public health

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Majority of Americans Haven't Gotten Vaccinated This Year

Public health experts fear outbreaks of COVID, flu, RSV amid lagging vax rates

(Newser) - It's immunization season, meaning health agencies and medical centers are urging Americans to prep for winter by getting their COVID, flu, RSV, and pneumonia shots. Public health experts are expressing concern, however, that vaccination rates ahead of the holidays, with peak infection typically emerging from December to February, are...

Smokers Just Lost Another Cigarette Vendor

Stop & Shop won't sell them anymore

(Newser) - If you're still puffing away the old-fashioned way—by that we mean cigarettes—and usually pick up your smokes at Stop & Shop, stock up now: As of Saturday, the supermarket chain will no longer sell cigarettes or other tobacco products at its 360 or so US stores, which...

Surgeon General: Gun Violence Is a Public Health Emergency

Vivek Murthy's official advisory is likely to be controversial

(Newser) - The US surgeon general on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the fast-growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country. The advisory issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation's top doctor, came as the US grappled with another summer weekend marked by...

Docs Push Back on New Guidelines for Obese Kids

USPSTF says kids, teens with high BMI should get intensive counseling; critics say that's a big ask

(Newser) - A panel of US health experts is urging more aggressive moves to fight childhood obesity, including a recommendation for intensive counseling. On Tuesday, the US Preventive Services Task Force released guidelines in JAMA that suggest "comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions" for children and teens 6 years of age and older...

FDA Considers a Big Change to Decaf Coffee

Advocacy groups petition to ban a chemical often used in decaffeination

(Newser) - A notable change may be coming to decaf coffee, with health advocacy groups pushing to ban a chemical commonly used in the decaffeination process. The FDA is currently reviewing the request regarding methylene chloride. A look at the details:
  • The process: Many decaf coffees use what's known as the
...

'Diet Weed' Is Teens' Latest Kick
Teens Have a New Marijuana
Workaround: 'Diet Weed'
NEW STUDY
Mar 13, 2024 12:00 PM CDT

Teens Have a New Marijuana Workaround: 'Diet Weed'

Researchers say 'appreciable' number of high school seniors are using delta-8, a cannabis compound

(Newser) - In some states, pot hasn't yet been legalized, and even in states where it has been, you have to be 21 to legally consume it. But teens across the US have found a workaround of sorts—a less-potent, more readily available form of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound...

Albuquerque Police Chief Balks at Governor's Emergency Order

After shootings, New Mexico's Michelle Lujan Grisham suspends open, concealed carry in city

(Newser) - New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days after a spate of gun violence. The Democratic governor said she expects legal challenges but was compelled to act...

US' Top Doc: We Need to 'Pull Back the Curtain' on This Risk

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says widespread loneliness can be as risky to health as smoking

(Newser) - Widespread loneliness in the US poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the US surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of US adults say they've experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy...

10 Healthiest, Unhealthiest Cities
10 Healthiest,
Unhealthiest Cities
Apr 4, 2023 11:46 AM CDT

10 Healthiest, Unhealthiest Cities

San Francisco comes in at No. 1

(Newser) - It appears that residents of San Francisco have some new bragging rights. An assessment at WalletHub ranks the city as the healthiest in the US, with Brownsville, Texas, bringing up the rear. The outlet crunched data from more than 180 metro areas on dozens of related factors: the percentage of...

Popular Pipe Fix May Pose a Health Risk
Popular Pipe Fix Appears
to Be Making People Sick
longform
Apr 2, 2023 10:35 AM CDT

Popular Pipe Fix Appears to Be Making People Sick

'USA Today' investigates cured-in-place pipe repairs and their noxious fumes

(Newser) - As a way to repair buried pipelines, the idea is ingenious. Instead of digging up a street, for example, a crew can instead use a contraption that feeds a resin liner into the damaged water or sewer line. It gets inflated with air, then cured to harden with steam, and,...

'This Is Not Medical Treatment. This Is Abuse'
'This Is Not Medical
Treatment. This Is Abuse'
longform
Feb 19, 2023 5:15 PM CST

'This Is Not Medical Treatment. This Is Abuse'

ProPublica looks into allegations of improper ties between hospital, medical device company

(Newser) - The texts are not the sort you'd expect from someone watching a serious medical procedure. "Just used 12 [drug-coated balloons]!!" an employee of the world's largest medical device company, Medtronic, wrote to a colleague. "Does that mean I owe u $$," came the response....

COVID Emergencies to End on May 11
COVID Emergencies
to End on May 11
Jan 30, 2023 5:55 PM CST

COVID Emergencies to End on May 11

Patients will have to pay more drug, treatment costs

(Newser) - President Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared. The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations...

Panel: Most Adults Should Get Screened for Anxiety

Recommendation for all adults under 65 comes after pandemic toll on Americans' mental health

(Newser) - In April, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended health screenings for kids and teens ages 8 to 18. Now, the independent panel of experts is making that same call for all adults under the age of 65, in what HealthDay News notes is a nod to the fact that...

San Francisco 'Sounds the Alarm' on Monkeypox

California city, NY state declare public health emergencies

(Newser) - Two of the US areas that have been hardest hit by monkeypox have declared public health emergencies in response to the outbreak . San Francisco on Thursday declared a local emergency effective Aug. 1, while the state of New York declared an imminent threat to public health, retroactive to June 1....

Patient Struggling With Heat, Asthma Gets Climate Diagnosis

ER doc in Canada may be first to put that on a chart

(Newser) - A doctor in Canada named climate change as the cause of his patient’s asthma. Kyle Merritt, an emergency room doctor in Nelson, British Columbia, made the diagnosis after a record-setting heatwave in the province last year that killed hundreds in the US and Canada . Merritt’s patient is a...

Syphilis Is Killing Babies. It Absolutely Shouldn't

ProPublica looks at the public health care challenges of the problem

(Newser) - Nobody wants the Treponema pallidum bacteria in their body. Which is to say, nobody wants syphilis. A story at ProPublica focuses on one particular aspect of the STD—infections of pregnant women. The bacteria can easily penetrate the placenta, with disastrous consequences. There's a 40% chance the baby will...

This Is the Safest City in the Whole Country

WalletHub ranked 182 US cities based on community, financial safety

(Newser) - If you have a deep fear of natural disasters, avoid Oklahoma City , which was ranked the worst US city for such disasters in a new report by WalletHub . On the natural-disaster front, Dover, Delaware, emerged as the safest, but not the safest overall. WalletHub used data from the Census Bureau,...

Illinois Man Who Refused Treatment Dies of Rabies

Thomas Krob reportedly awoke last month to find a bat on his neck

(Newser) - Illinois' first human case of rabies in 67 years turned into a fatal one. An elderly Lake County resident who awoke in mid-August to find a bat on his neck has died of the disease after declining medical treatment, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The man—identified...

As One Health Crisis Begins to Lift, Another Replaces It

ProPublica reports undiagnosed cancers are up because of pandemic-related delays in screening

(Newser) - The deaths and illnesses won't be attributed to COVID-19. Not directly, at least. But as Duaa Eldeib writes for ProPublica , the pandemic has led to a secondary health crisis—a spike in the diagnosis in advanced cancer cases. In regard to COVID, "it's as if a violent...

CDC Move Marks New Strategy on Racism

Director deems it a 'serious public health threat,' takes steps to combat it

(Newser) - The coronavirus pandemic has been at the top of everyone's mind for more than a year, and the focus of infectious disease experts around the world. But the CDC says there's another major issue plaguing the US, and its director is now calling attention to it. "Racism...

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