Health Archives - Mediarabe

Covid vaccine trial won’t be rushed by political pressure, Pfizer CEO says

October 1, 2020

The head of Pfizer, one of the drugmakers racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine, told employees he was disappointed that its work was politicized during this week’s presidential debate and tried to reassure U.S. staff that the company won’t bend to pressure to move more quickly.

Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla told the employees Thursday that the company is “moving at the speed of science,” rather than under any political timing, according to a staff letter obtained by The Associated Press.

“The only pressure we feel — and it weighs heavy — are the billions of people, millions of businesses and hundreds of government officials that are depending on us,” Bourla wrote.

Despite top U.S. federal health officials repeatedly stating that a vaccine is unlikely to be available widely until 2021, President Donald Trump has insisted that a vaccine will be ready before Election Day.

During Tuesday’s debate with former

Why do people say such mean things about miscarriage and pregnancy loss?

October 1, 2020

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Chrissy Teigen, who has normalized issues such as postpartum depression and infertility, revealed in an Instagram post on Wednesday that she experienced a devastating pregnancy loss.

“We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before,” Teigen wrote alongside a series of black-and-white photos of herself and her husband, John Legend, mourning at the hospital.

After sharing the news, Teigen was inundated with messages of support, but some found it necessary to call out Teigen for seeking attention.

“It’s kind of sick that when you loose (sic) a child you focus on snapping a good staged photo… Insane world,” one person commented.

This might be nothing new for a celebrity who’s used to the glare of a spotlight; but regular women who have suffered through pregnancy loss say that cruel comments are far too common.

Sports writer Jason

Non-Invasive Technique for LV Pressure-Volume Curves in the Works

October 1, 2020

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A non-invasive echocardiographic technique generated left ventricular (LV) pressure strain-volume loop curves for people with aortic regurgitation and other cardiac conditions, one group confirmed.

The pilot study had 10 people undergo strain echocardiography along with software for evaluating myocardial work to assess cardiac structure and function. Blood pressure was obtained at the time of imaging to create pressure-volume curves.

Different curves were generated for patients whose clinical indications for echocardiography included congestive heart failure, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, amyloid heart disease, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy, according to Siu-Hin Wan, MD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues reporting in a poster at this year’s virtual Heart Failure Society of America meeting.

The group highlighted the potential application of the technique in aortic regurgitation in particular.

To illustrate their point, the authors compared the LV pressure curve for a 77-year-old man with chronic asymptomatic severe aortic regurgitation with

Trump Signs Medicare Loan Relief Bill Delaying Repayments

October 1, 2020

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President Trump on Thursday morning signed a bill to keep the federal government running through December 11. This “continuing resolution” (CR), which was approved by the Senate Wednesday on an 84-10 vote, according to The New York Times, includes provisions to delay repayment by physicians of pandemic-related Medicare loans and to reduce the loans’ interest rate.

In an earlier news release, the American Medical Association (AMA) reported that Congress and the White House had agreed to include the provisions on Medicare loans in the CR.

Under the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments (AAP) program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) advanced money to physicians who were financially impacted by the pandemic. The program, created in March, was suspended in late April.

Physicians who received the Medicare loans were supposed to start paying them back 120 days after they were made. CMS planned to recoup the advances by offsetting

Coronavirus patients in hospital in UK doubles in two weeks

October 1, 2020

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General view of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. (PA)

The number of people in hospital with coronavirus has doubled in two weeks as cases continue to rise across the country.

The government said there were 2,276 people in UK hospitals as of October 1, just over double the 1,107 who were receiving treatment on September 17.

There has been a steady increase in hospital admissions throughout September and shows no signs of changing over the first week of October.

There were 6,914 new cases of coronavirus in the UK Thursday, slightly down the past two days where numbers were above 7,000.

During the height of the pandemic in April there were around 19,000 people in hospital with coronavirus in the UK.

Graph patients in hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. (UK Government)

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The Compounding Effect of Colon Cancer Disparities in America

October 1, 2020

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In August, acclaimed actor Chadwick Boseman tragically passed away at age 43 after a four-year battle with colon cancer. Boseman played the role of Black Panther as well as several African American historical icons, some of which he filmed while quietly undergoing cancer treatment.

(Getty Images)

Colorectal cancer, which is characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the colon or rectum, accounts for 8.2% of all new cancer cases and is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Colon cancer also disproportionately affects communities of color and economically marginalized populations.

As part of U.S. News’ ongoing series on health equity, U.S. News data analysts took a closer look at disparities in colon cancer and found stark differences in who was diagnosed, at what stage, and how they fared. Black, Hispanic and low socioeconomic status patients were less likely to be screened, more likely to

Here’s Why Grieving Parents are Coming Together Online to Defend Chrissy Teigen’s Pregnancy Loss Photos

October 1, 2020

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Instagram, @chrissyteigen

Early this morning, October 1st, Chrissy Teigen posted to Instagram to inform her followers that she and husband John Legend sadly lost their unborn son, whom they had begun calling Jack. In her post, Teigen included five gut-wrenching photographs from the night they lost Jack, which has caused some controversy among people who are questioning whether the star should have posted intimate photos from such a personal trauma. However, many people who have been through the same grief Teigen and Legend say yes, and are now opening up about their own losses.

“On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out,” Teigen wrote in the caption of her Instagram upload. “But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it.”

October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month, a time of the year to raise awareness about stillbirth, miscarriage, SIDS,

When VP candidates debate in Salt Lake City, they can see changes on health care’s frontlines

October 1, 2020

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When the VP candidates debate in Salt Lake City, they can see changes in health care’s frontlines

a laptop on a table: When VP candidates debate in Salt Lake City, they can see changes on health care's frontlines

© The Hill
When VP candidates debate in Salt Lake City, they can see changes on health care’s frontlines

Winston Churchill did something compelling when Nazi bombers attacked London at the start of World War II. Instead of rushing to a bomb shelter, he climbed to a rooftop so he could see what was happening. After the attacks, he visited bombed-out sites to see the impact on the communities he served.

“Churchill toured the worst-hit areas on foot,” one historian recalled. His bodyguard said, “He could no more stay out of a raid than he could sit still in a debate in Parliament.”

My point is to invite Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Vice President Mike Pence to take this same kind of close-up look at health care when they come to

Coronavirus Clusters Reported In 2 More Central Queens ZIP Codes

October 1, 2020

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KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — The Health Department has added two Central Queens ZIP codes to a list of neighborhoods where cases of the coronavirus appear to be increasing more quickly than in most of New York City.

The city is now monitoring five coronavirus clusters in Central Queens, within the ZIP codes 11415, 11366, 11367, 11374 and 11432, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

New to that list are the ZIP code 11366, an area of Fresh Meadows and Hillcrest that saw more than 3 percent of coronavirus tests come back positive over the last two weeks, and 11432 in Hillcrest, Jamaica Estates and Jamaica Hills, where the positivity rate was just under 2.7 percent.

The ZIP codes 11366, 11367 and 11415 are all seeing cases of the virus grow at “alarming” rates, with positivity rates that exceed 3 percent, according to a Health Department advisory sent to reporters Wednesday

Suicide rate among active duty troops jumps to six-year high

October 1, 2020

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As the number of veterans committing suicide has climbed to an alarming rate, a civilian-run treatment center has now become a model for treating PTSD and other causes of military suicides. (July 29)

WASHINGTON – The suicide rate among active-duty troops increased in 2019, according to a Pentagon report released Thursday, and Army officials worry that stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may push figures higher in 2020.

Last year, the rate of suicide among active-duty troops was 25.9 per 100,000 troops, according to the Pentagon’s annual report on suicide. The rate was 24.9 per 100,000 people in 2018, and 21.9 per 100,000 troops in 2017. The rate has showed a steady increase from 2014, when the rate was 18.5 per 100,000 service members. The suicide rates in the National Guard and reserve components of the military remained stable last year, according to the report.

In all, 498 troops