Two Supertypes of Coronavirus: “East Asian” and “European”
Andrei Illarionov andNatalya PivovarovaThe Los Alamos National Laboratory has posteda new study, as reported this weekby theWashington Post andtheLos Angeles Times, that finds that the strain of the novel coronavirus that emerged in Europe and has spread to much of the world is different than the strain of the virus at its origin in China. Those findingsare consistent with our research which we posted (in Russian) on April 15, 2020. Although we are not epidemiologists, we are posting our slightly updated analysis below in English in the interest of sharing what may be significant findings with a wider audience. We welcome ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 8, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Andrei Illarionov, Natalya Pivovarova Source Type: blogs
Can AI and radiographs help in resource-poor areas for the fight against COVID-19?
Conclusion
With new evidence emerging every day and with COVID-19 guidance and protocols adapting responsively, the national responses vary widely across the globe. However, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea have shown that aggressive and proactive testing plays a crucial role in containing the spread of the disease.
We believe AI has great potential for helping doctors quantify and monitor COVID progression from a patient’s chest X-rays – this will help determine treatment pathways faster and thus slow any surges in emergency cases. AI will also play a critical role in expanding screening for...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Tech bhargava reddy manoj tld pooja rao preetham srinivas qure.ai tarun raj Source Type: blogs
Can The Tablighi Jamaat ’s Conference be India’s Own Epidemiological Diamond Princess?
By SOMALARAM VENKATESH, MD
“It has always been science versus fundamentalism, not science versus religion.” Abhijit Naskar, Biopsy of Religions: Neuroanalysis Towards Universal Tolerance
On February 3, 2020, the luxury cruise ship Diamond Princess docked on Japanese shores and was promptly quarantined with 3711 people on board, because a passenger who had disembarked at Hong Kong two days earlier had tested positive for SARS-Cov-2, or also known as COVID-19. Passengers & crew members were either repatriated or hospitalized in Japan over the next 4 weeks. In total,, more than 700 of them were ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 30, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Diamond Princess India Somalaram Venkatesh Tablighi Jamat Source Type: blogs
China Concerns Are No Reason to Maintain the Jones Act Status Quo
Colin GrabowAs scrutiny of theJones Act intensifies, defenders of the 100 ‐year‐old law have come up with ever more imaginative justifications for keeping it in place. One argument currently en vogue is casting the Jones Act as a bulwark against Chinese expansionism. Such framing is not difficult to understand given the poisoned state of U.S.-China relations.But is it actually true? Would China take over or dominate domestic shipping in the Jones Act ’s absence? There is considerable reason for skepticism.It ’s perhaps first worth noting that China, while a major shipping player, hardly dominates th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 22, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Colin Grabow Source Type: blogs
How One Model Simulated 2.2 Million U.S. Deaths from COVID-19
Alan ReynoldsWhen it came to dealing with an unexpected surge in infections and deaths from SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19 symptoms), federal and state policymakers understandably sought guidance from competing epidemiological computer models. On March 16, a 20-page report from Neil Ferguson ' s team at Imperial College London quickly gathered enormous attention by producing enormous death estimates. Dr. Ferguson had previously publicized almost equallysensational death estimates from mad cow disease, bird flu and swine flu.The New York Times quickly ran the hot news about this new COVID-19 estimate:The report, whi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 21, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
U.S.-China Tech Battle Threatens Pandemic Containment and More
Daniel J. Ikenson andHuan ZhuReuters reports that the Trump administration is planning to tighten export controls “to prevent China from obtaining advanced U.S. technology for commercial purposes and then diverting it to military use.” That sounds unobjectionable. After all, one purpose of U.S. export control laws is to ensure that dual‐use items—articles that have both commercial and military applic ations—are exported for commercial use only, unless explicitly licensed for military use. But closer scrutiny of the fine print is needed to assess whether the expected national security benefits of these new rule...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 13, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Ikenson, Huan Zhu Source Type: blogs
The COVID Pandemic: WHO Dunnit?
By ANISH KOKA, MD
COVID is here. A little strand of RNA that
used to live in bats has a new host. And
that strand is clearly not the flu. New
York is overrun, with more than half of the nation’s new cases per day, and
refrigerated 18-wheelers parked outside hospitals serve as makeshift
morgues. Detroit, New Orleans, Miami,
and Philadelphia await an inevitable surge of their own with bated breath. America’s health care workers are scrambling
to hold the line against a deluge of sick patients arriving hourly at a rate
that’s hard to fathom.
I pause here to attest to the heroic r...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 11, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Zoya Khan Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Anish Koka coronavirus Pandemic Sars-CoV-2 WHO World Health Organization Source Type: blogs
Do Great Leaders Create Peace and Prosperity?
David BoazWith the latest news about Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban ’s drive for autocratic power, I was just looking up this quote from Hayek ’sThe Road to Serfdom–…dissatisfaction with the slow and cumbersome course of democratic procedure which makes action for action’s sake the goal. It is then the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough “to get things done” who exercises the greatest appeal. “Strong” in this sense means not merely a numerical majority – it is the ineffectiveness of parliamentary majorities with which people are dissatisfied. What they will seek is som...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 3, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Panic Buying: The Psychology of Hoarding Toilet Paper, Beans & Soup
There’s a very good article by Bella DePaulo, Ph.D. Why Are People Hoarding Toilet Paper? that dives into the psychology of this behavior. It’s a good question, because what we’re seeing are American consumers acting in a seemingly irrational manner in reaction to the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Panic buying is what people do when faced with an imminent disaster, whether it be natural — such as a hurricane or snowstorm — or something else, like the spread of a virus for which there is no effective treatment or vaccine. And while it seems irrational on the surface, it actually ha...
Source: World of Psychology - March 19, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Mental Health and Wellness Motivation and Inspiration Policy and Advocacy Psychology Research Stress coronavirus COVID-19 crisis emotional contagion hoarding hoarding toilet paper panic buying Source Type: blogs
Why Peak Viral Load makes temperature screening alone insufficient for COVID-19
By TONY ESTRELLA
And how South Korea and Taiwan’s approach to diagnosis and tracking is leading to positive results
By now, the sight of people wearing surgical masks, flinching at the sights and sounds of someone coughing or sneezing, governments restricting large gatherings, and sports leagues suspending or cancelling matches is familiar across the world.
Even though this newest coronavirus we now call COVID-19 is not the deadliest disease as measured by daily deaths, the concern over the outbreak is forcing urgent actions.
Daily deaths from COVID-19 compared to other diseases. Source: informationisbeautifu...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 16, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Source Type: blogs
Can the US health care system “ pull an Italy? ”
by MATTHEW HOLT
There has been a ton of analysis about COVID-19 and how bad it will get. Some like Joon Yun and Jeremy Faust say the panic is worse than the disease. Others have run the infection rate numbers and predicted that the US will run out of hospital capacity in early May and in Washington state much earlier (end of March).
But there’s no doubt that in the last week or so, sentiment has changed. This week I and 45,000 of my best friends are at home, not at HIMSS in Florida. Many big gatherings like SXSW, Comic-Con and Coachella have been cancelled. Most corporations that can are asking employees to wor...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: CORVID-19 Health Policy Italy Source Type: blogs
A Full-Scale Assault on Medical Debt, Part 3
By BOB HERTZ
The only way to
fully eliminate medical debt would be a comprehensive single payer plan, which
allowed no fees at the point of service.
However, such a
plan would require setting all prices for all doctors, hospitals, labs, and
drug companies. All providers would have to be satisfied – in advance — with
what the government is going to pay them on each procedure.
Countries like
Germany accomplish this through collective bargaining. Japan, France, Taiwan,
Israel and Scandinavia also have national fee schedules. However, I do not
think you could get all the providers in Toledo to agree on one schedu...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Economics The Business of Health Care Bob Hertz Costs of Care health economics medical debt Source Type: blogs
Does ST Elevation in lead aVR indicate acute coronary occlusion?
ConclusionsSTE-aVR with multilead ST depression was associated with acutely thrombotic coronary occlusion in only 10% of patients. Routine STEMI activation in STE-aVR for emergent revascularization is not warranted, although urgent, rather than emergent, catheterization appears to be important.Previously, Knotts et al. had published different, but also convincing, data:Knotts et al. found that such ECG findings (STE in aVR) only represented left main ACS in 14% of such ECGs: Only 23% of patients with the aVR STE pattern had any LM disease (fewer if defined as ≥ 50% stenosis). Only...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - March 8, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
Less ‐Costly Ways to Reduce the Harm of COVID-19 Without Travel‐and‐Immigration‐Bans
ConclusionA mix of the policy options above, from Pigovian taxes and subsidies to small changes in property rights as well as reducing ignorance and other regulatory changes at airports, could have a large effect in reducing the spread of COVID-19 at a very low cost. Extreme options like travel ‐and‐immigration‐bans might be appropriate if the expected cost of COVID-19 climbs beyond a certain point, but less ‐costly policies should be tried first. In other words, let’s have TSA agents squirt hand sanitizer into the hands of all travelers before closing the airports. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 28, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
Where Does China's'One Country, Two Systems' Stand in 2020?
Hong Kong and Macau live under “ one country, two systems, ” and China aspires to include Taiwan in the future as well. But President Tsai Ing-wen ' s landslide re-election in Taiwan on January 11 resoundingly demonstrates that the arrangement is dead on arrival there. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - February 12, 2020 Category: Health Management Authors: Derek Grossman Source Type: blogs
