Science

Winning Trust for a Vaccine Means Confronting Medical Racism

Mon, 2020-11-02 20:16 — mike kraft

Winning Trust for a Vaccine Means Confronting Medical Racism The US has a long history of abusing minorities for pharmaceutical profit. Messaging for a Covid-19 inoculation will have to overcome that past. Maryn McKenna Wired

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Two Pandemics, One Challenge—Leveraging Molecular Test Capacity of Tuberculosis Laboratories for Rapid COVID-19 Case-Finding

Mon, 2020-11-02 19:18 — mike kraft

Two Pandemics, One Challenge—Leveraging Molecular Test Capacity of Tuberculosis Laboratories for Rapid COVID-19 Case-Finding In many settings, the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic coincides with other major public health threats, in particular tuberculosis. U... Emerging Infectious Diseases journal

...TB laboratories can be an important resource to increase the global capacity for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing and research. However, expanding their scope to the detection of a viral pathogen warrants careful planning.

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Families, day cares feel strain of new COVID-19 health rules

Mon, 2020-11-02 12:53 — mike kraft

.... As more families make the jump back to group day care this fall in an attempt to restart lives and careers, many parents, pediatricians and care operators are finding that new, pandemic-driven rules offer a much-needed layer of safety but also seem incompatible with the germy reality of childhood.

They stem largely from coronavirus guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowering the fever threshold, disqualifying even a single bout of diarrhea or vomiting and making sniffles suspect in group settings.

But the guidelines don’t take into account that young children are prone to catching the common viral infections that help build up their immune systems, or that seasonal allergies, crying, even teething and normal playground exertion can prompt a COVID-19-like symptom.

And the price parents and kids pay for such symptoms — which could easily signal either a happy, healthy toddler, or a lurking case of the disease that has now killed more than 230,000 people in the U.S. — is now a dayslong disruption. ...uilt over neglecting work.

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States Undercount Positive Rapid Tests, Masking the Spread of Disease

Mon, 2020-11-02 10:27 — mike kraft

As rapid coronavirus tests are becoming more widely available, delivering results in minutes for patients in doctor's offices, nursing homes, schools and even the White House, officials warn of a significant undercount, blurring the virus's spread nationally and in communities where such tests are more commonly used.

Public health officials say that antigen tests, which are faster than polymerase chain reaction (P.C.R.) tests but less able to detect low levels of the virus, are an important tool for limiting the spread of the coronavirus. But they caution that with inconsistent public reporting, the case undercount may worsen as more “point-of-care” antigen tests, as well as D.I.Y. and home test kits, come on the market.

“We want to be sure that we’re not now saying, ‘there’s no disease,’ when there is lots of disease. All that’s happened is that the science with which we identify it has evolved,” said Janet Hamilton, the executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the group that helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define cases of the coronavirus....

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Remsdesvir: Some experts troubled about FDA approval for COVID-19 treatment

Fri, 2020-10-30 14:07 — mike kraft

The United States reached a milestone, of sorts, when last week the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment for Covid-19.

The drug is called Veklury, although most people know it by its scientific name, remdesivir.

On Wednesday, its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, said that remdesivir, which has been authorized for emergency use since the spring, had brought in $873 million in revenues so far this year and that it was the company’s second-best-selling drug in the third quarter, behind its H.I.V. drug, Biktarvy.

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As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science

Wed, 2020-10-28 19:50 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency.

The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election.

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Reality bites for Putin's much-hyped Covid-19 vaccine, as concerns over efficacy and safety linger

Tue, 2020-10-27 10:49 — mike kraft

Reality bites for Putin's much-hyped Covid-19 vaccine, as concerns over efficacy and safety linger In August, Russian state media rolled out the red carpet for a bombshell announcement -- President Vladimir Putin, from his residence outside Moscow, unveiled what he said was the world's first registered coronavirus vaccine, meant to bring Russia closer to the end of a devastating pandemic. Mary Ilyushina and Frederik Pleitgen, CNN CNN

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In coronavirus testing, false positives are more hazardous than they might seem.

Mon, 2020-10-26 10:32 — mike kraft

In the high-stakes world of coronavirus testing, false positives are widely considered to be benign in comparison with false negatives, which can deprive infected people of treatment and embolden them to mingle with others, hastening the spread of disease.

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