Year: 2024
How US life expectancy rates changed as COVID deaths wane, drug overdoses persist
USA Today Life expectancy rose to 77.5 years on average in 2022, a slight increase of 1.1 years from 2021, according to new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Life expectancy at birth increased 1.1 years…largely because of decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, and homicide,” the report […]
Mar 27, 2024
Mpox cases on the rise in Virginia, officials say
WTOP News Hoping to increase awareness and curb the spread of mpox, Virginia health officials are warning about a rise in cases since the start of 2024. So far this year, the state has reported 12 cases, the same number it reported in all of 2023, according to Brandy Darby, director of the Virginia Department […]
Mar 27, 2024
How to counter vaccine misinformation in political discourse
Washington Post | Opinion This fact might be hard to believe, but there’s no denying it: Anti-vaccine sentiments are likely to play a key role in this year’s election. President Biden is fending off challenges from not one but two opponents regularly spouting anti-vaccine messages. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has repeatedly declared in campaign speeches that he […]
Mar 27, 2024
Zoonotic Viruses: Humans More Often a Source Than a Sink
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News Zoonotic viruses fill us with dread—and rightly so. Such viruses have been known to spread from animals to human hosts, transmitting deadly diseases such as Ebola, rabies, and bird flu. And according to virologists and other scientists with relevant expertise, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the source of the COVID-19 pandemic, is […]
Mar 27, 2024
Moderna’s next-gen COVID vax surpasses approved version in phase 3
Fierce Biotech Moderna’s next-gen COVID vaccine notched a higher immune response than its licensed counterpart, passing a phase 3 test. No data accompanied the company’s announcement Tuesday, with Moderna saying more would be revealed at its vaccine day on Wednesday. But the company said mRNA-1283 elicited a higher immune response against both the omicron BA.4/BA.5 and original […]
Mar 27, 2024
Household Transmission Dynamics of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2–Infected Children: A Multinational, Controlled Case-Ascertained Prospective Study
Clinical Infectious Diseases Abstract Background Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is highly prevalent but its acute and chronic implications have been minimally described. Methods In this controlled case-ascertained household transmission study, we recruited asymptomatic children <18 years with SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid testing performed at 12 tertiary care pediatric institutions in Canada and the United States. […]
Mar 27, 2024
The Invisible Shield: Public health saved your life today, and you didn’t even know it
PBS/Bloomberg Four-Part Docu Series The Invisible Shield examines how public health makes modern life possible, but it is underfunded, undervalued and misunderstood putting our health at risk. Arlington, Virginia – THE INVISIBLE SHIELD, a new four-part documentary series from RadicalMedia made possible by Bloomberg Philanthropies, reveals how the field of public health has saved countless lives […]
Mar 27, 2024
Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics
Nature Substantial global attention is focused on how to reduce the risk of future pandemics. Reducing this risk requires investment in prevention, preparedness, and response. Although preparedness and response have received significant focus, prevention, especially the prevention of zoonotic spillover, remains largely absent from global conversations. This oversight is due in part to the lack […]
Mar 26, 2024
Dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas test positive for bird flu
MPR News Milk from dairy cows in Texas and Kansas has tested positive for bird flu, U.S. officials said Monday. Officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission confirmed the flu virus is the Type A H5N1 strain, known for decades to cause outbreaks in birds and to occasionally infect people. The virus is affecting older dairy […]
Mar 26, 2024
What we learned about long COVID 4 years later
ABC News (Video) Millions of Americans are still experiencing long COVID more than four years since the global COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic.
Mar 26, 2024
