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Pandemically speaking, we as a country are in a precarious spot. Some states are abandoning their protective regulations while the rates of infections and deaths are not on a straight, downward trajectory. Published reports show a new variant in New York City, one capable of making vaccines less effective. Other reports discuss how obesity is

March 5, 2021 — Liza Scott’s family is raising money for her upcoming brain surgery the old-fashioned way — and the new-fashioned way. Liza, 7, has raised about $15,000 selling lemonade for 25 cents a glass at the stand she set up inside her mother’s bakery in Homewood, AL. The Mighty Cause crowdsourcing page had

WASHINGTON — Both public and private health insurance would become less expensive for large numbers of people under the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill now being debated in the Senate. Provisions Affecting COBRA, ACA Plans The bill contains a number of provisions affecting insurance bought on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance exchanges, as well

by Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio As the speed of Covid vaccinations picks up, so do the reports of doses going to waste. And it’s more than just a handful at the end of the day because of a few appointment cancellations. Health officials are trying to rein in waste without slowing down vaccinations. This

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. On the advice of its independent data monitoring committee (DMC), the RECOVERY trial has stopped recruitment to the colchicine arm for lack of efficacy in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. “The DMC saw no convincing evidence that further recruitment would provide conclusive

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, it’s harder than ever to know what products to trust. The pandemic has given rise to medical and wellness markets filled with misleading claims, rushed solutions, and outright fraudsters hocking counterfeit and inadequate products.  The FDA is working to separate the wheat from the chaff, issuing Emergency Use Authorizations

Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. A recent decrease in the number of Americans seeking testing for COVID-19 has experts on alert. Accurate and timely testing remains critical for treating and isolating individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection, they stress. Widespread testing also allows for tracking the spread of the virus and

Real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC), a test for pathological misfolded protein, detected alpha-synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with isolated rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (IRBD), years before clinical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease or dementia with Lewy bodies emerged. In these patients, RT-QuIC detected misfolded alpha-synuclein in CSF with both sensitivity and specificity of

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The CDC is expected to soon release guidelines on safe activities for fully vaccinated people, Politico and other news organizations reported. The CDC will recommend that vaccinated people try to only socialize with other vaccinated people at home. They should still

In a world where cherry pie could lose some filling, and where carrot cake donuts can be devoid of carrots, what’s left for us to trust? We offer the following.  As easy as pie Let’s start with the cherry pie. In December 2020 the FDA moved to change the standards of what is a cherry pie.

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The Senate Finance Committee split 14-14 on a party-line vote today on whether California Attorney General Xavier Becerra should be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS Secretary Nominee Xavier Becerra Becerra’s nomination now goes on to the

Messaging from the CDC and health departments throughout the pandemic have consistently underscored the importance of avoiding travel due to the very nature of travel increasing exposure to others, in turn increasing one’s risk of becoming infected, having an adverse health outcome, and also increasing the risk of spreading COVID-19 to others both during and

A high-priority new recall has been issued for Medtronic HVAD Pump Implant Kits. These kits are used in patients suffering from severe heart disease, especially those in need of a transplant but who have not yet found a donor. When this issue occurs, the pumps will not react as intended to restart the heart. Delays and

Patients with severe asthma and comorbid atopy, obesity, and depression/anxiety had fewer annual exacerbations after receiving mepolizumab, according to research from the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. “Mepolizumab has clearly been shown to improve severe asthma control in many clinical trials, but atopy, obesity, and depression/anxiety affect patients with

In the past 20 years, the suicide rate in the US among those 16 to 64 years of age has risen 40%. Hidden inside that percentage are physician suicides — the completed ones. In the past year alone, we, as a country, have lost about one physician a day. Medical students and doctors battle the

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Expanding the number of Americans vaccinated against SARS-COV-2 will aid in the fight against emerging variants of the virus, but the challenges of having only a limited supply of COVID-19 shots will persist for some time, federal advisers and government scientists

Developing type 1 diabetes (T1D) in childhood was significantly associated with a shorter opportunity for childbearing, a new study showed. Women diagnosed with T1D in childhood had an average 2.5 fewer reproductive years compared with their nondiabetic counterparts (95% CI -3.6 to -1.5, P<0.0001), reported Tina Costacou, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues.

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck will help manufacture Johnson & Johnson ‘s single-shot coronavirus vaccine, the Washington Post reported, citing senior administration officials. The collaboration between the two rivals, which was brokered by the Biden administration, is

Esther Choo, MD, MPH, an emergency medicine physician at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), is one of several leaders at the university accused in a federal lawsuit of being complicit in mishandling sexual harassment allegations made against an OHSU resident physician. For Choo, who is a founding member of Time’s Up Healthcare, a nonprofit

A topical atopic dermatitis (AD) treatment derived from skin bacteria demonstrated safety and preliminary evidence of clinical activity in a proof-of-principle study. After seven days of treatment, MSB-0221 significantly reduced Staphylococcus aureus colonization in S. aureus-associated AD and inhibited expression of mRNA for the S. aureus toxin PSM-alpha. The compound inhibited inflammation-inducing toxin irrespective of

Billions of dollars to expand the fight against the coronavirus are included in the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package approved early Saturday morning in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Joe Biden urged quick action on the “the American Rescue Plan,” which now heads to the Senate. “We have no time to waste,” Biden said

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Wearing a mask to protect against transmission of COVID-19 does not decrease oxygen saturation, according to a new study. Oxygen saturation did not decline in more than 200 mask-wearing individuals attending an asthma and allergy clinic, regardless of the type of

“When I started digging, I was horrified.” — Law student Aurora Kim Paradisis, RN, EdD, discussing what appears to be a trend of unjust nursing board discipline. “I’m not sure that you have the necessary experience or skills to do this job at this moment.” — Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) addressing Xavier Becerra during the

Sublingual immunotherapy for the treatment of peanut allergy is safe and effective, even in children as young as age 1 year. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, food challenge (DBPCFC) of some 36 peanut-allergic children (mean age 2.2 years, range 1 to 4 years), those who were randomly assigned to receive peanut sublingual immunotherapy (PNSLIT) showed significant

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, life in America remains almost unrecognizable. Noses and mouths remain hidden in public, gatherings remain verboten in many states, kitchen and dining room tables still function as work cubicles and classrooms, and take-out still subs for a night on the town. How long will the world stay this way?

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. And then there were three. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine from Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for people 18 and older after reviewing its safety and efficacy data. More vaccine

Serum neurofilament light (NfL), a marker of neuronal injury, was tied to multiple sclerosis (MS) disability, brain atrophy, and disease activity, a large real-world study showed. Among nearly 7,000 MS patients, those with elevated serum NfL had worse walking speed, manual dexterity, and processing speed; lower whole brain and thalamic volumes; and higher number of

Brian J. Gerber, Arizona State University and Melanie Gall, Arizona State University After one month in office, the Biden administration has fundamentally changed how the federal government responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. In direct contrast to his predecessor, President Joe Biden is treating this as a national-scale crisis requiring a comprehensive national strategy and federal