For every additional microgram per liter of lithium in the water supply, the suicide rate dropped by 0.27 per 100,000 people per year.
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Dr. David Shlaes contends that he continues "to believe that most hospital administrations understand that what is best for their patients is what is best for their hospitals, and that they try and act accordingly." The ACSH advisor adds that while there may be "exceptions to this, it is clear that the Medicare policies are now doing more harm than good."
In July, the CDC released a preliminary report showing that opioid‐related overdose deaths increased 6.2 percent from December 2018 to December 2019. During that same period, deaths due to fentanyl and its analogs increased 15.8 percent. Seemingly in a state of denial, weeks later H.R. 7701 was introduced in Congress, effectively doubling down on clearly failed policies. ACSH advisor Dr. Jeff Singer (pictured) takes a closer look at this issue while examining the wayward thinking permeating the House.
Sometimes studies are full of bad data. Sometimes they are just based on stupid ideas. Here's one that manages to incorporate both flaws. Should elderly people with broken ribs be given Tylenol in pill form or IV for pain? Perhaps a salami sandwich is a better offering ... since this study is full of baloney.
On tap this time 'round: Is Science magazine political? ... Do you suffer from Lesesucht? ... If life is a gift, are we sharing it? ... and shaming in the time of COVID-19 distributing vaccines, the 18th Century perspective.
Thirty-seven years ago, at the end of September, the world faced another global crisis. Just three weeks earlier, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 inadvertently entered prohibited Soviet airspace and was shot down by a Soviet air-to-air missile, killing all 269 passengers and the crew of a Boeing 747.
Geofencing is a virtual fence in the real world. When combined with our homing beacon -- the smartphone that identifies us everywhere we go -- it becomes a tool with extraordinary powers, for good and evil. Several recent court cases, which likely have escaped your attention, may give you more than a moment's pause in this era of the coronavirus.
Bad behavior has consequences, except when you're a social media platform. But the number of peer-reviewed articles subsequently retracted raises the question of whether medical journals believe that they, too, are "platforms" without responsibility for what they publish and disseminate.
Just as COVID-19 is a global problem, the search for a vaccine is a global effort. Sometimes, to get clarity, especially in the run-up to a presidential election, it is better to get an outsider's view.
Months ago, the government began Operation Warp Speed to quickly find and distribute a vaccine for COVID-19. As that day approaches, our concern has turned to which groups will be first to be protected. And more recently, a Pew study found that instead of a fight to reach the front of the line, only half of us would get the vaccine at all. Why would that be? Let's take a look.
What we can learn from ice cores, is there a climate migration already underway, a healthy behavior that costs little and is oh so restful, and a bit of relevant science history about vaccinations and epidemics.
I read a short article this week about the social history surrounding epidemics. Like much of history, it has eerie similarities to our current times. Is it a precautionary tale, or a random pattern we imbue with meaning as we try to connect the dots?
Social science describes several views of the hierarchy of our societies. There's the near-Darwinian dog-eat-dog concept of dominance. Then there are the more leadership-driven ones, where individuals respect and defer to those in charge. Leadership hierarchies can evolve from election, regulation or prestige – where influence flows from the leader's eminence. The truth is that social hierarchies are a bit of all these abstractions.
An article in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that when it comes to risk from the coronavirus, air travel is much safer than you might believe. It is safer than shopping in a supermarket, riding on a train, or going to work in an office. Why? It's all about the air quality in the cabin.
The proposal in the Declaration is certainly worth considering. If I was a policymaker, I would investigate how to implement it. As COVID cases spike in Europe, which once had the coronavirus under control, it's becoming clear that our current on-again, off-again approach to containment isn't working as intended. It may be time to try something new.
Is this the worst product ever, or what? A male "chastity belt" made of hardened steel. It's controlled by Bluetooth (only). No latch. No lock. There is no other way to get it off, except one, which is beyond ghoulish. Worse still, it can be hacked. All you never wanted to know about "The Cellmate."
There was never much evidence in favor of using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a treatment for COVID. Now, a trial involving over 4,700 patients definitively proves that HCQ does not work.
The first known death from a cyberattack raises the prospect that malware could be more than just a financial crime.
I've been thinking about herd immunity in the last few weeks and took a moment to look at the concept's historical roots. As is more often the case than I would like, my understanding needed refreshing and refashioning.
What do the firebombing of Dresden and the fires on the West Coast have in common? Embedded science, the Fall as a tonic, and a different history of packing the Supreme Court
If Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is successful, it will be the first-ever mRNA vaccine on the market. How is the vaccine made and how does it work?
In a recent interview, Andrew Kolodny maintained that pain patients don't hate him. Some would disagree. What would it look like if they sang their displeasure rather than voiced it? With apologies to Leonard Bernstein.
COVID-19 cases continue to increase. Public health officials continue to try and manipulate social behavior to reduce the rate of infections. So it's worthwhile to review our understanding of the disease that physicians currently confront.
Medscape is a website focused on those working in healthcare. They recently ran a survey on some ethical dilemmas facing physicians.
“… what if a DNA test could provide you with a personalized blueprint to how food affects YOUR body? … How can you eat the best food for your body? It’s all about eating for your genes.” Can all this be true?
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