As the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 rapidly spreads, national disease forecasting models show an uncertain trend for COVID-19 admissions over the next month.
Category: Public Health
Monkeypox a global emergency: 4 updates
The World Health Organization’s director-general on July 23 declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern — its highest alert level — after the agency’s emergency committee was unable to reach a consensus.
‘True Cost of Aging’ Index Shows Many Seniors Can’t Afford Basic Necessities
The Elder Index, developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, shows that nearly 5 million older women living alone, 2 million older men living alone, and more than 2 million older couples have incomes that make them economically insecure.
Ad Targeting Manchin and AARP Mischaracterizes Medicare Drug-Price Negotiations
The advocacy group American Commitment said empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices would raid it of billions of dollars. Drug pricing experts say that that’s not the case and that such policies would instead reduce costs for the Medicare program and seniors.
Post-‘Roe,’ People Are Seeking Permanent Sterilizations, and Some Are Being Turned Away
Doctors in states where abortion is or could be banned say more patients are seeking permanent sterilization procedures, but some patients are reporting that providers are unwilling to operate on people of childbearing age.
A gastric bypass might help some people bypass cancer
In an exciting recent study, researchers found that for adults with obesity, weight loss through bariatric surgery lowered their risk of cancer by 35% and reduced their risk of cancer-related death by 43%. This was true of both gastric bypass and gastr…
2 children have contracted monkeypox, CDC director says
Two children are among more than 2,500 people in the U.S. who have contracted monkeypox, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD.
COVID-19 deaths fall 9% this week as BA.5 dominates: 10 CDC findings
The U.S. reported modest increases in COVID-19 cases and admissions this week as the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for nearly 78 percent of infections nationwide, according to the CDC’s COVID-19 data tracker weekly review publis…
355 unusual hepatitis cases under review in US
The U.S. has reported 355 probable cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin among children in 42 states and jurisdictions as of July 20, according to the CDC.
BA.2.75 a ‘scariant,’ not the next variant to worry about, experts say
While there will likely be new COVID-19 variants to worry about in the future, omicron relative BA.2.75 is not the next big one to fret over, experts predict.
