Category: Health News

Anti-vaccine group uses telehealth to profit from unproven COVID-19 treatments : Shots

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Anti-vaccine group uses telehealth to profit from unproven COVID-19 treatments : Shots

Ben Bergquam was hospitalized with COVID in January. He says he brought his own prescription for ivermectin — an unproven COVID therapy.

Screenshot by NPR/Facebook


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Screenshot by NPR/Facebook

Ben Bergquam was hospitalized with COVID in January. He says he brought his own prescription for ivermectin — an unproven COVID therapy.

Screenshot by NPR/Facebook

Just before Christmas, a right-wing journalist named Ben Bergquam became seriously ill with COVID-19.

“My Christmas gift was losing my [sense of] taste and smell and having a 105-degree fever, and just feeling like garbage,” Bergquam said in a Facebook video that he shot as he lay in a California hospital.

“It’s scary. When you can’t breathe, it’s not a fun place to be,” he said.

Bergquam told his audience he wasn’t vaccinated, despite having had childhood asthma, a potentially dangerous underlying condition. Instead, he held up a bottle of the drug ivermectin. Almost all doctors do not recommend taking ivermectin for COVID, but many individuals on the political right believe that it works.

How ivermectin became the new focus of the anti-vaccine movement

The details revealed in Bergquam’s video provide a rare view into the prescription of an unproven COVID-19 therapy. Data shows that prescriptions for drugs like ivermectin have surged in the pandemic, but patient-doctor confidentiality often obscures exactly who is handing out the drugs.

Bergquam’s testimonial provides new and troubling details about a small group of physicians who are willing to eschew the best COVID-19 treatments and provide alternative therapies made popular by disinformation — for a price.

Ivermectin is usually prescribed to treat parasitic worms, and the best medical evidence to date shows that it doesn’t work against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, American Medical Association and two pharmaceutical societies all discourage prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19, and many doctors and hospitals will not give it to patients who are seeking treatment.

But fueled by conspiracy theories about vaccine safety and alternative treatments, many on the political right incorrectly believe ivermectin is a secret cure-all for COVID. As millions of Americans fell ill with COVID last summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported ivermectin prescriptions were at 24 times pre-pandemic levels. The agency says prescriptions again rose during the latest omicron surge.

A significant number of these prescriptions come from a small minority of doctors who are willing to write them, often using telemedicine to do so, according to

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Senators intro bipartisan work towards modernizing wellbeing privateness legal guidelines

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Senators intro bipartisan work towards modernizing wellbeing privateness legal guidelines

Senators Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Monthly bill Cassidy, R-La., launched the Health and fitness Data Use and Privacy Fee Act this week, aimed at commencing the system of modernizing health and fitness facts use and privacy policies.

The laws, supported by numerous industry representatives which include athenahealth, Epic, IBM and Teladoc Wellness, would create a fee tasked with offering recommendations to Congress about updates to wellbeing data privateness legal guidelines.  

“As a medical professional, the prospective of new technologies to improve affected person treatment would seem limitless. But People have to be in a position to believe in that their individual health info is protected if this technology can meet its complete prospective,” Dr. Cassidy reported in a statement.   

WHY IT Issues  

Broadly well-liked systems these as applications and wearables were being hardly conceivable at the time of the Wellbeing Insurance policies Portability and Accountability Act’s passage in 1996.  

As the senators noted in press statements, at far more than 25 several years previous, HIPAA addresses affected individual-health practitioner interactions but does not commonly protect wellness information sufferers report on those people resources – possibly putting the info at hazard.  

“HIPAA should be current for the modern day working day. This legislation starts this method on a pathway to make positive it is finished correct,” said Cassidy.  

The commission recognized by the act’s passage would be accountable for examining and evaluating existing protections for particular overall health details at the point out and federal degree, together with latest wellbeing data employs in a assortment of industries.  

The commission is also billed with drafting suggestions and conclusions for Congress about the following: 

  • The likely threats posed to specific well being privateness and genuine company and plan interests. 
  • When sharing health information is proper and effective for people, and the outcomes of much too-stringent privateness procedures. 
  • The efficiency of current statutes, restrictions, non-public-sector self-regulatory attempts, technological innovation innovations and market place forces in safeguarding specific wellbeing privacy.
  • Recommendations on regardless of whether federal legislation is required, and if so, certain recommendations on how to do so.
  • Assessment of irrespective of whether supplemental laws may perhaps impose fees or burdens, or result in unintended consequences in other coverage areas.
  • The price tag examination of legislative or regulatory modifications proposed in the report. 
  • Recommendations on non-legislative options to person wellness privateness fears.
  • Critique of the usefulness and utility of third-social gathering statements of privateness
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Melatonin use for sleep is on the rise, side effects may be dangerous

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Melatonin use for sleep is on the rise, side effects may be dangerous
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New research finds that U.S. adults took twice as much melatonin for sleep in 2018 than they did a decade before. stock_colors/Getty Images
  • A good night’s sleep is essential for good physical health, cognitive performance, and emotional functioning. Numerous sleep studies have documented these facts over time.
  • More and more adults are taking over-the-counter (OTC) melatonin preparations to get a better night’s rest, but some of them may be taking this substance at dangerously high levels, a new study finds.
  • Experts worry that the coronavirus pandemic’s negative effect on sleep has further increased the reliance on melatonin and other sleeping aids.

In the recent study, researchers obtained data from ten cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), covering the years 1999 through 2018. This study included 55,021 adults, 52% of whom were women. The participants had a mean age of 47.5 years.

The results showed that in 2018, adults in the United States took more than twice the amount of this sleep aid than they did a decade earlier, which may pose a health risk in some individuals.

The study revealed that melatonin use increased from 0.4% in 1999–2000 to 2.1% in 2017–2018, with the increase beginning in 2009–2010.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the lead author is Dr. Jingen Li, Ph.D., of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

The study evaluated adults who took melatonin at the recommended dosage of 5 milligrams per day (mg/d), as well as those who exceeded that dosage. Before 2005–2006, the authors found that users did not report taking more than 5 mg/d, but the prevalence of taking more than 5 mg/d went from 0.08% in 2005–2006 to 0.28% in 2017–2018.

Although the overall use of melatonin in the U.S. is still relatively low, the study does “document a significant many-fold increase in melatonin use in the past few years,” according to sleep specialist Rebecca Robbins, Ph.D., who is an instructor in the division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School and was not involved in this study.

Dr. Robbins told Medical News Today:

“Taking sleep aids has been linked to prospective studies with the development of dementia and early mortality. Melatonin is one such sleep aid.”

The body’s biological clock regulates hormonal fluctuations, which evolve over a person’s lifespan. As a result, aging

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WHO chief, Taliban focus on ‘dire’ Afghan wellness disaster | Information

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WHO chief, Taliban focus on ‘dire’ Afghan wellness disaster | Information

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus achieved the Taliban overall health minister who is portion of Taliban delegation currently visiting Switzerland.

The head of the World Health Business (WHO) said on Wednesday he experienced met the well being minister in the Taliban-led federal government in Afghanistan for talks on the “dire” health and humanitarian disaster in the country.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus exposed that he met Qalander Ebad for talks on Tuesday.

Ebad is section of a Taliban delegation viewing Geneva for a week of talks with institutions and non-governmental agencies on humanitarian obtain and human rights, as Afghanistan’s new rulers expand their worldwide engagement.

The Taliban motion returned to energy in Kabul in mid-August as the United States ended its 20-calendar year war in Afghanistan.

Given that then, Afghanistan has plunged into economic chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging, though the halting of assist and US sanctions has triggered a humanitarian disaster in a country by now devastated by a long time of war.

Tedros had presently fulfilled Ebad during his pay a visit to to Kabul in September 2021 in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

“Despite some improvements due to the fact then, the overall health scenario in Afghanistan is nevertheless dire and the acute humanitarian crisis is continuing to set lives at hazard,” Tedros claimed.

He explained they talked about wellness wants in the place, strengthening the program, crisis preparedness and teaching the wellbeing workforce, in which women are central.

“The acute need to have in Afghanistan is to provide diagnostics to detect the COVID-19 virus, and in particular Omicron, as the range of conditions is on the rise,” Tedros stated.

Humanitarian meeting

The Taliban delegation, symbolizing what it calls the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), is in Switzerland at the invitation of Geneva Connect with, which functions to guard civilians all through conflict.

The basis is hosting a convention on Afghanistan behind shut doors from Monday to Friday, aimed at boosting the unimpeded shipping and delivery of humanitarian aid in the nation.

Tedros stated the WHO was supporting the COVID-19 response in Afghanistan, as effectively as its polio and measles immunisation campaigns.

“We also reviewed progress on girls’ education at all ranges, which include greater schooling and help for joining the overall health workforce,” the UN health company chief stated.

“WHO phone calls on the worldwide local community to keep on with dialogue to assist the people

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For the duration of COVID surges, rural hospitals battle to transfer clients : Shots

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For the duration of COVID surges, rural hospitals battle to transfer clients : Shots

It experienced only been about 6 months given that Katie Ripley finished radiation treatment for Stage 4 breast cancer. But now the 33-calendar year-outdated was again in the medical center. This time, it wasn’t most cancers – she was nevertheless in remission – but she’d appear down with a unpleasant respiratory an infection.

It wasn’t COVID, but her immune defenses had been weakened by the most cancers solutions, and the infection had designed into pneumonia.

Most cancers survivor Katie Ripley desired specialized ICU treatment, but there was no mattress to transfer her to in the location for the duration of omicron surge.

Kai Eiselein


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Kai Eiselein

Cancer survivor Katie Ripley necessary specialised ICU care, but there was no mattress to transfer her to in the region for the duration of omicron surge.

Kai Eiselein

By the time Ripley made it to Gritman Clinical Centre, the regional clinic in Moscow, Idaho, on January 6, her affliction was deteriorating promptly. The illness had started off impacting her liver and kidneys.

Her father, Kai Eiselein, remembers the horror of that night time, when he realized she wanted specialized ICU treatment.

“The medical center below did not have the services for what she desired,” he says. “And no beds were readily available anywhere.”

Americans get sicker as omicron stalls everything from heart surgeries to cancer care

Ripley did not just need any bed. She needed a style of dialysis — known as constant renal alternative treatment — which is applied for critically sick sufferers, and is in high demand from customers in hospitals managing a ton of COVID.

In regular occasions, she would have been flown to a greater hospital in just several hours. Like a lot of rural hospitals, Gritman depends on getting capable to transfer patients to greater, improved-geared up hospitals for care that it are unable to give — whether or not that’s positioning a stent following a coronary heart assault or treating a life-threatening infection.

But hospitals all above the Pacific Northwest at the time were being swamped with a surge of COVID-19 sufferers. And like wellness care devices in numerous pieces of the country, the affected individual load indicates there is certainly generally nowhere to transfer even the most essential cases.

Katie Ripley had designed it via months of most cancers remedy — surgical procedures, chemo and radiation– obtaining a new probability at existence with her spouse and two younger young ones. Her father was devastated to see

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Pandemic-fueled shortages of property health and fitness aides strand people with out care

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Pandemic-fueled shortages of property health and fitness aides strand people with out care

Many trends are fueling the shortages: Hospitals and other businesses are choosing absent home overall health personnel with much better shell out and benefits. Lots of aides have fallen ill or been uncovered to Covid-19 throughout the current surge of omicron conditions and will have to quarantine for a time. And staffers are burned out right after functioning through the pandemic in complicated, stress-provoking circumstances.

The implications for more mature older people are dire. Some seniors who are completely ready for discharge are waiting around in hospitals or rehabilitation facilities for various days just before house care products and services can be arranged. Some are returning house with significantly less help than would be exceptional. Some are suffering from cutbacks in expert services. And some simply can’t uncover treatment.

Janine Hunt-Jackson, 68, of Lockport, New York, falls into this final classification. She has article-polio syndrome, which causes critical fatigue, muscle mass weak point and, frequently, cognitive difficulties. Via New York’s Medicaid application, she’s licensed to obtain 35 several hours of treatment each individual week. But when an aide still left in June, Hunt-Jackson contacted businesses, questioned buddies for referrals, and posted task notices on social media, with minimal reaction.

“A couple of individuals confirmed up and then disappeared. One particular guy was additional than keen to function, but he failed to have transportation. I couldn’t uncover any person trustworthy,” she claimed. Determined, Hunt-Jackson organized for her 24-calendar year-aged grandson, who has autism and oppositional defiant disorder, to shift into her double-wide trailer and serve as her caregiver.

“It truly is frightening. I am not prepared to be in a nursing household, but without having dwelling treatment you will find no other choices,” she mentioned.

Mainly because thorough info isn’t offered, the scope and impression of existing shortages can not be documented with precision. But anecdotal reviews recommend the problem is intense.

“Everyone is suffering from shortages, especially all over nursing and property wellbeing aides, and reporting that they’re not able to confess individuals,” said William Dombi, president of the Countrywide Affiliation for Household Care & Hospice. Some organizations are rejecting as numerous as 40% of new referrals, in accordance to studies he is been given.

“We’re viewing expanding demand on adult protecting expert services as a result of people today with dementia not getting in a position to get products and services,” claimed Ken Albert, president of Androscoggin House
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