Health

November 20, 2023 10:20 AM ESTWASHINGTON — Americans can order more free COVID-19 tests online for home delivery.The U.S. government is offering to send another round of four at-home virus tests ahead of the typical surge in cases during the winter holiday season.Anyone who did not order a batch of four COVID-19 tests in September can secure up to eight of them this time around starting Monday at COVIDtests.gov. The U.S. Postal Service will deliver them for free.The government is mailing out the coronavirus tests as the the flu season kicks off and a spike in RSV cases has been reported in some spots around the country. Hospitalizations for COVID-19, which has killed more than 1 million people in the United States, were on the rise this fall but have stayed steady in recent weeks. Immunity...

With social media fueling the huge demand for drugs like Ozempic, Rybelsus, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, which are helping people to lose more weight than any previous weight loss medications, it’s no surprise that manufacturers have had trouble keeping up. And the recent approval of Eli Lilly's Zepbound, which is the same drug, Mounjaro, approved already for diabetes, but renamed specifically for weight management, will only add to that demand. Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus, for example, has intentionally held back the release of new starter doses of Wegovy to ensure that those who have already started on the weight loss drug can continue getting their injections despite the current limited availability and manufacturing schedules.But as with many situations in which su...

On Sept. 25, 2023, the Biden-Harris administration announced that it will be investing some $200 million in the youth mental health crisis. Since youth mental health was declared a national emergency in 2021, multiple experts, including the U.S. Surgeon General, have cited social media and the COVID-19 pandemic, among other things, as major contributing factors. But what has not been talked about to the same extent, is how anti-Black racism is fueling the youth mental health crisis. Racism has a crucial impact on the mental health of Black youth, and the current mental health system is not equipped to address it. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I’ve witnessed the depressive, even suicidal effects of racism on Black youth. The kindergartener who was sad and withdrawn for weeks after...

The financial burden of high insulin costs that patients and insurers face is often blamed on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulatory framework, but a new study suggests pharmaceutical companies have also been using patenting processes to unfairly maintain high costs. In the FDA’s master list of approved medications, devices, and other therapeutics, a document known as the Orange Book, patent ownership of each item governs which companies are allowed to manufacture and sell which therapies. The FDA deals with drug approval, but patents are granted by another agency entirely, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Though there are rules governing which developments by pharmaceutical companies merit inclusion in the FDA’s Orange Book, experts have long said that the book r...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating cinnamon apple puree and applesauce products amid reports of elevated blood lead levels in at least 34 individuals. Residents in more than 20 states have reported illness after exposure to cinnamon apple products offered by three brands: WanaBana, Weis, and Schnucks. The goods are manufactured in Ecuador and have since been recalled. Recent screens by the FDA and other state partners found lead levels in at least one product nearly 200 times greater than those in FDA guidelines. “FDA’s leading hypothesis is that cinnamon used in these recalled pouches is the likely source of contamination for these products; however, the FDA has not yet been able to collect and test samples of the cinnamon used in the recalled products,” an FDA pres...

There’s a common malfunction that occurs when well-intentioned people open their mouths to say no: The word “yes” tumbles out instead.We’ve all been there, says Vanessa Bohns, department chair and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. No is a deceptively short, simple word that can trigger several layers of anxiety for the person trying to say it. For starters: What does it reveal about our character? “We worry that we’re essentially communicating that we’re not a helpful person; we’re not a nice, kind person; we’re not a team player,” Bohns says. “We’re too lazy to take something on, or we don’t want to work hard.”At the same time, she adds, we’re likely stressing over how that “no” might offend the other person, and what it conveys about our relationship with them. ...

Britain's medicines regulator has authorized the world's first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K.In a statement on Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020.The agency approved the treatment for patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia who are 12 years old and over. Casgevy is made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Ltd. and CRISPR Therapeutics. To date, bone marrow transplants, extremely arduous procedures that come with very unpleasant side effects, have been the only long-lasting treatment.“The future of life-changing cures r...

As you make your shopping list, plan travel, and schedule parties this holiday season, there’s something else you should add to your to-do list: making sure you’re up-to-date on the latest guidance around COVID-19, the flu, and RSV, as respiratory disease season hits full swing.“It's always important to factor in the possibility of either transmitting an infection to other people or becoming infected, especially when getting together in large groups,” says Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic. “There are ways to safely gather and enjoy the holiday season,” but it requires taking the right precautions.Here’s what to know about—and how to say safe from—COVID, the flu, and RSV this holiday season.Will there be a COVID-19 surge this winter? What about flu and RSV...

November 15, 2023 3:55 AM ESTThey’re a global nightmare. First they haunted Paris last month, before panic over potential outbreaks gripped Europe and the U.S. Now, bedbugs are terrifying a number of countries in Asia, where surges in infestations of the pest are fueling fresh anxieties among the public and stirring governments to action.Read More: Bed Bugs Aren’t Just a Problem in Paris. Here’s WhySince the start of November, South Korea has embarked on a fierce campaign against the bloodsucking critters. Bedbugs had been largely eradicated there during a national extermination drive in the 1960s, but the country is now experiencing a worrying revival in cases. Besides the establishment of an interministry task force dedicated to tackling bedbugs, both national and regional governments ki...

The health outlook for Long COVID sufferers is no better today than it was when the condition was first recognized in early 2020. This has been attributed in large measure to the disappointing results of clinical research, particularly when compared to the magnitude of the problem. Now with hundreds of published results emerging from federally conducted or sponsored research, outraged experts and patient advocates say that there is little to show for it. The critique is that the pace of the work is slow and opaque, and that little has emerged that directly impacts prevention or patient care. The biomedical community has been under steady attack for lack of progress in prevention and treatment underlying a failure to help patients.There is a lot at stake in getting the U.S.’s Long COVID res...