Month: September 2023
Many just walked out of the pharmacy because they had a complaint about it
Nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists and therapists at hospitals, clinics and medical offices across the US are planning to strike for three days starting April 25. The unions are demanding that the health-care giant provide raises of up to 14%, which they claim is “far below” what’s needed. They’re also claiming that they’re being underpaid and not getting the quality of care they deserve.
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The Charge 6 fitness tracker is built in to the internet
Fitbit has unveiled the Charge 6 heart rate monitor and fitness band with built-in GPS, GLONASS, among others. The device features “the most accurate heart rate sensing of its fitness bands”, Fitbit said. It includes an optical heart rate monitor, accelerometer, built-in GPS and GLONASS, SpO2 temperature sensor, and other sensors for stress tracking and advanced heart health alerts.
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There is a search for a connection between asthma and the respiratory syncytial virus
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that a vaccine for the lung infection RSV can elicit a potent response from helper T cells that recruit other immune cells during infection. The vaccine, developed by the UW-Madison, appears to be effective against coronavirus but not against the other strains. It is currently being tested as an emergency backup for children aged 3 years and above.
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The work begins now that the treatments are here
A study found that older adults over the age of 65 with underlying health conditions were between 1.2 to 28 times more likely to be hospitalised than adults without an underlying condition. It also found that those with at least one underlying medical condition were nearly 95% less likely to be hospitalised than those without an underlying condition.
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Antibody therapies are being developed to prevent respiratory syncytial virus in babies
The burden of respiratory viral disease in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) is too big or too small, said Maria Zambon, director of infectious diseases at the UK health security agency. In high-income countries, the prices of the antibodies will be between $300 and $500 for infants, which is not much more than the cost of a vaccine for RSV.
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Vaccines could offer new hope against respiratory syncytial virus
Researchers have suggested that Moderna’s RSV vaccine might create an inflammatory response in lungs after immunization. They claimed that the anti-RSV IgG fragments may become immune complexes that could trigger a damaging inflammatory response in the lungs. However, Moderna’s vaccine had a potent reaction from a subset of helper T cells that subsequently recruited a drove of other immune cells during infection.
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The governor of California instituted a ban on driverless trucks
California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would’ve required safety driver on self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds through at least the end of the decade. The bill would’ve required safety drivers to be trained to take over when the truck goes wrong. The rules are still being developed, so driverless trucks can’t be tested on public roads.
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Children are the subject of a daily struggle for space
A day care centre operator in the US has been charged with murder of “depraved indifference” in the death of a six-year-old boy who was poisoned with fentanyl. A kilogram of the drug was found under a trap door, along with multiple devices used to mix drugs and pressing it into bricks, after police announced the discovery.
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A new PEN America report shows that there are no signs of decreasing school book bans
The US’ American Library Association (ALA) released data on the number of attempts to ban library books over the course of eight months. “To allow a group of people or any individual, no matter how powerful or loud, to become the decision-maker about what books we can read or whether libraries exist, is to place all of our rights and liberties in jeopardy,” it said.
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Discrimination has made it difficult for people of color to live in urban areas
Urban heat islands are more expensive to live on than white or richer areas, according to a study published in Nature. It found that the average person of colour lives in census tracts with higher summer daytime SUHI [surface urban heat island] intensity than non- Hispanic whites in all but six of the 175 largest urbanised areas in the continental US.
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