Tag Archives: medicine

The Associated Press reports: Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives — a key step toward opening a fall booster campaign. The Food and Drug Administration ordered vaccine makers to tweak their shots to target BA.4 and BA.5 that are better than ever at dodging immunity from earlier …

The Washington Post reports: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s preeminent infectious-disease expert who achieved unprecedented fame while enduring withering political attacks as the face of the coronavirus pandemic response under two presidents, plans to step down in December after more than a half-century of public service, he announced Monday. Fauci, 81, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious …

As if COVID, monkeypox, and polio wasn’t enough: The Health Department today announced that West Nile virus (WNV) has been detected in two people and a record number of WNV-infected mosquitoes have been detected in New York City (NYC) across all five boroughs. Mosquitoes infected with WNV are typically present in NYC from July through October, with peak activity during …

Via press release from the FDA: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule to improve access to hearing aids which may in turn lower costs for millions of Americans. This action establishes a new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, enabling consumers with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment to purchase hearing aids directly from stores …

The Washington Post reports: Republican lawmakers on Sunday successfully stripped a $35 price cap on the cost of insulin for many patients from the ambitious legislative package Democrats are moving through Congress this weekend, invoking arcane Senate rules to jettison the measure. The insulin cap is a long-running ambition of Democrats, who want it to apply to patients on Medicare …

NBC New York reports: There are new concerns about the potential spread of polio in New York, with the state health commissioner saying there could be “hundreds” of people infected as new evidence shows the virus has been found in samples from multiple counties. “Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic …

CNN reports: Many technicians at Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics, two of the largest commercial labs in the US, have been refusing to draw blood from patients who might have monkeypox, CNN has learned. Labcorp and Quest don’t dispute that in many cases, their phlebotomists are not taking blood from possible monkeypox patients. What remains unclear, after company statements and follow-ups …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Cassava Sciences Inc involving whether the biotech company manipulated research results for its experimental Alzheimer’s drug, two people familiar with the inquiry said. The Justice Department personnel conducting the investigation into Austin, Texas-based Cassava specialize in examining whether companies or individuals have misled or defrauded investors, government agencies …

Reuters reports: A case of polio has been identified outside New York City and confirmed by federal health officials, the New York State Health Department said on Thursday in what would be the nation’s first known case of the disease in at least thirty years. The CDC, which confirmed the case, has said no cases of polio have originated in …

The Washington Post reports: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s preeminent infectious-diseases expert who has served as the face of the coronavirus pandemic response for more than two years, will retire by the end of President Biden’s term after more than 50 years in government, he confirmed Monday to The Washington Post. “By the time we get to the end of …

The Washington Post reports: America has decided the pandemic is over. The coronavirus has other ideas. The latest omicron offshoot, BA.5, has quickly become dominant in the United States, and thanks to its elusiveness when encountering the human immune system, is driving a wave of cases across the country. Many people now see the pandemic as part of the fabric …

The Associated Press reports: Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported Thursday. The effort, though marred by persisting inequities, prevented deaths on an unimaginable scale, said Oliver Watson of Imperial College London, who led the …

New York City’s NBC News affiliate reports: New York City will begin offering vaccination against monkeypox to at-risk groups on Thursday, as authorities scramble to contain a global outbreak. Some 28 people have tested positive for the virus in the city since early May, almost all of them men who have sex with men. The Health Department on Thursday announced …

The Telegraph reports: Polio is spreading in Britain for the first time in nearly 40 years, health officials have warned, as they declared a national incident and urged people to make sure they are vaccinated. Britain was proclaimed polio-free in 2003 and the last wild case was detected in 1984, making the current outbreak the first transmission event since the …

Changing America reports: Researchers have developed a new type of blood test to check for potential COVID-19 immunity. How the test works is explained in a study published this week in Nature Biotechnology. The test, called dqTACT, requires the mixture of a small blood sample with peptides, essentially a chain of proteins, from the COVID-19 virus. Once the mixture takes …

Yahoo Entertainment reports: Earlier this week, Justin Bieber postponed his North American tour due to an undisclosed illness, and now he has revealed that he has been battling facial paralysis. “As you can probably see from my face, I have this syndrome called Ramsay Hunt syndrome and it is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and …

The Daily Beast reports: In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a group of researchers led by neuroscientists at Yale University uncovered an experimental drug taken orally that appears to reverse brain damage in mice afflicted by Alzheimer’s, and could protect the brain from future damage for at least one month. If its success and remarkable …

Via press release from the World Health Organization: Since 13 May 2022, monkeypox has been reported to WHO from 23 Member States that are not endemic for monkeypox virus, across four WHO regions. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. The vast majority of reported cases so far have no established travel links to an endemic area and have presented through primary care …

ABC News reports: Abbott Laboratories said Thursday that it is working to develop a test that it would then provide to partners of its Pandemic Defense Coalition, a spokesperson said. Abbott’s announcement comes one day after Roche announced it had developed three kits to detect the virus. Roche, which is based in Switzerland, said one test detects orthopoxviruses, which is …

CNBC reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday alerted gay and bisexual men that monkeypox appears to be spreading in the community globally, cautioning people to take precautions if they have been in close contact with someone who may have the virus and to be on the lookout for symptoms. Dr. John Brooks, a CDC official, emphasized …