One third of normal-weight individuals are obese, according to study based on body fat percentage
Researchers from the School of Public Health at TAU’s Faculty of Medicine examined the anthropometric data of about 3,000 Israeli women and men and concluded that body fat percentage is a much more reliable indicator of an individual’s overall health and cardiometabolic risk than the BMI index, widely used in clinics today. The researchers suggest […]
Return of Rule Nixing Delivery of Rx Drugs to Medicare Patients Drawing Docs’ Ire
Community oncologists are up in arms about a little-known consequence of the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE): the return of a rule barring them from mailing or home-delivering chemotherapy drugs to their Medicare patients. The rule comes from a nine-page Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document published in September 2021 on the federal […]
Water arsenic including in public water is linked to higher urinary arsenic totals among the U.S. population: Highest concentrations found in the West and South and among Mexican American and other Hispanic participants
A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health shows that water arsenic levels are linked to higher urinary arsenic among the U.S. population for users of both private wells and public water systems. The findings are published in the journal Environmental Research. Long-term exposure to arsenic even at low and […]
Opinion | Moderna’s Steep COVID Vaccine Price: Corporate Greed or Capitalism?
On May 11, the U.S. public health emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 will end. And with it, many Americans will no longer have access to free, government-sponsored COVID vaccines. Under the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, the U.S. government purchased and distributed COVID-19 vaccines for free to its populace, regardless of insurance or citizenship status. The […]
How Can Public Health Officials Increase Trust in Their Agencies?
Why do some people no longer trust public health agencies? Is it because COVID-19 wasn’t quickly eliminated? Not necessarily, according to researchers. “In a crisis of this scale, the U.S. public’s trust in public health agencies for information is not strongly related to organizations’ ability to eliminate the outbreak,” wrote Gillian SteelFisher, PhD, deputy director […]
How Much Did Celebrities Influence Public Opinion on COVID?
Through the use of social media, celebrities and other people in the public eye helped to shape the public discourse and opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic and public health efforts, according to an analysis of over 45,000 tweets posted from January 2020 to March 2022. While there were small differences in sentiment observed, a “broadly […]
Opinion | Patients Are Dying in Emergency Department Waiting Rooms
A special session of Congress was called 35 years ago to make lawmakers and the public aware of stories of patients left to die in hospital parking lots for lack of insurance. Around the time of that congressional testimony, called “Equal Access to Health Care: Patient Dumping,” a new guarantee came about: that any individual […]
CDC Details Rabies Death After Boy Goes Untreated Following Bat Bite
Public health officials released details on how a 7-year-old boy from Texas died from a rare rabies infection last year. Although the boy had informed his parents he had been bitten by a bat while playing outside his apartment home, there were no visible bite marks, so the parents did not seek rabies postexposure prophylaxis […]
Leana Wen Skips APHA Talk Following Threats Against Her
Public health expert Leana Wen, MD, didn’t speak at the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting in Boston this week because of credible threats against her, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Wen was slated to speak at a panel discussion that focused on countering backlash against public health. Groups reportedly planned […]
Primary Care Docs Need Better Community Data to Improve Public Health, Expert Says
Primary care doctors need to play a major role in improving the public health system, and to do that they need better data on the community they’re serving, said Andrew Bazemore, MD, MPH, at a briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Policy Friday. “I need to understand what the ‘community vital signs’ are for […]