Routine Checkup: More Evidence in Favor of Vaccines 💉
If you ever want to talk about getting vaccinated, please contact me!
America is about to test how long ‘normal’ can hold: “The Biden administration’s sights have clearly been set on minimizing disruptions to American life. The cost? By the time the government says that it’s time to act, any wave we experience will be well underway. Whatever happens next, we’re living the reality the CDC’s guidance bargained for. The country’s new COVID rules have asked us to sit tight, wait, and watch. We may soon see the country’s true tolerance for disease and death on full display.” (Source: The Atlantic)
Evidence grows that vaccines lower the risk of getting long COVID: Good news! Even though these findings aren’t conclusive, the scientific thinking here is since vaccinated people tend to have lower viral loads, if they experience a breakthrough infection, the chances of dealing with long covid would be lower. The flip side to this is it’s not known how the vaccines stand against long COVID from an omicron infection. (Source: NPR)
As evidence favoring boosters mounts, half of eligible U.S. residents haven't gotten theirs: I agree with Dr. Stella Safo, quoted in this article. Part of the reason why people aren’t rushing to get boosted is that public health officials aren’t pushing the issue as hard as they should. The Biden Administration has chosen a push for “normalcy” over the necessary actions required to end the pandemic for real. It’s also probably confusing for some to see COVID precautions roll back alongside calls to vaccinate. I 100% agree that people should get boosted; I just think a portion of the blame in that reluctance falls onto the government’s head. (Source: NBC News)
Cut Off: In one Black community, limbs are being amputated at an alarming rate. It didn’t have to be this way: Columbia, South Carolina’s 29203 zip code is one of the most medically dangerous areas in the Deep South. Here, between 2016 and 2020, approximately 10 out of every 10,000 residents have had a lower limb amputated due to diabetes—a medical procedure largely deemed a last resort. And it is when patients can access vascular surgeons who can perform the operations necessary to save their legs. Cut Off is a devastating, expansive look at the reality of healthcare for Black South Carolinians that, rightfully, places the blame for this at the feet of the state’s medical system. (Source: The State)
Meet the Black women behind the new digital startups aimed at reducing health disparities
“Inspired by the need to increase access to Black women physicians, Cooper partnered with another doctor, Monique Smith, in 2018 to found Culture Care. The digital health site links Black women with culturally similar doctors who can give them advice on navigating relationships with their in-person medical teams. It was a move toward digital medicine before telehealth made its mark in health care amid the COVID-19 pandemic, using it as a potential solution to address racial health disparities.” (Source: Capital B)
Health officials see bright future in poop surveillance
“Wastewater surveillance is not a new concept, but the scale and scope of the current pandemic have vaulted the technique over the narrow walls of academic research to broader public use as a crucial tool for community-level tracking of covid surges and variants. Sewage surveillance is proving so useful that many researchers and public health officials say it should become standard practice in tracking infectious diseases, as is already the case in many other countries. But whether that happens — and which communities get access — depends on the nation’s ability to vastly scale up the approach and make it viable in communities rich and poor.” (Source: Kaiser Health News)
A Possible Senate Change To CDC Leadership Has Public Health Experts Worried
“Public health officials are concerned the CDC change would politicize the process of naming a new director, forcing holdups in Congress over mask mandates, gun control, and lab leak disputes. Health officials also fear that directors, who are now appointed by presidents for their health expertise, would be replaced instead by pharmaceutical industry donors or political allies.” (Source: BuzzFeed News)
This Twitter thread deserves to be placed in the Louvre:
A shameless plug!