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Clinicians, researchers, and workplace safety officers worry new guidelines on face masks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might reduce protection against the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in hospitals.
A conversation about how the lessons from the victory over smallpox could be applied to public health challenges today.
The CDC says everyone over 6 months old should get the new covid booster. But the emergency response mechanisms that supported earlier vaccine campaigns are gone. As one expert wonders: How to get boosters to people beyond Democrats, college graduates, and those with high incomes?
The percentage of working-age adults with health insurance went up and the uninsured rate dropped last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this week. There isnāt much suspense about which way the uninsured rate is now trending, as states continue efforts to strip ineligible beneficiaries from their Medicaid rolls. But is the focus on the uninsured obscuring the struggles of the underinsured? Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Emmarie Huetteman to discuss these issues and more.
As covid-19 hospitalizations tick upward with fall approaching, the CDC says itās time for new boosters ā and not only for those at highest risk of serious disease. Here are seven things you need to know.
Chances are, if you arenāt older, chronically ill, or obese, you donāt need a forthcoming covid vaccine to stay out of the hospital. But it probably wouldnāt hurt.
Republicans in Congress have proposed substantial cuts to the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, taking aim at one of former President Donald Trumpās major health programs: a push to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S.
Excessive heat contributed to 1,670 deaths nationwide last year, according to federal data ā the highest rate in at least two decades. An increase in drug use and homelessness, along with hotter temperatures, were among the reasons.
Congress returns from its summer recess with a long list of tasks and only a few work days to get them done. On top of the annual spending bills needed to keep the government operating, on the list are bills to renew the global HIV/AIDS program, PEPFAR, and the community health centers program. Meanwhile, over the recess, the Biden administration released the names of the first 10 drugs selected for the Medicare price negotiation program.
Federal research linking āforever chemicalsā to testicular cancer confirms what U.S. military personnel long suspected. But as they seek testing for PFAS exposure, many wonder what to do with the results. Thereās no medical treatment yet.
Unsafe sleep environments are among the main reasons accidental suffocation or strangulation is a hard-to-solve public health problem.
Studies suggest official numbers vastly underestimate heat-related injuries and illness on the job. To institute protections, the government must calculate their cost ā and the cost of inaction.
Regina G. Barber from NPRās āShortwaveā podcast speaks with physician-epidemiologist CĆ©line Gounder about two men who were among the public health heroes who helped wipe out a 3,000-year-old virus, and the lessons that victory offers for the next public health emergency.
The medical dangers of heat are real. But people often ignore public heat alerts or don't realize how vulnerable they are. A new alert system prompts clinicians to talk about heat with patients.
Anti-vaccine tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, whose wild assertions have been repeatedly debunked, wrongly attributes deaths following vaccination to the vaccines themselves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which runs the database, calls that inaccurate and irresponsible.
Montana has earmarked $3.7 million to address widespread high levels of lead in school drinking water. But it likely isnāt enough to solve the problem.
In Bangladesh, smallpox eradication workers went to great lengths to vaccinate even one person, sometimes traveling by speedboat, crossing rickety bamboo bridges or leech-infested paddy fields. Episode 4 of the āEradicating Smallpoxā podcast is about what it takes to bring care directly to people where they are.
Where trees are growing ā and who has access to their shade ā affects health and well-being, especially in one of the hottest states in the country.
Teens share photos or videos of themselves with guns and stacks of cash, sometimes calling out rivals, on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. When posts go viral, fueled by ālikesā and comments, the danger is hard to contain.
As chatter and images about guns and violence slip into the social media feeds of more teens, viral messages fueled by ālikesā can lead to real-world conflict and loss.
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