Catching the Optimal Amount of Z’s May Be Protective Against Long COVID
Healthy sleep behaviors before and during the pandemic may be protective against long COVID, a prospective cohort study suggested. Of nearly 2,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, those with the most healthy prepandemic sleep score had a 30% lower risk of developing long COVID compared with those […]
Twitter Uses Dark Humor To Roast Study That Calls Pandemic Mental Health Crisis ‘Minimal’
A BBC tweet about mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired an onslaught of darkly funny lockdown anecdotes. The subject matter of the original tweet was no joke: It linked to a BBC article about research on the mental health consequences of the pandemic. The headline? “Mental-health crisis from Covid pandemic was minimal ― […]
Can a Fungus Cause a COVID-Style Pandemic?
The television series “The Last of Us” describes a human pandemic with a mind controlling cordyceps fungus. When asked whether a COVID-19 pandemic with a pathogenic fungus is possible, my answer has generally been some variation of “yes, but it’s unlikely.” Cordyceps fungi turn ants into zombies, establishing the precedent that this group of organisms […]
Experts Say Tracking Pathogens in Sewage Works, but Needs Sustained Investment
Surveillance of wastewater systems proved useful during the COVID-19 pandemic and merits further investment to respond to future threats, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). But there’s room for improvement. The report highlights five core pillars for developing a stronger National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), calling […]
5 Happiest Types of Doctors
[embedded content] Over the last few years, the global pandemic has highlighted many of the long-standing issues within medicine. With all of this negativity, you might think that medicine is a dying career or that all physicians are burned out and miserable. Not so fast. There are still many physicians who lead happy and fulfilling […]
Food Insecurity Among Older Adults Remains a Problem
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened many health-related problems for older adults, food insecurity is one that has gotten relatively little attention. “The pandemic has exacerbated existing trends in food insecurity,” Cindy Leung, ScD, MPH, assistant professor of public health nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, said in an […]
How Well Do You Know Your Fauci Facts?
While Anthony Fauci, MD, might be best known for his service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, his contributions to science and medicine span decades. From his work during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to serving as inspiration for myriad memes, Fauci has made a lasting impression in healthcare and, unexpectedly, popular culture. But how well […]
Opinion | When Was the Last Time You Wore a White Coat?
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to dominate all aspects of healthcare, many of our colleagues opted to wear scrubs instead of their routine work attire and white coats. They cited concerns about personal infectious risk and not wanting to bring the virus home to their loved ones on their clothes. This reluctance aligned with research […]
HIV Prevention, Care Showed Resilience During the COVID Pandemic
Drops in HIV testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prescriptions early on in the pandemic quickly stabilized by the third quarter of 2020, according to a CDC report. The number of HIV tests performed nationally exceeded 2.4 million in the first quarter of 2020 and was reduced by 32% in the second quarter — with the […]
Lingering Effects Seen With Non-COVID Respiratory Illness Too
People with acute respiratory illness during the pandemic suffered similar levels of poor well-being in the months afterward whether they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 or not, a registry study showed. In a cohort of people who all had initial symptoms suggestive of COVID-19, those who had moderate to severe scores at 3 months on the […]