The battle against the coronavirus pandemic has shifted anew with lingering wariness about the fast-ebbing Omicron surge, persistent concern about the still-high disease deaths, sustained worries about potential new viral variants, and mixed emotions and reactions by regular folks to the rapid easing of public health measures. The pandemic, experts caution, is not over, especially….
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Experts still tussle with proper prescribing of opioid painkillers
As the opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis rages, experts — after decades now of experience with powerful painkillers — continue to struggle with their proper handling and prescribing. The federal Centers for Disease Control, on the one hand, has softened its earlier tough guidelines on the medications, while a top government commission assailed the….
Continue ReadingIn U.S. health care, the relentless pursuit of sky-high profits goes on
While the folks who toil in the front lines of U.S. health care deserve the highest praise and support in the continuing battle against the coronavirus pandemic, those who run care systems deserve a Bronx cheer and worse for their rapacious pursuit of profits — at the expense of patients: Just consider how health systems….
Continue ReadingAs Biden reprises ‘moon shot,’ cancer battle’s constraints are clear, too
President Biden, returning to an important health issue with which he has deep, tragic personal connection, has reprised a White House call for a “moon shot” campaign to keep the public and the medical establishment focused on finding even more effective ways to battle cancer, a leading killer of Americans. Biden wants the nation to….
Continue ReadingJust ‘live with it’? U.S. pandemic deaths hit 900,000-plus and rising …
The coronavirus pandemic, which has confounded medical experts and their efforts to quell it, also has created a baffling assault on reality by a large segment of U.S. society. The evidence-free opponents of vaccines, face coverings, social distancing, and other common sense public health measures are gaining a growing new coterie of off-kilter advocates. The….
Continue ReadingWith a ‘Zoom boom’ still going, cautions rise on cosmetic surgery
While the coronavirus pandemic has forced patients, doctors, and hospitals to curtail crucial tests, procedures and treatments in worrisome fashion, a trend with one kind of medical practice apparently continues apace: The so-called “Zoom boom” in plastic and cosmetic surgeries is still going strong. Patients, though, soon will get a tough reality TV warning about….
Continue ReadingU.S. sets high bar in strategy to battle surging road deaths and injuries
The federal government will counterattack a grim, recent surge in road crashes and deaths with a strategy that emphasizes increased safety by and for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians, as well as in the design, development, and equipping of vehicles, streets and highways. The U.S. battle against road fatalities also will include campaigns to slash speeding….
Continue ReadingBrain damage in football players is still a big story, and head trauma for surfers is becoming one too
What do big wave surfing and the National Football League playoffs and upcoming Super Bowl have in common? They share the challenges of confronting the significant health harms that can occur with head trauma, especially repeated impacts and outright concussions. The rich, powerful, and influential NFL also may be illustrating how preventable damage to athletes,….
Continue ReadingAs Omicron rips through hospitals, new governor lifts Virginia pandemic measures
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has thrust Virginia into the ferocious battles over evidence-based efforts to quell the coronavirus pandemic, with the newly installed Republican issuing executive orders to bar schools from requiring face coverings and forbidding state employers from having vaccine requirements. His decisions, in keeping with what has become a GOP policy orthodoxy and reversing….
Continue ReadingMedicare curbs Alzheimer’s drug coverage, fueling regulatory turmoil
As the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to head the federal Food and Drug Administration advances, he and the agency already are confronting a major regulatory crisis over Aduhelm, a prescription drug targeted for Alzheimer’s treatment and approved on the thinnest of evidence. An FDA sister agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),….
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