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Often, messages that pose as health promoting are actually the opposite. There are obvious examples, like the doctor pushingan all-meat diet, or the celebrity wellness influencer telling the world that voluntarily getting stung by bees will reduce inflammation. But the more dangerous messaging is subtler, more insidious, and widespread: that fat bodies are inherently unhealthy.

In a recent New York Times article, healthcolumnist Jane Brody points out that Americans have been hit harder by COVID than most other countries, then blames this on our personal health habits, namely diet and exercise. She spends most of the column raising alarm bells about quarantine weight gain,high-calorie foods, and fatness in general.

In doing so, shes not promoting healthier habits. The truth is, health and weight are not nearly as entwined as we think they are. (Not to mentiontheres far more to Americas COVID crisis than personal health; limited access to health care, systemic discrimination and inequality, and thepoliticizationof the virus have all played huge roles.) Overemphasizing weight loss is stigmatizing and can actually be detrimental to individual health. Heres why we need to rethink this kind of messaging.

Brody talks of the many people in her life who have packed on quite a few pounds of health-robbing body fat this past year. This isan undeniably stigmatizing statement, andit also makes a major assumption that happens to be false: that gaining weight, or being naturallybigger-bodied, is inherently unhealthy. (As a journalist, Im constantly irritated that other journalists can writethings like this without citing a shred of evidence, whereas I have to add an entire paragraph with several citations every time I suggest that weight loss isnt always a helpful or realistic goal.)

Its possible to be healthy at a higher weight, just as its possible to be unhealthy at a lower one. One 2016 study in theJournal of the American Medical Associationeven found that Danish adults in the overweight BMI category actually lived the longest. Being at a higher weight is associated with a higher risk of certain diseases, yes, but that doesnt mean someone at a higher weight is necessarily unhealthy. You absolutely cannot infer health information or information about ones health behaviors based solely on their weight, says Mary Himmelstein, a researcher at the University of Connecticuts Rudd Center for Food Policy andObesity. Someone in a thin body may be completely sedentary and eat a diet of mostly processed foods and very few fruits and vegetables, while someone in a larger body might be extremely active and eat loads of nutrient-rich foods.

All of this to say:the relationship between weight and health is far too complicated to make blanket statements like health-robbing body fat. Both weight gain and weight loss can be healthful or harmful.It all depends on context.

For years, Brody has presented herself as a living example of sustainable weight lossabout 50 years ago, she lost 40 pounds in twoyears and has kept that weight off since.In this particular column, she offers up her personal eating regimen as the solution to pandemic weight gain (and fatness in general): eat a diet based primarily on vegetables, with fish, beans, and nonfat milk [as ones]main sources of protein, along with a bit of portion-controlled ice cream, the occasional burger, and daily exercise. But while that approach may seem realistic compared to all the fad diets out there, experts warn that its not as accessible as Brody makes it sound.

This I can do it, so can youattitude is out of touch with many peoples reality, says Jennifer Jackson, a dietitian based inAlbuquerque, New Mexico. The nonprofit Feeding Americaestimates that 15 percent of Americans cant afford enough nutritious food to meet their needs, and Bloomberg reported earlier this year that 12 percent of Americans live in poverty. Stressors like working multiple jobs, raising children (especially as a single parent), lacking health insurance, and living in unsafe neighborhoods alsomake prioritizing good nutrition more complicated. Health behaviors often have more to do with someones privilege than their motivation, Jackson says.

Even if everyone did eat according to Brodys recommendations, it doesnt mean we would all magically be at what Brody and the BMIscale (theheight-to-weight ratio used to group people into weight categories)deema healthy weight.Weight is not simply calories in, calories out, Himmelstein says. In fact, the bodyactively resists weight loss: a2015 literature review published in the International Journal of Obesity explains that the body generally adapts to calorie deficits by burning fewer calories, using less stored fat for energy, decreasing the fullness-signaling hormone leptin, and increasing the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin. Its also widely accepted that theres a genetic component to obesity, and a 2018 review in Current Obesity Report outlines the significant amount of evidence suggesting that stress plays a big role in body weight as well.

Weight and weight gain are the result of our genetics, our physiology, our environment, our personal stress levels, and our behaviors,the authors write. Assuming that weight is impacted only, or primarily, by our behaviors, is wildly inaccurate. Andmaintaining weight loss long-term is even harder than acheiving it in the first place. A 2020 review in The BMJ found that while diets lead to weight loss and health improvements in the first six months, these benefits typically disappear by the one-year mark.

Relentlessly encouraging weight loss does more harm than good. Fat-shaming messaging increases weight stigma, which increases stress and inflammationwhich are negative health outcomes, says Amee Severson, a dietitian and the owner of Prosper Nutrition in Bellingham,Washington.A 2015 study in Obesity, ofwhich Himmelstein was the lead author, found that individuals who reported experiencing weight stigma had higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, than those who did not. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol have repeatedly been linked to an increased risk of many diseases, as outlined in this 2017 review published in the EXCLI Journal.And a 2018 study in Health Psychology, also authored by Himmelstein, found that coping with weight stigma can negatively impact both physical and mental health.

While articles like Brodys are presumably meant to promote health and healthy behaviors, they actually do the opposite. A small 2014 study of 93 college-agewomenin the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that thosewho saw themselves as overweight felt less capable of controlling their eating and consumed more calories after reading a weight-stigmatizing news articlethan those who read a non-stigmatizing article. A larger 2017 study in Preventative Medicine found that experiencing weight stigma as an adolescent significantly increased a persons risk for binge eating and unhealthy weight-control behaviors as an adult. And, as Severson points out, it makes bigger-bodied people less likely to seek out health care, too.

No one owes it to the world to be healthy. I think that every single person has the right to choose how important health is to them, Severson says. People are allowed to have different values, and healthy behaviors like eating nutritious foods and getting regular movement are not a moral obligation.

Health is personal, and what is considered healthy when it comes to eating and other behaviors varies between individuals. Its incredibly difficult to give effective health advice to a large audience, but theres still room for health-promoting messages in the media. We need to thinkcritically about the harmcertain messages may cause. Mandating fruits and vegetables for people who cant afford them is offensive and misguided. Demonizing fat and weight gain is demoralizing and harmful to people who live in larger bodies. We know that shame doesnt motivate healthy behaviorsand itabsolutely harms health.

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Americas Health Rankings reports that almost 50% of pregnant women in the U.S.did not originally intend to conceive. Furthermore, it states that over half of the nations female population will experience an unexpected pregnancy by the time they are 45 years old. The unintended conception rate (and birthrate in the U.S. in general) has actually declined in the past few years and may continue to drop, but it remains high at the moment. This is largely due to failure to utilize proper contraception or incorrect usage of it. Many younger individuals are not fully educated on the matter but continue to participate in sexual activities regardless, often acting on incorrect information gleaned from less than credible sources such as peers. Others lack access to preventative measures. There are three main options for women in this situation, keeping the baby, giving it up for adoption and getting it aborted. The latter is one many choose for a variety of reasons, including health concerns, personal trauma and life circumstances. However, some regret making this decision. There is an option for those who had a medical abortion and fall into this category calledabortion pill reversal.

A medical abortion consists of two phases in which two kinds of pills are taken, one type in each phase. The first is called mifepristone; it keeps the hormone progesterone, which helps the womb get ready for and nurture the baby, from being absorbed by taking up bonding spots on receptors so the chemical cannot attach to them. The reversal process works by essentially overriding this effect. The body is flooded with progesterone in the hope that there will be so much of it that mifepristone cant prevent all of it from being taken into the womb.

The process only works if the woman has only taken the first medicine; after the second dose of pills, it is ineffective. It is also best done as soon as possible after beginning the abortion, preferably within 24 hours. There have been a few cases where it worked when done within 72 hours, but in general the faster the reversal starts, the higher the likelihood is of it taking effect.

The reversal of the abortion pill is a relatively new concept, thought up within the past two decades. There has been a great deal of controversy over it as many people claim that it does not work. These individuals argue that there is not enough scientific evidence to support it as a viable method and cite incidents where it didnt produce the desired effects as proof that progesterone does not reverse the effects of mifepristone. Since there have been situations where women successfully remained pregnant after the progesterone process, the answer to the conflict has yet to be fully settled. There have also been ones where those who only took the first pill and not the second but did not choose reversal carried their babies to term, adding another factor to the complex issue. The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists does support the validity of the procedure, though.

The process of reversing the abortion pill with progesterone is a controversial one. It has, however, appeared to be successful in many real-life cases.

Image byArek SochafromPixabay

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More than half of all American adults have now received at least one dose of the three available COVID-19 vaccines, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases of the novel coronavirus have been plummeting since February, and theyll likely keep falling if people continue lining up for their shots, according to Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

One thing that is quite certain is that when you have a vaccine, or a group of vaccines, that are as highly effective in the real world ... as these vaccines are, and you get a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated, the chances of there being a surge are extraordinarily low, Dr. Fauci told The Washington Post this week.

The COVID-19 vaccines, which have been proven to prevent serious and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, are like a positive wild card on our side. The most recent and serious COVID-19 peak occurred at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, a point when virtually no one in the country was vaccinated, Dr. Fauci said.

Now, the vaccines have the power to keep it from happening again. I really dont foresee there being the risk of a surge, provided we continue to get people vaccinated at the rate we have now, Dr. Fauci said.

For the latest health news, join Prevention Premium to gain exclusive access to expert-backed wellness content you can trust.

Experts agree. Just look at the numbers, which have been dropping steadily as vaccinations have ramped up, says Stephen Gluckman, M.D., an infectious disease expert and medical director of Penn Global Medicine. That really can only be attributed to the vaccine, because the other preventative measureswhich are very effective, by the waywere already in place and were not effective enough.

Masking, social distancing, and hand-washing have still been invaluable in the fight against COVID-19 and other seasonal illnesses; for example, flu activity has been much lower than in previous seasons, likely due to these practices, experts say.

The available vaccines are remarkable, even if theyre not 100% effective, because they decrease the number of serious, symptomatic infections. By keeping people less sick, the vaccines also reduce the risk of mutations, Dr. Gluckman explains, meaning that deadlier or more infectious variants (like the ones that were first identified in the U.K. and California) are less likely to develop and spread.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced he aims to administer at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines to 70% of American adults by July 4. Nine states, including New Jersey, Hawaii, and New Mexico, have already met this goal at the time of publication. About 62% of American adults have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and about 50% of adults are considered to be fully vaccinated, per the CDC. (Note that these figures only reflect vaccination rates in adults, not the full U.S. population.)

Although the exact percentage of vaccinated people necessary to achieve herd immunity remains unclear, Dr. Fauci has previously estimated that 70% to 85% of the population must be fully vaccinated to significantly prevent community spread. Bidens plan focuses only on adults, but children are crucial to herd immunity as well; vaccine approval for kids under 12 could hopefully come in the next few months.

Although we dont know exactly how long individual immunity will last post vaccine, Dr. Fauci isnt worried about the effects wearing off soon: I think [the vaccines] will be effective long enough that we will get to the point where we are not going to be necessarily worrying about a surge, he said in the interview. (Plus, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are already in the process of testing booster doses to maintain protection.)

In some areas, face coverings are becoming less common due to the CDCs updated masking guidancebut thats dangerous for unvaccinated people, for those who are immunocompromised, and for anyone in a crowded area. Its still crucial to become fully vaccinated before you go without a mask in high-risk spaces, like hospitals or public transportation.

Somehow, that might have gotten lost in the announcement about masks, Dr. Gluckman says. If you choose to wear a mask because you want to, theres no harm in doing so. It helps keep you and those around you safe.

But ultimately, doing your part for your community means lining up for your dose. Theres still enough [COVID-19] around for yet another surge, says Dr. Gluckman. The way to prevent that is by getting vaccinated.

This article is accurate as of press time. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly evolves and the scientific communitys understanding of the novel coronavirus develops, some of the information may have changed since it was last updated. While we aim to keep all of our stories up to date, please visit online resources provided by the CDC, WHO, and your local public health department to stay informed on the latest news. Always talk to your doctor for professional medical advice.

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AUSTIN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 20, 2021 / SmallCapVoice.com Inc. ("SCV") announces the availability of a new interview with Troy Grogan, CEO of USA Equities Corp. (OTCQB:USAQ), to discuss the Company's digital medicine and virtual care platform designed to make healthcare encounters more efficient, cost-effective and comfortable for both the physician and patient.

Speaking with SCV's Stuart Smith, Grogan outlined the five focal points that drive USAQ's business model and growth trajectory. This structure generates recurring revenue for both USAQ and its physician clients, while the Company's remote-patient monitoring technology meets greater demand for virtual care in post-pandemic healthcare.

The full interview can be heard at: https://www.smallcapvoice.com/interview-usa-equities-corp-usaq/.

"Only 15 or so months ago, we wouldn't have thought virtual care technologies and digital medicine would come to the forefront but they are here and they're here to stay," Grogan explained. "A lot of patients have really felt the benefit of not having to go into a doctor's office and sit in a waiting room to get good, quality care. We're a part of that new ecosystem."

Healthcare providers also benefit from efficient digital care. USAQ's target market is a growing field of solo, independent practices looking for ways to generate revenue and become more efficient with their services. The Company's reimbursable Software-as-a-Service (Saas) technology enables these small businesses to achieve recurring revenue at high gross margins while addressing the preventative care of multiple chronic conditions, said Grogan.

As a public company, USAQ has the obvious advantage of access to capital markets, but it's the individual healthcare professional and retail investor that the Company seeks to obtain as key stakeholders.

"Instead of going to [venture capitalists] and institutional investors, we've gone to our clients and let them have an opportunity to invest in the future of medicine and join us alongside in the future upside that we have," Grogan stated. "We're a publicly traded company as opposed to being privately held to give retail investors to have a piece of the future of medicine."

Grogan's diverse experience in healthcare in the U.S. and abroad has given him a well-rounded perspective of the healthcare industry. This insight is the foundation of the tactical manner used to assemble the Company's management and advisory board.

"Along this journey of 10 years, I've built a very solid team around me of medical educators, doctors, business development experts in network development for physicians and growing physician networks," he said. "As an early-stage company, you can't just gain authority and credibility overnight. Often, you have to bring a team around you that brings credibility to the forefront."

In 2020, USAQ leveraged this expertise to launch two apps and present at the University of Miami Allergy Diagnostics and Allergen Immunotherapy Virtual CME Event, a continuing education course for over 100 doctors to demonstrate that the future of medicine is headed toward physician-directed digital medicine and preventative health technologies that streamline the care process.

Next month, USAQ will participate in a second workshop at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine to further educate medical practitioners on the Company's solutions and to continue to build its client base.

"This is a key point," said Grogan. "This is the type of doctor that we're getting as a client. Their behavior is that they want to be educated in these new areas, they want to do things that are slightly out of the scope of their practice but want to make sure they have the right credentials to do it, and they're looking to make more revenue."

Moving into the second half of 2021, Grogan said the Company will add more products to its customer base, more efficiently amortizing its sales and marketing. He concluded the interview with a recap in USAQ's recent financial performance and its ability to double revenues sequentially from one quarter to the next.

The full interview can be heard at: https://www.smallcapvoice.com/interview-usa-equities-corp-usaq/.

About USA Equities Corp.

USA Equities Corp. (OTCQB:USAQ) is focused on providing value-based healthcare solutions, clinical informatics and algorithmic personalized medicine including digital therapeutics, behavior-based remote patient monitoring, chronic care and preventive medicine. The Company's products are intended to allow general practice physicians to increase their revenues by cost effectively diagnosing and treating chronic diseases that are generally referred to specialists. The Company's products and information service portfolio are directed toward prevention, early detection, management and reversal of cardio-metabolic and other chronic diseases. Our principal objectives are to develop proprietary software tools, devices and approaches, providing more granular, timely and specific clinical decision-making information for practicing physicians and other health care providers to address today's obese, diabetic and cardiovascular disease population.

For additional information, visit the Company's website at http://www.USAQCorp.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements' intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In particular, the Company's statements regarding trends in the marketplace, future revenues, future products and potential future results and acquisitions, are examples of such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by words such as may', could', believes', estimates', targets', expects', or intends' and other similar words that express risks and uncertainties. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the timing of the introduction of new products, the inherent discrepancy in actual results from estimates, projections and forecasts made by management, regulatory delays, changes in government funding and budgets, and other factors, including general economic conditions, not within the Company's control. The factors discussed herein and expressed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

About SmallCapVoice.com

SmallCapVoice.com, Inc. is a recognized corporate investor relations firm, with clients nationwide, known for its ability to help emerging growth companies, small cap and micro-cap stocks build a following among retail and institutional investors. SmallCapVoice.com utilizes its stock newsletter to feature its daily stock picks, podcasts, as well as its clients' financial news releases. SmallCapVoice.com also offers individual investors all the tools they need to make informed decisions about the stocks in which they are interested. Tools like stock charts, stock alerts, and Company Information Sheets can assist with investing in stocks that are traded on the OTCMarkets. To learn more about SmallCapVoice.com and its services, please visit https://www.smallcapvoice.com/small-cap-stock-otc-investor-relations-financial-public-relations/.

Socialize with SmallCapVoice and their clients at

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmallCapVoice/Twitter: https://twitter.com/smallcapvoiceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallcapvoice/

CONTACT:

Investor & Media Contact

Olivia GiamancoUSA Equities Corp.(929) 379-6503[emailprotected]

SmallCapVoice.com

Stuart T. Smith512-267-2430[emailprotected]

SOURCE: SmallCapVoice.com

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Editor's Note: We at POPSUGAR recognize that people of many genders and identities, including but not limited to women, may or may not have female sex organs, such as a cervix or vagina. This particular story includes language from experts, government agencies, and studies that generally refer to people with female sex organs as women.

It's been roughly two decades since the US launched a nationwide vaccination effort against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that increases the likelihood of developing certain cancers. While the campaign is widely viewed as a success, it has led only to a stagnant reduction in infection rates in the Black and Latinx communities and not just because, historically, these communities have been more likely to express vaccine hesitancy. The first two vaccines created to slow HPV transmission did not address the strains of the virus that are most common in women who researchers identify as Black or Hispanic, the demographic that is also most likely to be diagnosed with HPV-associated diseases, including cervical cancer.

Young millennials like myself and older members of Gen Z may recall getting Gardasil-4 or Cervarix-2, the first vaccines that were developed to curb the spread of HPV. Gardasil-4 and Cervarix-2 were administered to young people and children as young as 9 years old, and required a two- or three-dose regimen, depending on the person's age at the time of their first dose. However, despite the success of these vaccines following their rollout in 2006, the Black and Latinx communities have continued to experience disproportionate levels of HPV-associated cancers. Thus, the creation of the Gardasil-9 vaccine the latest HPV vaccine that expands protection against multiple strains of high-risk HPV is essential in addressing this disparity.

Gardasil-9 is now the primary HPV vaccine in the US and has proven to be nearly 100 percent effective at preventing HPV-associated diseases, especially when administered early in life. But what does this mean for those who were already vaccinated, or are perhaps considering it for the first time? Here's what you need to know to protect yourself and those you care about most.

First, let's talk about the basics. Though most HPV infections resolve on their own within two years of transmission, nearly 80 million Americans are currently living with the virus, with 14 million HPV infections occurring annually. The 37 known strains of HPV are divided into "high-risk" and "low-risk" categories. Low-risk strains are known to carry a lower risk of a person who contracts HPV later being diagnosed with HPV-associated cancers, and their symptoms are typically milder in nature. In contrast, high-risk strains present the highest risk of causing cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, and other types of cancers. Overall, 14 of the 37 strains of HPV are considered high-risk strains, with strains 16 and 18 causing 70 percent of cervical cancers and precancerous lesions.

Despite the Gardasil-4 and Cervarix-2 vaccines being responsible for massive decreases in HPV and HPV-associated cancers, more recent studies have shown that not all Americans benefited equally. A 2013 study conducted by researchers at Duke University School of Medicine found that white people tend to primarily contract HPV strains 16, 18, 33, 39, and 59, while Black participants in the study carried strains 31, 35, 45, 56, 58, 66, and 68. Moreover, a study published in 2015 by the American Association For Cancer Research found that some of the same strains that affected Black women at higher rates were even more common in Hispanic women living along the Texas-Mexico border.

The original Gardasil, a quadrivalent vaccine, was designed to prevent HPV strains 6, 11, 16, and 18; Cervarix, a bivalent vaccine, only targeted strains 16 and 18. By contrast, Gardasil-9 protects against HPV strains 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 widening the net for the communities that are most at risk for HPV-associated cancers.

"I think the original vaccines not covering more high-grade strains is not necessarily a failure of medicine or research. I think it's just a function of how science and discovery go," Ukachi Emeruwa, MD, MPH, an ob-gyn and clinical fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, told POPSUGAR. "Medications and vaccinations should change not because they were unsafe when they came out, but because we make them available as soon as we find something helpful and then change them to make them even better every time we can."

Gardasil-9 is recommended for young people ages 11 to 26, as well as adults up to age 45 who, after discussing their risk factors with their doctor, decide that they could benefit from being vaccinated. However, Chinedu Nwabuobi, MD, an ob-gyn at a large health system in Columbus, OH, explained that people who have already received the required doses of the Gardasil-4 or Cervarix-2 vaccines are not advised to undergo an additional course with Gardasil-9. I, personally, chose to get the Gardasil-9 vaccine recently at 28 years old, because I never completed my third dose of the HPV vaccine after receiving my first at age 11. I was informed by my own doctor that there's no specific amount of time that needs to pass before you begin your course of Gardasil-9 should you choose to do so.

If you're unvaccinated and still skeptical or hesitant to add the vaccine to your to-do list, know that there are benefits beyond cancer prevention (which is a massive one). "HPV is also associated with genital warts," Dr. Nwabuobi told POPSUGAR. "In addition, management of abnormal pap smears which may be attributed to high-risk HPV may include a procedure called a cone biopsy. During this procedure, a portion of your cervix that contains abnormal cells is removed surgically," which may increase your risk for premature delivery if you decide to have a baby later on. "As a maternal-fetal medicine doctor, I deal with preterm birth issues frequently, and prevention of this condition is very paramount whenever possible," Dr. Nwabuobi explained.

Experts generally agree that more work needs to be done to ensure equitable healthcare and public health education for those who are most affected by HPV. The fact that such disparities exist suggests that preventive strategies including identification of and treatment for precancerous lesions aren't reaching the Black and Latinx communities the way they should, Dr. Emeruwa explained. "Until we can get to a point in which the way we share knowledge, build trust, and distribute interventions is equitable, I don't see us making a dent in that disparity."

As we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination efforts are futile when a population isn't properly informed about the vaccine and granted equitable access to it. "Ultimately, I think the first step in closing the gaps is for healthcare providers to engage women of color through education and unbiased counseling," Dr. Nwabuobi said, adding that the government can also address these disparities by engaging communities of color with awareness campaigns focused on cervical cancer and by expanding healthcare coverage. It's well-documented within public health research that Black and Latina women are least likely to have health insurance coverage and access to healthcare and by extension, preventative treatments due to issues like poverty and systemic and medical racism.

"I think the future of women's health is understanding and respecting that medicine and health do not operate in a vacuum," Dr. Emeruwa explained. "Access to care and infrastructure that promotes healthy behavior, policy, financial resources, discrimination, racism, cultural competency, historical context all of these and more directly impact any intervention or treatment that we develop. It's not all genetics and biology the way we used to or would want to believe." She continued: "If we want to mend and close the gaps in healthcare, our research and care have to start to investigate women's health through this more holistic lens."

Though a major overhaul is needed within the medical and public health communities, the development of the Gardasil-9 vaccine to specifically address the HPV strains that are most prevalent in Black and Latina women is indicative of an era of healthcare dedicated to addressing both bodily and societal ills.

While that work continues, you should do everything you can to reduce your risk. "Other than getting the HPV vaccine, the best way to lower your chance of getting HPV is to use latex condoms and dental dams the right way every time you have sex," Dr. Nwabuobi said, noting that you should also get routine cervical cancer screenings, starting at age 21. In the battle against HPV, it's important to arm yourself with every resource available.

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The HPV Vaccine Now Targets the Strains That Are Most Common in Black and Latina Women - POPSUGAR

When Uddhab Gautam got his first vaccine dose back in February, Covid-19 cases in Nepal were low.

Now, three months later, coronavirus infections in the Himalayan nation have spiraled out of control, leading to a shortage of hospital beds and oxygen, and sending most of the country into lockdown.

But despite needing it more than ever, the 67-year-old retired banker has no idea when he'll get his second dose of Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

Gautam's predicament is similar to one shared by millions worldwide: asIndia's own coronavirus crisis has spiraled, SII --the world's largest vaccine maker-- can no longer export its goods.

Last week, the SII said it wouldn't restart deliveries to COVAX, a worldwide initiative aimed at distributing vaccines to countries regardless of wealth, until the end of thisyear.

While SII's decision will be a lifeline for India, which is still reporting about 200,000 new cases a day, the delay poses a huge problem for developing countries that depend on COVAX to control large outbreaks of their own.

The world is already 140 million doses short -- and by the end of June, that gap will have reached190 million shots, the United Nations children's agency, one of the partners in COVAX, said last week. There is currently no timeframe for resolving the shortage, UNICEF said.

That creates a very real problem, not just for countries with limited access to vaccines where cases are exploding, but also for the whole world.

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(1) Current approach to preventing Covid-19 at the Olympics is "dangerous," US expert says - CNN

Ryan Stewart| Special to The Oklahoman

The coronavirus has never been a problem limited to people. Since the pandemic's start, the virus's potential to impact pets, livestock and wildlife has been a global concern.

But will the four-legged friends we share our homes with need vaccines? It's unlikely in the short term, said Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation attending veterinarian Jennie Criley, D.V.M.

"Although there are a few reports of dogs and cats testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, they typically show no or very mild symptoms," said Criley, who is also the director of comparative medicine at OMRF. "Currently, there is no evidence that dogs and cats play a significant role in transmitting the virus to humans or other animals."

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, livestock like horses, pigs and poultry don't appear to be naturally susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While results of studies of the virus in cattle are conflicting, the AVMA notes it doesn't appear they can be easily infected either.

More: What to know about the COVID-19 variant identified in Oklahoma

But there is one notable exception, Criley said: Mink. Millions of the small, weasel-like mammals are bred on farms worldwide, and they can be infected by and potentially transmit the coronavirus to humans.

"The concern is that the virus could thrive in animals, mutate, and then pass back to humans," said OMRF physician-scientist Hal Scofield, M.D. "Given that the probable origin of COVID-19 was an animal likely a bat it's important that this be monitored."

In response, numerous vaccines for mink are in development. If the U.S. Department of Agriculture and health experts determine a companion animal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is necessary, a vaccine developed for mink could eventually be adapted and approved for household pets.

More: Oklahoma's slowing COVID-19 vaccination rate could leave state vulnerable

Criley added that if research shows a COVID-19 vaccine for our pets is needed to protect animal and human health, it wouldn't be the first time.

"Rabies is a classic example of a vaccination given to our pets that keeps them safe and that saves human lives," Criley said. But, she added, it's best not to worry. Current work is all preliminary when it comes to man's best friends.

"Keep your pet up to date with all preventative health care recommended by your veterinarian," Criley said. "And remember, pets have become used to people being home more while we have been working remotely. Be sure to give them some extra TLC if you are transitioning back to working outside of the home office."

Ryan Stewart is media relations coordinator for Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

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Will the four-legged friends we share our homes with need vaccines? - Oklahoman.com

ROCKAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--electroCore, a commercial stage bioelectronic medicine company, has developed a non-drug and non-invasive alternative to pharmaceuticals that safely and effectively stimulates the vagus nerve to communicate with the brain and help optimize the bodys own ability to control problems impacting its health. While vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been available for decades, electroCore has transformed the industry with non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) therapy which taps into the power and potential of the vagus nerve via a portable device.

For quite awhile the scientific and medical research community has been captivated by the vagus nerve, the bodys longest nerve which connects information between the brain and important parts of the body including, the heart, lungs, voice box, stomach, ears, and other organs. By activating the vagus nerve with a safe and comfortable electrical stimulation through the skin, we believe we can neuromodulate, or adjust the brain signals to safely treat a variety of conditions, says JP Errico, founder at electroCore.

Implanted Vagus Nerve Stimulation (iVNS), which involves the surgical implantation of a device, was one of the first major breakthroughs highlighting how electrical stimulation could be used to treat conditions such as depression, epilepsy, infectious disease, and heart disease. In 2008, electroCore joined this medical exploration and two years later created a non-invasive way of delivering VNS therapy. Between 2011 and 2017, nVNS received CE Marks, which means it fulfilled the requirements of relevant European product directives in addition to performance and safety standards, for the treatment of multiple conditions in neurology, psychiatry, and gastroenterology. In 2017, electroCores nVNS received its first FDA clearance for the acute treatment of episodic cluster headache. Since then, electroCores game changing nVNS therapy received four additional FDA clearances as well as growing acknowledgement from health care providers and patients as a front-line, non-drug option for the treatment and prevention of migraine and cluster headache.

nVNS has not only transformed the way healthcare providers treat migraine and cluster headache but has also advanced how doctors treat veterans, adolescents, athletes, and long haul COVID-19 patients with migraine. nVNS is a safe, convenient, effective treatment for people who wish to avoid both the short and long term side effects and inconveniences that can be associated with injectable, inhaled, or pill-based medicine, states Dr. Peter Staats, chief medical officer of electroCore.

The creation of a safe, patient-controlled way of activating the vagus nerve has opened the door for the research and clinical community to study the vagus nerves potential to treat several conditions more easily and safely.

At the forefront of medicine, electroCore and other organizations are expanding research on the vagus nerve with clinical studies of nVNSs effectiveness on conditions including COVID-19, post-traumatic headache, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinsons disease, epilepsy, stroke, sub-arachnoid hemorrhage and addiction as well as a number of gastrointestinal and inflammatory conditions.

At electroCore, we are looking into treating some of the most challenging diseases in the world with nVNS. What makes non-invasive nerve stimulation so exciting is the ability for the patient to self-administer the treatment, says Dr. Staats. Because the device is portable, it is empowering patients to literally take control of their condition into their own hands.

About electroCore, Inc.

electroCore, Inc. is a commercial stage bioelectronic medicine company dedicated to improving patient outcomes through its platform non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation therapy initially focused on the treatment of multiple conditions in neurology. The companys current indications are the preventative treatment of cluster headache and migraine and acute treatment of migraine and episodic cluster headache.

For more information, visit http://www.electrocore.com.

About gammaCoreTM

gammaCoreTM (nVNS) is the first non-invasive, hand-held medical therapy applied at the neck as an adjunctive therapy to treat migraine and cluster headache through the utilization of a mild electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve that passes through the skin. Designed as a portable, easy-to-use technology, gammaCore can be self-administered by patients, as needed, without the potential side effects associated with commonly prescribed drugs. When placed on a patients neck over the vagus nerve, gammaCore stimulates the nerves afferent fibers, which may lead to a reduction of pain in patients.

gammaCore is FDA cleared in the United States for adjunctive use for the preventive treatment of cluster headache in adult patients, the acute treatment of pain associated with episodic cluster headache in adult patients, and the acute and preventive treatment of migraine in adolescent (ages 12 and older) and adult patients. gammaCore is CE-marked in the European Union for the acute and/or prophylactic treatment of primary headache (Migraine, Cluster Headache, Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias and Hemicrania Continua) and Medication Overuse Headache in adults.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about electroCore's business prospects and clinical and product development plans, its pipeline or potential markets for its technologies, the timing, outcome and impact of regulatory, clinical and commercial developments including commercialization of, and potential reimbursement for, its nVNS technology and products, the business, operating or financial impact of any clinical trials or studies, and other statements that are not historical in nature, particularly those that utilize terminology such as "anticipates," "will," "expects," "believes," "intends," other words of similar meaning, derivations of such words and the use of future dates. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the ability to raise the additional funding needed to continue to pursue electroCores business and product development plans, the inherent uncertainties associated with developing new products or technologies, the ability to commercialize gammaCore, the potential impact and effects of COVID-19 on the business of electroCore, electroCores results of operations and financial performance, and any measures electroCore has and may take in response to COVID-19 and any expectations electroCore may have with respect thereto, competition in the industry in which electroCore operates and overall market conditions. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and electroCore assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factor disclosure set forth in the reports and other documents electroCore files with the SEC available at http://www.sec.gov.

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The Ins & Outs of nVNS: Non-Invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation Device Prevents and Relieves Pain From Migraines, Cluster Headaches & Other...

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Jez Hemming, local democracy reporter

A new medical school for the north could be ready by 2025 and well know what it costs by the summer, a health board chief executive has revealed.

Jo Whitehead, CEO of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, revealed the news in her report to the boards monthly meeting on Thursdsay.

The new Medical and Health Sciences School will be a collaboration between the health board and Bangor University, if it gets approval from Welsh Government.

A study of what the capacity of the school should be is in the final stages and proposals should be lodged with Minister for Health and Social Care Eluned Morgan by the end of July, said Whitehead.

In her report, she said: BCUHB and Bangor University are working in partnership and have established programme arrangements in order achieve the shared ambition of developing a transformational Medical and Health Sciences School in North Wales by 2025.

Work to develop capital investment plans is progressing with an ambition initial estimates expected to be completed in June 2021 and final estimates to be available in July 2021.

An economic impact assessment will also be completed at the same time to help the business case for the new venture.

The proposed curriculum for the school will haveinter-professional, preventative and community led health and medicine at its core, she said.

Students

Students at the school will be given placements around North Wales as part of their practical experience which will hopefully lead to more doctors and future consultants settling in the health board area.

Betsi Cadwaladr has struggled to recruit to clinical positions over the past few years.

Eighteen medical students have already been undertaking a significant part of their training at Bangor University during the current academic year, as part of the C21 collaboration with Cardiff University with 19 attending the previous year.

Welsh Government said it had invested 7m into facilitatingthe course but students still have to take part of it in Cardiff.

When the idea of a North Wales MedicalSchool was first announced in September last year, former Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he wanted a task and finish group to assess if the proposal was practical and achievable.

A task and finish group chaired by Professor Elizabeth Treasure, has been looking at the idea since last autumn.

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New medical school in the north could be ready by 2025, says health board chief - Nation.Cymru

Retired firefighter Glen Midbo was enjoying a Budweiser on a recent afternoon while doing renovations on his house. His quiet suburban block on the southern tip of Staten Island is a stones throw from the beach. Standing under a flag of former President Donald Trump holding a machine gun, Midbo explained why he would be one of the last holdouts for the COVID-19 vaccine.

They came out with it too quick, said Midbo, 62, a resident of the mostly conservative, white and well-off neighborhood of Tottenville. I just want to make sure theres no side effects. I dont even feel threatened by this disease at all. I didnt even obey all the rules of this thingsocial distancing and masking and all thisand I didnt get sick.

On the opposite end of the island in Port Richmond, a neighborhood thats more than a third Latino, Selvin Vazquez Castillo expressed his own doubts about the vaccine. Ive read things on the internet that its caused people a lot of different reactions and has left people in the hospital, the 28-year-old construction worker said in Spanish. So, I said, Oh no, I dont want to be in the hospital.

Most barriers to accessing COVID-19 vaccines in New York City have come down, even on Staten Island, where theres no public hospital, and it took months of advocacy to open a city-run hub on the South Shore. But ongoing reluctance to get the shots has emerged as a key hurdle that New York, and the country as a whole, must overcome to control the pandemic. Pockets of unvaccinated people can continue to serve as a haven for the coronavirus, as evidenced by ongoing surges upstate in Lewis County and Cortland County. What is broadly deemed vaccine hesitancy encompasses a range of attitudes among people with myriad backgrounds, varying comprehension of health information and different levels of resistance.

No zip code on Staten Island is reporting more than 50% of residents with their first shot.

Reservations about the vaccineswhich are often, but not always, grounded in questions about their safety, according to Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) surveyscut across political and cultural divides. And that research shows different strategies will change peoples minds depending on why theyve delayed their shots so far.

To explore the ways in which hesitancy can manifest, WNYC/Gothamist headed to Staten Island, the borough thats home to the most Republicans in the city as well as the solidly blue, ethnically diverse North Shore with its enclaves of Latino and African immigrants.

Retired firefighter Glen Midbo stands under a Trump flag outside his house in Tottenville, Staten Island. Midbo says he will only get the vaccine if remaining unvaccinated limits what he can do. Caroline Lewis

Staten Islands vaccination rate39% fully inoculated, 45% with at least one dosefalls just below the citywide tallies of 40% and 49%, respectively. While other boroughs have neighborhoods with very high and very low levels of vaccine saturation, much of Staten Island hovers somewhere in the middle. No zip code is reporting more than 50% of residents with their first shot, as of May 21st.

Organizers on Staten Island who have been working on getting residents vaccinated over recent months shared some of the rationales they hear from the reluctant.

Among African immigrants in Stapleton, Park Hill, and Mariners Harbor, misinformation about the virus and vaccines is spreading via Facebook and WhatsApp, said Abou Sy Diakhate, co-chair of the Staten Island Immigrant Council and a board member of the Staten Island Long-Term Recovery Organization.

Videos went viral promoting the conspiracy theory that the vaccine is part of the plot to reduce the black race, said Diakhate. This is how they look at it. And they ask me this.

This is part of the institutional racism that we're talking about.

He added that people in the communities he serves dont tend to rely on American media for information, and some dont speak English. Like others who spoke to WNYC/Gothamist, Diakhate said he thought initial barriers to finding appointments or clinics exacerbated this hesitancy. Sometimes, when they lack access, they say, OK, you know what? It's fine. We are used to this. This is part of the institutional racism that we're talking about.

Although there is no longer a vaccine shortage and everyone older than 12 is eligible, Diakhate says he has yet to get a shot himself because he wants to let those who are more vulnerable go first.

An April survey of 1,007 people in the New York metro area90% unvaccinatedfound that most were not hardline anti-vaxxers. Only 4% said they would not get a COVID-19 jab for any reason. About two-thirds of those without shots65%said they were waiting for reassurance that no serious complications would result from the vaccines. So far, hundreds of millions of Americans have taken doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and close monitoring has shown that they are overwhelmingly safe and effective. Long-term negative consequences are extremely unlikely.

Another 22.3% said they wanted to see how the vaccines affected other people. Nearly 10% said they preferred to let high-risk people have first dibs. The survey, conducted by the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, is yet to be published.

The only reason I'll take the vaccination is if it will let me go to my house in Norway.

Asked what would make them feel more ready, 15% of the unvaccinated respondents said they would value a recommendation from their doctor. The doctors office was also by far the preferred setting for a shot, favored by 39% of respondents. KFF surveys note similar findings on trusted messengers.

A lot of the people that we contacted from our Stapleton senior center said they're waiting until [the vaccine is] available in their doctor's office, and they're waiting for their doctor to administer it, said Allison Cohen, the communications director for the JCC of Staten Island, who also headed up the organizations massive vaccination effort at its locations across the borough.

So far, primary care doctors have not been selected as major providers of the COVID-19 vaccinesa policy that needs to change as the city moves toward reaching children and potentially offering booster shots, according to Dr. Scott Ratzan, a lecturer at the CUNY School of Public Health and executive director of CONVINCE USA, an organization promoting vaccine literacy. But Ratzan also acknowledged that the clinical setting people feel most comfortable in can also vary by demographic.

Michelle Molina, executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante in Port Richmond, says Latinos from other boroughs often come to her community center for COVID vaccinations because its a trusted organization among immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented. She has been encouraged so far by all the people who started out hesitant but are now taking the vaccines. The center provides a wide range of services, including a dispatch center for day laborers, allowing Molina to offer regular reminders about the shots.

Day laborers wait to be dispatched outside El Centro Del Inmigrante in Port Richmond, Staten Island. The center has gotten many immigrants vaccinated and helped some overcome their initial hesitancy. Caroline Lewis

We still have a lot of work to do as far as the parents, Molina said. A lot of parents will say, Yes, I wanted to get vaccinated, and I did. But my kids are a different story. I'm not willing to take that chance with my kids.

Vazquez Castillo, the construction worker, says he finally booked an appointment. But it took the recent deaths of three friends from COVID-19 and a referral from an acquaintance to El Centro for him to do it.

Before his friends passed away, Vazquez Castillo admits, I didnt believe in COVID. Even now, he has questions about how the vaccines work. One questionI have read online, but I'm not that sure because the internet is not 100% trustworthydo they put the COVID inside your body? Vazquez Castillo asked. (They dont.)

Community organizers talked about the need for more forums where people could pose clinicians all their questions, especially now that parents are deciding whether to give consent for their kids. Ratzan said he is working with employers to provide accurate, actionable COVID-19 information to their employees.

Nationally, the share of people who want to wait and see on the vaccines safety or how others react to it shrank during the first couple of months of the rollout, before plateauing between March and April, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those putting off their shots for these reasons include about one in five Republicans, and roughly the same share applies to Black adults, Hispanic adults, and those without a college degree. A quarter of young adults between 18 and 29 also say theyre holding off.

Notably, while Republicans have been slower to seek vaccinations than Democrats, the share that is willing continues to increase. Each person who spoke to WNYC/Gothamist had different answers for what, if anything, would ultimately motivate them toward the preventative medicine.

A woman yells as New York City Sheriffs stand guard outside of the restaurant Mac's Public House at the start of a rally against state and city mandates to stop indoor dining to control the spread of the coronavirus in Staten Island, December 2nd, 2020. JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Despite vowing to wait as long as possible, Midbo, the retired firefighter in Tottenville, said hed get inoculated if it was the only way to circumvent travel restrictions or other limitations on what he could do. The only reason I'll take the vaccination is if it will let me go to my house in Norway, Midbo said. If they won't let me in a restaurant or bar or something like that because I don't have the vaccine, OK, I'll do it.

Others said incentives based on mandates wouldnt help. I'm a Libertarian, said a Tottenville retiree named Bruce, who would only give his first name. I don't believe in government overreach, and I don't want to live in a nanny state. Still, he emphasized, hes not an anti-vaxxer; he merely wants to see more data on the vaccines. I hope we do reach herd immunity, he said.

Some sitting outside the Staten Island Mall Monday said the people they knew were mostly coming around to the idea regardless of their politics. But one woman, Marie Linea, 67, said she would not take a COVID shot under any circumstances, even if it meant she had to keep wearing her mask while others shed theirs. Linea rattled off several popular myths, including that the virus was man-made and that young people shouldnt get the vaccines because they can cause infertility. They're injecting stuff that is going to change your DNA, she said, which is also untrue. You're going to have problems down the line, you know, mentally.

Not everyone who didnt rush to get a shot right away has such clear-cut reasons. On Monday, Kurt Perkert, 62, a Port Richmond resident who maintains properties in the area, said he had recently booked his first appointment.

I've been procrastinating, he said. Im busy.

From his porch, Perkert hailed a friend passing by, Stanley Federowski, 67, who said he lives alone in West Brighton and doesnt plan to get vaccinated. Asked if he worried about COVID-19, Federowski said, No, I dont worry about nothing. I just do whatever I do and that's it. I don't even think about it. He said maybe if they were offering money, hed consider it. Governor Andrew Cuomo launched an initiative this week whereby state-run vaccine sites will give out free lottery tickets for a chance to win $5 million, following in the footsteps of Ohio.

The mayor and governor continue to plead with residents to capitalize on the free COVID-19 vaccines if they havent already, insisting its the way to restore normalcy and ensure everyones safety as businesses, schools, and entertainment venues reopen. But Olivia Drabczyk, a teacher who has done vaccine outreach during her run for City Council on Staten Islands South Shore, says some people are hearing mixed messages.

Seeing that, whether or not they've gotten [vaccinated], the city is still reopening, she said, has taken away some urgency for people who are already hesitant.

Link:
Vaccine Hesitancy Greatest Hits: How Some Staten Islanders Are Overcoming The Reluctance - Gothamist

A man receives his Covid-19 vaccination at the John Scott Vaccination Centre in Green Lanes, north ... [+] London, where Hatzola, in partnership with the NHS and Hackney Council are delivering a coronavirus vaccine clinic for the local Orthodox Jewish community. Picture date: Sunday March 21, 2021. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images)

The Orthodox Jewish community was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Swift community action ensued; Jewish schools were closed and synagogues were shuttered. While anticipation for the Covid-19 vaccine grew, physicians and leaders within the community wondered: will Orthodox Jews get the Covid-19 vaccine?

A new study published by Dr Ellie Carmody, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and co-authors, surveyed 102 Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, NY between December 2020 and January 2021. At that time, 41% were undecided about the vaccine and 47% were strongly hesitant.

While many U.S. citizens fought for access to the vaccine, others were understandably hesitant to take a new vaccine. The vaccine has had its fair share of doubt including concerns about fertility and safety monitoring (neither concern has been proven).

In the past, Shoshana Bernstein, an Orthodox community activist in NY, worked to educate community members about the measles vaccine. Her experience taught her that the majority of Orthodox Jews do indeed vaccinate.There are outliers who are openly anti-vax and the movable middle who are unsure. Unfortunately, it has become more and more the norm for the media to focus on Orthodox Jews which can and does create the erroneous assumptions.

At the same time, Ms. Bernstein explained that the insular lifestyle of many demographics in the Orthodox Jewish community limits their access to credible medical information. Many individuals in these communities dont use the internet, social media, and smartphones. There, Ms. Bernstein recommends it is imperative that culturally sensitive, written and spoken education be written and made available.Unlike the secular world, written publications are very much alive and well in the Orthodox Community.Dial-in hotlines and Yiddish language radio stations reach a large swath of the population and should be utilized.Doctors, nurses, physician assistants and urgent care centers are generally widely trusted and should be provided written material.

Dr Miriam Andrusier, MD, MPH a member of the Hasidic community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, echoes Ms. Bernsteins concerns about targeted misinformation. Both in terms of how the virus spreads and what information people have available to them are very unique and could be quite insular. The Orthodox Jewish community is very tight knit. The ways in which information is dispensed and shared is very unique: people tend to get a lot of their information from social media and groups like Whats App where it is incredibly easy to pass along misinformation that can be forwarded thousands of times within minutes.

When the pandemic eased in the summer of 2020, anti-vax and anti-medical establishment groups made efforts to spread misinformation specifically in the Orthodox Jewish community. At an event in Crown Heights on February 16th, 2021, Dr. Simone Gold urged attendees not to get the Covid-19 vaccine because dying from Covid-19 itself is exceedingly uncommon. The second speaker, Rabbi Michoel Green told (unverified) stories of individuals who lost relatives and suffered side effects from the vaccine.

The anti-vaccine movement is finding fertile ground in people today in general because they succeed by sowing fear, uncertainty and doubt, and this pandemic is already rampant in all three, says Dr. Alissa Minkin, a pediatrician and Chair of the Jewish Orthodox Womens Medical Association (JOWMA) Preventative Health Committee. Dr Minkin also hosts the JOWMA Podcast, which covers health topics geared towards the Orthodox community. Full disclosure- I serve as president of JOWMA and have been actively involved in JOWMAs educational efforts for the Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr. Minkin believes the politicization and polarization of this pandemic is contributing to anti-vaccine sentiment across the board, not just in the Orthodox community. Because religion is not one of the metrics for vaccine uptake, we do not have exact statistics for percent vaccinated in each of these communities.

While the exacts numbers of those vaccinated in the Orthodox community isnt quite clear, informal surveys by synagogues, physicians, and schools indicate that vaccine uptake is high. Suri Kasirer, President of Kasirer LLC, the #1 lobbying firm in New York, has been working with government and community organizations like JOWMA to educate NY residents about the Covid-19 vaccine. I come from this community, which was among the most impacted by the pandemic. In reaching out to the Orthodox community with timely information about the vaccine, there are unique challenges, such as language barriers, or limited access to TV and the Internet.Were so proud to have helped effectively counter disinformation and build confidence in the vaccine as we see this vibrant community back to good health post-pandemic.

"Most of my elderly patients wanted to get the vaccine as soon as it was available. As part of my work as the medical director of Chevra Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Corps, we facilitated hundreds of vaccines to home-bound Holocuast survivors, said Dr Jason Zimmerman, medical director at Boro Park Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Zimmerman cares for patients from the Orthodox community in Brooklyn, NY. He shared Many younger patients were initially hesitant to take the vaccine, but over the past few months, they've watched their healthcare providers, family and friends get vaccinated and this visibility has really helped alleviate people's initial hesitation."

Dr. Minkin believes that while we havent yet reached herd immunity, the percent of people who had Covid-19 already are contributing to the percent who are immune along with the vaccinated. There are good reasons to get vaccinated even if you had Covid-19, but public health officials should acknowledge that people who had Covid-19 are making a risk benefit decision from a different position than those who never had it.

Dr. Ellie Carmody MD, MPH, agrees that some hesitancy around the vaccine may be understood from a scientific and health perspective. Within some Orthodoxcommunities that have been very highlyimpacted by Covid-19, reasons for not vaccinating are complex.Some are wary of new technologies and are subject to similar misinformation that circulates within wider anti-vaccination discourse.But for many people who have had Covid-19, there is simplynot a sense of urgency to be vaccinated, given that they observe that symptomatic re-infections in their communities are low and they feel protected.

Dr. Carmody believes that vaccine strategies should be re-evaluated for those who have recovered from Covid-19, as more studies demonstrate that there is a robust immune memory response to one dose of either an mRNA vaccine or adenoviral vector vaccine in people who have recovered from Covid-19.

A one-dose immunity booster may be more well received than a two-dose mRNA vaccineseries, as it validates the contribution of natural immunity toward protection from disease.One-dose mRNA vaccine strategies could also help stretch the world's supply of these vaccines, said Dr Carmody.

In the meantime, educating patients about Covid-19 vaccination remains a priority.

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Hit Hard By The Pandemic, Orthodox Jews Are Choosing The Covid-19 Vaccine - Forbes

BRENDA LEON / CONNECTICUT PUBLIC RADIO

Supporters of Senate Bill 956 spoke publicly on the consequences of limited access to health insurance for undocumented immigrants outside the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

Before the pandemic, Carlos liked playing soccer with his friends and building robots at school. His parents both worked, and provided him with a stable, loving home. Carlos was a healthy and thriving sixth grader. But when I met him, working as his pediatrician in the Intensive Care Unit, he was suffering from kidney failure secondary to complications of COVID-19. Why did this healthy child become so sick?

We discovered that Carlos had an undiagnosed kidney condition that had progressively worsened over the years. Why hadnt this condition been picked up earlier by his pediatrician? Why was Carlos approaching kidney failure when there were readily available treatment options?

Unlike other kids his age, Carlos did not see a pediatrician for regular check-ups. Like other undocumented children in Connecticut, Carlos does not qualify for HUSKY (Health Care for Uninsured Kids and Youth), Connecticuts state-funded health insurance program. For Carlos, and the other 13,000 undocumented children who live in Connecticut, access to affordable routine healthcare is nearly impossible.

With Senate Bill 956, Connecticut has the opportunity to make HUSKY accessible to these children, their parents, and thousands of other undocumented Connecticut residents. I believe that access to healthcare is a basic human right, and Connecticut must provide health insurance to our undocumented neighbors, family members, and friends.

As a pediatrician in New Haven, I worry about our 13,000 undocumented children. Carlos recovered from his acute illness but, unfortunately, now requires dialysis three times a week to live. If Carlos had had regular check-ups with a pediatrician, his kidney disease could have been discovered and treated earlier, and prevented a lengthy hospital admission and lifelong dialysis.

I worry about Carlos, and I also worry about the kids I dont meet. Preventative medicine is at the heart of pediatrics, and kids without health insurance are at risk for worse health outcomes. I see children at regularly scheduled visits from birth through young adulthood. I provide vaccines, screen for developmental delays, manage medical problems, and counsel mental health concerns. Compared with their uninsured peers, insured children are more likely to succeed in school, avoid drug and alcohol use, have more successful careers, and lead healthier adult lives.

The proposed legislation Senate Bill 956 would allow all income-eligible residents to enroll in HUSKY, regardless of citizenship status. To be sure, expanding state-funded health insurance is costly, at an estimated $195 million/year for Connecticut. However, this price tag would be mitigated by future savings on healthcare costs, like uncompensated care. For example, Carloss prolonged hospital stay alone cost just over $1 million. For uninsured patients, the hospital absorbs some cost, while local, state and federal funding sources cover another percentage. Since tax dollars are paying for this care anyway, why not pay for routine health visits upfront, and avoid expensive hospitalizations down the road?

Connecticut, despite a long history of state budget deficits, is now in good financial standing. A recent report projected an extra $925 million in revenues for the current fiscal year, which would wipe out the $640 million projected deficit. In addition, some of those revenues come directly from the taxes paid by the undocumented immigrant community, including Carloss parents. In 2018, undocumented immigrants in Connecticut contributed an estimated $197 million in state and local taxes. This would cover the estimated $195 million annual cost of expanding HUSKY.

My heart breaks for Carlos. His life is forever changed by a condition that could have been prevented by regular check-ups with a pediatrician. Lets work together to bring SB 956 to a vote and pass this bill before the CT General Assembly adjourns on June 9.

What can you do to help? Please write to your state senator and your state representative today. Ask them to vote yeson SB 956. Every Carlos in Connecticut deserves a happy, healthy future.

Dr. Kristin Reese is a pediatrician in New Haven.

CTViewpoints welcomes rebuttal or opposing views to this and all its commentaries. Read our guidelines andsubmit your commentary here.

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Opinion Access to health care for undocumented people is both right and smart - The CT Mirror

Illustration: Sameer Pawar

What if this pandemic never goes away? I ask a computer screen dotted with pixels somewhat resembling managers and doctors from across our network of hospitals. No response. Nine months into this pandemic and our videoconferencing skills were abortive at best.

What if the world never goes back to normal, and this is what our future looks like? I could sense the mood in the room shift a little, but still no response. I check the audio settings and curse the UX choices of the developers behind our videoconferencing app.

How will our business thrive in a world permanently scarred by Covid-19? I ask as loud as is possible in a professional setting.

The session did not go the way I had hoped it would. Everyone I spoke with maintained that the pandemic was almost over, and that business will get back to normal. I found this hard to believe. This rogue strand of RNA had already humbled the smartest people to ever face a television camera and brought the world economy to its knees. If there is a simple narrative, it would be that the coronavirus controls the world, and we need to do its bidding. The more nuanced narrative is that we will never wake up to a pre-Covid world, and we need to adapt our business to succeed in a new world order dominated by uncertainty. I was hoping we would come up with a better solution than copy-pasting the 2019 business plan for 2021 and hoping for the best.

Nobody knows for certain what this new world looks like, nor do they know how to succeed in that new world. But people like me are paid by their investors to predict the future and we need to have bold and confident strategies like The Future is Digital or We will SaaS our Blockchain on an Electric Cloud. There is footage of me telling news channels quite confidently that masks are not necessary, the coronavirus will be contained to East Asia, and lockdowns will flatten the curve, so my credibility as a Covid expert is quite low. But I have a library full of books which use the words disruptive innovation a lot, so I know exactly what companies that are nothing like mine did 30 years ago to survive in a country with a high ease-of-doing-business score. With the spirits of Harvard strategy professors whispering in my ear, my predictions for Indias future are: 1) Businesses will get disrupted; 2) People will still need health care; and 3) Magazine editors will still want Future of X articles from business leaders.

India has highly skilled doctors, but the pace of their emigration is likely to skyrocket after the pandemic as the West faces a shortage of staffImage: Amarjeet Kumar Singh / Sopa Images / Light Rocket via Getty Images

There are enough beneficiaries of todays technology industry singing paeans to the benefits of technological innovation, but none from the past. I have sourced some of my favourite historical quotes on the topic: Why is that hairless ape carrying a stick twice his size? Last thoughts of the first woolly mammoth to meet the pointy end of a spear.

These printed Bibles sure seem to be getting popular. Should we ban them? Pope Leo X, right before the Protestant Reformation.

What do you mean the ghost people are carrying metal tubes that spit lightning and thunder? Montezuma, last Emperor of the Aztecs.

As history shows us, time and time again, the benefits of disruption usually accrue to the ones doing the disrupting. We do not know what kind of disruption the health care industry will see, but we know that when books are written about us decades from now, we will belong to the Can you believe they used to do this? chapter.

The next decade will see an explosion of software that will help doctors make better clinical decisions

Health care is still very hospital-centric and hospitals are the most expensive places to deliver health care because they have to account for every minor contingency. A hospital in India and a hospital in Germany are made of 90 percent similar components, even though their patients come from two completely different worlds. The cost of delivering health care has increased dramatically, led by higher input costs for drugs and consumables, followed by higher salaries to doctors and nurses working in a riskier clinical environment.

As Indian hospitals become even more specialised, they are leaving poor patients with regular ailments further and further behind. To make things worse, the spend on public health care is not growing as fast as the disease burden. This will keep increasing the quality gap between health care delivered in public hospitals versus private hospitals, which in turn will push the out-of-pocket health care spend, already among the highest in the world, even higher.

Narayana Healths mission is to make high quality health care accessible to everyone. We made a name for ourselves by becoming a focus factory for low-cost surgical procedures and driving down costs through process innovation. We have now reached the limit of how low we can safely drive down costs and every incremental improvement we have rolled out has faced diminishing returns. The flaw lies in the current model of delivering health care, which Dr Robbie Pearl from Kaiser Permanente instead calls delivering sick care. Hospitals focus on delivering surgeries, medicines and procedures to patients in the most efficient way possible. But what if that is the wrong model? What if instead of lowering the cost of a medical procedure, we focus on preventing that procedure from having to take place?

Narayana Health has always looked up to health systems like Kaiser Permanente that manage the entire spectrum of care for their patient members. We believe that a fully integrated health care system that incorporates preventative medicine, primary, secondary and tertiary care in a coordinated manner is more relevant to developing countries like India with a younger and poorer population. This is the only way to ensure that hospitals are completely aligned with a patients long-term incentive to live a healthy life. Narayana Health has begun the process of becoming a fully integrated health care provider and we will know over the next 10 years whether this was the right call.

Digital technology has wreaked havoc across massive industries like transportation, hospitality, food, media, retail and finance, and transformed those industries into something my grandfather would scarcely recognise. There is nothing to suggest that the health care industry will be immune to disruptive innovation coming from non-traditional health care companies catering to the aspirations of a digital-native customer base. There are several billion-dollar health care startups that are bypassing hospitals and offering primary care directly to patients. The largest technology companies in the world have expressed an interest in building a health care vertical and are partnering with health care providers to build solutions that bend the cost/quality curve.

Tech companies need large amounts of patient data and clinical insight to build technology solutions that can automate medical decision-making. The next decade will see an explosion of software that will help doctors make better clinical decisions or empower patients to take care of their own health. It will be interesting to see if tech companies continue working with hospitals once they realise they can sell their products directly to patients or doctors and cut out the intermediary. They do make lovely presentations about being together forever, but we have built a large software development arm of our own. Just in case.

The medical field has benefited immensely from scientific progress and cutting-edge technology that has made it possible to cure diseases that were previously thought incurable. Technologies like CRISPR have the potential to eliminate certain types of cancers and genetic disease. Newer classes of drugs and medical implants can extend the average persons lifespan. None of these were developed in India, and we are completely reliant on universities or companies from the developed world for cutting-edge innovation. Despite our size, we do not have enough specialists available for treating complex diseases and recording their results in a searchable electronic format. The few specialists who are available are too busy treating patients to spend any time doing unremunerated clinical research.India will need to rapidly scale up the medical education and health care infrastructure to 10 times the present size, to have the critical mass of health care professionals required for innovation to flourish. Clinical research is one field that India can dominate because we have the most critical raw ingredientmillions and millions of sick people. Over the coming years, most major Indian hospitals will run large clinical research divisions in partnership with multinational drug companies or foreign universities.

The future holds great promise, but there are several worrying signals for Indian health care in the near term. Our public finances are stretched thin, and the government will be severely constrained in its ability to ramp up health care spending to fund a national procedure reimbursement scheme and a national Covid vaccination programme at the same time. Procedure reimbursements from government programmes have not changed in over seven years, and most hospitals have huge accounts receivable from government payors. Private equity investment into new hospitals has stopped as the ten-year return on capital is less than the cost of capital for greenfield projects. Most of the investment coming into the Indian hospital sector is being used to fund M&A deals, not add more beds.

The part that worries me most is the growing shortage of skilled manpower. The pace of emigration of Indian doctors and nurses will skyrocket after the pandemic as health care systems in the West face staffing shortages from early retirements of their stressed-out health care workers. Medicine is not a preferred option for students from developed countries, and their governments will relax the visa requirements to encourage a large number of skilled doctors and nurses from Asia to fill the gap. India has some of the most highly skilled doctors in the world working in an environment that does not always value their output. Relatively few doctors who graduate become specialists and earn enough to live in a nice neighbourhood, drive a nice car and put their kids in a good school. Those who dont get into artificially scarce postgraduate training programmes will get disheartened and start looking abroad.

History is littered with examples of pandemics reshaping society. The Justinian plagues split the Roman empire and ended the Mediterranean dominance of Europe. The Black Death tilted the feudal compact in favour of the peasants. The Spanish flu spurred the creation of national health care systems and influences hospital design up to the present day. The Covid pandemic has laid bare the fragility of our health care systems and been an equal-opportunity destroyer of rich and poor lives across the country. Through the darkest days of this pandemic, I console myself with the hope that millions of people who have lost someone to Covid are going to find their voice. They will rise up to the people in power and say, Never again. They will demand a better system that provides health care for everyone, because until all of us are safe, none of us are safe.

The writer is executive director and group COO, Narayana Health

(This story appears in the 21 May, 2021 issue of Forbes India. You can buy our tablet version from Magzter.com. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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Future Of HealthcareFocus Should Be On Preventative And Holistic Care For All: Viren Shetty - Forbes India

An Ohio bill that expands an athletic trainers ability to help athletes received unanimous support last week as its the first update regulating athletic trainers in three decades, the Journal-News reports.

House Bill 176 would allow licensed athletic trainers the option to enter into a collaboration agreement with a physician or podiatrist to allow that athletic trainer to perform additional services and activities. The bill is jointly sponsored by Reps. Thomas Hall, R-Madison Twp., and Rick Carfagna, R-Genoa Twp., and received 95 votes in support on May 5.

Hall said the bill modernizes the practice act for Ohios athletic trainers in order to better reflect current practice and changes in athletic training education and training.

Carfagna said what athletic trainers are learning now does not match up with what they are permitted to do in the real world.

As we explore ways to stabilize healthcare costs and identify effective pain management techniques, particularly in response to the opioid crisis, expanding access to the expertise provided by athletic trainers will help to keep Ohioans of all ages and abilities healthy and active, he said.

The state has more than 2,300 licensed athletic trainers, and Hall said we should be able to fully utilize athletic trainers and their modern-day skills. Licensed athletic trainers can provide physical medicine and rehabilitation healthcare and partner with physicians to provide preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.

The bill also makes changes governing the practice of athletic training, including allowing for referrals to athletic training from additional practitioners.

The collaboration agreement between athletic trainers and physicians provides team-based care that is far stronger than any individualized care, said Dr. Benjamin Bring, who is the medical director for the OhioHealth Capital City Half and Quarter Marathon, among other roles. Our goal is to supplement the care we are providing, and we are not replacing physicians. The medical team in sports medicine is always stronger when athletic trainers are involved.

He said the Capital City Half Marathon, which attracts more than 14,000 runners, has a medical team of 70 to 80 healthcare personnel. More than half, he said, are athletic trainers because of their abilities and training with multiple medical issues including heatstroke and hyperthermia, cardiac arrest and CPR, exertional associated collapse, and many other first aid skillsets.

House Bill 176 was introduced into the Ohio Senate on Thursday and has not yet been assigned a committee.

The Journal-News is a media partner of WCPO 9 News.

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Ohio bill could expand athletic trainer impact on treating injuries - WCPO

Good self-advocacy in medical settings requires a complicated balance of confidence and humility.

Can I be honest with you? I dont always like my doctors.

It can be difficult to admit that.

The white lab coat, the bright office full of expensive equipment, and the many, many years of schooling to earn a prestigious degree all loom in my mind when I meet a new doctor.

I see these people through the aura of authority that they cultivated over years of education and practice. Even if I feel uncomfortable with my treatment, it can be hard to give myself permission to look past that glow.

Combine this with whatever powerful emotions I might have about my appointment anxiety, fear, hopefulness and I can become disoriented. I often feel small and uncertain about what I need or want in relation to the health concerns that brought me in.

To be fair, its not just the doctors. I also dont always like my treatments.

Have you ever been prescribed a medication, maybe for pain management or to control symptoms, that you felt ambivalent about?

Maybe youre concerned about possible side effects. Maybe you heard of another option, but its not available because your insurance wont cover it.

Or how about undergoing a new procedure? In non-emergency situations, for exploratory, preventative, or treatment reasons, the choice to put on the hospital gown can be a hard one, even if you know its for your long-term benefit.

Healthcare choices often involve trade-offs. There are risks, benefits, potential side effects, and alternative care options to consider.

Ideally, your doctor should be a compassionate and knowledgeable guide through these tough decisions. Many are. But others dont always have the time or training to do this in the best way possible.

Whats more: At a personal level, we might not always connect well with our doctors. This isnt necessarily their fault. Underneath all that glow, theyre human, too.

Its not wrong to see your doctors as authorities. Theyve earned their credentials through years of study that you and I havent necessarily done, and theyve devoted their lives to caring for others.

We come to them for their vast knowledge in medicine and physiology.

Still, as patients, we have our own forms of knowledge and authority that are grounded in the lived experience of our bodies, our histories, and our hopes for the future.

We know best what pain we feel, what suffering weve lived with, and what we want or can tolerate for our futures.

Chronic pain and illness will undoubtedly change things in ways that are out of our control, but we can still have some decisive power in our health choices.

Sometimes, we have to advocate for ourselves to be able to access that power.

For me, I find that good self-advocacy in medical settings requires a complicated balance of confidence and humility: the confidence to understand and embrace the health choices I make and the humility to realize that Im not an expert in modern medicine even if Im an expert in my own needs.

It doesnt always go like this, but, in the best of scenarios, I want to:

Here are four tips Ive learned that may help you feel more empowered in the process.

This is definitely a knowledge is power situation.

Improve your understanding of your condition and the available treatments by consulting reliable sources.

Websites like Healthline are a great place to start, but also try looking for organizations and resources that are nationally funded or tied to reputable research institutions.

Use this information to ask questions and make strong choices.

Your relationship with your doctor should be collaborative, rather than hierarchical.

To be part of this shared-decision making, seek out doctors who will, within reason and the time constraints of their practice, engage your questions and your right to self-determination.

This is especially important, and often especially challenging, for patients who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) with histories of oppression and marginalization in their communities.

Research has shown that racial and ethnic disparities between patient and physician can affect quality of communication, with some evidence that unconscious bias on the part of the physician may be a contributing factor.

Medical and communications research has proposed ways that professionals can overcome this gap through good communication practices that focus on patient empowerment.

Medical concerns are scary. Chronic pain and chronic illness are anxiety provoking and distracting. Theres no way around that.

This can make it hard to focus and make clear decisions in medical settings.

That may be particularly true if youre a person living with a history of trauma or experiences of marginalization by authority figures.

Your discomfort here is like an alarm bell, letting you know you could be in danger. These fears may be realistic or unrealistic, but theyll make it difficult to be present either way.

Partners, friends, and family members can often help you process and untangle your fears and anxieties.

Sometimes, it may feel like youre leaning too hard on your loved ones or that they arent able to support you in the way you need. In this case, support groups, online communities, or even acquaintances or co-workers with similar experiences can be your most trusted allies.

A good therapist can also help.

While youre the authority on your own experiences and feelings, sometimes these can be misleading.

To help balance your feelings with your physical reality, find a way to keep track of your symptoms and interventions in real time by using a measurement thats as objective as you can achieve.

Memory can be tricky, and our emotions can have a big impact on how we experience our symptoms.

For chronic pain, try building a daily log that charts your pain morning, afternoon, and evening on a scale of 1 to 10. List any new treatments or other interventions you tried that day.

Even if you have trouble with this in the moment, looking back at your log can help you judge whether that new regimen of medication, morning yoga, or turmeric tea had any impact over the course of the week.

Health choices usually involve trade-offs, but we can participate fully in the choices we make. Dont be afraid to ask questions and make your own decisions.

Michael Waldon, LMSW is a psychotherapist, writer, and clinical social worker based in New York and California. He is trained in relational, psychodynamic, and somatic psychotherapies. Michael provides individual therapy to clients based in New York and coaching services to clients all over the United States. You can learn more through his website or at Tapestry Psychotherapy, where he maintains a practice specializing in anti-oppressive and integrative approaches to the treatment of trauma.

Continued here:
How to Advocate for Yourself When You're Living with a Chronic Illness - Healthline

By researcher Naledi Mashishi

Countries around the world have been racing to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19. South Africas programme started on 17 February 2021. By 10 May, it had vaccinated 395,230 people or 0.7% of its population.

But in April, South Africa suspended the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This was due to a joint advisory by the US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control that detailed six cases of blood clotting in women who had received the vaccine.

In response, South African political party the Economic Freedom Fighters issued a statement calling for the government to look at alternatives.

We urge the South African government to consider the Russian and Chinese vaccines, which up to this point, have proven to be of better efficacy than Euro-American vaccines, the statement ended.

Was the party right? We checked.

VACCINES TRAIN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

A vaccine is a type of preventative medicine that trains the immune system to create antibodies in order to build resistance to specific infections. Most are administered through injection.

Companies that have produced vaccines in Europe and America include: Moderna (US), Pfizer-BioNTech (Germany), AstraZeneca (UK), Johnson & Johnson (US) and Novavax (US).

Companies that have produced vaccines in China and Russia include: Sinopharm (China), Sinovax (China) and Gamaleya (Russia).

MINIMUM 50% EFFICACY REQUIRED

For a vaccine to be approved in South Africa, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority requires the efficacy to be at least 50%. This is in line with global health standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr Lee Hampton, a paediatrician and medical epidemiologist with the Vaccine Alliance, said in an interview with the WHO that vaccine efficacy referred to a vaccines protection against a disease/pathogen in a vaccine trial.

If a vaccine has, for example, 70% efficacy, it means a person vaccinated in a clinical trial is around two-thirds less likely to develop the disease than someone in the trial who didnt get the vaccine.

GERMAN AND US MRNA VACCINES SHOW HIGHEST EFFICACY

Professor Salim Abdool Karim is the director of the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa) and has recently been appointed to the WHOs Science Council.

He told Africa Check that the vaccines with the highest efficacy were the two mRNA vaccines: Germanys Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna from the US. (Note: mRNA vaccines fight diseases by teaching the immune system how to respond to viruses and bacteria. Watch this video to learn more.)

A US trial published on 1 April 2021 found that Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine had shown 91.3% efficacy against COVID and 95.3% to 100% efficacy against severe disease, depending on the definition used. An Israeli trial published in the Lancet on 5 May 2021 found that the vaccine had shown 95.3% efficacy against COVID-19 infection and 97.5% efficacy against severe COVID.

Modernas vaccine has shown 94.1% efficacy at preventing COVID-19 illness and 100% efficacy against severe COVID.

There are no other COVID-19 vaccines that compare with these two vaccines. All other vaccines, including those developed in Russia and China, have lower levels of efficacy for any symptomatic infections, Karim said.

Russias Sputnik V vaccine has shown 91.6% efficacy against COVID-19 and 100% efficacy against moderate or severe COVID-19.

Chinas Bio-New Crown Vaccine by Sinopharm has shown 79.3% efficacy against COVID-19 and 100% efficacy against moderate and severe COVID-19. (Note: This study has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.)

CoronaVac by Sinovac has shown 67% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19, 85% efficacy against hospitalisations and 80% efficacy against death. (Note: These results are from a Chilean study that has not been peer reviewed.)

NO NEED TO COMPARE VACCINES

Despite the differences in efficacy, medical experts and researchers caution against comparing the vaccines. This is because, according to Hampton, the efficacy data is not designed to be compared.

Clinical trials are set up differently and measure different things. All clinical trials provide rigorous data, but it makes it much harder to do direct comparisons between vaccines, he explained.

For this youd need a head-to-head trial, with the same protocol for all the vaccines, delivered and tracked in the same way.

A number of variables can influence the results, including what is considered a COVID-19 case, the study population and statistical methods for efficacy.

Hampton said available data showed that all the vaccines offered better protection against severe illness than symptomatic illness. Given the risks of COVID, he said, he would still advise patients to take vaccines with slightly lower efficacies.

Karim added that there was no need to compare the vaccines.

The level of difference is not really meaningful as these are all highly efficacious, he said. There is no need to compare the Russian and Chinese vaccines to other vaccines as their efficacy data speak for themselves that the vaccines from these two countries are very good vaccines.

SOUTH AFRICAS VARIANT COMPLICATES DATA

Comparisons of vaccine efficacy are further complicated by the 501Y.V2 variant of COVID-19 discovered in South Africa in December 2020.

Professor Hassan Mahomed, a public medicine specialist at the Stellenbosch University Division of Health Systems and Public Health and at the Western Cape provincial department of health, said more research was required to understand the vaccines efficacy in a local setting.

At this stage, few vaccines have released data about their efficacy against the 501Y.V2 variant. Pfizer reported that a small study of 800 people showed that their vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 cases in South Africa''.

In peer reviewed published data, the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine showed 64% overall efficacy and 82% efficacy against severe disease in South Africa.

Moderna is currently undertaking trials with the South African variant, following early results that suggested it might not be as effective.

There is currently no data on Sputnik or Sinopharms efficacy against the 501Y.V2 variant.

We dont have any data so far about whether [Sputnik] is effective against the variant present here, Mahomed said. It wasnt tested in South Africa at all.

Sinovac has reported that their vaccine remained effective against the 501Y.V2 variant.

CONCLUSION

South Africas Economic Freedom Fighters political party recently claimed that COVID-19 vaccines developed in Russia and China have better efficacy than Euro-American vaccines.

But trials show that the mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna in the United States has higher efficacy than Russian and Chinese vaccines.

But experts say the efficacy of different vaccines should not be compared because their trials were designed differently. The vaccines also need to be tested against the 501Y.V2 variant that has become dominant in South Africa to ensure that they are still effective.

We rate the claim as unproven.

This article appeared on AfricaCheck.org, a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and the media. Follow them on Twitter: @AfricaCheck

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FACT CHECK: Why the EFF is wrong to compare vaccines - Eyewitness News

(CBS) Mothers Day brings families together, but for those serving in the military overseas it is another holiday apart. One way families try to stay in touch is by recording Mothers Day greetings, which mean a lot to Spc. Samantha Cordova.

Cordova is from Denver, about 7,000 miles away from where she currently serves in the Army in Kuwait. She was deployed over a year ago and has found several ways to stay in touch with her mom.

Weve been able to write letters and call each other on the phone and you have FaceTime calls as well. So, thank God there is some technology there so you can still communicate with each other, Cordova said.

When Cordova joined the military, she was 23 and her mom was the first person she told of her decision to serve her country.

Her response actually shocked me because she said, This is who you were meant to be. This is what you were meant to do, Cordova said.

Filled with encouragement, Cordova decided to see a career as a preventative medicine specialist helping to protect soldiers from any disease, illness or injuries on the base. The hard work is not only gratifying, but it has also grown the bond between mother and daughter.

She was very resilient throughout her entire career. I look up to her and I hope, if I ever become a mother, to be just as strong as she is one day, she said.

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Denver Native Serving In The Military Finds Ways To Preserve Mother-Daughter Bond - CBS Denver

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Interim analysis from the ongoing, open-label, randomized acute viral pneumonia (including COVID-19) pilot study shows 150 ppm nitric oxide (NO) administered with LungFit PRO is well-tolerated with no treatment-related adverse events, and demonstrates encouraging efficacy signals

Further analysis of 3 previously reported pilot studies in bronchiolitis at 150-160 ppm NO demonstrates a favorable safety profile and consistent efficacy across multiple endpoints

Entirety of data at 150-160 ppm NO in both adult and infant patient populations supports further development of LungFit PRO in patients hospitalized with viral pneumonia

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., May 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beyond Air, Inc. (NASDAQ: XAIR), a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhaled nitric oxide (NO) for the treatment of patients with respiratory conditions, including serious lung infections and pulmonary hypertension, and gaseous NO (gNO) for the treatment of solid tumors, today announced the presentation of data at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference 2021, which is being held virtually from May 14 May 19. The data from both LungFit PRO programs, acute viral pneumonia (including COVID-19) and bronchiolitis, show a favorable safety profile and encouraging efficacy trends using high concentration inhaled NO for the treatment of acute viral lung infections in hospitalized patients.

We have now demonstrated a consistently favorable safety profile at high concentrations of nitric oxide in both adult and infant populations with acute viral lung infections, said Steve Lisi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Beyond Air. The new data from the acute viral pneumonia pilot trial in adults, taken together with our three previously completed pilot clinical trials in bronchiolitis, enable Beyond Air to prepare for a pivotal study for high concentration NO in a viral indication.

The interim analysis of patients in the acute viral pneumonia (including COVID-19) pilot study shows a favorable safety profile and encouraging efficacy signals in this adult patient population treated with 150 ppm NO generated and delivered by LungFit PRO, commented Andrew Colin, M.D., Batchelor Family Professor of Cystic Fibrosis and Pediatric Pulmonology Director, Division of Pediatric Pulmonology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami. Given these current data, I believe the results support the continued development of high concentration inhaled NO that can be delivered with ease by LungFit for the treatment of viral pneumonia including COVID-19. LungFit PRO is a revolutionary device that can allow for the treatment of this diverse patient population on a large scale.

Summary of Interim Results of Acute Viral Pneumonia (including COVID-19) Pilot Trial

The ongoing acute viral pneumonia pilot study is a multi-center, open-label, randomized clinical trial in Israel with an emphasis on enrolling patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Patients are randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive inhalations of 150 ppm NO given intermittently for 40 minutes four times per day for up to seven days in addition to standard supportive treatment (NO + SST) or standard supportive treatment alone (SST, control group). At the time of the cut off for these data, a total of 23 COVID-19 subjects were enrolled. The intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis population included 19 patients (9 NO + SST vs 10 SST).

Safety and Tolerability

Effect on Duration of Hospital Stay Intent to Treat Population

Intent to Treat Population with Exclusion of Extreme Values*

*2 subjects discharged from hospital within 6 hours of study enrollment were excluded from analysis.

Effect on Oxygen Support Requirements

Additional detailed study results will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming scientific meeting.

Summary of Analysis of 3 Completed Bronchiolitis Pilot Trials

To date, over 90 patients hospitalized with a viral lung infection have received 150-160 ppm inhaled NO, dosed intermittently, without any reported treatment-related serious adverse events, said Asher Tal, M.D. Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics, Soroka University Medical Center; Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Overall, the data show that 150 ppm NO given intermittently via inhalation is effective in the treatment of patients with bronchiolitis, while data at the lower concentration of 85 ppm show no benefits. I look forward to further development of the program using a minimum concentration of 150 ppm NO, noting that a reduction in time spent in the hospital by these patients would be clinically meaningful.

Beyond Air has assessed inhaled NO in three pilot clinical trials in bronchiolitis. 198 infants (43% females; 57% males) participated across the three programs, with a mean age of 3.9 months (range 0.3 11.9 months). Inhaled NO treatments were given intermittently for 30 to 40 minute durations, from 4 to 5 times daily for up to 5 days. Data from patients in the SST group were pooled across the 3 studies for safety analysis.

Studies Included in the Analysis

Safety and Tolerability

Efficacy Conclusions

*Met statistical significance (p

About Beyond Air, Inc.Beyond Air, Inc. is a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company developing a revolutionary NO Generator and Delivery System, LungFit, that uses NO generated from ambient air to deliver precise amounts of NO to the lungs for the potential treatment of a variety of pulmonary diseases. LungFit can generate up to 400 ppm of NO, for delivery either continuously or for a fixed amount of time and has the ability to either titrate dose on demand or maintain a constant dose. The Company is currently applying its therapeutic expertise to develop treatments for pulmonary hypertension in various settings, in addition to treatments for respiratory tract infections that are not effectively addressed with current standards of care. Beyond Air is currently advancing its revolutionary LungFit for clinical trials for the treatment of severe lung infections such as SARS-CoV-2 and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Additionally, Beyond Air is using ultra-high concentrations of NO with a proprietary delivery system to target certain solid tumors in the pre-clinical setting. For more information, visit http://www.beyondair.net.

About Nitric Oxide (NO)Nitric Oxide (NO) is a powerful molecule, naturally synthesized in the human body, proven to play a critical role in a broad array of biological functions. In the airways, NO targets the vascular smooth muscle cells that surround the small resistance arteries in the lungs. Currently, exogenous inhaled NO is used in adult respiratory distress syndrome, post certain cardiac surgeries and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn to treat hypoxemia. Additionally, NO is believed to play a key role in the innate immune system and in vitro studies suggest that NO possesses anti-microbial activity not only against common bacteria, including both gram-positive and gram-negative, but also against other diverse pathogens, including mycobacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast and parasites, and has the potential to eliminate multi-drug resistant strains.

About LungFit*Beyond Airs LungFit is a cylinder-free, phasic flow nitric oxide generator and delivery system and has been designated as a medical device by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The ventilator compatible version of the device can generate NO from ambient air on demand for delivery to the lungs at concentrations ranging from 1 part per million (ppm) to 80 ppm. LungFit system could potentially replace large, high-pressure NO cylinders providing significant advantages in the hospital setting, including greatly reducing inventory and storage requirements, improving overall safety with the elimination of NO2 purging steps, and other benefits. LungFit can also deliver NO at concentrations at or above 80 ppm for potentially treating severe acute lung infections in the hospital setting (e.g. COVID-19, bronchiolitis) and chronic, refractory lung infections in the home setting (e.g. NTM). With the elimination of cylinders, Beyond Air intends to offer NO treatment in the home setting.

* Beyond Airs LungFit is not approved for commercial use. Beyond Airs LungFit is for investigational use only. Beyond Air is not suggesting NO use over 80 ppm or use at home.

About BronchiolitisThe majority of hospital admissions of infants with bronchiolitis are caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is a common and highly transmissible virus that infects the respiratory tract of most children before their second birthday. While most infants with RSV present with minor respiratory symptoms, a small percentage develop serious lower airway infections, termed bronchiolitis, which can become life-threatening. The absence of treatment options for bronchiolitis limits the care of these sick infants to largely supportive measures. Beyond Airs system is designed to effectively deliver 150 - 400 ppm NO, for which preliminary studies indicate may eliminate bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes from the lungs.

About Acute Viral PneumoniaIn adults, viruses have been identified as the causative agents in approximately 100 million cases of community-acquired pneumonia per year. While viral pneumonia in adults is most commonly caused by rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza virus, newly emerging viruses (including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, avian influenza A, and H1N1 viruses) have been identified as pathogens contributing to the overall burden of adult viral pneumonia. Patients aged 65 years or older are at particular risk for death from the disease, as are patients with other underlying health conditions or weakened immune systems. There is no consensus regarding the use of antiviral drugs to treat viral pneumonia, and specific preventative measures are currently limited to the influenza vaccine. Given that current treatment recommendations are largely limited to supportive care, there is an unmet medical need for effective treatment options.

About COVID-19COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 first emerged in December of 2019. Those affected develop fever, cough, shortness of breath and/or difficulty breathing. While the majority of cases result in mild symptoms, some can progress to pneumonia and multi-organ failure. Older adults and people who have serious chronic medical conditions are at an increased risk of developing severe complications from COVID-19. There is no specific treatment approved for COVID-19 and patients are managed with supportive care. NO may prove to be a treatment as the impact on the lung should result in bronchodilation, reduction in inflammation and inhibition of the viral replication process1,2,3. As of May 12, 2021 more than 160 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 3.3 million deaths have been reported globally.

[1] Tripathi et al, FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology, December 2017[2] Saura, M., et al., An antiviral mechanism of nitric oxide: inhibition of a viral protease. Immunity, 1999. 10(1): p. 21-8.[3] Akerstrm S et al. Nitric oxide inhibits the replication cycle of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J Virol. 2005; 79(3):1966-9.

Forward Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements concerning inhaled nitric-oxide and the Companys LungFit product, including statements with regard to potential regulatory developments, the potential impact on patients and anticipated benefits associated with its use. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, or intentions regarding our product offerings, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. You can identify such forward-looking statements by the words anticipates, expects, intends, impacts, plans, projects, believes, estimates, likely, goal, assumes, targets and similar expressions and/or the use of future tense or conditional constructions (such as will, may, could, should and the like) and by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. Rather, forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and reflect our views as of the date they are made with respect to future events and financial performance. Many factors could cause our actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements, including risks related to: our approach to discover and develop novel drugs, which is unproven and may never lead to efficacious or marketable products; our ability to fund and the results of further pre-clinical and clinical trials; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property utilized by our products; our ability to enforce our patents against infringers and to defend our patent portfolio against challenges from third parties; our ability to obtain additional funding to support our business activities; our dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales, and distribution of products; the successful development of our product candidates, all of which are in early stages of development; obtaining regulatory approval for products; competition from others using technology similar to ours and others developing products for similar uses; our dependence on collaborators; our short operating history and other risks identified and described in more detail in the Risk Factors section of the Companys most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update, and we do not have a policy of updating or revising, these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.

CONTACTS:Steven Lisi, Chief Executive Officer Beyond Air, Inc. Slisi@beyondair.net

Maria Yonkoski, Head of Investor RelationsBeyond Air, Inc.Myonkoski@beyondair.net

Corey Davis, Ph.D.LifeSci Advisors, LLCCdavis@lifesciadvisors.com (212) 915-2577

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Beyond Air Presents Data in Hospitalized Patients with Viral Lung Infections (including COVID-19) from LungFit PRO Programs at ATS 2021 -...

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Dean Sherzai, MD, PhD is a neurologist and the co-director of the Alzheimers Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Our brain is the most active organ in our body, consuming 25 per cent of our energy and at times up to 50 per cent of our oxygen, even while we sleep. A balanced diet is crucial for helping it function at its highest capacity, yet all too often brain health is overlooked. So with the help of my wife Ayesha, who studied preventative medicine and neurology, I have devised a diet plan to boost our brain health: The 30-Day Alzheimers Solution: The Definitive Food and Lifestyle Guide to Preventing Cognitive Decline. Alzheimers and dementia are typically problems that are addressed later in life, but the plan is targeted at people of all ages as it is never too early to start feeding your brain: even our children, who are 14 and 16, follow this diet. We dont fall into any one diet plan, as they can all have unhealthy elements. We advocate for a clean, plant-based approach to eating focused around the nine NEURO points: nutrition, exercise, unwind, restore and optimize. The plan also aims to encourage positive habits, such as getting a good nights sleep and eating without your phone. An example of this would be: Nutrition: I will eat three servings of kale per week. Exercise: I will walk briskly for 15 minutes a day, five days a week. Unwind: I will meditate for 10 minutes every day. Restore: I will turn off all device screens an hour before I go to bed every night to help me have a night of restorative sleep. Optimise: I will practice piano three times a week. We chose to keep the plan to 30 days because, based on our experience, that is long enough to create a core set of habits that will last. My wife and I have devoted our careers to exploring the prevention of Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases. What we have discovered is that food is inextricably linked to brain health. Thousands of years ago, the goal was only to live for as long as it took to find a mate, which drove us to seek out sugar and high energy foods. To put it simply, life was about surviving, not thriving. But now, the aim is to cheat that system and live long and healthy lives. If we continue to eat sugars and processed carbohydrates to excess, as is common in Western diets, it can damage your brain. This is partly down to the role of insulin: if you eat too much sugar, the cells become overwhelmed, leading to insulin resistance and diabetes. Diets that are high in saturated fat cause long-term damage to our cells, including oxidation, while too much salt can impair blood pressure and damage the blood vessels leading to the brain. We chose to avoid fish for environmental reasons and concerns about mercury and lead. Instead, our plan incorporates omega-3 into peoples diets through walnuts and supplements. The beauty of the brain is that it can thrive when it is fed with the right foods. These are the neuro nine, which should be eaten every day. 1. Green leafy vegetables This includes dark green leafy vegetables like kale, watercress, Swiss chard, collard greens, arugula and spinach. These contain no saturated fats and help to keep you feeling full; consequently youre less likely to reach for unhealthy foods. They dont release sugar or glucose in excess, so they are the best thing for diabetes, pre-diabetes and glucose metabolism. Aim for: three cups raw or 1.5 cups cooked. 2. Whole grains Such as oats, quinoa, brown rice, farro and buckwheat. The fibre component is crucial, because it is broken down into these short fatty acids that affect the blood/brain barrier. Aim for: three servings ( cup cooked oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, or 100 per cent whole-wheat pasta is 1 serving). 3. Seeds Especially ground flaxseeds and chia seeds. They have a ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids of 34 to 1, making them a powerful brain health food. DHA is the omega-3 that is good for the brain; usually it comes from the algae which fish eat. Flaxseeds also contain lignans, which have antioxidant properties and fight degenerative changes in the body and brain. Aim for: two tablespoons (two servings) 4. Beans and legumes You should aim for a diet that is rich with chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans, lentils, edamame, giant beans, tempeh, tofu. Beans contain resistant starches, fiber, plant proteins, anti-oxidants, phytonutrients and iron. They lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar and have also been shown to reduce the risk of stroke. Aim for: three servings of 12 cup cooked beans or tofu/tempeh, 14 cup hummus, or 12 cup peas 5. Berries Such as blueberries, blackberries, strawberries. Blueberries contain anthocyanins, which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Anthocyanins have also been linked with increased neuronal signaling in areas of the brain that are responsible for memory function, and they improve the delivery of glucose to the brain. Aim for: 12 cup (one serving) 6. Nuts Including walnuts, almonds and cashews. Alongside seeds, these are a source of healthy fat. Walnuts are the stand-out choice when it comes to brain health: they have relatively high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in the form of ALA as well as fibres and minerals. Walnuts also have the highest antioxidants among all nuts; however, nuts are high in calories so it is important to consume them in moderation. Aim for: 14 cup (one serving) 7. Crucifiers Such as broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. These also have important anti-inflammatories called Sulforaphane, that can access the blood-brain barrier and actually reverse damage caused by free radicals and even normal aging. Aim for: one cup (two servings) 8. Tea Green, white, black, or Oolong tea. Green tea contains catechin, a polyphenol that activates toxin-clearing enzymes. This makes it a great anti-inflammatory. Recent research shows that consuming 1 to 2 cups of green tea a day lowers your risk of Alzheimers and stroke due to the compound EGCC. Aim for: At least one cup daily 9. Herbs and spices Especially turmeric, but also sumac, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, cloves, Indian gooseberry, and saffron. We mainly use these in the plan as a replacement for salt, because of the flavour they bring. However, they are also an easy way of adding more anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds to your diet. Aim for: At least 14 teaspoon daily The 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution: Definitive Food and Lifestyle Guide to Preventing Cognitive Decline by Dean Sherzai and Ayesha Sherzai is out now (HarperOne) As told to Alice Hall

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Naturdays boozy Frozen Icicles could be the hit of the summer - Yahoo News

Genome sequencing the ability to sequence an individual's DNA is becoming a standard tool to study diseases. In 2019, over 26 million people took direct-to-consumer DNA tests, which speaks to our collective desire to better understand our genomes.

In July 2013, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics issued a recommendation that people who have their genomes sequenced in a clinical setting should also have their genomic data screened for variants in 56 genes that can pose health risks. The genes (which includes the RET gene) are associated with increased risks for several life-threatening, but treatable or preventable diseases. The number of genes included in the list increased to 59 in 2016, and clinicians expect that the list will be updated again soon.

When a person comes into the clinic to be tested for a specific condition, any positive result related to that condition is called a primary finding. But when testing reveals information separate from the original condition, it is called a secondary finding. An estimated 1-4% of people receive unexpected health results from genomic tests each year.

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Animation of a clinician explaining primary and secondary findings. Credit: Harry Wedel, NHGRI.

Secondary findings are not unique to clinical genomics. People can also receive secondary findings from MRI, radiology and other medical tests.

In the case of genome sequencing, examples of secondary findings can include those related to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are associated with breast and ovarian cancer risk, and conditions such as inherited heart rhythm problems. Clinicians share such secondary findings with a person only if the person consents to receiving such information.

Secondary findings are now a component of precision medicine, relying on individual and collective genomic data to make assessments about a persons health risks. Clinicians can obtain highly accurate findings because of the vast amount of available genome sequence data. Researchers can search this data to improve genomic testing and how they detect people who are at risk of harboring disease-related variants. Specifically, secondary findings provide individuals and families the opportunity to learn about their health risks before they develop a disease.

In 2019, researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) started the Genomic Services Research Program, part of what is now NHGRI's Center for Precision Health Research, to further understand and improve the implementation of precision medicine initiatives.

"Secondary findings play a pivotal role in diagnosing diseases, preserving health and saving lives," said Leslie Biesecker, M.D., chief of the NHGRIs Clinical Genomics Section. "Our research program measures how clinicians communicate these findings and peoples reactions so we can identify areas for improvement. The payoff could improve human health by making it commonplace for people to get treatment for diseases before they are sick."

The payoff could improve human health by making it commonplace for people to get treatment for diseases before they are sick.

According to Biesecker, identifying a secondary finding is only the first step. The Genomic Services Research Program studies whether secondary findings have real-life use and value by assessing three key components:

Biesecker also emphasized the need for healthcare providers to clearly communicate with patients who receive secondary findings so they understand their treatment options.

"Most people seek out genetic testing because they know of a strong family history for a certain disease," said Katie Lewis, Sc.M., CGC, a genetic counselor in the program. "But for those individuals who get these secondary findings, it can be an immense surprise. Our goal is to help individual patients get the care they need and share the result with their families.

Lewis also adds that there is very little known about the extent to which patients follow through with treatment and the factors that influence their decisions. Understanding what motivates those who do take action and those who do not can help genetic counselors target their efforts to assist an individual with a secondary finding and translate it into improved long-term health.

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From one genomic diagnosis, researchers discover other treatable health conditions - National Human Genome Research Institute