Currently, there are over 10 million confirmed cases and more than 240,000 casualties attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S. Researchers at Louisiana State University have applied computational models to investigate infection rates in relation to social distancing measures. Their paper, Effect of mitigation measures on the spreading of COVID-19 in hard-hit states in the U.S.,…
Cleveland Clinic is the first hospital in the world to use a recently FDA-approved ablation technology that can destroy large liver tumors. The minimally invasive procedure uses a single needle connected to a powerful 150-watt microwave generator that can burn a malignant liver tumor as large as 2.4 inches, which is about the size of…
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced on Monday that their inexpensive, easy-to-produce coronavirus vaccine appears effective, the latest in a string of encouraging results this month from leading vaccine developers. An early analysis of data from late-stage clinical trials found that AstraZeneca’s vaccine was either 62 percent or 90 percent effective, depending on the…
A combination of healthy sleep habits may help reduce the risk for heart failure, new research suggests. Scientists studied 408,802 generally healthy people aged 27 to 73 between 2006 and 2010, collecting information on their sleep habits. Each person got a zero-to-five “healthy sleep score,” based on five healthy sleep practices: being a “morning person”;…
Girls born extremely prematurely may have an increased risk of depression from childhood through young adulthood. Using Finnish birth and health registries, researchers studied 37,682 people diagnosed with mild, moderate or severe depression, comparing them with 148,795 healthy controls. The children were born between 1987 and 2007, and their average age at diagnosis was 16.…
At a recent visit to the Veterans Affairs clinic in the Bronx, Barry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, learned that he belonged to a very exclusive club. According to a new A.I.-assisted algorithm, he was one of several hundred V.A. patients nationwide, of six million total, deemed at imminent risk of suicide. The news did not…
While most of us strive to avoid inhaling aerosols that could harbor a deadly virus, millions of teens and young adults are deliberately bathing their lungs in aerosols rich in chemicals with known or suspected health hazards. I’m referring to vaping (or “juuling”): the use of e-cigarettes that is hooking young people on a highly…
The pandemic may present an opportunity to reshape the future of emergency medicine. The coronavirus has already prompted health care leaders to rethink how to deliver care to make the most of available resources, both physical and digital. If the shift to greater use of telemedicine continues after the pandemic, it could reduce reliance on…
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, but I am not particularly good at being thankful. I’ve hosted my family celebration every November for more than 35 years, but I don’t ask people to go around the table and say what they are grateful for. Come to think of it, I don’t do very well…
The head of one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers had a problem. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, needed $850 million for everything from glass vials to stainless steel vats so he could begin producing doses of promising coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poor. Mr. Poonawalla calculated that he could…