Inexplicable irrationality
For mysterious reasons, there have been anti-vaccination movements since vaccination was invented.* The eradication of smallpox from the earth; the near eradication of polio (which terrified the population in the 1950s); and the near elimination of measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, typhus and other diseases which formerly maimed and killed many children; and many other triumphs ought to have convinced people that vaccination was an unalloyed benefit to humanity. But somehow it ' s profitable to deny this obvious reality.The near miraculous success of the Covid 19 vaccines turns out to be one more opportunity for charlat...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 25, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Milwaukee County Addresses Health Equity with Data and GIS Technology
Milwaukee County is at the forefront of addressing racial inequity. During the COVID-19 pandemic they cross referenced vaccination rates with the CDC’s social vulnerability index and plotted the results using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. Armed with this powerful insight, the County was able to increase vaccinations in populations that needed them the most and by doing so increased the safety of the entire County. They are now incorporating an equity lens into other areas of public health.
Healthcare IT Today had the opportunity recently to sit down with Zachary Swingen, Lead GIS Coordinator at Milwauke...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 12, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Colin Hung Tags: Analytics/Big Data Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System CDC vulnerability index COVID-19 Vaccination GIS for Health GIS technology Health Equity Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Manag Source Type: blogs
The (sort of, partial) Father mRNA Vaccines Who Now Spreads Vaccine Misinformation (Part 2)
By DAVID WARMFLASH, MD
This is part 2 of David Warmlash’s takedown of Robert W. Malone’s appearance (transcript) on the Rogan podcast. Part 1 is here
Menstruation and Fertility
Much more than the line about reproductive damage in the Wisconsin News clip that we used to open the story, Malone used the Rogan interview to dive more deeply into the topic, starting with:
…there’s a huge number of dysmenorrhea and menometrorrhagia…
By that, he meant excessive menstrual cramping and very heavy, often irregular, bleeding, which he followed up with:
…they DENY it…
Judging by other parts ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 18, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy antivaxxer COVID-19 vaccine David Warmflash Joe Rogan Robert Malone Source Type: blogs
The Death Cult
While there has always been an anti-vaccination fringe, ever since there was such a thing as vaccination (and no, I ' m not sure why) the Republican party and conservatives have never as a class been hostile to the vaccine mandates that have been in place in every state for decades.Until now. The ginned up hysteria about Covid-19 vaccine, based on batshit insane conspiracy theories about microchips and alterations to DNA and lizard people, was just one more manufactured outrage to stir up the MAGAts, like Critical Race Theory, the castration of Mr. Potatohead, and of course the Big Steal, better known as the Big...
Source: Stayin' Alive - January 25, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Actually, it wasn't Samson after all
The stupidest person who ever lived, that is. Hunter has athorough discussion of the efforts of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to kill as many of his voters as possible. I would like to focus on the fundamental illogic of this conceptualization of " freedom. " I have often said that libertarianism, like the concept of God, is both internally inconsistent and inconsistent with observable reality. The absurd conservative response to Covid-19 illustrates this perfectly. In the name of Freedom ™, DeSantis:Forbids businesses -- from small family owned enterprises to giant publicly traded corporations -- from making polici...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 3, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Your New Life In 2021 (Mid-Post COVID)
At the beginning of the pandemic, we wrote a lot about how the pandemic should and could be handled. In addition to providing real-world advice on what technology can do to support us (like Digital Health Apps To Use During Quarantine or The State of A.I. in the Fight Against COVID-19), we often provided forecasts (When And How Will COVID End?) and predictions about the management and the potential outcome of the epidemic (Will There Be A Second Wave). We even created an entire handbook to give away for free!
After drawing attention to the privacy and data protection issues raised by the pandemic (we issued a guide for ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 6, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Judit Kuszkó Tags: Covid-19 Forecast 3D Printing science telemedicine vaccination contact tracing cdc pfizer mask mRNA J&J herd immunity Uğur Şahin Karl Schroeder Source Type: blogs
COVID herd immunity: At hand or forever elusive?
By MICHEL ACCAD, MD
With cases of COVID-19 either disappeared or rapidly diminishing from places like Wuhan, Italy, New York, and Sweden, many voices are speculating that herd immunity may have been reached in those areas and that it may be at hand in the remaining parts of the world that are still struggling with the pandemic. Lockdowns should end—or may not have been needed to begin with, they conclude. Adding plausibility to their speculation is the discovery of biological evidence suggesting that prior exposure to other coronaviruses may confer some degree of immunity against SARS-CoV2, a...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 30, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy immunity MICHEL ACCAD Pandemic Source Type: blogs
Vaccines for COVID-19 moving closer
As the world reels from illnesses and deaths due to COVID-19, the race is on for a safe, effective, long-lasting vaccine to help the body block the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The three vaccine approaches discussed here are among the first to be tested clinically in the United States.
How vaccines induce immunity: The starting line
In 1796, in a pastoral corner of England, and during a far more feudal and ethically less enlightened time, Edward Jenner, an English country surgeon, inoculated James Phipps, his gardener’s eight-year-old son, with cowpox pustules obtained from the arm of a milkmaid. It was widely believed ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 21, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Shiv Pillai, PhD, MBBS Tags: Coronavirus and COVID-19 Health Infectious diseases Vaccines Source Type: blogs
The Problem With “Herd Immunity” as a COVID-19 Strategy
This article originally appeared on his blog here.
The post The Problem With “Herd Immunity” as a COVID-19 Strategy appeared first on The Health Care Blog. (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 5, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Dave deBronkart e-Patient Dave e-Patient Dave DeBronkart Pandemic Source Type: blogs
No Relationship Between Notifiable Diseases and Immigrant Populations
Alex Nowrasteh andAndrew C. ForresterThe international spread of the SARS ‐CoV‐2 virus that causes the disease COVID-19 has prompted many governments to close their borders. Immigration policy plays an important role in limiting the international spread of contagious diseases.Prior to the COVID-19 crisis,several commentators were concerned that immigrants – especially illegal immigrants – were spreading serious diseases in the United States. This blog post is the first in a series to answer the question of whether immigrants spread serious notifiable diseases other than COVID-19 in the United States. This ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 13, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh, Andrew C. Forrester Source Type: blogs
Why follow a vaccine schedule?
Right now, many people are hoping for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus. While that’s still on the horizon, new research suggests that families who do vaccinate their children may not be following the recommended schedule.
Vaccines are given on a schedule for a reason: to protect children from vaccine-preventable disease. Experts designed the schedule so that children get protection when they need it — and the doses are timed so the vaccine itself can have the best effect. When parents don’t follow the schedule, their children may not be protected.
And yet, many parents do not follow the schedule.
A th...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 26, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
The real cost, and longer term implications, of the Wuhan coronavirus
It ' s too soon to know for sure how the tale of the novel coronavirus will play out,but at this point we have a pretty good idea. A stipulation in both of the scenarios at the linked essay is that yeah, it gets loose into the wild and eventually can show up anywhere in the world. I think that ' s pretty much definitely going to happen if it hasn ' t already.Scenario number 1, and most likely, in my view, it will just be one more virus that causes what amounts to a common cold and in a few people who are otherwise debilitated goes on to be complicated by pneumonia. In that case, for a year or two it will circulate as a nov...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 5, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
What can you do to reduce the risk of birth defects?
You’ve done it! You’ve taken that last birth control pill, removed your IUD, or stopped using your contraceptive method of choice. You’ve made the decision to try to conceive a pregnancy, and while this is an exciting time in your life, it can also feel overwhelming. There is so much advice around fertility and pregnancy, and sifting through it all just isn’t possible. For many mothers, their goals crystallize around ensuring that their baby is healthy.
Evidence-based steps that may prevent birth defects
January is Birth Defects Prevention Month, so we want to focus on things you can do to reduce the risk of birth ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 22, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Huma Farid, MD Tags: Family Planning and Pregnancy Fertility Vaccines Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Vaccines for women: Before conception, during pregnancy, and after a birth
The rise of vaccine-preventable illnesses, such as measles and hepatitis, in the United States and around the globe has been alarming in recent years. For women — especially those hoping to become pregnant, as well as women who are pregnant or have recently had a baby — vaccines can be a worrisome topic. There are many misconceptions about vaccine safety in and around pregnancy that can lead to confusion and unnecessary fear of a lifesaving medical tool. As a practicing ob/gyn, I often discuss vaccines with my patients and help them sort out fears versus facts.
Which vaccines should you consider before conception?
The ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ilona T. Goldfarb, MD, MPH Tags: Health Parenting Pregnancy Vaccines Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Bad viruses travel fast: Measles vaccine important for travelers
(This post has been updated with relevant recent information.)
The United States was declared free from ongoing measles transmission in 2000. But we may be at risk for joining the UK Greece, Albania, and the Czech Republic, four countries recently stripped of measles elimination status by the World Health Organization. Since the beginning of 2019, more than 1,234 measles cases have been reported in 31 states, with active outbreaks in upstate New York and El Paso, Texas. New York has just declared the end of its yearlong outbreak, which required a massive public health response to control. Minnesota had a major measles outb...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 8, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Travel health Source Type: blogs
