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☆ Opinion: The next pandemic threat demands action now
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Opinion Jaime M. Yassif | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Well, so far US officials are saying they believe there is minimal risk to the public from the latest iteration of bird flu. According to the Global Health Security Index, there are significant gaps in countries’ pandemic preparedness capabilities. Given the impact of Covid, it is deeply disappointing that national governments are not investing the necessary resources to build life-saving pandemic preparedness capacity. Making matters worse, Congress has made major cuts to pandemic preparedness funding, as part of the ongoing appropriations process. Playing the long game also means supporting the World Bank Pandemic Fund, which is designed to invest in long-term pandemic preparedness capacity of low- and middle-income countries.

Persons: Jaime M, Yassif, ”, —, we’ve, US Department of Agriculture —, It’s, Biden, Covid Organizations: Global Biological Policy, Nuclear Threat Initiative, CNN, Yassif Nuclear, US Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, US Department of Health, Human Services, CDC, US Department of Agriculture, Global Health, Brown, Pandemic Center, Gates Foundation, NTI, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Global Health Security, Bank, Fund, pandemics Locations: Texas , Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Covid, United States

☆ Health Misinformation Is Evolving. Here’s How to Spot It.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a case that involves the Biden administration’s efforts to communicate with social media sites about posts officials believed made false or misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines and the pandemic. While the case primarily focuses on a debate around free speech, it also spotlights the potential harms of medical misinformation — which experts say has become increasingly complex and difficult to identify. “It’s all changing really fast, and it’s even harder for the average person to filter out,” said Dr. Anish Agarwal, an emergency physician in Philadelphia. Health hacks not backed by science have spread widely on social media platforms. And rapid developments in artificial intelligence have made it even harder for people to tell what’s true and what’s false online.

Persons: Biden, ”, Anish Agarwal, Tara Kirk Sell Organizations: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Locations: Covid, Philadelphia

☆ Do you have insomnia? Let’s get back to sleep
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

There are several useful methods to treat the condition, including fixing your sleep hygiene and engaging in cognitive behavioral therapy specifically for insomnia. What do you do on those nights where you just know sleep isn’t coming — or, at least, not without a fight? The condition affects a lot of people, but is often underestimated as a cause of insomnia, Paruthi said. Don’t let bed become a place associated with long stretches of stressing to get to sleep, said Salas, who is also a sleep neurologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness. “The worst thing somebody with insomnia could do is stay in bed and not sleep,” she said.

Persons: Shalini, Rachel Salas, Paruthi, ”, “, ” It’s, isn’t, Salas, —, drowsy, I’m, I’ll, ’ ” Organizations: CNN, Sleep Medicine, Research, Luke’s, American Academy of Sleep, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep Locations: St, Chesterfield , Missouri, Baltimore, hyperarousal

☆ Middle East Crisis Israeli Official Expresses Some Optimism Over Cease-Fire Deal
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Adam Sella | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Image Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in southern Gaza, as smoke rises over the nearby city of Khan Younis last month. That figure could climb to 66,720 if there were outbreaks of infectious disease such as cholera, their analysis found. Their study considers deaths from traumatic injuries, infectious diseases, maternal and neonatal causes, and noncommunicable diseases for which people can no longer receive medication or treatment, such as dialysis. Dr. Checchi said the analysis made it possible to quantify the potential impact of a cease-fire in lives. The projected 6,500 deaths even with a cease-fire is predicated on the assumption there will not be epidemics of infectious disease.

Persons: Khan Younis, Bassam Masoud, ”, Francesco Checchi, “, ” Dr, Checchi, Paul Spiegel, Spiegel, ” Patrick Ball, haven’t, Ball, Dr Organizations: Johns Hopkins University, London School of Hygiene, Hopkins Center, Humanitarian Health, Human Locations: Rafah, Gaza

☆ Mother of Boy Who Murdered Four Classmates Faces Manslaughter Trial
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Jan. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +4 min

Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty in 2022 to two dozen counts, including four of first-degree murder, and last month was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Jennifer Crumbley and her husband James Crumbley were being tried separately after being charged with four manslaughter counts in late 2021. Legal experts have said that the parents' trial, which appears to be the first of its kind, breaks new legal ground. "Rarely are high school shooters going out and buying guns from a gun store," Horwitz said. Ethan Crumbley was returned to class and later walked out of a bathroom with the gun and began firing, prosecutors say.

Persons: Brad Brooks, Jennifer Crumbley, Ethan, Ethan Crumbley, James Crumbley, James Crumbley's, Josh Horwitz, Horwitz, Karen McDonald, I'm, hadn't, Nick Suplina, Donna Bryson, Michael Perry Organizations: Reuters, Oxford High School, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, U.S . Department of Homeland Security, Law, Gun Safety Locations: Michigan, Oakland, Detroit, Longmont , Colorado

☆ Suicide deaths reached a record high in the US in 2022, despite hopeful decreases among children and young adults
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

How to get help Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Despite the overall increase, provisional data from 2022 shows signs of improvement in rates among children and teens. Teen boys and young men had more significant improvement in suicide rates than young females did. But the vast majority of suicide deaths among teens and young adults ages 15 to 24 were still among males, the provisional data shows.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Ari Davis, Dr, Sanjay Gupta Organizations: Lifeline, CNN, US Centers for Disease Control, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Befrienders, Teen, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, CNN Health, US Department of Health, Human, Mental Health Services Administration, Prevention Locations: United States

The updated shots are part of a push by public health officials to align the next COVID vaccines more closely with the actual circulating variant of the virus, similar to the way annual flu shots are designed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday authorized updated COVID vaccines made by Pfizer (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) as well as by Moderna (MRNA.O). CDC Director Mandy Cohen is expected to approve the recommendations issued by the advisers, allowing Americans to get the updated vaccines. The first COVID vaccines in 2020 were monovalent, or single-target vaccines, aimed at the original strain of the virus. They were followed by bivalent COVID vaccine booster shots that targeted both the original and the Omicron strains.

Persons: Emily Elconin, BioNTech, Caitlin Rivers, Mandy Cohen, Rivers, bivalent, Daniel Kuritzkes, Eris, Kuritzkes, Novavax, Bhanvi, Julie Steenhuysen, Will Dunham, Caroline Humer Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Pfizer, Moderna, FDA, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, CDC, Omicron, Brigham, Women's Hospital, Vaccine, EG, Thomson Locations: Waterford , Michigan, U.S, United States, Baltimore, Europe, Asia, Boston, Moderna, Bengaluru, Chicago

☆ Covid Continues to Rise, but Experts Remain Optimistic
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has announced that the state will send high-quality masks and rapid tests to school districts that request them. But in interviews, experts offered reassurances that the country will not see a return to the nightmarish scenarios of previous years. And although hospitalizations and deaths are increasing week by week, the numbers remain low, noted Gigi Gronvall, a biosecurity expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Hospital admissions for Covid increased by about 16 percent in the week ending Aug. 26, compared with the previous week. But the 17,400 new admissions were less than half the number in the same period last year, and about one-fifth the number in 2021.

Persons: Jill Biden, Kathy Hochul, Gigi Gronvall, Gronvall Organizations: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Locations: New York, Kentucky, Texas

"The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC Director," Walensky wrote to President Joe Biden in her resignation letter. "We have all benefited from her service and dedication to public health, and I wish her the best in her next chapter," Biden said in a statement. "For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations," she told CDC staff last summer. Public health experts said Walensky wrestled with political and technical challenges during her tenure. "Dr. Walensky was put into place at the CDC at a time when the agency was basically captive to politicians which clearly hampered her ability to lead," he said.

If a nuclear attack were headed toward the US, residents would have fewer than 30 minutes to prepare. Russian Presidential Press Service/APA nuclear attack remains highly unlikely, but it's not out of the question, experts say. Redlener said the best way to learn of an impending nuclear attack would probably be TV or radio. Survivors of a nuclear attack would have about 15 minutes before sandlike radioactive particles, known as nuclear fallout, reached the ground. A sign for a nuclear fallout shelter on a residential block in Brooklyn.

☆ Fact Check-Nashville school shooter was armed with two assault-style weapons
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WEAPONS IDENTIFIEDHale was armed with three weapons and fatally shot six people at a private Christian school (here). WEAPONS USED IN NASHVILLE ARE ASSAULT-STYLEBoth the AR-15 pistol and the Kel-Tec Sub2000 carbine pistol would be considered assault-style weapons “based on definitions of assault weapons used by many states that ban them,” Webster said. On July 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation banning assault-style weapons (here), (here). It says “all AR types,” specifically the AR-15, and the Kel-Tec Sub-2000, are among the firearms considered semiautomatic assault-style weapons. The suspect in the Nashville school shooting was armed with three firearms, two of which are considered assault-style weapons.

☆ A Psychedelics Pioneer Takes the Ultimate Trip
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk A Psychedelics Pioneer Takes the Ultimate TripAs the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Dr. Roland Griffiths has been a pioneer in investigating the ways in which psychedelics can help treat depression, addiction and, in patients with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, psychological distress. He has also looked at how the use of psychedelics can produce transformative and long-lasting feelings of human interconnectedness and unity. “So I believe that in principle we shouldn’t need this Stage 4 cancer diagnosis to awaken. Is your perspective maybe one that a 40-year-old, say, with a terminal cancer diagnosis would be able to inhabit so profoundly? If I had a regret, it’s that I didn’t wake up as much as I have without a cancer diagnosis.

☆ How to Prepare for the Next Pandemic - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This is part of a series on preparing for future outbreaks. Sign up for The Next Pandemic newsletter. It’s been three years since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and yet many aspects of how to best respond to a novel virus remain unsettled or fiercely debated. The next currently unknown virus that could cause a pandemic — what the World Health Organization calls “Disease X” — may be different from Covid, requiring a different set of tools and a different level of response. We hope to show that experts with policy-making experience and similar goals can come to different conclusions and advise different strategies.

☆ Fact Check-COVID-19 vaccines do not add a ‘third strand’ of DNA
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine does not alter human DNA or add a third strand to people’s DNA, as claimed in a video circulating on social media and viewed more than 400,000 times on Twitter. This gave me chills.”However, the video offers no evidence for its claim about the vaccine altering human DNA. The messenger RNA (mRNA) in approved COVID-19 vaccines does not interact with human DNA inside cells, and does not enter the cell nucleus where DNA is housed. Reuters has also addressed other false claims that mRNA vaccines alter human DNA (here, here, here). COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA do not alter human DNA or add a third strand to the DNA double helix.

☆ Fact Check-‘Catastrophic Contagion’ video is fictional and does not support claims about pandemic preparedness exercises
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Baseless claims that pandemic preparedness exercises are proof that disease outbreaks are “planned” by authorities have been a recurring narrative since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. These fictional scenarios go beyond infectious diseases, as such exercises also exist for natural disasters or nuclear events, for example. These rules, that are binding for WHO members, set out countries’ obligations when handling public health events and emergencies that could potentially cross borders (here) (here). Otherwise, we will be unprepared for the next infectious disease event. Experts told Reuters that preparedness exercises like “Catastrophic Contagion” have been a part of pandemic preparedness for at least the last two decades.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence COVID-19 vaccines cause ‘turbo cancer’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A video in which a Canadian doctor claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause so-called “turbo cancer” is not based on facts, according to five experts who spoke to Reuters. He claimed that COVID-19 vaccines damage the immune systems of recipients and cause aggressive new cancers, as well as flare-ups in those in remission from the disease. During the same period, the charity estimated that 30,000 fewer people began their cancer treatment compared to 2019 (here). Reuters has previously addressed claims where COVID-19 vaccines have been falsely linked to weakening the immune system (here), and causing cancer (here and here). Five experts told Reuters that there is no evidence to suggest COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer, nor so-called “turbo cancer,” but said a drop in screenings during the pandemic may have led to rise in cancers first detected at their later stages.

On social media, families say they’ve hunted for hours for Tamiflu and the first-line antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin. They have one viral illness after another. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of US states have “high” or “very high” respiratory virus activity. As for the antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin – a combination of amoxicillin and clavulanate, an agent that helps guard against antibiotic resistance – it’s not entirely clear why demand is so high. Some viral illness, like influenza, can leave the body more vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections that may need treatment with antibiotics.

☆ 'Red flag' gun laws in focus after attack at Colorado LGBTQ nightclub
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Authorities do not appear to have filed a petition seeking to confiscate any weapons Aldrich may have had at the time under the state's red flag law. RED FLAG OPPOSITIONThe disparity partly reflects deep opposition to red flag laws among some of Colorado's conservative sheriffs and local political officials. While El Paso Sheriff Bill Elder has voiced skepticism about "sanctuary" declarations, he opposed the red flag law over due process concerns, according to local media reports in 2019. The National Rifle Association opposes red flag laws as unconstitutional infringements on law-abiding citizens. Studies on the effectiveness of red flag laws are limited but suggest they can make a real difference.

☆ Oregon Measure 114 on gun control gives hope for curbing gun deaths
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Ari Davis | Lisa Geller | Ari Davis Is A Policy Adviser At The Johns Hopkins Center For Gun Violence Solutions At The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

A lot has changed since 2014, especially as it pertains to gun violence: The gun epidemic has gotten significantly worse. Despite heroic efforts by advocates and some lawmakers, the number of gun deaths set new records last year as many states weakened their gun laws through permitless carry and stand-your-ground legislation. Firearm purchaser licensing, as contained in the ballot measure, is one of the most effective policies at reducing gun deaths. Before the Oregon measure, only nine states, plus Washington, D.C., have had such a law. The intransigence of lawmakers in the face of record gun deaths has cost countless American lives, but it has not yet cost those lawmakers their careers.

Since 2013, this is how many people have been killed and injured in school shootings, according to a school shooting tracker that NBC News is making public. The tracker focuses on the segment of school shootings where an active shooter, with intent to harm, injures or kills at least one student or faculty member during school or at a school event. Read the full NBC News criteria for school shootings, including the FBI’s definition of an active shooter, below. The NBC News school shooting tracker includes shootings that meet these criteria:One or more active shooters. Shooting events are recorded and evaluated as new information becomes available, and are added to our published dataset of school shootings when it’s determined an incident meets the NBC News standard for school shootings.

☆ How to survive a nuclear bomb attack: Minute-by-minute steps to protect yourself
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Aria Bendix | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

If a nuclear bomb were headed toward the US, residents would have 30 minutes or less to shelter. Russian Presidential Press Service/APA nuclear attack remains highly unlikely, but it's not out of the question, experts say. Redlener said the best way to learn of an impending nuclear attack would probably be TV or radio. Survivors of a nuclear attack would have about 15 minutes before sandlike radioactive particles, known as nuclear fallout, reached the ground. The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends staying indoors for at least 24 hours after a nuclear explosion.

☆ Fact Check-Monkeypox, polio and new COVID variants are not ‘planned’ as ‘scare tactics’ to affect the U.S. midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Monkeypox and polio outbreaks, or new COVID-19 variants, have not been “planned” or orchestrated as “scare tactics” to manipulate the Nov. 8 midterm elections in the United States. As laid out in a Reuters explainer (here), experts agree that the major driver behind both vaccine-derived and wild polio outbreaks remains an under-vaccinated population. “Monkeypox is nothing more than a scare tactic to make you stay home and not vote in the November elections. Experts contacted by Reuters dismissed claims that these disease outbreaks are connected to election cycles and said they would not disrupt the upcoming electoral process. There is no evidence that monkeypox and polio outbreaks or new COVID-19 variants have been orchestrated as “scare tactics” to manipulate the U.S. midterm elections.

☆ The Covid-19 emergency may end, but there’s no rule to say when the pandemic is over
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Brenda Goodman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

For now, it remains a public health emergency in the United States, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, and it’s still a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, according to WHO. Each country, in turn, declares its own public health emergency – declarations that carry legal weight. In the United States, for example, the end of the public health emergency will have ramifications for health care coverage and cost-sharing of Covid-19 tests and treatments. At this point, WHO is not saying whether it will recognize an end to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, he said, WHO will continue to assess the need for the public health emergency, and an expert committee meets every three months to do that.

☆ Covid will be a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely, whether or not the pandemic is 'over'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Aria Bendix | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

But disease experts said debating whether the pandemic is over overshadows a more important concern: the reality that Covid will remain a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely. Since April, Covid deaths have stayed relatively flat, at a weekly average of around 300 to 500 per day. Predicting Covid's future death tollThe Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, or IHME, a research organization at the University of Washington that regularly models Covid deaths, predicts a decline in Covid deaths over the next two months. Covid death numbers could also fall if hospitals stop routinely testing people for the virus. Murray estimated that half of annual Covid deaths may fall into that category.

☆ Biden's comments about pandemic widen public health split over how US should respond to Covid-19
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Brenda Goodman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Some public health experts worry that political motives are driving the President's desire to declare the pandemic over, rather than protection of the public's health. It's a 9/11, week after week after week," said Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. The World Health Organization recognizes a global health threat as something different: a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC. The US also recognizes a public health emergency. Covid-19 is still considered to be a public health emergency both domestically and around the world.

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