The federal Food and Drug Administration has created an instant medical and regulatory morass by giving an accelerated approval to Biogen’s costly prescription medication targeted at patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This is the first drug to win the precious official nod from the FDA in almost two decades. But the agency’s OK to market aducanumab….
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Top medical journals, ob-gyns, and NFL all face tough reckoning with racism
Racial inequities roiled an array of health-related situations in recent days, showing how far the nation still must go to deal with pervasive injustices in medical systems nationwide. The reported matters include: The editor-in-chief departed a leading medical journal after one of his chief deputies, in a purported “education” session for which practitioners could earn….
Continue ReadingWith malpractice claims constrained, injured Florida kids and families struggle
When doctors, hospitals, and insurers bellyache about malpractice claims with little evidence on their prevalence or outcomes, patients and politicians should push back: And they can cite the nightmares people in grievous circumstance have suffered when their constitutional right to seek justice in civil lawsuits gets stripped away. The Miami Herald and ProPublica, the Pulitzer….
Continue ReadingWith kids’ return to sports, a reminder about serious risks of head trauma
With coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths falling from scary winter highs, the easing of public health measures may see young athletes returning fast to what are supposed to be the fun and educational benefits of organized sports. But will players, and more importantly grownups, ensure that appropriate practices are followed to ensure kids not only….
Continue ReadingAs traffic resumes its crush, look out for big and little concerns on the road
As pandemic-curtailed traffic returns to greater normality, motorists, bikers, and pedestrians may need to pay increased attention to two novel means of transportation taking to the roads: monster-sized SUVs and zippy high-tech scooters. Even as officials in the nation’s capital approved, as expected, new rules on e-scooters, Andrew Hawkins, a reviewer at the Verge news….
Continue ReadingAs fans miss fall games, experts see decline in kids’ ER visits for head harms
Although many fans will be sad that football won’t dominate their lives as it usually does in the months after Labor Day, the pandemic-related constriction, postponement, and cancellation of so many prep and collegiate sports may have an upside: It likely will add to declines in the need for urgent care for dangerous and damaging….
Continue ReadingThe big Alzheimer’s puzzle: Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. Blood, too?
It isn’t just the testing for the novel coronavirus that has already anxious Americans upset these days. Controversies also are swirling around existing and developing ways for experts to screen older patients for cognitive decline, namely dementia and its most familiar form, Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for 60%-80% of dementia cases, is the….
Continue ReadingRoad toll, gun violence, heat risks, pesky skeeters — yipes, the perils abound
While the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, other major killers of Americans — threats posed by vehicles and guns, as well as searing weather and nasty critters like mosquitoes — have not stopped. People need to be aware and safeguard themselves as they can from these risks. The data keep growing and the news, for example,….
Continue ReadingConcerns spike as police seek to medicalize tactics that end in arrest deaths
The national outage over authorities’ excessive use of force, especially against black men, may take law enforcement, first responders, politicians, and critics into a murky and nightmarish area — call it the unfounded medicalization of official control. Two fatal flash point cases — involving African Americans George Floyd in Minneapolis and Elijah McCain (shown, right)….
Continue ReadingDetails build on authorities’ brutal use of ‘less lethal’ projectiles and tear gas
Just as law enforcement authorities find themselves under fire for instances of racist, excessive uses of force, police agencies across the country seem hell-bent on giving critics more and more evidence for their argument that major policing reforms are needed. The independent, nonpartisan Kaiser Health News Service and USA Today deserve credit for scrutinizing dozens….
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