Category: Health News

Florida health officials have to release 3 several years of COVID knowledge, settlement suggests

Dania
Florida health officials have to release 3 several years of COVID knowledge, settlement suggests

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — The Florida Division of Wellbeing have to release three decades of specific COVID-19 knowledge as aspect of a settlement, a governing administration watchdog team announced Monday.

The Florida Center for Governing administration Accountability (FLCGA) and previous Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith agreed to a settlement that involves the Florida Office of Overall health to publish COVID knowledge on its internet site for the upcoming a few several years.

The point out must also pay back $152,250 to deal with lawful charges, FLCGA wrote in a information release.

In July 2021, Smith submitted a community data request for COVID facts in Orange County though serving on the Pandemics and Community Emergencies Committee. This occurred about a thirty day period immediately after the Section of Overall health ended its apply of releasing COVID facts on-line in everyday experiences, which incorporated in depth info for every county. 

With a new surgeon common at the helm, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida stripped again its COVID reviews as the lethal Delta variant surge ravaged the condition. Florida led the country in instances for every capita and pediatric hospitalizations at the time, according to a report from the Tallahassee Democrat. Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted schools and businesses continue to be open up and usually downplayed the efficiency of precautions like masking and vaccinations.

Well being officers denied Smith’s request, stating that the data he sought — like the ages, intercourse, ethnic and racial demographics of all those with confirmed instances of the virus, and vaccination fees for the county — was confidential and not out there to the general public. Lawyers for FLCGA submitted related documents requests for just about every of Florida’s 67 counties, which have been denied for the similar explanations as Smith’s request.

In Aug. 2021, FLCGA and Smith submitted a lawsuit in opposition to the Florida Section of Health and fitness around the denied release of community information. Various news stores and first modification advocacy businesses signed on to a motion in aid.

In the two several years given that the lawsuit was submitted, the healthcare neighborhood has criticized Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ dealing with of the pandemic. The state’s choice to only suggest COVID boosters to folks 65 and more mature sparked outrage among several medical industry experts.

As the litigation performed out in courtroom, the Florida Section of Wellbeing insisted that the data sought by FLCGA did not exist. On the other hand, in March 2023, the Florida Department of Well being released the data after an appellate courtroom requested a agent from the office to sit for deposition.

“A assessment of those people information by FLCGA indicated the Office circulated thorough COVID-19 information on a day-to-day foundation despite telling a judge that such information did not exist,” FLCGA wrote in a news release.

FLCGA and Smith determined the released records glad the July 2021 documents requests, so the events agreed to

… Read More... Read More

COVID hospitalizations are even now a ‘public wellness threat’ for America’s older grown ups, says CDC

Dania
COVID hospitalizations are even now a ‘public wellness threat’ for America’s older grown ups, says CDC

More mature adults in the U.S. remain at increased risk of hospitalization because of to COVID-19, in accordance to a new report from the Facilities for Sickness Control and Prevention (CDC).

Grown ups age 65 and more mature accounted for just about 63% of all COVID-related hospitalizations amongst January and August 2023, the CDC reported on Friday.

In a vast majority of those cases, the people experienced “numerous fundamental ailments,” according to the agency’s report. 

The most popular of those situations were being diabetes, kidney issues, coronary artery ailment, persistent heart failure or cardiomyopathy, and being overweight.

NEW COVID VACCINE Push IS ‘ANTI-HUMAN,’ States FLORIDA SURGEON Normal: ‘MAJOR Safety CONCERN’

“This is really crucial details that provides to what we now realized formerly — that currently being in excess of 65 a long time old, specially with persistent or pre-current health care circumstances, improves a person’s risk of hospitalization from COVID,” stated Dr. Marc Siegel.

He is a clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Centre and a Fox News clinical contributor he was not associated in the CDC examine.

Senior in hospital

More mature grownups in 2023 stay at a higher threat of hospitalization because of to COVID-19, according to a new report from the CDC. (iStock)

Some 76.5% of the patients 65 and more mature ended up not up-to-day on COVID vaccinations, which Siegel called “disturbing.”

“Only 23% experienced taken the bivalent booster, meaning they did not have the ideal immune safety,” he informed Fox Information Electronic. “The total bivalent vaccine uptake in this age team was significantly better, showing after yet again that the vaccine helps shields in opposition to serious consequence.”

COVID VACCINE POLL FINDS Far more THAN Fifty percent OF Adults ARE Likely TO SAY ‘NO THANKS’ TO THE VAX

To generate the report, the CDC analyzed information from the COVID-19-Linked Hospitalization Surveillance Community (COVID-Internet).

All through the review period of time, the charges of hospitalization between grownups 65 and more mature a lot more than doubled, the CDC documented — likely from 6.8 per 100,000 individuals to 16.4 for each 100,000.

Older woman receiving vaccine

The knowledge highlights that the elderly in distinct — specifically those people with fundamental health and fitness circumstances — must “converse with their medical doctor and seriously contemplate having the present COVID vaccine that addresses circulating subvariants,” a physician claimed. (iStock)

“These findings propose that COVID-19-related hospitalization proceeds to predominantly have an effect on older people aged ≥65 several years and represent a ongoing community overall health danger,” the CDC wrote in its summary of the findings.

NEW COVID POLL: DEMOCRATS HAVE A ‘PARTICULARLY NEGATIVE’ OUTLOOK, ARE MOST Probably TO Maintain Carrying MASKS

For grownups of all ages, nonetheless, charges of COVID–19–associated hospitalizations basically declined through the study time period.

“These results suggest that COVID-19-affiliated hospitalization continues to predominantly affect grown ups aged ≥65 years and represent a continued community wellbeing menace.” 

“For the reason that older people aged ≥65 decades stay at improved possibility for COVID-19-linked hospitalization and serious results, guidance for this

… Read More... Read More

These 10 nutrition mistakes could be taking years off your life: Here’s what to do instead.

Dania
These 10 nutrition mistakes could be taking years off your life: Here’s what to do instead.

If food is medicine, many Americans are in dire need of a new prescription, according to experts.

Adults who stick to a healthy diet are much less likely to experience obesity, heart disease, diabetes and even some types of cancer, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — yet most Americans aren’t getting the nutrition they need. 

Worse still, they’re eating excessive amounts of the wrong things.

“Nutrition is thought to dictate about 80% of one’s health, and obesity irrefutably shaves nearly 10 years off a person’s life,” said Dr. Brett Osborn, a board-certified neurosurgeon in West Palm Beach, Florida, and author of “Get Serious, A Neurosurgeon’s Guide to Optimal Health and Fitness.”

5 HEALTHY HABITS MAY BE THE SECRET TO LIVING LONGER, FLORIDA NEUROSURGEON REVEALS

“You can extend your ‘health span’ — or the time that you remain fully functional and free of disease — by simply following some basic nutritional principles,” he said.

Nutrition mistakes split

Dr. Brett Osborn, founder of a preventative health care and anti-aging facility, Senolytix, shared the 10 most critical nutrition mistakes people are making. (Brett Osborn/iStock)

Osborn, who is also the founder of a preventative health care and anti-aging facility, Senolytix, shared with Fox News Digital the 10 most critical nutrition mistakes people are making — and what they should be doing instead.

Mistake No. 1: Consuming excessive sugars

Osborn described excess sugar consumption as “the root of all evil.”

“Sugar, by definition, is a high glycemic index carbohydrate, meaning that once it enters the gut, it immediately crosses the bowel lining and enters the bloodstream, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar,” he said. 

AI TECH AIMS TO HELP PATIENTS CATCH DISEASE EARLY, EVEN ‘REVERSE THEIR BIOLOGICAL AGE’

“In response, the pancreas secretes insulin, and the sugar (i.e., glucose) is shuttled into the cells for use as energy.”

But there’s a problem, Osborn said: The sugar molecules are released into the bloodstream so quickly that they damage the arterial walls — which causes inflammation.

“The next thing you know, there is a large plaque within a major artery of the heart, and you’re one step closer to your first heart attack,” he warned.

Woman with apple and donuts

Osborn described excess sugar consumption as “the root of all evil.” (iStock)

“To add insult to injury, eating simple carbohydrates shuts off fat burning by spiking insulin levels, and at the same time turns on fat production,” he said.

Osborn recommended limiting simple carbs like bread, pasta, rice, candy or other things that taste sweet. 

“They train your body to burn sugar, and all excess is stored as fat,” he said. “This further stokes inflammation and places you on the accelerated train of aging.”

“You can extend your ‘health span’ – or the time that you remain fully functional and free of disease — by simply following some basic nutritional principles.”

The experts at Osborn’s Florida clinic recommend consuming only carbohydrates with a glycemic index of 40 or less.

The glycemic index (GI) is a rating system for

… Read More... Read More

Arkansas’ public university hospital has sued thousands of patients over medical bills during the pandemic, including hundreds of its own nurses and employees

Dania
Arkansas’ public university hospital has sued thousands of patients over medical bills during the pandemic, including hundreds of its own nurses and employees

Watch “Erin Burnett Out Front” tonight at 7 p.m. ET for more on this story.



CNN
 — 

As Covid cases spread in 2020, visitors to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences were greeted by a colorful sign put up by grateful neighbors outside the university’s medical center: “Heroes Work Here.”

The university adopted the message in glossy promotional videos it posted online, introducing viewers to individual nurses, doctors, and health workers who described their jobs. “Sometimes it’s easy for people who pass through here to see our frontline caregivers as the heroes, or our educators as the heroes – it’s really everybody,” Cam Patterson, the university chancellor, declared in one video. 

But at least a dozen of the “heroes” that UAMS featured in online advertisements and other videos weren’t just employed by the university – they’ve also been sued by it. 

UAMS, Arkansas’ flagship public health sciences university, has been aggressively suing thousands of former patients over medical debt in recent years, including hundreds of its own employees, a CNN investigation found. 

Since 2019, UAMS has sued more than 8,000 patients to collect on unpaid medical bills, according to court records. It filed more debt collection lawsuits in recent years than any other plaintiff in the Arkansas court system other than the state tax office.

The university’s use of the courts ballooned during the coronavirus pandemic. It filed 35 lawsuits in 2016 but more than 3,000 in 2021 – an average of nearly nine a day.

CNN reviewed court documents from thousands of UAMS lawsuits and identified more than 500 defendants who were listed as working for the university itself. The employees ranged from nurses and patient services associates to clinical technicians and lab workers to housekeepers and cooks.

Twenty people sued by UAMS, including more than a dozen current or former employees, spoke to CNN about their cases. Keri Whimper, a former UAMS medical assistant, said the university’s lawsuit against her – demanding a total of about $700 for a bill she thought had been covered by insurance – felt like a betrayal after she contracted Covid while working at the medical center.

“I worked for them through Covid, and they’re still doing this to me,” she said. “This really shows they don’t care about their employees at all.”

UAMS, which is part of the state government and is Arkansas’ largest public employer, operates a major teaching hospital in the state capital of Little Rock and runs clinics around the state. Its legal practices, which have not been previously reported, are an example of how aggressive medical debt collection efforts aren’t limited to corporate, for-profit hospitals.

Most of the lawsuits UAMS filed in recent years involved unpaid medical bills of about $1,000 or less, with some cases over as little as $100. In its complaints, the university tacked on hundreds of dollars of court filing fees, attorney fees, service fees, and interest charges, sometimes doubling or tripling the original amount owed. It moved to garnish defendants’ wages

… Read More... Read More

New COVID boosters very likely to protect towards worrisome variant : Shots

Dania
New COVID boosters very likely to protect towards worrisome variant : Shots

Lab information implies the new COVID-19 booster pictures really should shield versus a variant that issues researchers. The boosters should really be widely out there this slide at pharmacies, like the one found in the Flatbush community of Brooklyn borough in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images


cover caption

toggle caption

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Lab information suggests the new COVID-19 booster shots should secure versus a variant that fears experts. The boosters ought to be widely readily available this fall at pharmacies, like the just one seen in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn borough in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures

Scientists have created the first facts indicating that a variant that has raised alarm is not likely to pose a big new COVID-19 menace.

Four preliminary laboratory studies introduced in excess of the weekend discovered that antibodies from prior infections and vaccinations look able of neutralizing the variant, known as BA.2.86.

“It is reassuring,” claims Dr. Dan Barouch, who executed one particular of the reports at the Beth Israel Deaconess Healthcare Heart in Boston.

When it was initial spotted, BA.2.86 established off alarm bells. It includes more than 30 mutations on the spike protein the virus employs to infect cells. That is a level of mutation on par with the primary Omicron variant, which caused a enormous surge.

The concern was BA.2.86, whilst continue to rare, could sneak all over the immunity individuals experienced constructed up and trigger a further substantial, fatal wave.

“When a little something intensely mutated comes out of nowhere … you will find this threat that it’s radically unique and that it modifications the mother nature of the pandemic,” states Benjamin Murrell, who performed one particular of the other studies at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

But Murrell and Barouch’s experiments, alongside with comparable scientific studies executed by Yunlong Richard Cao at Peking College in China and by Dr. David Ho at Columbia University in New York, point out BA.2.86, is not likely to be one more activity-changer.

“It truly is reassuring that this is not a variant that is going to pose a large dilemma for our quickly-to-be-launched vaccines,” Ho claims. “At the very least from this point of view, it’s not as threatening as feared.”

Murrell agrees.

“For BA.2.86 the preliminary antibody neutralization success advise that background is not repeating by itself listed here,” Murrell states. “Its degree of antibody evasion is really identical to a short while ago circulating variants. It looks not likely that this will be a seismic change for the pandemic.”

The research show that BA.2.86 will not search like it can be any superior than any of the other variants at evading the immune program. In simple fact, it appears to be even be much less adept at escaping from antibodies than other variants. And may possibly also be less productive at infecting cells.

“BA.2.86 basically poses either very similar or less of an immune escape chance in comparison with currently circulating variants, not extra,”

… Read More... Read More

Kaiser to spend $49 million to settle state claims of unlawful medical squander disposal

Dania
Kaiser to spend million to settle state claims of unlawful medical squander disposal

Undercover inspections of rubbish dumpsters at Kaiser hospitals in the Bay Space, Central Valley and Southern California identified a large amount more than just schedule trash certain for the community landfill.

They uncovered medications, syringes and healthcare tubing loaded with perhaps pathogen-laden entire body fluids. There were batteries, aerosols, cleansers, sanitizers and electronic squander. And there were being more than 10,000 paper records made up of clinical details of more than 7,700 individuals.

On Friday, Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta declared a $49 million settlement of claims introduced by the condition Office of Justice and prosecutors in 6 counties that the health treatment huge illegally disposed of hazardous and healthcare waste and individual overall health facts.

“The illegal disposal of harmful and professional medical squander puts the setting, personnel and the public at chance,” Bonta reported. “As a wellbeing treatment supplier, Kaiser need to know that it has specific authorized obligations to appropriately dispose of healthcare waste and safeguard patients’ health-related info.”

Kaiser agreed to the settlement and took fast motion to deal with the alleged violations, Bonta mentioned.

California’s Harmful Waste Regulate Regulation and Professional medical Squander Administration Act contact for individuals supplies to be gathered into marked containers and disposed at services accredited to properly cope with and dispose of them. Rules defending customer and health-related information require that they be shredded, burned or in any other case disposed of in a way that shields privateness. But individuals guidelines add time and expense to disposal.

Kaiser Permanente stated in a assertion that the corporation uncovered about 6 a long time in the past that “contrary to our demanding policies and strategies, some facilities’ landfill-bound dumpsters integrated objects that should have been disposed of differently.”

“We promptly finished an intensive auditing hard work of the squander stream at our services and established required and ongoing schooling to handle the results,” Kaiser’s assertion mentioned. “We choose this subject really seriously and have taken comprehensive obligation to admit and, in cooperation with the California Legal professional Common and county district lawyers, appropriate our performance pertaining to landfill-bound trash exactly where it may have fallen quick of our requirements.”

Kaiser added that “we are not informed of any body section staying found at any time for the duration of this investigation.”

The settlement was the end result of undercover inspections carried out by the district attorneys’ workplaces in recent years of dumpsters from 16 diverse Kaiser facilities. Through people inspections, the district attorneys’ offices examined contents of unsecured dumpsters destined for disposal at publicly available landfills.

They found hundreds of objects of harmful and healthcare squander — aerosols, cleansers, sanitizers, batteries, digital wastes, syringes, health-related tubing with overall body fluids, and pharmaceuticals — and in excess of 10,000 paper information containing the information of about 7,700 individuals.

The Department of Justice joined the district lawyers and expanded the investigation of Kaiser’s disposal practices all through the point out. Kaiser hired a specialist and executed more than 1,100 trash audits at its facilities

… Read More... Read More