Once it has spread (metastasized), uveal (intraocular or eye) melanoma – an unusual form of cancer – has a very high mortality rate. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers and doctors at the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital show that, in a small group of patients with metastatic uveal melanoma, a new combination treatment can bring about tumor shrinkage and prolonged survival. Uveal melanoma, an infrequent form of malignant melanoma, starts in the pigment cells of not the skin, but the eye. For skin melanoma, immunotherapy using “checkpoint inhibitors” has proved effective in many cases, but this has not applied to intraocular melanoma. Some 80 people get uveal melanoma in Sweden annually, and half of them get metastases, often in the liver. Patients with metastatic uveal melanoma frequently die shortly after diagnosis. Clinical trialThis is a Phase II trial in which 29 patients with metastatic eye melanoma received a combination of two inhibitor drugs that target HDAC (histone deacetylase) and PD-1 (a checkpoint protein on T cells) respectively. In four of these patients, the tumors shrank significantly, and for several patients the course of the disease was slowed down. Unusually, some of the patients are still alive today, three years after the study began. “Our hope was that the HDAC inhibitor would reprogram hidden cancer cells so that they could be detected by the immune cells, thus making the immunotherapy with PD-1 inhibitors effective,” explains Lars Ny, senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg and physician specializing in oncology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Resistance with a genetic explanation“On the whole, the clinical trial met our expectations, although this doesn’t seem to be a curative treatment either. To find out why there were such major differences in how well patients responded, we performed genetic analyses. These showed that the treatment worked better against the tumors where the BAP1 gene was active and intact. This gene is often inactivated in metastases, but now we find that it’s associated with a better response to immunotherapy,” says Jonas Nilsson, professor at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, who is active at both the Sahlgrenska Center for Cancer Research and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Perth, Australia. The research team is now continuing to investigate why loss of the BAP1 gene causes resistance to immunotherapy, and what other changes in blood components may predict improved survival after immunotherapy in uveal melanoma patients. Title: The PEMDAC phase 2 study of pembrolizumab and entinostat in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma
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Standing before a local school board in central Indiana this month, Dr. Daniel Stock, a physician in the state, issued a litany of false claims about the coronavirus. He proclaimed that the recent surge in cases showed that the vaccines were ineffective, that people were better off with a cocktail of drugs and supplements to prevent hospitalization from the virus, and that masks didn’t help prevent the spread of infection. His appearance has since become one of the most-viewed videos of coronavirus misinformation. The videos — several versions are available online — have amassed nearly 100 million likes and shares on Facebook, 6.2 million views on Twitter, at least 2.8 million views on YouTube and over 940,000 video views on Instagram. His talk’s popularity points to one of the more striking paradoxes of the pandemic. Even as many doctors fight to save the lives of people sick with Covid-19, a tiny number of their medical peers have had an outsize influence at propelling false and misleading information about the virus and vaccines. Now there is a growing call among medical groups to discipline physicians spreading incorrect information. The Federation of State Medical Boards, which represents the groups that license and discipline doctors, recommended last month that states consider action against doctors who share false medical claims, including suspending or revoking medical licenses. The American Medical Association says spreading misinformation violates the code of ethics that licensed doctors agree to follow. “When a doctor speaks, people pay attention,” said Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, president of the Federation of State Medical Boards. “The title of being a physician lends credibility to what people say to the general public. That’s why it is so important that these doctors don’t spread misinformation.” Dr. Stock joined physicians including Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Judy Mikovits, and a group that calls itself America’s Frontline Doctors, in generating huge audiences for their bogus claims. The statements by them and others have contributed to vaccine hesitancy and a resistance to masks that have exacerbated the pandemic in the United States, public health officials say. The doctors often stand in lab coats and use simplified medical jargon, lending an air of authority. They often take advantage of a ready audience online by livestreaming news conferences, and keep interest alive by promising new evidence that will expose corruption and support their arguments. Some state medical boards have disciplined doctors for their conduct during the pandemic. In December, the Oregon Medical Board ordered an emergency suspension of the medical license of a doctor after he violated a state order by not wearing a mask, or requiring patients to wear masks. The ruling bars the doctor from practicing medicine in Oregon until the governor lifts the state of emergency issued for the pandemic. In January, a San Francisco doctor who had been falsely claiming that 5G technology caused the pandemic volunteered to surrender his license to the California Medical Board. “Publicly spreading false Covid-19 information may be considered unprofessional conduct and could be grounds for disciplinary action,” Carlos Villatoro, a spokesman for the Medical Board of California, said in a statement. But Dr. Chaudhry said it was impossible to know how many states had opened investigations into doctors spreading misinformation. Such investigations are typically not publicized until a decision is reached, and the process can take many months. Dr. Stock, 59, did not respond to several requests for comment for this article. He has been a licensed doctor in Indiana since 1989, a year after he graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He has worked in several hospitals, urgent care centers and private practices in the state, according to a profile on LinkedIn. On Dr. Stock’s website he sets himself apart from conventional medicine. “By presenting patients with all of their treatment options — whether that’s a pill, lifestyle change, therapy, or supplements — I help patients choose the option that works best for them,” the website reads. “This results in permanent healing, not merely the temporary relief found in the traditional system.” He sells dozens of vitamins and supplements on the site. In the video that spread widely this month, Dr. Stock is shown speaking to a Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation board meeting in Fortville, just east of Indianapolis. Standing with his back to the camera, and speaking at a rapid, nearly monotone clip, he opens his statement with the line, “Everything being recommended by the C.D.C. is actually contrary to the rules of science.” Then he selectively cites academic studies to give the impression that widely held medical advice, such as wearing a mask and getting vaccinated, does not work. YouTube, which forbids videos that spread false information about the virus, said it would not take down the full video of the meeting that the school board had put online. “While we have clear policies to remove harmful Covid-19 misinformation, we also recognize the importance of organizations like school boards using YouTube to share recordings of open public forums,” Elena Hernandez, a YouTube spokeswoman, said. The original video of the meeting has over 620,000 views. Previous videos by the Mount Vernon school board on YouTube each collected only a few hundred views. 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YouTube has taken down videos of the meeting that have been edited to show only Dr. Stock’s talk. But some of those versions spread widely before YouTube made that decision, with views climbing as fast as 15,000 an hour in the days after the meeting, according to a New York Times analysis of available YouTube data. People shared his talk on alternative video platforms like Bitchute and Rumble, and on blogs like “Hancock County Patriots” and “DJHJ Media.” One version of the video on Twitter, shared by a onetime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, collected over six million views. Another was shared by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio. Dr. Stock also appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, repeating the false claim that there is not “any consensus that masks work — the data is very murky on this.” Eric Sears, a spokesman for the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, which oversees the granting of medical licenses in the state, said the Indiana attorney general’s office was responsible for investigating the public’s complaints about doctors spreading Covid-19 misinformation. The attorney general’s office sends its findings from those investigations to the Indiana Medical Board. “As of yet, we have not been informed by the attorney general’s office of an investigation pending” into Dr. Stock, Mr. Sears said. “The board would likely not take action until an investigation had been completed by the attorney general’s office.” David A. Keltz, a spokesman for the Indiana attorney general, said the office could not discuss whether any complaints against Dr. Stock were under investigation. Mr. Keltz said the state would issue a public statement about any such investigation only if the office decided to file a formal complaint with the Indiana Medical Board. Doctors spreading coronavirus misinformation “leverage the credibility of their titles and medical expertise to make their arguments appear more authoritative,” said Rachel E. Moran, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online misinformation, including about the Covid-19 vaccines. “What’s most frustrating about this is how anti-vaccination advocates typically spread mistrust in medical professionals until it’s no longer a useful strategy for them,” Ms. Moran said, noting how they regularly cast doubt on Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Then a ‘doctor’ comes along that aligns with their values,” Ms. Moran said, “and suddenly that institutional expertise is credible.” Jacob Silver and Michael H. Keller contributed research. The post Calls Grow to Discipline Doctors Spreading Virus Misinformation recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Alaska’s medical education program and scholarships to attend college will be funded this year, announced Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday. Dunleavy said he ordered his Office of Management and Budget to release funding for the WWAMI medical education program plus 17 other programs. Kathryne Mitchell is a second-year WWAMI student. She’s glad about the announcement. “We’re very excited that the funding for our program is secure for this year,” Mitchell said. Without WWAMI, Mitchell would have to take on an extra $120,000 for four years of medical school — plus student loan interest. She wants Dunleavy and the Legislature to secure long-term funding for the program. “When this battle for funding for WWAMI comes up every year, we lose students — students who will go on to become excellent physicians. We lose them and they go train in other programs, where there’s more certainty as to funding. And then we don’t get them back as physicians in Alaska,” she said. She’s originally from North Pole and wants to practice family medicine in rural Alaska. She says the program benefits the whole state. “For Alaska, it’s really, really important that we train home-grown students to become physicians here, because they’re the physicians that are going to stay,” she said. The announcement allows more than $42.8 million to be spent on WWAMI and other programs that include funding to attend college through both $11.8 million in Alaska Performance Scholarships and $6.4 million in Alaska Education Grants. Oil spill prevention also received $3 million in additional funding. WWAMI received $3.3 million. And reimbursements to municipalities to pay off their debt to build schools received $4.2 million. Dunleavy’s administration previously had said that these programs could not be funded without the agreement of three-quarters of both chambers of the Legislature. But Dunleavy said Wednesday that his administration reviewed this funding after a recent decision by a Superior Court judge. And this review led him to OK the spending. That judge’s decision said that money in the Power Cost Equalization Endowment Fund was not subject to the three-quarters vote. The administration said these programs received funding for this year’s budget before the money in the accounts used to fund them was swept into the Constitutional Budget Reserve. The post Dunleavy announces Alaska medical school, state scholarships will be funded recently appeared on Medical Update News.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A bill legalizing marijuana for medical use in North Carolina and developing a system to grow and sell it cleared two more legislative hurdles this week in the Senate. The Senate Health Care Committee voted for the measure on Thursday, two days after the judiciary committee approved an updated version compared to what it originally recommended in late June. The measure could be on the Senate floor as soon as next week. The measure would let patients purchase and use marijuana from medical cannabis centers if their physician declares in writing they have one of more than a dozen “debilitating medical conditions” listed and that cannabis could bring health benefits. An amendment approved Thursday increases the amount of a prescribing physician’s required training from three to 10 hours. A new state commission would issue 10 medical cannabis supplier licenses, each of which would allow the opening of four sales centers. Additional restrictions would prevent centers from locating near churches or schools and operating late at night. The state would collect monthly fees from suppliers equal to 10% of gross revenues. Public speakers at committee meetings have featured war veterans with post-traumatic stress and others with severe illness who say marijuana will ease pain or help them lead more normal lives. Representatives of conservative Christian groups have said the safety and efficacy of cannabis isn’t settled, and that medical marijuana would ultimately lead to the legalization of recreational use. The House has yet to consider the measure. The post Medical marijuana legalization keeps advancing in NC Senate recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Justin Hogle of Hogle Eyecare Center talks about the importance of eye care. WHAT DREW YOU TO THE FIELD OF HEALTH CARE? “I love helping others and what better way than to help people see better!” WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE IN YOUR FIELD? “Educating the population that we as optometrists do more than help your vision, we also care for your ocular health and can also diagnose systemic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.” WHAT’S THE NO. 1 THING YOU WANT PATIENTS TO KNOW? “It is important to get your eyes checked yearly even if you are not having any vision issues so that we can check on your ocular health.” NOMINATE SOMEONE: Know somebody who is making a difference in the area through their health care job? Let us know so we can feature them in a spotlight. Send email to [email protected] or call (918) 684-2929 and speak to Executive Editor Elizabeth Ridenour. — Ronn Rowland NAME: Justin Hogle. AGE: 44. YEARS IN PRACTICE: 18. DEGREES: Doctor of Optometry. JOB: Owner of Hogle Eyecare Center. WORK ADDRESS: 2500 Chandler Road. WORK PHONE: (918) 683-3937. HOURS: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday; 7 a.m.-noon Friday. The post Health Spotlight — Justin Hogle | Lifestyles recently appeared on Medical Update News. This article is based on research findings that are yet to be peer-reviewed. Results are therefore regarded as preliminary and should be interpreted as such. Find out about the role of the peer review process in research here. For further information, please contact the cited source. The OCTAVE study – a multi-centre UK-wide trial led by the University of Glasgow and co-ordinated by the University of Birmingham’s Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit – is evaluating the immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases such as cancer, inflammatory arthritis, diseases of the kidney or liver, or patients who are having a stem cell transplant. The OCTAVE trial is one of the largest studies in the world so far into post-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in immunocompromised patients and is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC). OCTAVE is a collaborative research project involving groups in the Universities of Glasgow, Birmingham, Oxford, Liverpool, Imperial College London and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The study used a variety of state-of-the-art immune tests performed on blood samples taken before and/or after COVID-19 vaccination in around 600 people recruited across the UK. OCTAVE’s early data show that 40% of people in the patient groups studied mounted a low serological immune response after two SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. In addition to this, the initial data shows that approximately 11% of immunocompromised patients fail to generate any antibodies 4 weeks after two vaccines. Failure to generate antibodies is found at higher proportion in some specific patient sub-groups; in particular, in patients with ANCA-Associated Vasculitis who have received Rituximab treatment. Looking in detail at patient vaccine response within each of the disease subgroups included in the study, researchers found that a significant proportion of patients studied as part of OCTAVE generate lower levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibody reactivity, when compared with healthy subjects after two SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The proportion of patients with lower levels of antibody reactivity as per disease cohort compared to the baseline for healthy subjects:
Importantly, however, the significance of these findings in terms of what they can tell us about vaccine protection from exposure to COVID-19 is not currently known, as there is no current agreed clinical cut off to measure COVID-19 vaccination response. Professor Pam Kearns, Director of the University of Birmingham’s Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit which is co-ordinating OCTAVE, said: “A significant number of people in the UK were advised to shield because they have conditions or long term illnesses which place them at greater risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. “The rapid development of vaccines for COVID-19 has been a major step forward in the battle against this global pandemic, and the most clinically-at-risk people were among the first in the UK to be offered one. However, while we know COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in healthy individuals, questions have remained as to how effective they are in protecting the chronically ill. “These preliminary results of OCTAVE and the results of our continuing and forthcoming research will be instrumental in helping inform how best to vaccinate patients with chronic conditions and protect them from COVID-19 infection in the future.” Professor Iain McInnes, lead of the OCTAVE trial, and Vice Principal and Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow, said: “The roll-out of the vaccine programme was extremely important for these vulnerable groups of patients, however due to their underlying medical conditions and treatments, which can weaken their immune systems, we were concerned that people with these medical conditions may not receive optimal protection, so it was, and remains, extremely important to investigate this unanswered question. “While 40% of these clinically at-risk patent groups were found to have a low or undetectable immune response after a double dose of the vaccine, we are encouraged that this figure isn’t higher. However, it is possible even partial protection may be clinically beneficial, and this is something we will closely monitor. “There are also imminent plans in place to investigate the effects of administrating an alternate vaccine dose to the group with an undetectable or low vaccine immune response; and we hope these findings will support the role out of an immunological screening programme for vulnerable patients to identify those who will benefit from a subsequent vaccine boost. We would continue to encourage all people and especially those patients within these clinically at-risk groups to make sure they receive their vaccine doses if they haven’t done so already.” Dr Rob Buckle, Chief Scientist of the Medical Research Council, part of UKRI, which co-funded the trial, said: “Today’s results will be of concern for the subset of people within those who are immunosuppressed for whom the vaccine didn’t trigger a large protective response. We’re funding an extension to the OCTAVE study to give third jabs to this group, which we hope will deliver a much-needed immunity boost, or identify those who could benefit from other interventions. One of the real strengths of the UK’s scientific response to the pandemic has been the way that we’ve assembled teams of experts to lead cutting-edge and responsive studies like this, to inform our vaccine roll-out and government decision-making in real time.” The OCTAVE (Observational Cohort Trial-T-cells Antibodies and Vaccine Efficacy in SARS-CoV-2) study looks at those with immune mediated inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ANCA-Associated Vasculitis, inflammatory bowel disease, as well as hepatic disease and renal failure. So far more than 2,500 patients have been recruited to the trial making it one of the largest global studies in which detailed immune response is being assessed post-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Reference: Kearns P, Siebert S, Willicombe M, et al. 2021. Examining the immunological effects of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with conditions potentially leading to diminished immune response capacity – The OCTAVE trial. Preprints with The Lancet. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3910058. This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. The post Low Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccines in Patients With Impaired Immune Systems recently appeared on Medical Update News. For Moira Smith and her mother, July promised a glimmer of normalcy after months of isolation. The two flew from Alaska to Houston and visited family, celebrating the first birthday of their cousin’s granddaughter. Ms. Smith’s mother bought a patterned pink onesie to give as a gift, and they all snapped photos of the baby’s face smeared with chocolate. Ms. Smith, 46, knew that her cousin’s family was not vaccinated but tried not to dwell on that. She and her mother had both received their Pfizer shots months earlier. In the hotel room one evening, Ms. Smith’s mother made an offhand comment to her relatives: “You can take your masks off but you have to promise to get vaccinated,” she chided them. The next morning Ms. Smith and her mother were headed home, on a layover in the Seattle airport, when they got the phone call: Their relative’s baby had come down with a fever and tested positive for Covid-19. Two days later, Ms. Smith woke up feeling like she had been “hit by a Mack truck,” with body aches and a sore throat, and tested positive for the coronavirus. The next week, her mother, who is 76 and has lung cancer, texted her an emoji of a thermometer indicating she, too, had spiked a fever, and she later wound up in the emergency room with Covid. Ms. Smith and her mother are part of a wave of Americans falling sick with Covid even though they are fully immunized, in what are known as breakthrough infections. Public health experts continue to believe that breakthrough infections are relatively uncommon, and rarely result in severe illness or hospitalizations. The vaccines available in the United States offer powerful protection from serious Covid illness, hospitalization and death. A recent analysis of state-reported data from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than nine in 10 Covid-19 cases that resulted in hospitalization and death occurred among people who were not fully vaccinated. “We always anticipated that there would be some breakthrough infections because the vaccines at their very best were 95 percent effective,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt. “The vaccines were designed to prevent severe illness, and they’re spectacularly successful at that.” But as the more transmissible Delta variant becomes dominant in the United States, rising numbers of breakthrough cases are being reported, although most are mild. “Delta is vastly more contagious, so as it is spreading among the unvaccinated there is spillover into the vaccinated population,” Dr. Schaffner said. “The unvaccinated are a big highway of transmission. The vaccinated are a little side street.” Because people infected with the Delta variant have far more of the virus in their nose and upper respiratory tract, the importance of mask-wearing has become paramount. After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted its guidance on masking, recommending that vaccinated people in hot-spot areas resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces, millions of Americans who are fully immunized struggled to adjust their expectations for autumn months that had seemed to offer some semblance of festivity. And a small subset of Americans has already seen their routines upended by breakthrough infections. Spurred by concerns about breakthrough infections, federal health officials recently recommended that Americans who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines receive a third dose in the coming months. This week Johnson & Johnson reported that a booster shot of its vaccine raised levels of antibodies against the coronavirus. For some, breakthrough infections have felt like mild allergies, coming with symptoms including a cough, sniffles and a scratchy throat. Others have had more severe cases, where they are bedridden with body aches, fevers and chills. And still others have had some of the telltale signs of Covid such as loss of taste and smell, “Covid rash” and brain fog. “We were calling it floaty-head syndrome,” said Molly O’Brien-Foelsch, 47, a marketing executive in Pennsylvania who tested positive for Covid after a trip to the British Virgin Islands with her husband last month. “It felt like there was a huge marshmallow on my head.” Scientists believe that breakthrough infections rarely result in severe illness, but there have been cases of prolonged hospitalizations. Elaina Cary-Fehr’s father Isaac, a 64-year-old Uber driver in Austin, was transferred to a long-term care facility after being hospitalized with Covid pneumonia in June and later receiving a tracheotomy tube. He was released from the facility this week. “I believe in the vaccine, I kept holding on to hope that it would work and it did,” Ms. Cary-Fehr said. “But I hate that this had to happen to my family.” Dr. Rebecca Hughes, 32, works as an emergency medicine resident in Boston, so she had spent the last year with a simmering sense of anxiety about Covid exposure. She can still recall the fear she felt the first time she treated a coding Covid patient and wondered for hours whether her mask might have slipped and put her at risk. But all year she was kept safe by her protective equipment. Then, last month, her family took a vacation to visit her grandparents in Utah. It was a trip they had hoped to take last February but postponed as Covid case rates rose. Four days after they landed, Dr. Hughes felt her throat becoming scratchy. She was certain it was allergies but took a Covid test just in case; it came back positive. Shortly afterward her newborn, who was 9 weeks old, started sneezing and tested positive too, along with Dr. Hughes’s three other children, ages 8, 6 and 3. “It felt ironic after I spent so long caring for Covid positive patients on every single shift since the pandemic started,” Dr. Hughes said. “My 8-year-old knows I’ve been seeing people die from this. She looked at me and said, ‘Am I going to be OK?’” Although some breakthrough infections like Dr. Hughes’s are difficult to trace to a precise exposure event, other Americans have found their vacation plans intersecting with well-known outbreaks. Understand Vaccine and Mask Mandates in the U.S.
Jimmy Yoder, 25, felt no trepidation as he and his boyfriend, both vaccinated, packed their bags to spend a weekend in Provincetown in July. And because their days and nights there were a blur of clubs and dancing, he assumed that the Monday morning fatigue that greeted him back in Brooklyn was just a bad hangover. “I was feeling a little rundown but attributed it to a weekend of partying,” Mr. Yoder said. “In the back of my mind I was like, ‘There is no way I’m going to get Covid, I’m immune.’ ” By Wednesday morning, Mr. Yoder no longer felt so confident. “I felt like I had a really bad flu,” he said, with a high fever and congested sinuses. He and his boyfriend both tested positive that day. Mr. Yoder slept for the next 18 hours, and when he and his boyfriend were both starting to feel better they ordered a celebratory pizza. They realized then that they had both lost their sense of taste and smell. Mr. Yoder was relieved to find that of all the people he had exposed — friends who had driven him home from Provincetown, an office full of colleagues — only one tested positive. “Obviously it shows the vaccines are still working a lot,” he added. As many Americans begin the familiar exercise of questioning and calling off plans, scientists are stressing the continued importance of mask-wearing to reduce transmission and infection. “If you get infected and breathe virus out, it will get trapped by your mask,” said Dr. John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell. “These viruses don’t have pairs of scissors that can cut through masks.” The post Breakthrough Covid Cases: Uncommon and Often Mild, But Not Always recently appeared on Medical Update News. Aug 25 (Reuters) – Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) said on Wednesday it has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter, which it suspects involves a production line in Spain. Although Moderna said no safety or efficacy issues had been identified, the suspension is a fresh setback for the firm, whose partners had production delays last month that disrupted supplies to countries, including South Korea. That has prompted some Japanese companies to cancel worker vaccinations planned for Thursday, as most of doses in question have been supplied to mass vaccination sites and workplaces in Japan. “Moderna confirms having been notified of cases of particulate matter being seen in drug product vials of its COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna said in a statement. “The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address this,” it added, referring to Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical (4502.T). It said the contamination could be due to a manufacturing issue in one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain. It was not immediately clear whether the issue impacted supplies to other countries. Moderna did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment. Spain’s Rovi (ROVI.MC), which bottles or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets other than the United States, was not immediately available to comment. The vaccine lot with complaints had 565,400 doses and Moderna said that “out of an abundance of caution” it had put the lot on hold and two adjacent ones. Takeda said it conducted an emergency examination after particulate matter was found in a lot of vaccine vials at an inoculation site in Japan. Japan’s health ministry has decided to withdraw some doses as a precaution after consultation with Takeda but it said it would strive to minimize the impact of the withdrawal on its inoculation plans. Chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said there had been no cases reported of health issues related to contaminated shots administrated. Between Aug. 6 and Aug. 20, vaccines from the lot in question were used at a mass public vaccination centre in Osaka, according to the defence ministry, which operates the centre. The ministry did not said how many people were affected. Japan Airlines said it had cancelled some COVID-19 vaccinations for its employees on Thursday after receiving Moderna vaccines with particulate matter. Another Japanese carrier, ANA, also held off on its vaccinations on Thursday according to Kyodo news agency. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Wednesday that about 60% of the public will be fully vaccinated by end September and that the country had enough vaccines to provide booster doses if such a decision is taken. Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla and Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru, Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo and Ju-min Park; Editing by Miyoung Kim, Himani Sarkar and Gerry Doyle Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The post Moderna withholds 1.63 mln COVID-19 vaccine doses in Japan due to contamination recently appeared on Medical Update News.
As they begin their first year of medical school, two Métis women have aspirations of helping Indigenous people access better and more equitable health care in the province. Kirsten Fleury, 24, and Caitlin Wachal, 32, took part in the White Coat Ceremony on Wednesday, as the Max Rady College of Medicine welcomed its largest cohort of Indigenous students ever, with 17 out of 110 students self-identifying as Indigenous. “I am still feeling like everything is very surreal,” Fleury said after reciting the physician’s pledge and receiving her white coat — a milestone she’s looked forward to for several years. “It felt exciting and also terrifying that today was finally the day. This is real. I did get in.” Fleury’s medical aspirations began in high school, but she said her first few years of university were difficult and shook her confidence. She started working with Métis professor Michelle Driedger as part of an Indigenous research mentorship program at the University of Manitoba, getting involved in projects related to Métis health and wellness. She said the experience bridged her passion for health care and in working with her people and culture. “It was that moment when I was able to really find a passion with Indigenous health and meeting all of the people I was able to meet through the Indigenous community at the U of M that really springboarded me into deciding, ‘yes,’ this is something I think I can pursue,” she said. She hopes to one day work as a physician with Indigenous people, either in a clinic or research setting, to simply help improve someone’s day, or to collect information that will lead to systemic and policy changes that will benefit Indigenous people in Manitoba. ‘Challenge some of the health gaps’Wednesday’s ceremony was equally meaningful for Wachal, who called the moment she donned her white coat ‘humbling and exciting.’ “I know a lot of Indigenous physicians have paved the way to make a place for us and support us on our journey even before we were accepted, so it just really feels like a really great privilege,” said the Métis mother of four. Her love of science drew her to medical school, and now she looks forward to helping people along their health and wellness journeys. She said her family originally hid and had shame about being Métis, but now it’s a source of pride. “Being part of the Indigenous medical students’ network has been a great support for reconnecting, but it also is a great opportunity to challenge some of the health gaps that exist between Indigenous populations and non-Indigenous,” Wachal said. She said she plans to keep advocating for health equity and for people to be able to access culturally safe care and feel like they’re respected and treated with dignity within the health care system. She envisions a career as a physician working in mental health. “I lost my cousin to mental illness in the spring. That one hits really close to home for me,” she said, adding he had been an advocate and open about his own mental health. “I would love to be part of peoples’ journey with facing mental illness and working with families and loved ones who are dealing with suicide loss. Mental wellness is universal.” Fleury also looks forward to being able to give back by mentoring younger Indigenous students on a similar path she was on. She says she’s ‘fallen in love’ with the Indigenous students’ group at the University of Manitoba and is proud so many of her peers are part of the Class of 2025. “I think it’s really exciting to see the health care system, and in particular the University of Manitoba, actually coming close to fulfilling the changes they want to see,” she said. She hopes it will lead to change within health care settings too, and more equal representation of the people they’ll see and treat as doctors. “We can do amazing things such as get into med school and eventually become Indigenous physicians. I think it’s a really exciting beginning.” The Class of 2025 is made up of 61 women, 45 men and four who identify as non-binary. The post Record number of Indigenous students begin med school at University of Manitoba recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Raleigh-area hospitals in North Carolina are sounding the alarm as younger and otherwise healthy adults are increasingly being hospitalized due to COVID-19. The combination of the more contagious delta variant, residents’ continued refusal to get vaccinated and ongoing staffing shortages is straining hospital systems’ already thin resources. In a virtual news conference with reporters, Wake County Emergency Medical Services Director Jose Cabañas said Wednesday that his department is getting more calls for help than ever before, with many cases of more than 400 people seeking assistance on a given day. That’s up from pre-pandemic levels of about 300 daily calls. “The experience that we’re seeing in the community with over 10,000 calls a month is a complete new thing for us. We’ve never had that threshold before,” Cabañas said. Meanwhile, major hospitals in the region are running low on the number of intensive care unit beds and workers who can manage them. Dr. Linda Butler, chief medical officer at UNC REX Healthcare, said she has about 520 patients in her hospital on Wednesday and just 439 total available beds. She added that the hospital’s ICU capacity is now full. Butler said the public does not understand how critical the situation is across many of North Carolina’s hospitals. “Please get vaccinated so you do not end up a patient in one of our hospitals,” Butler said. “We don’t want your business. We want you to be healthy.” Dr. Seth Brody, chief physician executive for WakeMed Health & Hospitals, said the average age of patients his system is treating for COVID-19 has dropped dramatically, particularly as the vast majority of elderly residents are fully unvaccinated and most young adults are not. “Our average age is almost 20 years younger than it was in the first surge,” Brody said. Data the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released on Wednesday shows 621,064 of the nearly 1.8 million residents aged 12 to 24, are fully vaccinated — less than 35% of the cohort. Meanwhile, nearly 1.5 million of the more than 1.7 million North Carolinians 65 or older, or 84%, are fully vaccinated. The more than 3,500 patients currently in North Carolina hospitals due to COVID-19 is the highest total since Jan. 21, when spread of the virus was rampant and vaccines were not yet widely available. More than 2,000 intensive care unit beds are in use across North Carolina, while less than 300 are empty and staffed, according to state health department data. About 1,100 ICU beds are either unreported or unstaffed. window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : '394319060666204', xfbml : true, version : 'v2.9' }); }; (function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); The post Virus Straining NC Hospitals: ‘We Don’t Want Your Business’ | WFAE 90.7 recently appeared on Medical Update News.
TOM REYES MET his wife Monica Ferland in optometry school. They married as third-years, attended different rotations through fourth year, and a week before graduation they found out that Monica’s father Gerald, also an optometrist, had received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. The couple were devastated by the news and concerned for the financial future of Monica’s mother. Monica’s career path was teaching at their alma mater but Tom was eager to see patients; in the blink of an eye it was decided that Tom would purchase Gerald’s practice. ABOUT REAL DEALReal Deal scenarios are inspired by true stories but are changed to sharpen the dilemmas involved and should not be confused with real people or places. Responses are peer-sourced opinions and are not a substitute for professional legal advice. Please contact your attorney if you have any questions about an employee or customer situation in your own business. ABOUT THE AUTHORNATALIE TAYLOR is owner of Artisan Eyewear in Meredith, NH. She offers regional private practice consulting and ABO/COPE approved presentations. Email her at [email protected] Ferland Eyecare was over 30 years old and Gerald had never taken on a partner or associate. Tom felt it was his duty as a newly minted husband and doctor to pay the full value of the practice, so Gerald hired a firm to come up with the final number. There was no possibility of a down payment, but both parties were comfortable with Tom writing a monthly check to Mrs. Ferland over the next 10 years. The Sunday after the paperwork had been signed, Tom invited two close optometry school friends over to see his new practice and share a bottle of champagne. “Boy, Monica’s dad didn’t do much in the way of updates the last 20 years, huh?” said Steve. “Yeah, this wallpaper and carpet are pretty worn,” agreed Tom. “I need to update the street signage too.” Advertisement “Yeesh!” exclaimed Evan. “These frames are really dated.” Evan had worked as an optician through school; Tom was relying on his input since that part of the business was largely foreign to him. “We counted about a thousand frames during the inventory, but only about 100 were purchased in the last two years,” said Tom. “They had a buying freeze thru COVID.” “You know that means you’re selling frames without warranties,” Evan said. Tom gave a quick nod, but that fact actually hadn’t occurred to him. “Can we see the exam rooms?” asked Steve. “Room,” corrected Tom. “Oh, nope. Nope,” Steve said, “You need two rooms, man. Maybe three.” The trio spent the next hour mapping out options for reformatting the office walls and layout. The friends were just leaving as Monica arrived, and the couple sat together in her father’s old office. Tom tried sharing the feedback from his friends, but her attention was divided; ever since the diagnosis Monica was constantly fielding calls and texts from family, her parents and her father’s medical team. “…going to take a lot of work. Monica?” Tom tapped her phone screen, breaking her gaze. Advertisement “I’m listening!” she said. “What are you saying, though?” “I think the practice was overvalued,” he sighed. “We’re going to need to put serious money into updates. I know time was a huge factor in getting the sale situated, but I think I overpaid… by a lot. Can we revisit the agreement?” Monica looked at him, aghast. “Tom. My father is dying.” Her eyes started to well up. “It was so painful for him to sell and now you want to pull the agreement apart?!” “No, no,” Tom said gently, embracing his wife. “I’m sorry.” The Big Questions
Sarah B.
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Table 1 Spatial Distribution of CSR |
Figure 1 Spatial distribution of average annual registration rates for cataract surgery nationwide, 2013–2017. |
Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis
(1) Global spatial autocorrelation analysis: Findings of Moran’s I global spatial autocorrelation analysis of national cataract surgery CSR from 2013–2017 showed that the annual Moran’s I index interval was in the range of −0.072287 to 0.04323 with mean P>0.05. Autocorrelation was not statistically significant at regional scale, indicating no positive spatial correlation among national CSR (Table 2).
Table 2 Results of Global Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis of Registration Rate of Cataract Surgery in China, 2013–2017 |
(2) Local spatial autocorrelation analysis: Local Moran’s I autocorrelation analysis showed that there was spatial clustering of cataract surgery in China, with Anhui being a low-high clustering region (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Local spatial autocorrelation analysis of national annual average cataract surgery rates, 2013–2017. |
(3) Global hotspot analysis and local hotspot analysis: Findings of global hotspot analysis Getis-Ord General G showed that General G index=0.000001, Z=1.124960, P=0.260606 for average annual registration rate of cataract surgery nationwide, indicating that cataract surgery rate was not statistically significant at regional level of correlation. Furthermore, there were no “positive hot” and “negative hot” areas, an indication that Anhui is low-high concentration area (Figures 3 and 4).
Figure 3 Local hotspot analysis of national annual average cataract surgery rates, 2013–2017. |
Figure 4 Local hotspot analysis of high/low clustering for national average annual cataract surgery rates, 2013–2017. |
Time and Spatial Scan Analysis
Time and spatial scan analysis of national cataract surgery rate from 2013 to 2017 was undertaken in two stages.18 Clustering regions were found in the two stages. Observed differences in each clustering area were statistically significant (all P<0.05; Table 3). The first level of clusters from 2013 to 2025 was largest in 2015, involving only Xinjiang, whereas second and third levels of clusters were mainly distributed in northeast (Jilin) and northwest (Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu) of China. Clustering areas of registered cases of cataract surgery in China in the 13th Five-Year Plan period varied greatly compared with the 12th Five-Year Plan period. First agglomeration areas were east and central coastal 11 provinces and cities (Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shanghai), whereas second and third agglomeration areas were three northwestern provinces and autonomous regions (Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu). In summary, cataract surgery registry in China had shifted to the eastern region since the 13th Five-Year Plan (Figure 5).
Table 3 Aggregation Analysis of CSR Spatiotemporal Scan of Cataract Surgery in China by Time Stage, 2013–2017 |
Figure 5 Scope of time and space scan clustering area for cataract surgery in China, 2013–2015 (A); Scope of time and space scan clustering area for cataract surgery in China, 2016–2017 (B). |
Discussion
Previous studies reported that accurate analysis of spatial distribution characteristics can reveal the distribution patterns and factors that influence CSR, and propose effective measures to prevent and treat blindness.16–18 Findings of the current study established that GIS uses its spatial analysis technique to explore spatial and temporal distribution patterns of cataract surgery in each province from time and space perspectives, and to explore “hotspots” where cataract surgery is undertaken. Temporal, spatial, and social factors are crucial in promotion of cataract surgery in China. Therefore, the distribution status of cataract surgery rates in different regions also shows some spatial heterogeneity.19,20 The current study analyzed spatial and temporal characteristics of registered cases of cataract surgery in China from 2013–2017 at provincial level. The spatial distribution map of average annual surgery rates showed that national cataract restoration surgery rates for the five years 2013–2017 were 1200, 1400, 1782, 2070, and 2205 per 1 million population, indicating a gradually increasing trend. This trend may be explained by economic development of China. Moreover, the high level of CSR in this period may be explained by the implementation of a national cataract surgery prevention and control policy.21 The National Cataract Surgery Prevention and Treatment Plan (2001–2010) proposed that efforts for cataract surgery prevention and treatment had been intensified from national to provincial level.22,23 The highest CSR in each province (municipality directly under the central government and autonomous region) was observed in Shanghai, where the 5-year average CSRs value is classified into five levels according to the natural breakpoint hierarchy. Qinghai Province, Heilongjiang Province, Anhui Province, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Hubei Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had the lowest CSR levels and were classified in first level. This is mainly due to minority residential areas, whereas most of the other provinces (municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions) were in the second to fourth levels of registration. Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Jiangsu Province, Tibet Autonomous Region, Chongqing, and Sichuan Province had the highest CSR. This fifth ranking is partly due to the high level of local economic development and policies to prevent and treat blindness. The Chinese government has recently taken a leading role in preventing and treating blindness by implementing several programs to prevent and treat cataracts, where significant progress has been made. However, prevention and treatment of blindness is a long-term task involving livelihoods of people, and it is not enough to rely only on implementation of some projects to sustainably solve the problem of blindness with cataract in China. There is a need to focus on establishing long-term mechanisms and networks for prevention and treatment of blindness, as well as promotion of ophthalmology institutions at all levels to meet challenges due to increasing cataract blindness resulting from population growth and aging.24
The current study showed that there was no positive spatial correlation between registration rates of cataract surgery in China during 2013–2017. Local spatial autocorrelation analysis showed spatial clustering of cataract surgeries in China, with Anhui being a low-high clustering region. Furthermore, global hotspot analysis Getis-Ord General G showed no “positive hotspots” or “negative hotspots”, whereas local autocorrelation analysis showed that Anhui was a low-high concentration region, which was attributed to the irrational allocation of ophthalmic resources in the region. The current study established that ophthalmology institutions, surgical equipment, and ophthalmology technology were not well distributed, which prevented many rural and remote areas from receiving timely cataract treatment, which is among reasons why CSR could not be improved quickly. Ophthalmology resources had been allocated rationally, and capacity of comprehensive ophthalmology services at the basic level was inadequate.1 This is either because of lack of necessary facilities, or existing facilities were too old to be used properly.25,26 In addition, lack of enough skilled personnel to provide services using equipment could explain inadequate capacity of comprehensive ophthalmology services at basic levels.26,27 These require government and ophthalmology academic groups to urgently set standards for ophthalmology facilities and services at grassroot levels, strengthen ophthalmology human resource development and appropriate training, develop counterpart support from ophthalmology resource-rich areas to rural and remote areas, and effectively strengthen capacity of comprehensive ophthalmology services at the county level to increase CSR.
Spatial autocorrelation analysis determines presence of local agglomeration around an area, but not size and extent of agglomeration.28,29 Spatiotemporal scan analysis compensates for this shortcoming.29 The current study applied staged spatial and temporal scan analysis to registered cases of cataract surgery in 2013–2017. Findings showed that 18 areas of aggregation were found in 2 stages, and differences observed in each area of aggregation were statistically significant, with particularly clear scope of aggregation. First level of agglomeration was the largest in 2015, involving only Xinjiang. Second and third levels of aggregation were mainly located in northeast (Jilin) and northwest (Ningxia, Qinghai, and Gansu) of China. Findings of the current study showed that clustering areas of CSR in China varied greatly during the 13th Five-Year Plan period compared with the 12th Five-Year Plan period. Cataract surgery registered cases in China shifted to the eastern region since the 13th Five-Year Plan. In addition, phased time and space scan analyses established that the number of clustering areas in the two stages tended to decrease gradually, and clustering areas in the second stage decreased significantly compared with the previous stage, which indicated that the overall burden of cataract surgery in China is decreasing, and prevention and treatment of cataract surgery has improved. This burden is related to economic level, scientific education, and social efforts to prevent blindness.1 Many people still have misconceptions about cataracts that cause blindness, and believe that it is “natural” for the elderly to be blind, which makes them and their children reluctant to receive treatment.24–26 Some patients believe that they need to find the best “experts” and use the best equipment and materials for the operation, reportedly because some grass-roots ophthalmology institutions cannot offer adequate expertise, which has aggravated the phenomenon of “difficult and expensive medical treatment” in urban hospitals.24,30
However, this study also contains several limitations. Firstly, the CSR included all surgeries performed in the total population irrespective of visual acuity or degree of visual impairment prior to the surgery, and therefore CSR did not necessarily reflect a needs-based provision of services. Secondly, the CSR data did not incorporate other significant outcomes such as visual acuity restoration rate, as well as the cataract surgical coverage among the cataract blind. It did not reflect actual disease burden completely. Thirdly, CSR data in 2018–2020 were not available for the reports from the China network of National Blindness Prevention and Treatment, and most data from this organization did not specify the methodology for data collection. Although we identified established cataract surgery registry systems in China, most of these did not publish their data collection procedures. As a result of this, the accuracy of CSR data from these sources cannot be verified.
In conclusion, the current study established that CSR in China from 2013 to 2017 showed an increasing trend year by year. Average annual cataract surgery rates in all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) were randomly distributed, with some degree of spatial aggregation. Staged spatiotemporal scan aggregation area decreased gradually, and cataract surgery prevention and control work has made some progress. However, high-risk areas still persisted, requiring focused attention and targeted prevention and control measures. Therefore, government should further strengthen prevention and treatment of blindness, especially prevention and treatment of cataract blindness. In addition, government should further improve rational allocation of ophthalmology resources (ophthalmology institutions, surgical equipment, and ophthalmology technology), and strengthen scientific propaganda and education. The current study also recommends that CSR should be focused on as an important indicator to evaluate progress of prevention and treatment of cataract blindness in each region, and seek support from all social services (Red Cross, private eye care institutions, Lions Clubs) to form government-led, multi-agency coordination mechanisms. Moreover, government should implement financial compensation mechanisms such as government remission. Non-governmental organizations, charitable groups, enterprises, and individuals should be lobbied to participate in various ways. In addition, hospitals, at all levels, should be encouraged to offer appropriate reductions or waivers within their means, in order to build more sustainable, low-cost and high-efficiency blindness prevention and treatment systems.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
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The post Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Cataract Surgery Rates in Chin recently appeared on Medical Update News.
The weekly rhythms of Catholic life have started to return at Our Lady of Lourdes in Harlem. The pews are packed on Sunday mornings, prayer groups meet after work and the collection plate is almost as full as it was before the coronavirus pandemic began.
But parishioners are starting to worry about the virus again.
“For a little while everyone felt more free, not using masks and things like that,” said the Rev. Gilberto Ángel-Neri, the pastor. “But now that we hear all the news about the Delta variant, everyone is using masks again.”
The progress made at Father Ángel-Neri’s church, and at houses of worship across New York City, may be threatened by a rise in virus cases in the past month and by an uneven patchwork of rules governing vaccination that can differ from one place to another.
New rules that have been enacted in recent weeks to curb the spread of the virus’s more contagious Delta variant require New Yorkers to show proof of vaccination to participate in many indoor activities, including sitting inside restaurants or bars, going to a gym or nightclub and visiting a museum or zoo. But they do not apply religious services.
“Faith is a light to help you navigate through uncertainty and darkness, but what a lot of people have been grappling with is what do you do when church itself becomes a place of anxiety,” said John Gehring, the Catholic program director at the advocacy group Faith in Public Life.
Religious leaders, he said, “want people to come back to church but to do that safely is a hard thing to do in an environment where there are so many unknowns.”
Houses of worship have struggled over the past year as pandemic-related rules forced them to shut their doors for months and then limited how many people were allowed inside at a time. Most depend on donations to pay their bills, and while the number of worshipers and the size of their donations has slowly begun to rebound, the progress remains tenuous.
Most churches in the city do not require worshipers to be vaccinated.
Instead, rules vary from place to place. For example, vaccination is required to visit the campus of Fordham University, a Jesuit school, but not to enter the Catholic church around the corner.
Many Reform Jewish temples, including Central Synagogue in Manhattan and the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, either require vaccination or plan to to do so by the High Holy Days next month, community leaders said.
Avi Shafran, a spokesman for Agudath Israel, an Orthodox Jewish umbrella group that sued New York last year over the state’s coronavirus restrictions, said that Orthodox leaders did not want the government to impose a mandate.
Community leaders, Mr. Shafran said, do “not want those who, for whatever reason, are unvaccinated to be faced with a draconian regulation that limits their participation in religious life.”
The leaders of individual Orthodox synagogues were “considering” requiring vaccinations based on the situation in their communities, he said, although he could not name any.
Catholic leaders have declined to answer questions about why they do not require worshipers to show proof of vaccination.
In November, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn won a Supreme Court case against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that overturned public health restrictions on houses of worship. Since then, neither the city nor the state has moved to impose any new restrictions.
“We do not view religious worship as ‘indoor entertainment,’” said Bill Neidhardt, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Right now, our approach is to continue partnering with faith leaders to promote the vaccine, deploy mobile vaccine vans to houses of worship and recruit religious organizations to take advantage of the vaccine referral bonus.”
Mr. Neidhardt declined to say whether concerns about religious freedom, or the example of the Supreme Court decision last fall, had influenced the city’s policy. But many religious leaders and analysts see a connection.
“Of course it doesn’t apply to houses of worship, as the governor learned last year,” said Rabbi Serge Lippe of Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. But he said religious institutions should follow the same rules as secular institutions.
“We are not looking for exemptions from common sense health guidelines, we want to follow common sense health guidelines,” he said.
David Gibson, the director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, said that when it comes to requiring vaccines, “everyone is trying to avoid this issue.”
Many parish leaders said they had their hands full rebuilding their congregations after the upheaval of the past year and a half.
When the pandemic forced Our Lady of Lourdes to close, parishioners lost a vital community center, Father Ángel-Neri said. The parish also lost about $3,000 a week in donations.
Today, he said, the crowds at Mass are smaller than before the pandemic, but those who come “want to be here and they want the parish to succeed.”
That view was shared by the dozen or so people who came to a Spanish-language Mass in the church’s brightly lit basement chapel one night last week.
“What we get from being here is so much more important than being scared,” said Ana Sanchez, 48. “It helps us get through these hard times. My faith is more important than anything, even the pandemic.”
“We are the in presence of God the Father, and that’s the important thing,” said Melania de Jesus, 51.
Understand Vaccine and Mask Mandates in the U.S.
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- Vaccine rules. On Aug. 23, the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and up, paving the way for an increase in mandates in both the public and private sectors. Private companies have been increasingly mandating vaccines for employees. Such mandates are legally allowed and have been upheld in court challenges.
- Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in indoor public places within areas experiencing outbreaks, a reversal of the guidance it offered in May. See where the C.D.C. guidance would apply, and where states have instituted their own mask policies. The battle over masks has become contentious in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
- College and universities. More than 400 colleges and universities are requiring students to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Almost all are in states that voted for President Biden.
- Schools. Both California and New York City have introduced vaccine mandates for education staff. A survey released in August found that many American parents of school-age children are opposed to mandated vaccines for students, but were more supportive of mask mandates for students, teachers and staff members who do not have their shots.
- Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and major health systems are requiring employees to get a Covid-19 vaccine, citing rising caseloads fueled by the Delta variant and stubbornly low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their work force.
- New York City. Proof of vaccination is required of workers and customers for indoor dining, gyms, performances and other indoor situations, although enforcement does not begin until Sept. 13. Teachers and other education workers in the city’s vast school system will need to have at least one vaccine dose by Sept. 27, without the option of weekly testing. City hospital workers must also get a vaccine or be subjected to weekly testing. Similar rules are in place for New York State employees.
- At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would seek to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for the country’s 1.3 million active-duty troops “no later” than the middle of September. President Biden announced that all civilian federal employees would have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to regular testing, social distancing, mask requirements and restrictions on most travel.
The dilemma facing houses of worship is this: A surge in virus-related deaths or hospitalizations could plunge them back into turmoil, but any rule requiring inoculation could keep away worshipers wary of vaccines, and their much-needed donations.
That Gordian knot is especially troublesome for the Catholic Church, whose followers have sometimes been sent mixed messages that often rely on confusing information about the production of some of the vaccines used against the coronavirus in the United States, which were developed using human cells derived from a fetus aborted decades ago.
Marilyn Mubarak, 60, a retiree who was leaving midday Mass at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside, Queens, one day last week, said she had been vaccinated for the greater good even though “a lot of people heard about how the vaccine was tested on embryos.” (It was not.)
The Rev. Patrick J. West, St. Sebastian’s pastor, said he had few qualms about the vaccine.
“This is an effort to keep everybody safe and healthy so I say let’s all do our part,” he said. “It would be fine with me if they did have a vaccine mandate.”
But Catholic leaders have sometimes muddied the waters. In February, the Vatican said it would require its employees to be vaccinated, only to quickly soften its position after being criticized. The pope has been less equivocal, saying in a message last week that getting vaccinated was “an act of love.”
“Fundamentally the pope says getting vaccinated is a moral issue,” Mr. Gibson of Fordham said. “It’s about loving your neighbor, it’s about solidarity, it’s a pro-life issue. But there is a libertarian strain in American Catholicism.”
That has been reflected in rhetoric used by conservatives in the church.
Catholic bishops in Colorado issued a joint public letter this month, reiterating concern over the use of fetal tissue in vaccine development and saying they “support religious exemptions from any and all vaccine mandates.”
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a high-profile conservative who was diagnosed with the coronavirus this month and put on a ventilator days later, made headlines last year when he repeated false claims at a conference in Rome that the vaccine might contain microchips that would let the government control people.
Catholic leaders in New York have waded into these debates carefully.
Although vaccines are not required for employees or worshipers, archdiocesan officials in New York told priests in a July letter that “there is no basis for a priest to issue a religious exemption to the vaccine.” The letter said any priest who issued an exemption would be “acting in contradiction to the directives of the pope.”
In a subsequent email, the archdiocese’s vicar general, Msgr. Joseph LaMorte, gave priests carefully worded guidelines about introducing safety measures in their parishes.
“Pastors may wish to suggest” that vaccinated parishioners wear masks, he said, but the onus was on those who were unvaccinated to wear them. And, he added, churches should maintain special sections for people who want to socially distance, but “there should be no designation of attendees to such an area based on vaccination status.”
On the topic of vaccinations, he said that “pastors might encourage those who have not been vaccinated to take advantage of this service.”
Most parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes have been vaccinated, priests there said. But a group of holdouts remain.
“The only ones who aren’t vaccinated are the people who can’t be convinced,” the Rev. Juan Carlos Gonzalez noted shortly before he said Mass one night last week. “They have watched too many videos on the internet and read the wrong things online.”
A few parishioners have even asked Father Ángel-Neri to sign forms granting them religious exemptions. Those were requests he denied.
He said: “I told them, ‘Listen, I can’t go against the pope.’”
Anna Watts contributed reporting.
The post Houses of Worship Struggle Back, and Tread Lightly on Vaccines recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Ponce Health Sciences University is building a school in North St. Louis to help curb racial disparities in health care
ST. LOUIS — Ponce Health Sciences University is building a school in North St. Louis to help curb racial disparities in health care. It’s an $80 million project next door to the National Geospacial Agency currently under construction near the intersection of Jefferson and Cass Avenues.
“Those types of jobs are life-changing,” Founder and Oakville Native Dr. David Lenihan said.
He noticed classroom success doesn’t always equate to the real world. Countless communities across the country don’t have adequate health care. A lack of homegrown physicians is part of the problem.
“If you don’t trust your doctor and he says you have to take a vaccine, you will say ‘Wait a second,'” Lenihan said.
The fact was made more evident during the pandemic. PHSU is already teaching students in downtown St. Louis as well as several locations in Puerto Rico. Lenihan said a lack of cultural understanding, lack of knowledge on the socio-economic barriers and language barriers have made it difficult to form connections between physicians and the community. Lenihan said at PHSU students get an individualized education plan which helps boost them to be future healers in the community.
“This is a major problem, when we look at health care outcomes in these communities, infant mortality rate, whether or not you trust your physician, we have to start improving these metrics,” he said.
Lenihan said he puts his students up against the best in the country.
“They all go into the same pool then the residency program picks students. the benefit our students have they are bi-cultural, that makes them valuable,” he said.
PHSU is partnering with Mercy Hospital System. They said pairing up was an easy decision since both organizations’ missions start with community trust.
“The data they are showing is they do well on tests scores, get into great residencies which shows they are making it,” Dr. Phineas Oren, Mercy Health said. “The residencies wouldn’t be taking them if they weren’t qualified for positions.”
The post New St. Louis medical school aims to curb health care disparities recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Mid Coast Medical Group has welcomed two new directors: Nicolle Baade and Amanda Junkins. Baade will work as the director of Primary Care Operations, while Junkins will serve as the director of Clinical Operations.
Baade has over 15 years of experience in healthcare operations, including leading primary care and medical specialty clinics and overseeing business development and contracting operations at Central Maine Healthcare. Most recently, she was the senior director of Primary Care Operations for Southern Maine Health Care.
In her new role, Baade will work closely with Mid Coast Medical Group primary care physicians, practice leaders and team members to advance care in key areas such as quality and service excellence.
Junkins most recently served as the practice manager of Orthopedic Trauma & Fracture Care at Maine Medical Partners. Her experience spans from managing daily operations and staffing an ambulatory orthopedic practice to developing and implementing new workflows and collaborating with physicians.
“We are excited to have these two excellent additions to our team,” said Jana Purrell, vice president Physician Practices of Mid Coast Medical Group. “In their previous roles, they have gained considerable knowledge and skills that will greatly benefit the patients, families, and providers of Mid Coast Medical Group.”
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The post Brunswick’s Mid Coast Medical Group welcomes new directors recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Posted:
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The news is in about how kids fared during the height of the pandemic—and it’s not all bad.
Even as the pandemic drags on, parents can capitalize on the good stuff and nudge kids away from the negatives and toward self-confidence and success at school.
The American Academy of Pediatrics surveyed thousands of its members and saw that many families created the feeling of a safe, secure, loving household even as the pandemic was causing loss, confusion, and grief outside the home. Pediatricians call that a “positive childhood experience.”
A PCE is the opposite of an ACE, or an “adverse childhood experience.” While an ACE damages a child’s mental or physical health, a PCE builds kids’ self-esteem and emotional durability.
But even as children were benefiting from emotional support, many slipped into not-so-healthy habits using their phones, tablets, and other digital devices. Technology use caused problems for kids of all ages, including splintered attention spans, diminished social skills, and damaged vision.
Many kids are having trouble focusing on one task after spending so many months alt-tabbing and using multiple devices at once, according to a March 2021 parent survey by the Digital Wellness Lab of Boston Children’s Hospital.
Kids can re-learn to focus on a single task if they read on paper. “Paper stories or books are inherently less distraction-prone and require more sustained focus,” says John Hutton, MD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in a Children and Screens webinar on reading. Just 15 minutes a day reading a paper book or magazine can make a difference. A good story also helps exercise kids’ imaginations.
Kids also got rusty at taking turns, listening, and other skills they’ll need in the classroom, according to an expert panel convened by the research consortium Children and Screens.
Kids can practice their social skills by sitting down with other family members for meals and having a conversation. To allow people to see and hear each other, turn off the TV and place phones, tablets, and other attention-stealing devices out of reach in a basket or other container.
After attending online school, many kids complained daily of eye pain and headaches, according to eyecare professionals convened at an emergency summit of the American Optometric Association.
Screen use will no doubt continue, but kids can be taught to avoid digital eyestrain. The AOA recommends teaching them the 20-20-20 rule: that is, to look away from the screen every 20 minutes at something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds or more. Younger kids should also take multiple 20-minute outdoor breaks for even better eye health and as a hedge against needing glasses.
During the pandemic months, kids got used to always having a phone in hand, the DWL survey shows. That may not be possible—or advised—when kids are back in the classroom.
To get comfortable being apart from their devices, kids can charge them outside the bedroom at night. An alarm clock can wake up in the morning. Doing this not only allow for better sleep, but also time for bedtime chats where parents can help them talk through school-related worries.
Families can choose from 9 nudges to address their particular needs in the free, downloadable Durable Family Pledge.
Learn more about how kids can achieve better digital wellness in and out of school in the webinar, Improve Your Family’s Well-being Post-Pandemic, One Simple Habit at a Time – YouTube and reading the post, Wellness Habits Help Families Adjust Post Pandemic | The Durable Human
By Jenifer Joy Madden
About the author: Jenifer Joy Madden is a former Action News 24 reporter and founder of DurableHuman.com. She is also a Syracuse University adjunct professor of broadcast and digital journalism, a certified digital wellness coach, and the parent of three grownup practicing durable humans.
The post Newsmaker: Nudge Kids Toward Better Digital Wellness and School Success recently appeared on Medical Update News.
ALBANY — Just hours after Andrew M. Cuomo resigned his office in disgrace, the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has pulled the special Emmy award he received last year for his top-rated COVID-19 briefings.
In a brief statement on Tuesday, the Academy cited the release of the report from the state attorney general’s office that concluded Cuomo was a serial sexual harasser, as well as his subsequent decision to resign — an exit that became effective just before midnight Monday.
“His name and any reference to his receiving the award will be eliminated from International Academy materials going forward,” the organization stated.
The Emmy was announced in November, when Cuomo was still riding high in the polls for his performance during the pandemic.
“The Governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” the Academy’s President & CEO Bruce L. Paisner said in the statement announcing the award that remained on the group’s website on Tuesday. “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back.”
Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-Schoharie, was among the state lawmakers who sent a February letter to Academy President Adam Sharp calling for the Emmy to be reversed as the scandals facing Cuomo stacked up.
Tague’s letter focused on the administration’s stonewalling on data related to the COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents, and said that Cuomo and his top aides had “made an active and concerted effort to keep data related to nursing home fatalities hidden from the eyes of the public, press, and state Legislature.”
That matter remains under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn.
Based in New York City, the International Academy is one of three sibling organizations empowered to hand out Emmys.
The post Cuomo stripped of Emmy for COVID-19 briefings by TV Academy recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Rachel Epperson didn’t see a doctor for four years because she had such a negative experience telling a local practitioner her sexual orientation.
Epperson, a 36-year-old lesbian, lives on the West Side with her wife of 11 years.
When she came out to a doctor she was seeing for the first time six years ago, the doctor excused herself to pull a nurse in the room. Later, the nurse laughed out loud when Epperson asked about the possibility of spreading HPV to her partner.
‘Doctors are so uninformed’:For transgender Americans, the doctor’s office experience often a difficult one
“We get into offices and say, ‘I identify as a lesbian’ and it’s turned into almost this kink,” Epperson said. “I could immediately tell when I said I was a lesbian, the air in the room shifted. It was uncomfortable.”
Epperson, who now works as a clinical medical assistant at Equitas Health, a nonprofit, community-based health care system that serves the LGBTQ+ community, didn’t find another doctor until her wife started working at Equitas about two years ago. Her provider there is the first doctor that Epperson has actually felt heard by, she said.
Many others lesbians feel the same.
A reader’s guide:From agender to transitioning, LGBTQ terms and phrases
A recent study by the Equitas Health Institute, the education and research arm of Equitas, found that although lesbians have similar health care needs to the rest of the population, they face unique barriers to accessing health care in an identity-affirming environment.
The Lesbian Health Needs Assessment found that although the overwhelming majority of survey participants felt comfortable disclosing their sexual identity to a medical provider, those who were not out to their primary care provider were less likely to seek medical care. The study also found that for lesbians of color, having access to providers of color was a key factor influencing their decision to seek health care.
The study, published in April, found that 12% of lesbians — who included women, nonbinary and genderqueer people — didn’t have a primary care provider. Their reasons for not having one included not being able to find a doctor, interest in alternative methods of health care, not considering primary care a priority and fear of facing stigma or discrimination.
‘A patchwork of welcoming’:Here are all the bills impacting the LGBTQ community in Ohio
Those factors didn’t surprise Equitas Health Institute Director Julia Applegate, who led the study as part of her graduate program in public health at Ohio State.
The study looked at results of a survey of more than 230 lesbians in Ohio and an accompanying analysis of community conversations with lesbians of color.
As a lesbian herself, Applegate said it was important to focus on a population underrepresented in medical research to better understand the unique experiences lesbians have with the health care system.
‘About time’:LGBTQ ruling worth applauding, but the struggle is not over, many say
“Our health needs aren’t actually that different from the rest of the population,” Applegate said. “It’s just that our health system has forgotten us.”
Epperson is happy that someone finally took a deeper look at lesbian health issues, as she said there’s a persistent lack of health equity for people like her.
“Women are already kind of put on the backboard for our health and then you have Black women and they’re put even further back on the backboard for health and then lesbians are pushed even further,” said Epperson, who is a person of color. “I think a lot of things we look at for the health for women, especially sexual health, are targeted at heterosexual women.”
‘It took years’:Navigating health, long-term care can be tricky for LGBTQ+ seniors in Columbus area
There are a lot of misconceptions about lesbian sexual health, Epperson has found. She said she knows more about her own health than some of the doctors that she’s seen were wrong, and she’s had to find the correct information on her own over the years.
Epperson said a lot of challenges stem from most of health care, including women’s health, being built around heterosexual men.
“Women’s health just needs to evolve,” she said. “Women don’t know anything about their body because we’re taught to kind of be ashamed of these things.”
‘The conscience of discrimination’:Conscience clause increases barriers to mental health care for LGBTQ youth, advocates say
Doctors have also shamed her about her sexual orientation, she said.
“When it comes to things like women’s health and sexual health, these are things providers should have a responsibility to be educated in,” Epperson said.
She hopes more providers — including nurses, medical assistants and front desk workers — will get educated through efforts like the study and using other resources from Equitas. In the meantime, she said people shouldn’t be afraid to speak up if they’re not being taken seriously.
Pride month:Ohio LGBTQ advocates push for non-discrimination law but say divisive politics are getting in the way
The study also recommended that health care organizations provide more training and emphasis on being sensitive to how different groups interact differently with the health care system.
It is cultural awareness that Applegate seeks in the health care system — a gynecologist recognizing, for example, that they may need to take additional care when performing pap smears and other gynecological procedures on lesbians who may be uncomfortable with penetration. It also means providers not only understanding different sexual and gender identities, but actively affirming their patients’ identities and incorporating that understanding into their care.
“If that provider is not saying what you think you need to hear, then you need to seek a second opinion because there is someone out there who is willing to listen,” Epperson said.
‘Jesus is all things’:LGBTQ Christians share how they reconcile faith, identity during Stonewall Columbus panel
Applegate was surprised and encouraged by the amount of people in the study who still sought health care, and that 92% of lesbians studied were out about their sexual orientation to their doctor.
She said it was a testament to the “resilience and resourcefulness” of the lesbian community that even after identifying previous instances of discrimination or unaffirming care, the majority of respondents had seen a doctor within the past year and felt comfortable disclosing their identity to them.
“There’s a lot of networking within the community that gets people into places that are safer,” Applegate said.
‘A minority within a minority’:Columbus LGBTQ community working toward becoming more inclusive
Applegate also hopes the study provides the basis for more LGBTQ-related research that looks at individual identities and their unique needs and experiences, as opposed to lumping all sexual and gender minorities together.
“We are not a monolithic community,” Applegate said. “Research needs to think within the (LGBTQ) letters, not just across the letters.”
@sarahszilagy
@DanaeKing
The post Lesbians face health care discrimination, Equitas study shows recently appeared on Medical Update News.
Stocks and oil rally on Covid vaccine optimism as tapering fears ease business live | Business
8/24/2021
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
Global markets are in an upbeat mood this week, as investors shake off last weekâs jitters that central banks will start tapering their emergency Covid-19 support packages soon.
Oil rallied strongly yesterday, and is adding to those gains this morning, after Americaâs drug regulator granted full approval to Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
The move is likely to lead to a wave of formal vaccine requirements from government departments, businesses, schools and other bodies â potentially speeding up the US coronavirus vaccination rates and boosting fuel demand.
Crude oil prices surged by 5% on Monday â the most in nine months â and stocks on Wall Street hit fresh record highs, following the US Food and Drug Administrationâs move.
Brent crude has now risen back over $69 per barrel, up from a three-month low of $65 at the end of last week.
And that mood has fed through to Asia-Pacific markets, where stocks are adding to Mondayâs gains. Japanâs Nikkei has gained 0.9%, Chinaâs CSI 300 is up 1.1%, and South Koreaâs KOSPI 200 has rallied almost 2%.
Europe is expected to open a little higher too:
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets says the turnaround in sentiment is quite startling:
Barely days after the markets were freaking out about a slowing global economy, vaccine durability and an increasing determination on the part of China to pour sand in the wheels of its own recovery story with various crackdowns on parts of its own economy, global stocks have rebounded strongly at the start of the week.
Yesterdayâs price moves, particularly where US markets, oil prices and the US dollar are concerned, have been almost whiplash inducing in the context of what we saw with last weekâs price moves.
The rally comes despite signs that global growth may be cooling. Yesterday, we learned that UK private sector growth has hit a six-month low in August, as businesses suffered the worst shortages of workers and materials in decades.
In the US, activity is rising at the slowest rate this year, as rising cases of the Delta variant, supply shortages and capacity pressures all hit the recovery.
This is helping to ease worries that the US Federal Reserve might rein in its bond-buying stimulus programme soon.
As Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank told clients, central bankers may be more cautious about tapering (or slowing) their QE programmes.
After a fairly poor performance for risk assets last week, yesterday saw a sizeable rebound as optimism returned to markets once again, with the S&P 500 (+0.85%) finishing a miniscule -0.004% away from its all-time closing high. In some ways it was a surprising outcome, particularly given the weaker-than-expected numbers from the flash PMIs, but there seemed to be increasing optimism that the weakening outlook might actually lead to a more cautious attitude by central bankers when it comes to withdrawing monetary policy support.
On top of that, there have also been some more promising signs on the pandemic, with the data at a global level indicating that the number of new cases are beginning to plateau following 9 successive weekly increases. That may not be much consolation with case rates still at high levels, but given consumers have become more cautious in a number of key economies, the fact that weâre seeing some sort of stabilisation in case rates offers hope that matters arenât set to dramatically worsen.
The agenda
- 1pm BST: Hungaryâs central bankâs interest rate decision
- 3pm BST: US new home sales for July
- 3pm BST: Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for August
The post Stocks and oil rally on Covid vaccine optimism as tapering fears ease â business live | Business recently appeared on Medical Update News.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After hours of sometimes fiery debate involving doctors, parents and local leaders, the Duval County School Board on Monday made the controversial and potentially costly decision to require face masks.
At an emergency meeting that stretched for eight hours, the school board voted 5-2 to approve a 90-day mask mandate for all students unless they get a note from a licensed health care provider that says the student has a medical, physical or psychological condition that prevents them from wearing a face covering. Previously, the school district’s policy was a strong recommendation but asked that parents opt their children out if they didn’t want their child to wear one.
The “no” votes were board members Lori Hershey and Charlotte Joyce.
“I want to leave it up to their parents to make a choice,” Joyce said.
The student mask mandate will begin Sept. 7. The superintendent has the ability to suspend the requirement before the 90 days are up.
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Under the emergency rule approved by the school board, students who aren’t opted out must wear face coverings inside school buildings. Students do not have to wear masks if they’re actively playing sports.
The vote was held on the same day that more than 200 COVID-19 cases were added to the district’s online tracking dashboard. As of 8 p.m. Monday, there have been 815 cases districtwide (704 student cases and 111 staff cases) since the first day of school, Aug. 10. That’s an increase of 226 cases (201 student cases and 25 staff cases) since 10 a.m. Monday — the highest single-day addition to the dashboard since the coronavirus pandemic began. The next highest single-day increase was Jan. 13 when there were 166 cases added. In all of last school year, DCPS had just under 2,500 cases.
Before a decision was made, over three hours of public comment featured passionate pleas from both sides — people for and against masks. More than 65 community members shared their opinions.
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“We have a responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves,” said parent Katie Wisner. “You have a responsibility to make the hard decisions to protect our children and our community. Please, as a parent, as a mother, I plead and I urge and I beg for you to listen to the science and the experts.”
There was a strong showing of parents who were fully opposed to a mask requirement and demanded that the board leave the policy the way was, citing Florida Gov. DeSantis’ order.
“If you intend to re-implement a mask mandate, it is incumbent upon Duval County School Board to explain to all of its stakeholders, why masks are absolutely necessary,” said parent LeeAnn Parker. “Prove to us that COVID infections will be lowered because of a mask mandate.”
It was a tense meeting with school board chairwoman Elizabeth Andersen having to tell the audience multiple times to quiet down.
Others including doctors, attorneys, parents and Duval County Public Schools staffers called on the school board to reimplement the mandate from last year or at least require a doctor’s note to opt out.
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“We have to get over these inaccurate and overplayed thoughts that COVID-19 is an insignificant infection in children. That is simply not true,” said allergist and immunologist Dr. Sunil Joshi. “Most recently the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that in the period of May 2020 through July of 2021, roughly 400 children died of COVID-19 in the United States, that’s comparable to what we see with the seasonal flu which we have a vaccine for, in this case, children under the age of 12 are not able to get the vaccine.”
Ernesto Rubio, interim director of the Florida Health Department in Duval County, was also there to support masking.
Monday’s emergency meeting was called by school board vice-chairman Darryl Willie, who said the pandemic emergency is at a point where the school board must impose a mandate.
“If we continue on the path we’re on, we have to do something to protect our staff and students,” Willie said at the meeting.
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Duval County joins a growing list of at least eight school districts in the state that are choosing to defy DeSantis’ order banning any mask mandate that requires a doctor’s note to opt out.
His administration has threatened to cut funding and withhold salaries for school board members who decide to go against the order. But the Biden administration has said it would make up the difference of any state-level funding cuts for mask-requiring districts.
Andersen said that even though the governor’s administration has threatened salaries, students’ safety is worth it.
“We’ve seen several districts keep the opt-out in place and leave it up to doctors,” Andersen said. “Our salaries are secondary.”
Florida’s battle over masks in schools to guard against COVID-19 landed Monday before a judge considering a lawsuit that challenges DeSantis’ order. The hearing is scheduled to end by Wednesday.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.
Copyright 2021 by WJXT News4Jax – All rights reserved.
The post Duval County School Board approves 90-day mask mandate with medical opt-out recently appeared on Medical Update News.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is delaying a spacewalk at the International Space Station this week because of an undisclosed medical issue involving one of its astronauts.
Officials announced the postponement Monday, less than 24 hours before Mark Vande Hei was supposed to float outside.
Vande Hei is dealing with “a minor medical issue,” officials said in a statement. It’s not an emergency, they noted, but didn’t provide any further details.
Vande Hei, 54, a retired Army colonel, has been at the space station since April and is expected to remain there until next spring for a full one-year mission. This is his second station stay.
He and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide were supposed to venture out Tuesday to install a bracket for new solar wings. NASA said the work can wait.
The spacewalk will be rescheduled after this weekend’s planned supply run by SpaceX and a September series of spacewalks on the Russian side of the orbiting lab, according to NASA.
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The post Astronaut’s undisclosed minor medical issue delays spacewalk recently appeared on Medical Update News.
(Family Features) Children’s vision is paramount to their performance in school and life.
One in four children deals with a vision impairment that impacts his or her ability to learn, according to eye health and safety organization Prevent Blindness. Many of these cases are undiagnosed, and failing to identify and treat poor vision health early can lead to difficulties in the classroom, on the playing field and beyond.
One of the most prevalent vision issues in children is myopia, or nearsightedness. The condition causes close-up objects to appear clear, but everything becomes blurry and out of focus at a distance.
“Parents have invested billions this year to prepare their children for school, but without the ability to see their best, children will be at a disadvantage in the classroom,” said Dr. Millicent Knight, senior vice president of Essilor’s Customer Development Group.
Although some schools perform yearly vision screenings, those evaluations aren’t always enough to identify vision issues. Parents can take a proactive role in their child’s vision health with these tips from the experts at Essilor.
Watch for the Symptoms of Myopia
Many kids believe blurry vision is normal because they’ve never known anything different. As a parent, being able to spot the signs is key to managing symptoms and potentially slowing progression, if caught early enough. Keep an eye out for these symptoms:
- Squinting to see distant objects, like the board in the classroom
- Sitting too close to the TV
- Holding books close when reading
- Experiencing eyestrain or headaches
Schedule a Comprehensive Eye Exam
One of the most effective ways to keep your child’s eyes healthy is to schedule an annual comprehensive eye exam with an eyecare professional. Not only will a doctor check for vision problems that could interfere with school performance and potentially affect safety, he or she can offer advanced lens technology that keeps pace with the changing needs of children’s eye health. Just like annual doctor visits, eye exams should be scheduled once a year as part of your child’s health routine.
“We’ve seen a huge change in children who couldn’t see and when they are given glasses they light up because the world is clearer,” said Dr. Ryan Parker, O.D., director of professional development at Essilor of America.
Avoid Overexposure
“Today, children’s eyes are exposed to harmful blue light, ultraviolet light (UV) and digital eyestrain like never before,” Parker said.
While technology is crucial for learning in today’s digital world, research suggests too much screen time may put kids at risk of developing myopia as well as digital eyestrain, resulting in tired eyes, headaches, itchy eyes, blurred vision and increased sensitivity to light. To help reduce eyestrain, have children take periodic breaks from their devices and head outdoors.
Know Where to Go for Help
“Parents also need to know that where you go matters as much as when you go,” Knight said.
Choosing eyecare professionals, like the network of local, independent Essilor Experts, who prioritize the most advanced lens technologies and are dedicated to their patients’ individual needs, can make a difference in the vision outcomes for your children.
Find more information and schedule a professional comprehensive eye exam at essilorusa.com/your-vision.
The post Make Your Child’s Vision Health a Priority this School Year recently appeared on Medical Update News.
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The post Concord Medical Completes RMB 400 Million Funding Round Led by Consortium Investors – Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal recently appeared on Medical Update News.
In February 2021, a 68-year-old woman attended the eye casualty with a 1-day history of left painful red eye and rapid deterioration of vision. Four days earlier, she received her first dose of mRNA-based BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNtech). On the next day, she developed moderate systemic reactions, including chills, myalgia, and tiredness, followed by unexpected ocular symptoms on the third day.
Her past ocular history included a bilateral lamellar Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) for Fuchs’ corneal endothelial dystrophy and a left re-do penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) for failed DSAEK in October 2020. There was no other relevant past ocular/medical history. At 2-month post-PKP, her left eye best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 6/18 with a clear corneal graft. She was maintained on topical prednisolone 0.5% QID for the left eye and dexamethasone 0.1% OD for the right eye.
At presentation, her left BCVA was counting fingers. Slit-lamp examination confirmed the diagnosis of acute corneal endothelial graft rejection, evidenced by conjunctival hyperaemia, diffuse corneal punctate staining, corneal graft oedema, Descemet’s folds, scattered keratic precipitates, and anterior chamber activity (Fig. 1). The right corneal graft remained healthy.
The patient was immediately treated with hourly topical dexamethasone 0.1% and a week of oral acyclovir 400 mg 5x/day (to cover for any possible underlying herpes simplex keratitis), with no treatment modification in the right eye. Significant improvement was noted by 3-week post-treatment with complete resolution of corneal graft rejection (Fig. 1C, D).
The post Corneal graft rejection following COVID-19 vaccine recently appeared on Medical Update News.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that the country’s pandemic elimination strategy was working, as she announced an extension to the nationwide lockdown due to a growing COVID-19 Delta outbreak.
Why it matters: NZ locked down last Tuesday after detecting the first community case in nearly six months — marking the arrival of Delta in the island nation. The cluster has grown to 107 cases, with 35 more people testing positive for the virus Monday.
What they’re saying: Ardern said at a briefing that “for now, absolutely elimination is the strategy” the government should use as coronavirus vaccinations continue to ramp up nationwide.
- “We know that an elimination strategy has worked before,” she added, pointing to the large periods New Zealand residents had enjoyed no restrictions and she said she’s keen to get back to that level.
The big picture: Ardern said at the briefing that the entire country would remain at its highest lockdown level until just before midnight Friday. This would be reviewed.
- But Auckland, the epicenter of the outbreak that’s been traced to Sydney, would remain on alert level 4 until Aug. 31.
Between the lines: Scientist Shaun Hendy, who heads a government advisory body, told Axios via email that level 4 restrictions were effective, and “we should start to see a decline in cases towards the end of this week.”
- “At the moment, we are still seeing cases reported who were infected before we went into lockdown,” the Te Pūnaha Matatini research center chief noted.
- Australia is facing outbreaks across the country, with New South Wales reporting a record 830 cases. State capital Sydney, the virus’ epicenter has been on strict lockdown since late June, but the state hasn’t seen the same level of compliance to health measures as in New Zealand.
What to watch: The elimination strategy would remain the best option provided the lockdown brought case numbers down as expected, per Hendy.
- COVID-19 vaccination coverage of 70-80% of NZ’s total population could see the country’s restrictions strategy change, according to Hendy, who is also a University of Auckland professor.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
The post New Zealand extends lockdown as COVID cases top 100 recently appeared on Medical Update News.
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