Sara Ivey - Medical Journalist

28/07/2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/upshot/abortion-bans-states-social-services.html?smid=url-share

Texas ranks last (50th) in the number of uninsured women. The statistics for maternal mortality, infant mortality and child poverty are pathetic when comparing Texas and other states with abortion bans.

Texas fails to support important policies that help women with wanted pregnancies, as well as unwanted pregnancies. Texas fails to provide healthcare for girls, teenage girls, and women of childbearing age.

They tend to have the weakest social services and the worst results in several categories of health and well-being.

27/07/2022

A key scientist in Alzheimer’s research appears to have published “doctored” images of amyloid beta in rat brains. This is a deep dive from prestigious Science Magazine.

A neuroscience sleuth challenges data showing one toxic form of amyloid protein is a cause of brain condition

01/06/2022

Right-wing political proponents want to control speech, only if it is in opposition to them.

The First Amendment does not work that way. It is one of the five freedoms of our democracy in the Bill of Rights, a lesson taught fervently in all journalism schools.

The law, prompted by conservative complaints about censorship, prohibits big technology companies like Facebook and Twitter from removing posts based on the views they express.

27/05/2022

Gun violence now leads as the most common cause of death in children and teens.

According to the latest data released last month (April, 2022), by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,368 Americans under 19 years old died from gun violence in 2020.

This includes 2,811 homicides and 1,293 suicides.

By comparison, almost 4,000 kids died in cars that same year. Car crashes are the second leading cause of death in this age group. It was the leading cause until 2020.

We have a critical public health problem that needs emergency action to tighten gun restrictions.

24/02/2022

New type of vaccine with a two-shot dose.

Covid Updates: Los Angeles County Lifts Mask Mandate in Public Indoor SpacesThe county, home to 10 million people, became one of the latest in the United States to ease restrictions. Sanofi and GSK said their vaccine is highly effective at protecting against severe disease.Published Feb. 23, 2022Upd...

11/01/2022

Yes, you can get “flurona.” But it’s probably not as bad as it sounds.

09/11/2021

Here is the COVID-19 pill Pfizer study. It is double-blinded (both patients and researchers don’t know who gets the medicine), placebo-controlled with a 24-week trial.

The results: hospitalization plummets by 89% in group getting the medication, compared with placebo group. This is as important as the vaccine breakthroughs.

A Study of PF-07321332/Ritonavir in Nonhospitalized High Risk Adult Participants With COVID-19 - Full Text View.

09/11/2021

Domestic violence is a public health issue.

Fascinating story about a new TikTok messaging gesture.

The girl flashed the hand signal from a car on a Kentucky interstate, the authorities said. It was created as a way for people to indicate that they are at risk of abuse and need help.

07/10/2021

Why waste a very precious organ donation on a patient who refuses to be vaccinated?
When a person becomes a transplant patient, the required protocols are important and require high compliance. An anti-vaxer is a very poor candidate, because he or she doesn’t believe scientific evidence. That patient may only believe in YouTube and Facebook’s feed.

UCHealth says that transplant recipients often have to meet other health requirements and that studies show covid-19 is especially fatal to transplant patients.

29/09/2021

This is a good decision made far too late.

False claims and quackery videos are killing the unvaccinated all over the world.

YouTube is the free marketplace for viewers. It’s supported by profitable, clickbait-driven advertising.

YouTube has been irresponsible. It has played a major and critical role in the anti-coronavirus vaccine movement that has led to thousands, perhaps millions, of deaths.

Many unvaccinated Americans think it is MORE dangerous to get vaccinated than to become infected by the virus. Dozens of YouTube videos make this false claim to mislead and often sell a worthless product.

Here are the facts from CDC and Johns Hopkins data collection.

1 in 300-500 chances of dying from COVID in U.S. (30% chance of lingering symptoms among hospitalized COVID patients).

1 in 5 million chances of dying from COVID vaccine side effects in U.S. (Some data suggest it is 1 in 7 million.)

Examples of content that would be taken down include false claims that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility or that they don’t reduce transmission or contraction of diseases.

06/09/2021

I love the analogy of an umbrella and a raincoat. Clear communication is so important. This analogy is a good example.

https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2021/08/moving-from-pandemic-to-endemic-in-north-texas/?ref=mpw

COVID-19 may not be going away any time soon. What does that mean for us?

03/09/2021

Excellent reporting.

The return to life after cancer treatment, known as reentry, can be gradual and bumpy. Reentry from Covid-19 may follow a similar path.

31/08/2021

Failure to vaccinate, not vaccine failure.

At Monday’s meeting of vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Matthew F. Daley said hospitalization rates from January 2021 to July 2021 for unvaccinated people were 16 times greater than those who were vaccinated.

Daley said that the burden of hospitalizations was “really a reflection of failure to vaccinate, not vaccine failure.”

31/08/2021

Texas taxes are funding long-shot ideas in cancer research. Fascinating. Stay tuned.

Uttam Tambar knew his research could flop. “This is going to sound like a crazy idea,” he said in an email to co-worker Bruce Posner last fall about a...

25/08/2021

Excellent reporting about the 56-year-old Florida physician who developed thrombocytopenia (a platelet disorder), which led to a "sharing" anti-vaccine frenzy on Facebook. I recommend the journalism website, Nieman Lab, for careful examination of coverage of the pandemic.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/08/facebook-sent-a-ton-of-traffic-to-a-chicago-tribune-story-so-why-is-everyone-mad-at-them/

Because that story was a hit among anti-vaxxers — showing you don't have to be a "fake news" outfit to put public health at risk.

21/08/2021

From my alma mater. Thank you.

New sign outside Campbell Hall (home of WILL TV and radio) and Richmond Studio on UI campus thanking journalists. Sign courtesy MidAmerica Emmy Chapter.

20/08/2021

This shows the complexity of each breath inside every human cell.

Viruses interrupt this critical process.

(From my 2020 microbiology college class with Dr. Danesh at Richland College)

18/08/2021

Excellent frontline reporting from Louisiana’s largest hospital, now being staffed by federal medical disaster workers. I worked with members of this team in downtown Dallas at the migrant boys crisis center last Spring.

Inside the ICU, health workers face a frustrating new reality: Their patients' refusal to be vaccinated is prolonging the pandemic.

15/08/2021

It appears that the definitely-notters will only learn the hard way.

To reach herd immunity, we need a different approach.

13/08/2021

Excellent nonpartisan and nonprofit group.

Latest misinformation trends on vaccines and coronavirus.

Anti-science, right-wing websites are the major culprits of misinformation.

Get key trends and insights related to vaccine misinformation from July in our fourth and final Vaccine Misinformation Insights Report.

20/07/2021

Excellent explanation of the two drug trial controversy and desperation to provide hope…

Though some of its own senior officials said there was little evidence of benefit for patients, the F.D.A. nonetheless greenlighted Biogen’s Aduhelm, or aducanumab.

15/06/2021

Was the Wuhan lab performing “gain of function” coronavirus experiments? That’s where researchers make a virus more powerful to understand how it functions and replicates.
Excellent reporting.

The virologist, Shi Zhengli, said in a rare interview that speculation about her lab in Wuhan was baseless. But China’s habitual secrecy makes her claims hard to validate.

12/06/2021

An employer in America can require an employee to be vaccinated.

This is the power of the free market.

The employer can also NOT require an employee to be vaccinated. It’s the employer’s choice.

Just like requiring employees to have tattoos covered, or males to have short hair, or a requirement to wash hands frequently or wear a mask or hair net.

But, the employer MUST keep an employee’s health information private. That’s the only difference with vaccinations. It’s private.

Companies can require workers entering the workplace to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to recent U.S. government guidance.

05/06/2021

These four runners are in their 90’s. They set a relay record and are proof that age does not define our capabilities.

ご視聴いただきありがとうございます。 青森県の陸上競技を更に盛り上げるべく、2019年度から県内主要大会の動画撮影や有力選手との対談、ラジオの配信など、様々な活動をしています。 TFaomoriの活動の一環として、 ①大...

25/05/2021

Fascinating timeline that is still evolving about the origin of the novel coronavirus...

Lab accident or wet market zoonosis or something else?

The Chinese government’s lack of transparency about the cause of the Co-V2 origin only raises suspicion.

The possibility that the coronavirus emerged from a lab was quickly dismissed by scientists in early 2020. This timeline shows which events and scientific publications had an impact on changing minds.

25/05/2021

Colon cancer is the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. About 56-thousand people die every year.

This is a highly preventable cancer in most cases.

Colonoscopies should begin at age 45.

Colorectal cancer screenings should now start at age 45 instead of 50, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said in updated guidance released May 18.

09/05/2021

A conservative voice of reason: “this generation of Americans would have lost WW II.”

No need to storm foreign beaches. Just walk into a damn CVS.

The United States is incapable of collective action.

04/05/2021

To fully reopen, to be free again, people should get the vaccine: Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson and Johnson.
Those who think freedom is about resisting vaccines?
It’s just the opposite.

Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy.

29/03/2021

The “wet market” theory or the lab theory? Neither is confirmed by the WHO report, raising more questions than providing answers.

The findings may be overshadowed by questions about China’s lack of transparency — and the WHO’s apparent inability to press for more.