Is Routine Flu Vaccination Key to Pandemic Preparedness?
The staggering loss of life that COVID-19 has wrought, by some estimates more than 3.8 million people at the time of this writing, almost defies comprehension. To say that every human on the planet is being impacted by this illness may not be an overstatement. At the same time, an alarming shift in public focus […]
CDC: Flu Shots Working Moderately Well This Season
Early estimates suggest flu shots are performing OK in the current U.S. winter flu season. The vaccines were around 40% effective in preventing adults from getting sick enough from the flu that they had to go to a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital, health officials said during a CDC vaccines meeting Wednesday. Children who were […]
Parkinson’s Incidence 50% Higher Than Previously Thought
The annual incidence of Parkinson’s disease was 50% higher than previous estimates in data from five epidemiological cohorts in the U.S. and Canada. The new incidence rate was nearly 90,000 cases annually for people 65 and older, reported Allison Willis, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and co-authors. This contrasted sharply with the […]
Capturing the impact of human sewage on Earth’s coastal ecosystems: New worldwide mapping analysis identifies key exposure hotspots in unprecedented resolution
A first-of-its-kind, high-resolution mapping analysis estimates the amounts of nitrogen and pathogens released into coastal ecosystems from human wastewater sources around the world. Cascade Tuholske (now affiliated with the Columbia Climate School) and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, present this research in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 10, 2021. Human […]
New ways to estimate climate change impacts on agriculture
Most scientists agree climate change has a profound impact on U.S. agricultural production. But estimates vary widely, making it hard to develop mitigation strategies. Two agricultural economists at the University of Illinois take a closer look at how choice of statistical methodology influences climate study results. They also propose a more accurate and place-specific approach […]