As school leaders and parents grapple with questions about school reopening this fall, a key measure to consider is the community transmission rate of COVID-19, say two educators and an infectious disease specialist.
When states and cities are reporting that more than 5% of COVID-19 tests are positive, the transmission rate is high enough that schools could become hot spots for community outbreaks, they said. Continue reading
Yes, there’s a lot going on these days.
Impeachment.
Potential war.
The 2020 election.
(Forget for a minute the cynic’s view that all three things might actually be the same.)
We’re forgetting or perhaps just distracted from drawing our readers’ attention to a preventable problem that kills some 200,000 people a year. Continue reading
Photo: World Bank Photo Collection via Flickr
Painful and debilitating oral diseases such as tooth decay, gum disease and oral cancers are estimated to impact more than 3.5 billion people across the globe. Yet nations have almost universally failed to grapple with this health crisis, an international team of experts has concluded.
In the first article in a two-part series, led by researchers at the University College London and published by The Lancet, members of the team explore the extent of the epidemic, which burdens nearly half the world’s population. Continue reading
Today, Sept. 17, is the first World Patient Safety Day, declared by the World Health Organization to draw attention to ever-present need – still – to reduce avoidable patient harm in health care settings.
And November marks the 20th anniversary of “To Err is Human,” the National Academy of Medicine’s 1999 report that estimated as many as 98,000 people die a year in United States hospitals. That widely publicized report called for a national agenda to improve patient care processes to make it easier for honest providers to safely treat patients and harder for them to cause harm. Continue reading
The Association of Health Care Journalists is accepting applications for the 2019 AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowships.
AHCJ has teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention once again to present this national fellowship program for journalists. Up to 10 fellows will be selected to study public health issues at CDC’s campuses.
The program – made possible with the support of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust – will take place Dec. 1-5 in Atlanta.
Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sat down with 25 reporters on Thursday in a “pen and pad” session.
Verma answered questions on topics ranging from Medicaid work requirements to Medicare for All and hospital transparency. Continue reading