APIC urges members to disregard new CDC masking guidelines

Infection preventionists should continue to enforce universal masking for healthcare workers who come in contact with patients, says APIC.

The recent relaxation of masking guidelines for healthcare professionals by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seems a bit premature to one professional organization,  The  Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in a press release.

It is foolish to recommend a nationwide recommendation for a country of 350 million with a wide geographic area and diverse demographic. A more sensible approach is to make recommendations based on regional and local prevalence of Covid19.

COVID TRACKER

APIC urges members to disregard new CDC masking guidelines: 

Long COVID Experts: U.S. Government Needs to Do More | Time

Long COVID Experts and Advocates Say the Government Is Ignoring 'the Greatest Mass-Disabling Event in Human History'

Video of Patient with Long Covid

Many of the symptoms are identical to "chronic fatigue syndrome: which was a "wastebasket" term used to identify a constellation of signs and symptoms present in patients with 'Long Covid'.

Long Covid is still a constellation of signs and symptoms that scientists are studying.  There is strong evidence that it is linked to the immune system and there may be a genetic link for those who develop 'Long Covid"

Some think it is related to the activation of the Epstein-Barr virus, once thought to result in "chronic fatigue syndrome".  Both Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long Covid are enigmatic.  However modern science is showing that Long Covid is a real entity proven by tests that were not available at the time of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Covid19 has been around for only 3 years, a very short time, and over the next decade we will see what else develops. The immune system has a long memory.

Long COVID Experts: U.S. Government Needs to Do More | Time

Prosopagnosia (face blindness) Do you suffer from this? Brad Pitt has it

People who are diagnosed with prosopagnosia often fall into one of two categories: either they are born with it or they acquire it.

Prosopagnosia is not related to memory problems, vision loss, or learning disabilities, but it's sometimes associated with other developmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, Turner syndrome, and Williams syndrome. However, estimations reveal that as many as one in every 50 people may struggle with some lifetime form of the disorder, and experts hypothesize that it may run in families.

According to Blum, research “suggests that congenital, or lifelong, prosopagnosia is less prevalent.”

According to Andrey Stojic, director of general neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, children born with the illness “don’t seem to have any visible structural abnormality” in the brain.

Notably, doctors don’t fully understand what causes congenital prosopagnosia because there aren’t any obvious brain lesions in persons who have it.

In contrast, people who develop prosopagnosia later in life may have brain abnormalities brought on by a trauma or head injury.

According to Bonakdarpour, individuals can also develop prosopagnosia while dealing with Alzheimer’s illness or following a stroke.

What therapies are available for prosopagnosia?

Borna Bonakdarpour, MD

Assistant Professor of Neurology (Behavioral Neurology

Prosopagnosia is now untreatable, according to Bonakdarpour. The problem can be treated, though.

People who have the syndrome frequently attempt to distinguish between people by focusing on physical characteristics like hair color, gait, or voice.

Usually, a set of tests that measure a person’s memory and face recognition help neurologists make the diagnosis.

As doctors frequently take care to ensure that a patient’s face blindness is not an indication of a more extensive degenerative neurological disorder, Blum adds, “it can be a drawn-out process.”

It’s noteworthy that many people with the illness, like Pitt, won’t get an official diagnosis.

Many of the difficulties he’s discussing and the issues he has are not unusual for people to go through them, according to Stojic.

He continued, “It may be relatively crippling for folks. “Others find it difficult to comprehend,”

Worldwide Directory of Pregnancy Help

Use the search tools below to locate a pregnancy help service provider in your area. Heartbeat International Affiliates will have a light red background in the search results. If you don't find the pregnancy help location you're looking for, it may be because some service providers choose not to have their locations made public for security reasons.

This post is offered as a service to women who are contemplating terminating a pregnancy.  It has no political affiliations.  It is offered as an educational resource and is advisory only.

Every day women take the first dose of the abortion pill and regret their decision. But, there is a way that they can reverse the effects of the abortion pill. There is an effective process called Abortion Pill Reversal. Contact us and we can talk with you about joining the Abortion Pill Rescue Network so that you can help these women take that last chance to choose life.

Join Abortion Pill Rescue Network 

Each month, hundreds of women call the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline seeking help after starting a chemical abortion. Each call is immediately connected to a knowledgeable and compassionate member of our team.

The hotline is staffed by trained nurses 24/7 who are available to answer questions and explain reversal. 

Worldwide Directory of Pregnancy Help

Listening to Black Californians: How the Health Care System Undermines Their Pursuit of Good Health - California Health Care Foundation

Don't dis me bro !

Surprisingly, Black Californians care more about their health care than other Californians.  Contrary to what providers believe, it is not so !  

The real barrier is NO or little access to health care.

In Their Own Words: Black Californians on Racism and Health Care

California, home to the most culturally diverse population in the country and the fifth-largest Black population of any state, has a major opportunity to be a leader in health equity. But glaring racial and ethnic inequities pervade its health care system, from insufficient access to worse health outcomes to excess mortality.

Black residents have the shortest life expectancy (75 years) at birth of any racial/ethnic group, six years shorter than the state average. Black Californians have the highest death rates from breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers. Black birthing people experience the highest rates of prenatal and postpartum depression, preterm births, low birthweight births, and pregnancy-related mortality. And Black infants have the highest mortality rates.

As part of its commitment to ending health inequities, CHCF commissioned Listening to Black Californians, a three-phase qualitative and quantitative study to understand the health and health care experiences of Black Californians. The research is being conducted by EVITARUS, a Black-owned public opinion research firm in Los Angeles. An advisory group composed of academics, policymakers, providers, and community advocates is guiding the study.

This report describes the results of Phase I of the Listening to Black Californians study. In this phase, EVITARUS conducted individual, hour-long interviews with 100 Black Californians from June to August 2021 to understand their views on health and well-being, their perceptions of discrimination and bias in the health care system, and their views on what a quality health care system looks like. Each story provided unique insights. Still, taken as a whole, the stories revealed many similarities in how Black Californians view health and how they experience health care.

Key findings include:

• Respondents held a holistic view of health and prioritized it in their everyday lives.
• Experiences with racism in health care were widespread and negatively impacted participants’ health.
• Participants envisioned high-quality health care as patient-centered and proactive.

The complete report is available under Document Downloads.

In Their Own Words: Black Californians on Racism and Health Care — Executive Summary (PDF) 

Listening to Black Californians: How the Health Care System Undermines Their Pursuit of Good Health - California Health Care Foundation

Findings suggest COVID-19 rebound not caused by impaired immune response | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Findings from a small study of eight patients published in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggest that COVID-19 rebound is likely not caused by impaired immune responses. The study, led by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, aimed to define the clinical course and the immunologic and virologic characteristics of COVID-19 rebound in patients who have taken nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid), an antiviral therapeutic developed by Pfizer, Inc. COVID-19 rebound is characterized by a recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms and/or a new positive viral test after having tested negative, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the study authors, the results do not support the hypothesis that the five-day course of Paxlovid is too short for the body to develop a strong immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The next question is do we need a 4th Omicron booster?  Where are the studies showing repeated infections in the 3rd booster group vs the 4th booster group?  The short time periods do not allow for the true degradation (if any) of the immune response to a 4th generation omicron booster.

The rush to re-vaccinate may be premature.  Hopefully, the development of a whole virus vaccine is in process.  There has been enough time to do so using conventional vaccine production.  We should not lose sight of the original rush to produce the vaccine using a relatively unproven new mRNA process. which has been shown to produce a more limited length of an immune response.

What do the new boosters contain?

A bit of the old and a bit of the new. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration and Moderna make their vaccines from messenger RNA (mRNA) coding for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. The new vaccines are bivalent. Half of the mRNA codes for the spike protein of the ancestral virus strain that emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, which is also in the original shots; the other half codes for the spike protein in BA.1 or the one in BA.4 and BA.5, which have identical spikes. Because they contain a lower dose of mRNA, the shots are meant to be used as boosters only, and not in people who were never vaccinated.

Findings suggest COVID-19 rebound not caused by impaired immune response | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Psychedelics Stocks to Watch (Updated 2022)

There is a new sector in the market, rivaling technology, industrial and financial firms. One of these companies could grow and pass other market leaders.  It may be a new thing beyond crypto and blockchain.

While there are those that dabble in financial fantasy, the ones who seem to be making money are the promoters who are charging top dollar for education and training in the new "CURRENCY".

Other late-breaking news is Virtual Reality also called the "Metaverse" Mark Zuckerberg parlayed Facebook into a much large market, the Metaverse, now hawking new hardware and software.  His clever move to buy Oculus signals a paradigm shift for social media. Users will be able to enter a virtual room and see all participants in 3D.  VR goes far beyond video streaming, and webinars online.

The psychedelics market continues to grow, and investors are looking for opportunities. This comprehensive list outlines psychedelics stocks to watch.

The small-cap market has been invaded by a flurry of psychedelics stocks to watch thanks to new company launches. Investors now have a variety of options for taking a run in the shroom stocks space.

In an effort to expand the capabilities of the medical field, companies are starting to investigate the potential of psychedelic medicines and are looking to raise capital in the public market.

While this industry is still in its early stages, the promising potential of psychedelic medicine drug products has attracted the interest of savvy investors eager for an emerging investment opportunity.

A shroom boom is in the works, led by encouraging results from psychedelic medicine treatments for various issues associated with mental health, and in connection to potential global law changes.

Here the Investing News Network presents a current list of psychedelics stocks to watch. The following stocks are all listed on public stock exchanges and are arranged alphabetically.

Aion Therapeutic (CSE:AION,OTC Pink:ANTCF)

Company Profile

Aion Therapeutic is in the business of research and development, treatment, data mining and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques. It is focused on the development of combinatorial pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals utilizing compounds from cannabis, psychedelic mushrooms, fungi, natural psychedelic formulations and other medicinal plants in a legal environment for this type of discovery.

Albert Labs (CSE:ABRT)

Press Releases

Company Profile

Albert Labs is Vancouver-based research and drug-development company focused on improving patient access to innovative mental health medications. The company is presently developing a natural psilocybin-based medication for patients with cancer-related distress.

Algernon Pharmaceuticals (CSE:AGN,OTCQB:AGNPF)

Company Profile

Algernon Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage drug-development company focused on the disease areas of stroke, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and chronic cough.

Allied (OTCQB:ALID)

Company Profile

Allied has both cannabinoid and psilocybin products in the pharmaceutical development track, and is seeking pharma drug indications for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

ATAI Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI)

Company Profile

ATAI Life Sciences is a clinical-stage biopharma company aiming to transform mental health disorder treatment.

For the remainder click below

Psychedelics Stocks to Watch (Updated 2022)

The Omicron Whirlwind: A Conversation with Eric Topol - The Current and ...

Edwards updates Sapien TAVR device for greater durability | MedTech Dive

Edwards updates Sapien TAVR device for greater durability | MedTech Dive

Medtronic self-expanding TAVR shows durability benefit over surgery at 5 years, analysis shows

To boost or not to boost - by Eric Topol - Ground Truths

Here we go again !

To boost or not to boost

Should that be the question?

Eric Topol

37 min ago

The reluctance for Americans to get a booster shot has been striking. The United States currently ranks 73rd among countries for its uptake of boosters at 33% of its population. All peer, rich countries around the world are at least double that rate. Countries ranking above the US now include Rwanda, Uzbekistan, Iran, Honduras, and Azerbaijan. Seemingly, you’d have to work very hard to show up this poorly as the country that first validated the vaccines, manufactures them, and has had such a surfeit supply that it has >50 million shots it can’t get anyone to take. Nonetheless, it has maintained optimism and purchased 171 million new Omicron BA.5 variant bivalent shots.

So why is the rate of immunization so low in the United States? It is not about science.  Eric Topol M.D. is a well-respected authority. Precision Medicine is touting how we need another booster shot. It is also not a political issue.  Americans no longer have faith in government recommendations.  During the last several decades the U.S. government made many poor choices, including severe restrictions, social distancing, personal protective equipment, and shutting down the economy, as well as promoting major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In other countries that may be less developed, people accept government decisions,  not knowing the details about vaccines. %10%1

Our current rate of inflation (about 10%) is largely due to the stimulus packages. That was money we printed, for which there is no real backing.

On the one hand, according to Topol, there is incontrovertible evidence for the benefit of a booster.

Very strong evidence supporting boosters dates back to October 2021, when the results of the only large (~10,000 participants) (1st) booster randomized trial were released and later published, with a 95% reduction of symptomatic infections across all age groups, through the Delta wave, durable at that level for at least 4 months. There were no safety concerns or myocarditis. The efficacy level was fully restored to the original randomized trial (95%) reports in November 2020. 

The right question

Boosters provide substantive and unequivocal benefits for protection from severe Covid and are likely to help, to at less some degree, reduce Long Covid, and certainly have some early (2 months) effects for reducing infection and transmission. We don’t know yet if the BA.5 bivalent booster is any better than the BA.1 or the original booster. Based on the evolution of the virus through Omicron and its subvariants, it appears unlikely the new vaccine will have a major or important impact on reducing infection or transmission (we got a hint of that from the new BA.1 NEJM study above). There’s ample evidence from multiple studies that mucosal IgA antibodies are what will be needed to help block infections and transmission, such as this NEJM new report with 60-80% reduction of breakthrough infections (and reduced viral load, higher Ct, Tables below) as a function of mucosal IgA antibodies, not related to IgG antibodies. While they were formed in some health care workers as a response to vaccination and or infection, there is a way to induce them via nasal or oral vaccines. The durability of this effect isn’t yet known, but it would be far easier to take a nasal spray repetitively, with the expectation of much fewer side effects, than shots. Certainly encouraging data from CanSino’s newly approved inhaled vaccine vs Omicron is a solid precursor for the many programs that are in advanced clinical trials.

The right question is about the future. We can’t go on getting boosters every 4 to 6 months and the premise of an “annual” shot is that the virus exhibits seasonality like flu, which certainly isn’t the case. 

Economics play a large role in who gets vaccines. In poor countries, it is often not available.  In developed countries including the U.S. that is not a limiting factor.

The truth lies somewhere in the statistics which can be read below.

This reminds me of what a professor told me a long time ago.  Beware! Statistics often lie!

To boost or not to boost - by Eric Topol - Ground Truths: Should that be the question?

The Truth About the Flu Shot

The Truth About the Flu Shot

There are some surprising facts about the "regular flu shots"

What’s in the Regular Flu Shot?

• Egg protein and avian contaminant viruses
• Thimerosal (mercury): in multi-dose vials
• Polysorbate 80:allergen; infertility in mice
• Formaldehyde: carcinogen
• Triton X100: detergent
• Sucrose: table sugar
• Resin: known allergen
• Gentamycin: antibiotic
• Gelatin: known allergen

Do Flu Shots Work?

Not in healthy babies:

 A review of 51 studies involving more than 294,000 children it was found there was “no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shot was any more effective than placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in preventing the flu.

Not in children with asthma: 

A study 800 children with asthma, half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Not in adults: In a review of 48 reports (more than 66,000 adults), “Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go to hospital or take time off work.”

Not in the Elderly: In a review of 64 studies over 98 flu seasons of elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.

Amazon plans job cuts in health-care unit after shuttering telehealth

About 159 Amazon Care employees will be laid off, while a standalone company that provided services for Amazon Care will cut 236 roles.

Amazon

 is preparing to cut more than 150 jobs as it winds down its telehealth offering known as Amazon Care, according to filings submitted in Washington state.

Amazon said 159 employees will be laid off from Amazon Care, based on Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings submitted late Thursday. The WARN Act requires employers to provide advance notice, generally within 60 days, of mass layoffs or plant closings.

Another 236 employees will be let go from Care Medical, a team of clinicians that was charged with treating Amazon Care patients, according to a separate WARN notice also filed Thursday. Care Medical is an independent company that was contracted to work with Amazon.

The layoffs are slated to begin Dec. 1, according to the filings.

Amazon said late last month that it will wind down its telehealth service after Dec. 31. The company chose to shutter the service after determining it wasn’t “a complete enough offering” for customers, Amazon said.

Amazon Care was one piece of Amazon’s strategy to upend the health-care industry, alongside its pharmacy and consumer diagnostics ventures. Even after shuttering Amazon Care, the company has continued its expansion into health care. In July, Amazon said it would acquire One Medical for $3.9 billion, bringing in a network of boutique primary care clinics.

Amazon Care launched in 2019 as a pilot program for employees in and around the company’s Seattle headquarters, before expanding to serve other employers. The service provides virtual urgent care visits, as well as free telehealth consults and in-home visits for a fee from nurses for testing and vaccinations.

At the time that Amazon announced it would shutter the service, the company said in a memo to employees that it would give them the opportunity to find roles elsewhere at Amazon.

“Many Care employees will have an opportunity to join other parts of the Health Services organization or other teams at Amazon — which we’ll be discussing with many of you shortly — and we’ll also support employees looking for roles outside of the company,” Amazon Health Services lead Neil Lindsay wrote in the memo.

An Amazon representative reiterated in an emailed statement that those affected will have the opportunity to find other jobs internally. “Our priority continues to be supporting our employees during this transition,” the statement said.

In the second quarter, Amazon shaved its headcount by 99,000 people to 1.52 million employees. The retail giant is taking steps to shrink its workforce as it looks to cut costs after growing its staff and warehouse footprint at an unprecedent pace during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amazon plans job cuts in health-care unit after shuttering telehealth:

Journal of Medical Internet Research - A Revised Hippocratic Oath for the Era of Digital Health

A Revised Hippocratic Oath for the Era of Digital Health

Is it time for physicians to have a new Hippocratic Oath?

Physicians have so many new tools at their disposal?  We have graduated from the written medical record to electronic medical records, stethoscopes, reflex hammers, percussion, and many tools using just our eyes, ears, tactical senses to echocardiograms, imaging and even artificial intelligence. 

It is time to modernize our oath, however ehtics must remain unchanged. Just as in the past economic conderns and limitations are not the purvue of treating physicians.  We have witnessed the impact of manged care, medicare regulations and other regulatory agencies, quality assurance and other metrics.

These additions have served to restrict what we advise our patients, who remain under our care.  Governemtn agencies and health insurance companies serve their own interests, usually financial in nature.  Physicians must still set the ultimate goal, caring for our patients.  Ethical concerns are not to be trivialized, or influenced by economic concerns.  Ethics guard patient welfare.  When laws and prefered practice patterns harm patients it is time for us to speak.

Bertalan Mesko, M.D. and Brennan Spiegel M.D. published  "A Revised Hippocratic Oath for the Era of Digital Health", in the online Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR)"

In the article Drs Mesko and Spiegel write,

"Physicians have been taking the Hippocratic Oath for centuries. The Oath contains a set of ethical rules designed to guide physicians through their profession; it articulates a set of true north principles that govern the practice of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath has undergone several revisions, most notably in 1948 by the World Medical Association. However, in an era of rapid change in medicine, we believe it is time to update the Oath with modest but meaningful additions so that it optimally reflects 21st century health care. The rise of digital health has dramatically changed the practice of medicine in a way that could not have been easily predicted at the time Hippocrates outlined his ethical principles of medicine. Digital health is a broad term that encompasses use of digital devices and platforms, including electronic health records, patient-provider portals, mobile health apps, wearable biosensors, artificial intelligence, social media platforms, and medical extended reality, to improve the process and outcomes of health care delivery. These technologies have driven a cultural transformation in the delivery of care. We offer modest suggestions to help prompt discussion and contemplation about the current Oath and its relevancy to our changing times. Our suggestions are not meant to be a definitive set of final recommendations. Rather, we propose new text that bodies such as the World Medical Association might consider integrating into an updated Oath, just as previous changes were adopted to ensure the Oath remains relevant and impactful for all physicians and their patients."

Keywords

hippocratic oath; digital health (273); eHealth (408); future (2); automation (5); ethics (20); viewpoint; medical perspective; physician perspective; ethical (2); digital divide (22); artificial intelligence (146); moral