How Can the U.S. Preserve Its Medical Supply Chain?
WASHINGTON — Onshoring medical manufacturing is part of a strategy to shore up the nation’s medical supply chain, but it can’t be the entire strategy, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). “If you are thinking about onshoring the entire global supply chain, that would be a […]
CDC Rats Out First U.S. Transmission of Seoul Hantavirus
Two service workers in Washington, D.C. contracted Seoul hantavirus in what is believed to be the first locally transmitted cases of the virus on U.S. soil. Both patients presented with several days of chills, high fever, headache, diarrhea, and vomiting. Both had acute kidney injury and responded to supportive treatment, and were later discharged. Rats […]
More Workers, Better Data Needed, Frontline Health Workers Tell House Members
WASHINGTON — More doctors and nurses on staff and in the pipeline are needed to help alleviate workforce shortages that have existed in healthcare for years and got much worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, witnesses said at a House hearing Wednesday. “Only a few weeks ago, a nurse in charge of my emergency department told […]
States Launch Probe Into TikTok’s Effect On Kids’ Health
WASHINGTON (AP) — State attorneys general have launched a nationwide investigation into TikTok and its possible harmful effects on young users’ mental health, widening government scrutiny of the wildly popular video platform. The investigation was announced Wednesday by a number of states led by California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. Advertisement […]
Healthcare a Major Player in State of the Union Address
WASHINGTON — President Biden didn’t skimp on discussing healthcare in Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech — although he took a little while to get there. His first mention of healthcare didn’t come until about 25 minutes into his speech of a little more than an hour, after he talked about the Russian incursion […]
Biden Nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court Seat
WASHINGTON — Reproductive rights groups hailed President Biden’s nomination of appeals court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday to replace retiring Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer, while abortion opponents said Jackson would “trample the Constitution.” The White House announced the nomination in a press release Friday morning. “Currently a judge on U.S. Court of Appeals […]
Tug of sun, moon could be driving plate motions on ‘imbalanced’ Earth
A study led by geophysicist Anne M. Hofmeister in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis proposes that imbalanced forces and torques in the Earth-moon-sun system drive circulation of the whole mantle. The new analysis provides an alternative to the hypothesis that the movement of tectonic plates is related to convection currents in […]
Artificial intelligence successfully predicts protein interactions: Research could lead to a wealth of drug targets
UT Southwestern and University of Washington researchers led an international team that used artificial intelligence (AI) and evolutionary analysis to produce 3D models of eukaryotic protein interactions. The study, published in Science, identified more than 100 probable protein complexes for the first time and provided structural models for more than 700 previously uncharacterized ones. Insights […]
Should Medicare Pay the Same Amount Regardless of Where a Service Is Provided?
WASHINGTON — Medicare should do a better job of equalizing payment for outpatient care across all settings — physician offices, hospital outpatient departments, and ambulatory surgical centers — but there still should be some allowances for different costs between sites, according to members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). “I think we do need […]
How Can the U.S. Avoid Another COVID-19 Stockpile Disaster?
WASHINGTON — What can be done to prevent poor federal responses to disasters, such as the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) that was woefully under-stocked when COVID-19 hit? That’s the question addressed in a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Responding to public health emergencies has largely been under the […]