Healthcare
There is a very strong case for diabetics to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as Dennis Thompson reports for HealthDay News: About 40% of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States were among diabetics, a “really quite sobering” statistic that should prompt people with the ailment to get vaccinated, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical…
G. Wayne Miller’s headline in the Providence Journal tells you about all you need to know about the article: “‘People are burned out’: RI faces a doctor shortage that could get worse.” Rhode Island is facing a shortage of doctors, which has made finding a physician in some specialties more difficult and could inhibit easy access…
A press release just out from the Rhode Island Department of Education announcing COVID-related standards for the return to school, takes some steps toward acknowledging science in the fall by eliminating requirements that schools provide an virtual-learning option. Moreover, while recommendations to be cautions whenever possible remain in place (e.g., encouragement toward out-door dining when…
Marc Archambault of South Kingstown has become the first human being to begin treatments with the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm (aducanumab): Marc Archambault, a 70-year-old real estate broker from South Kingstown, was treated at Butler Hospital with aducanumab, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 7. Aducanumab, which is sold…
The headline over Christian Winthrop’s Newport Buzz article shows how journalists absorb government spin: “Rhode Island General Assembly Passes Bill that Would Ban Gender Discrimination in Health Insurance Premiums.” The legislators aren’t attacking a “discriminatory practice known as gender rating,” as Winthrop writes, but denying actuarial science. Insurance premiums are higher for women because women cost more…
A Friday press release from the office of Governor Daniel McKee inches Rhode Island toward reopening. It’s actually very difficult to interpret the meaning of the press release, because it’s poorly written and it’s not clear where restrictions have been lifted and where they’re being modified. But this appears to be the set of changes:…
One lesson of parenting — even of living life as an adult for a while — is that decisions are often complex bets based on incomplete information. Such is the case with decisions about vaccinating children for COVID-19. On the “no” side is the plain fact that COVID-19 has proven relatively mild, even when detectable,…
In the midst of a public health debates that seem to have become stuck in the ruts of political battles, it’s nice to be reminded of the advances that are being made. Glenn Reynolds highlights one example from the City University of New York (CUNY) Advanced Science Research Center: Recent studies suggest that new brain…
The good news, as a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Marty Makary affirms to Steve Watson of Summit News, is that natural immunity after catching a virus has not disappeared: A professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has said that there is a general dismissal of the fact that more than half of all…
From nearly the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve argued that Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo abused her authority by declaring an emergency in order to give herself enhance powers. The emergency provisions in Rhode Island law are meant to be used to manage a desperate circumstance in which there is no time to handle a situation…
