Does America still Run On Dunkin’? Possibly not anymore.
Today in health, American seniors in red states are getting vaccinated against COVID-19, placing their health above politics-fueled resistance to vaccination.
Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the newest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Subscribe here.
Red-state seniors getting jab despite GOP resistance
When the COVID-19 vaccine rolled out, Clyde Muchmore was able to drive across Oklahoma to get it.
“On the very, very first, all we knew was that an entire lot of individuals were dying,” recalled Muchmore, 80, of Oklahoma City. He scheduled a vaccine, he said, “on absolutely the primary day I could.”
Nearly half of Oklahoma’s overall population has declined the COVID-19 vaccine. Yet greater than 90 percent of seniors within the state have accomplished at the very least one round of inoculations, and almost two-thirds have received at the very least one booster. Each figures fall near national averages.
The identical pattern plays out in other Republican-majority states. Public health data suggests red-state resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine is essentially the province of the young.
- Within the five reddest states, as measured within the 2020 election, overall COVID-19 vaccination rates lag well below the national average of 68 percent. But seniors in those states are vaccinated at rates starting from 86 percent in Wyoming and West Virginia to 91 percent in Oklahoma.
- In the US as an entire, 92 percent of seniors have accomplished at the very least one round of vaccines.
- Seniors within the reddest states are inoculated and boosted at nearly the identical rate as older Americans overall. The trend holds in Wyoming and West Virginia, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Idaho, all states where large majorities of voters solid ballots for former President Trump in 2020.
Prevention over politics: Public health experts say older Americans in conservative states have embraced the COVID-19 vaccine as a matter of survival, prioritizing it above partisan politics, libertarian impulses and fears of presidency overreach.
Read more here.
Fauci: This isn’t any time to let our guard down
Chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Monday warned that the U.S. shouldn’t ease up on its COVID-19 response as variants proceed to flow into and because the country heads into the winter flu season.
Appearing on “CNN Newsroom,” Fauci warned of a possible “twin-demic” with simultaneous COVID-19 and flu surges.
- “We now have a ways to go, particularly as we enter the winter, which might be complicated by the influenza season. So there’s no time, ma’am, to let down our guard immediately, for certain,” Fauci told host Pamela Brown.
- “As we get into the colder months, where any respiratory disease, COVID or the rest, at all times has the danger of an uptick as you enter into the late fall/winter months. … Influenza is an issue,” he said, noting that Australia, which has its winter flu season through the U.S. summer months, “had a very bad flu season this yr.”
Fauci’s comments come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it might switch its COVID-19 case reporting from day by day to weekly in an effort to alleviate reporting burdens on state and native governments.
The nation’s top infectious disease expert said the CDC’s move doesn’t signal a shift away from the importance of getting Americans vaccinated and pushing out the brand new bivalent vaccine, which targets the omicron variant.
“We’re not going to eradicate this virus … We likely won’t even eliminate it,” Fauci said. He cited the eradicated smallpox virus, which doesn’t change like COVID-19, in addition to eliminated viruses like measles and polio, which afford decades-long immunity if infected or vaccinated.
Read more here.
STUDY SUGGESTS COLONOSCOPIES’ BENEFITS MAY BE OVERESTIMATED
A study from Europe has found that the advantages of standard colonoscopies in helping reduce the danger of colorectal cancer and death could have been overestimated on account of gaps in evidence.
- The Nordic-European Initiative on Colorectal Cancer (NordICC) conducted a trial involving nearly 85,000 people between ages 55 and 64. The study sample included people from countries including Poland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands and was conducted from 2009 to 2014.
- The trial participants were randomly assigned to receive invitations to receive colonoscopies or standard care without the screening.
Results: An 18 percent reduction in the danger of colorectal cancer over a 10-year period was observed amongst those that were invited to receive colonoscopies. Nevertheless, the reduction for the danger of death on account of colorectal cancer on this same group was found to be “not significant” by researchers.
Researchers from the NordICC trial wrote that the outcomes were “each surprising and disappointing.”
The study noted that these results differ from previous estimates which have associated colonoscopies with a 40 percent to 69 percent drop in the danger of colorectal cancer and a 29 percent to 88 percent drop in the danger of death.
Read more here.
CDC, FDA INVESTIGATING MULTISTATE E. COLI OUTBREAK
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are conducting an investigation right into a multistate outbreak of E. coli infections which may be linked to a brand of frozen falafel sold by grocery chain ALDI, the agencies said Friday.
- Twenty people have been reported to be infected with the E. coli strain O121 in six states, in line with the CDC.
- Five people have been hospitalized, including one who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, which may cause kidney failure. No deaths have been reported.
“Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli is an organism that may cause foodborne illness in a one that eats a food item contaminated with it. Symptoms of infection may include stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting,” wrote the FDA in an announcement.
The vast majority of those with reported E. coli infections — 11 of the 20 — reside in Michigan, while 4 more live in Wisconsin, two in Florida and one each in Kansas, Iowa and Ohio. The falafel was sold in 38 states and the District of Columbia before being recalled.
Fifteen of the 18 people interviewed by the CDC and FDA reported that they shop at ALDI, and 6 of that group said they ate Earth Grown frozen falafel within the week before their symptoms arose.
ALDI recalled Earth Grown brand vegan traditional falafel and garlic & herb falafel from stores on Friday on account of the possible presence of E. coli within the food.
Read more here.
Monoclonal antibodies eyed for fighting chronic pain
A gaggle of researchers based out of University of California Davis recently received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop monoclonal antibodies to be used against chronic pain.
Opioid painkillers like oxycodone (OxyContin) might be addictive for some people, and others like fentanyl have played a big part within the opioid misuse and overdose crisis.
“It’s a challenge to have the opportunity to develop protected and effective drugs to treat pain,” said Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy at University of California Davis School of Medicine.
Monoclonal antibodies are already getting used as treatments for some sorts of cancer. A few sorts of monoclonal antibodies were also given emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fight COVID-19.
In the same vein as chronic pain, the FDA has already approved a monoclonal antibody treatment for migraine headaches. The novel therapy targets a particular signaling molecule called CGRP. The antibodies block CGRP, which researchers think plays a job within the nerves linked to the blood vessels within the brain, in line with Nature.
Even though it only works for a subset of patients, it is a step forward for migraine treatment due to how effective it’s for the people it does work for. As well as, patients on the migraine treatment have had minimal unwanted effects, and that would even be true for other monoclonal antibody treatments.
Read more here.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- ‘The money monster was insatiable’: how insurers exploited Medicare for billions (Recent York Times)
- Spread of Catholic hospitals limits reproductive care across the U.S. (Washington Post)
- Artificial intelligence could soon diagnose illness based on the sound of your voice (NPR)
- CEO of biotech lobbying group BIO on leave amid clash over direction (Wall Street Journal)
STATE BY STATE
- On Pennsylvania’s campaign trail, the doctor will see you now (Politico)
- Mass. health department to guide regional effort to enhance outbreak response (Boston Globe)
- Lawsuit claims Idaho health department discriminates against trans people in search of health care (Idaho Capital Sun)
THE HILL OP-ED
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