Black and Hispanic populations are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, according to a systematic review published this week. The disparities were likely related to minority populations being at higher risk of exposure to the coronavirus as opposed to underlying health conditions or other factors, according to the review led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science…
For heavy (ex-)smokers, lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography (low-dose CT, LDCT) offers more benefit than harm: The procedure can save a number of people from dying of lung cancer; for some of them, it might also prolong overall survival. This is the conclusion drawn by IQWiG in its final report commissioned by the…
FAIRFAX, Va.– The final 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) issued this week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will result in reimbursement cuts in the range of 10% for neurointerventional procedures, according to a detailed analysis published last week in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery™, the leading international peer-reviewed journal for…
There are around 40 million blind people in the world. Many of them would not benefit from a treatment of the eyes, e.g. in cases with damage to the optical nerve, where the connection between eye and brain is lost. For these patients, direct stimulation of the visual areas in the back of the brain…
Chestnut Hill, Mass. (12/03/2020) – Ocean pollution is widespread and getting worse, and when toxins in the oceans make landfall they imperil the health and well-being of more than 3 billion people, according to a new report by an international coalition of scientists led by Boston College’s Global Observatory on Pollution on Health and the…
LONDON — The first rigorously tested coronavirus vaccine was given a green light for use on Wednesday in Britain. Doses of the vaccine, made by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a small German company, BioNTech, will be injected starting next week, the government said. In leaping ahead of the United States to allow mass…
CVS has reached a deal with the federal government to give out a Covid-19 antibody treatment in patients’ homes and long-term care facilities, the pharmacy chain announced on Wednesday, providing a new way for certain high-risk patients to get a drug aimed at keeping them out of the hospital. The treatment, called bamlanivimab and developed…
Federal health officials on Wednesday effectively shortened quarantine periods for those who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, hoping to improve compliance among Americans and reduce the economic and psychological toll of long periods of seclusion. Citing the spiraling number of infections nationwide, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also urged…
In October, Judith Munz and her husband, Scott Petersen, volunteered for a coronavirus vaccine trial. At a clinic near their home in Phoenix, each got a jab in the arm. Dr. Petersen, a retired physician, became a little fatigued after his shot, and developed redness and swelling on his arm. But Ms. Munz, a social…
The drugmaker Moderna said on Wednesday that it would soon begin testing its coronavirus vaccine in children ages 12 through 17. The study, listed Wednesday on the website clinicaltrials.gov, is to include 3,000 children, with half receiving two shots of vaccine four weeks apart, and half getting placebo shots of salt water. But the posting…