response

4Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LIFESTYLE

CRISPR can help combat the troubling immune response against gene therapy

One of the major challenges facing gene therapy - a way to treat disease by replacing a patient’s defective genes with healthy ones - is that it is difficult to safely deliver therapeutic genes to patients without the immune system destroying the gene, and the vehicle carrying it, which can trigger life-threatening widespread inflammation. Three decades ago researchers thought that gene therapy would be the ultimate treatment for genetically inherited diseases like hemophilia, sickle cell anemia and genetic diseases of metabolism. But the technology couldn’t dodge the immune response. Since then, researchers have been looking for ways to perfect the technology and control immune responses to the gene or the vehicle. However, many of the strategies tested so far have not been completely s...

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, Journalism

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of...

Governors take charge of response to the coronavirus

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Governors take charge of response to the coronavirus

Just after every gubernatorial election, but before inaugurations, the National Governors Association organizes a two-day “New Governors School.” Current governors serve as the faculty for newly elected governors, offering a crash course in taking on states’ highest office from those with first-hand experience. It is not by chance that the first of about eight sessions focuses on “What do you do in a crisis?” One of the very first recommendations to all new governors during this session is to make their first appointment the state’s emergency preparedness agency director – not the chief of staff or even the governor’s liaison to the legislature. Those can wait. The nation’s governors know a crisis can happen the day after the inauguration and they need to be prepared. Today, the coronav...

National Guard joins the coronavirus response – 3 questions answered

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism, VIDEO REELS

National Guard joins the coronavirus response – 3 questions answered

As a military organization divided into 50 distinct parts that can be commanded by either the president or state governors, the National Guard is perhaps the least understood branch of the U.S. armed forces. Despite its complexity – or perhaps because of it – the National Guard is taking the lead role in the military’s response to the coronavirus outbreak crisis. As many as 10,000 National Guard members have already been activated to help communities around the country, with many more expecting a call-up soon. People may know, from TV ads or other brief appearances in the media, that National Guard members are part-time citizen-soldiers, but not much else. As a longtime National Guard attorney and military law professor, I can explain a bit more about how the National Guard works. Ads l...