for patients with COVID-19 and am conducting the local site for a phase 3 clinical trial of Regeneron’s antibody cocktail as a tool to prevent household transmission of COVID-19. I’m also conducting research on how dysregulation of the immune system during SARS-CoV-2 infection causes lung damage. Despite the vaccines’ relatively rapid development, the normal safety testing protocols are still in place. How long does most vaccine development take? Vaccines typically take at least a decade to develop, test and manufacture....
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Obesity Creates Problems For COVID-19 Vaccine
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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...
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