Dangers of Wearing Masks in the Heat and Humidity
You add heat, humidity, probably months of more physical inactivity than usual because of social isolation and distancing, and now you mask up, it’s certainly going to make it a lot more difficult to breathe, which can lead to further respiratory complications. You also have a better chance of overheating when you’re wearing a mask […]
Diagnostic Errors are Leading Cause of Medical Malpractice Claims Says Report
Story Highlights A recent report by Coverys Inc. found that diagnostic errors were the most common reason for medical malpractice claims from 2013 to 2017. An estimated 40,000 to 80,000 people die each year from diagnostic failures in American hospitals. Most medical diagnostic errors occur in outpatient settings and emergency departments. A recent report released by an […]
Misleading CDC Report on COVID-19 Testing Combines “Apples and Elephants”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged last week that it had lumped genetic tests that identify people with current COVID-19 infections together with serology (blood) antibody tests that measure whether someone has had the viral infection in the past.1 Combining the tally of the two tests overstates the country’s ability to […]
CDC Reduces COVID-19 Fatality Rate to 0.26 Percent
In a new document providing guidance for public health officials on COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the infection fatality rate (IFR) for the disease at 0.4 percent, or about half the nearly one percent fatality rate the CDC estimated in March 2020 when it was predicting up to 1.7 […]
Volunteer Describes His Serious Reaction in Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Trial
Of the 45 volunteers in biotechnology company Moderna, Inc.’s Phase 1 human clinical trial on its experimental mRNA-1273 vaccine for COVID-19, only the names of the first two participants have been widely publicized—Jennifer Haller of Seattle, Washington and Neal Browning of Bothell, Washington. The clinical trial began on Mar. 16, 2020 at Kaiser Permanente Washington […]
Contamination at CDC Lab Reportedly Led to Delay in Coronavirus Testing
As we start to see the introduction of in-home testing for the coronavirus, we’re also learning more about mistakes made at the CDC. According to a new report by The Washington Post, there were issues with cross-contamination. … This is particularly disturbing, I think, when many people think of the CDC it’s kind of like […]