In a major acknowledgment that most people have some form of protection from severe COVID-19 disease—either from vaccines or prior infection—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer recommend social distancing as a general strategy to slow the spread of the virus. New guidelines from the CDC also state that masks are only […]
Six years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidelines that discouraged doctors from prescribing opioids for pain and encouraged legislators to restrict the medical use of such drugs. Those guidelines, which had a disastrous impact on pain patients, were based on the assumption that overprescribing was responsible for rising drug-related deaths. […]
For many people, COVID-19 fears have long receded, replaced by a sense that public health bodies failed us when they were needed most. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially lied about mask efficacy in order to ration them for frontline workers; were slow to approve diagnostic […]
Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) accused White House coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci of misleading the public about the U.S. government’s funding of gain-of-function research. “When Dr. Fauci said that this research was reviewed and found to be safe by experts, that was also a lie,” said Paul in an interview on Thursday. Paul made these comments […]
One might think that following several years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government would be in fighting form when it comes to addressing a new public health threat. But here we are with another infectious disease outbreak on our hands and here are federal health agencies bungling the early response all over again. In […]
In another sign that the cruise industry is transitioning to a post-COVID operating model, Royal Caribbean Group and Carnival Cruise Line, the industry’s two largest cruise lines, announced last week they will loosen testing requirements for vaccinated passengers. Beginning August 4, vaccinated passengers on Carnival company sailings that last less than six days will no […]
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the agency has sought an external review of its approach to food safety. The surprising announcement, issued by FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Califf, says the review will look primarily at work carried out by the FDA’s Office of Food Response and Policy (OFPR) and Center for […]
Did the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic originate from live animals for sale in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, or as a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute for Virology? In search of answer to this question, a new article in Science parses the early outbreak data along with environmental samples taken […]
We’re up to about 3,600 known cases of monkeypox in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s more than double the number of cases from just two weeks ago. As the federal government struggles to distribute vaccines where they’re needed, The Washington Post reports that the White House […]
Public officials in Los Angeles and Seattle are reportedly mulling a return to mask mandates as COVID-19 case numbers surge and hospitalization rates creep upward. Hospitalizations now exceed 10 per 100,000 residents in Los Angeles County, the threshold where indoor masking in public spaces becomes mandatory under the county’s pandemic mitigation plans. If the county […]