According to a new report, life expectancy in the United States took another hit in 2021, furthering a dramatic decline from 2020 that was the largest since World War II.
Category Archive: in the news
Gun violence isn’t just a criminal justice issue; it’s a public health issue. There was nearly a 30 percent increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020, making it the most significant one-year increase in six decades. The number of gun deaths in 2021 climbed even higher and is approaching the previous peaks in gun death rates in the early 1970s and early 1990s.
Cerebral will stop writing prescriptions for Adderall, Ritalin, and other controlled substances to new ADHD patients as concerns grow about telehealth companies’ prescribing practices. To make matters worse, a former executive at Cerebral, a well-funded online mental health startup, claims in a labor lawsuit that the company fired him after he complained that the company was too quick to prescribe powerful stimulant drugs. Do online mental health apps work?
President Joe Biden last week ordered flags flown at half-staff at the White House and all public buildings and grounds until sunset Monday, imploring Americans to “not grow numb to the sorrow.” or 1 million deaths from Covid. This didn’t have to happen and those responsible need to be held accountable.
If You’re Short On Time:
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s novel treatment for diabetes.
- The drug led to impressive blood sugar and body weight drops in clinical trials.
- The approval for tirzepatide—which Lilly will market under the brand name Mounjaro—isn’t for weight loss but Type 2 diabetes.
- Will patients, who are obese and don’t have Type 2 diabetes, ask for the drug for weight loss, and will patients understand the risks?
Short on Time?
- Adalytics reported that for nine months, billions of ad auctions for space on Gannett’s USA Today website resulted in brands unknowingly getting stuck with their ads running on other Gannett sites — often remote community sites.
- Ads from who-knows-how-many companies ran in the wrong places for nine months.
- Not a single brand noticed this, and not a single media buyer noticed the fraud.
- Online ad fraud is costing pharma millions
Gadget firms — starting with Apple and now Fitbit, which Google owns — are selling wearable devices that check heartbeat rhythms and alert users when something is out of sync, according to KHN.com. Although the gadgets are a technical achievement, some cardiologists say the information the devices produce isn’t always helpful. Notifications from the devices aren’t definitive diagnoses.
(FT.COM) The U.S. healthcare system is bedeviled by greed, with drug companies, device manufacturers, hospital organizations, physician groups, and insurers scrambling to grab a slice of the more than $3 trillion we spend on medical care each year. We have access to the most cutting-edge treatments. We also have a system in which two-thirds of the people who declare bankruptcy do so partly because of medical costs, even after the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka Obamacare). And, as everyone knows, the U.S. spends far more than most of the world on healthcare but receives only middling outcomes by OECD standards.