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How Antisemites, Extremists and Conspiracy Theorists are Exploiting the Anti-Vax Movement
The days of lockdowns and social distancing are behind us, but anti-vaccine narratives remain prevalent on social media, and extremists continue to exploit these sentiments to recruit new members, raise money and mainstream their beliefs. Many extremists view anti-vaxxers as a massive pool of potential fresh recruits and followers primed for the “red pill.”
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ARPA-H Announces Program to Enhance and Automate Cybersecurity for Health Care Facilities
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the launch of the Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense (UPGRADE) program, a cybersecurity effort that will invest more than $50 million to create tools for information technology (IT) teams to better defend the hospital environments they are tasked with securing.
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Study Reveals Persistent Risk of Death, Symptoms in COVID Survivors at 3 Years
COVID-19 patients hospitalized with the wild-type virus in 2020 were at a 29% higher risk for death than their nonhospitalized counterparts 3 years later, and even those with mild illness still reported new-onset health consequences.
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Did a Worm Really Eat Part of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Brain?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was found to have a pork tapeworm larva lodged in his brain. Cases in the US are reported to be in the hundreds per year. It is also an incredibly rare infection to encounter in Europe. Humans are the main host of mature tapeworms, but they need help from other intermediaries to spread.
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COVID May Have Eroded Doctors' Belief That They Are Obligated to Treat Infectious Patients
Broadly disseminated misinformation about the disease — e.g., how the virus spreads, effective treatments, vaccine efficacy and safety, and more – contributed to the erosion of doctors’ commitment to treat infectious disease patients because of doctors’ fear that they would contract the disease.
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H5N1 Continues to Spread in the U.S. Amid Growing Concern About Threat to Public
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) viruses continue to spread across the United States, with nearly 86 million birds affected in 1,118 reported outbreaks across 48 states as of April 10. CDCconfirmed case of H5N1 in a human patient in Texas.
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Action Needed to Improve U.S. Smallpox Readiness and Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Therapeutics: Report
A new report says that action is needed to enhance U.S. readiness for smallpox and related diseases, as well as to improve diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics that could be used in case of an outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed weaknesses in the ability of U.S. public health and health care systems to adapt and respond to an unfamiliar pathogen, as did challenges during the recent mpox outbreak to rapidly making diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics available at scale.
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U.S. Drugs with Noted Supply-Chain Risks 5 Times More Likely to Go into Shortage in Early COVID
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, US prescription drugs flagged for potential supply-chain disruptions were nearly five times more likely to go into shortage than those without such warnings, finds a new study.
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Avian Flu Infects Person Exposed to Sick Cows in Texas
Federal and state health officials yesterday reported that a person connected to a dairy farm in Texas has tested positive for H5N1 avian flu, the first known case linked to sick dairy cows and the nation’s second since the virus began circulating in wild bird and poultry in 2022.
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Cocaine Vaccine: Could It Help Drug Addicts?
Researchers in Brazil are testing cocaine vaccines to stop users getting high and prevent addiction. Experts warn a vaccine should be combined with therapy.
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Ransomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages
A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.
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Leprosy Cases Are Rising in the U.S. – What Is the Ancient Disease and Why Is It Spreading Now?
The word “leprosy” conjures images of biblical plagues, but the disease is still with us today. In the United States, leprosy has been entrenched for more than a century in parts of the South where people came into contact with armadillos, the principle proven linkage from animal to humans. However, the more recent outbreaks in the Southeast, especially Florida, have not been associated with animal exposure.
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Raging Texas Wildfires Force U.S. Main Nuclear Weapon Facility to Evacuate, Temporarily Shut Down
Raging wildfires in the Texas panhandle have forced the evacuation and temporary closure of the Pantex plant, the U.S. premier nuclear weapons assembly facility. The Pantex plant said that “All weapons and special materials are safe and unaffected.”
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Decades After the U.S. Buried Nuclear Waste Abroad, Climate Change Could Unearth It
A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from U.S. nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands
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Low-Level Blasts from Heavy Weapons Can Cause Traumatic Brain Injury − Two Engineers Explain the Physics of Invisible Cell Death
When the force of a blast shoots a round out of a large-caliber rifle, howitzer or M1 Abrams tank gun, the teams of people operating these weapons are exposed to low-level blasts that can cause traumatic brain injuries. Low-level blasts do not cause visible trauma, yet, these blasts can cause physical changes in the brain that lead to a host of neuropsychiatric symptoms.
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The long view
We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
Nine former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who served as directors or acting directors under Republican and Democratic administrations, serving under presidents from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trrump, argue that HHS Secretary Roert F. Kennedy Jr. poses a clear and present danger to the health of Americans. He has placed anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists at top HHS positions, and he appears to be guided by a hostility to science and a belief in bizarre, unscientific approaches to public health.