Geneology International

Tag: COVID

  • Ivermectin booster Dr. Tess Lawrie goes all-in for homeopathy for COVID and long COVID

    Ivermectin booster Dr. Tess Lawrie goes all-in for homeopathy for COVID and long COVID

    I know that, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I keep repeating the mantra, “Everything old is new again.” I even know that I probably repeat it so much that it sometimes gets annoying. So be it. It’s a message that is important to me due to my simple hope that, if the newbies who have joined “our side” understand that none of this is new, they will learn the recurring themes, narratives, and forms of quackery, misinformation, and disinformation, the better to be prepared for the future. That brings us to homeopathy.

    Remember ivermectin? Who can forget it, the repurposed drug used to treat helminthic (round-worm) diseases in animals and humans that COVID-19 quacks quickly repurposed to claim as a miracle cure for COVID-19 as evidence mounted that the last repurposed “miracle cure,” the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine (which is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis), didn’t work against COVID-19, leading me to refer to it as the “Black Knight of COVID-19 treatments.” Basically, ivermectin was the new hydroxychloroquine, but its being the new hydroxychloroquine didn’t stop both drugs from remaining in the armamentarium of COVID quacks everywhere, immune to evidence, complete with conspiracy theories and dubious meta-analyses—even an appeal to the Nobel Prize!—to explain its lack of acceptance by “mainstream medicine.” Personally, I came to the conclusion that ivermectin was the acupuncture of COVID=19 treatments (a highly implausible treatment from a basic science standpoint supported by the flaws in the evidence-based medicine paradigm) and a perfect example to explain how science-based medicine isn’t just for “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or “integrative medicine” or whatever advocates of combining quackery with evidence-based medicine are calling it these days.

    Which brings us back to Dr. Tess Lawrie.

    Lawrie, you might remember, first made her name as one of the founders of the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development (BIRD) Group, a group that teamed up with the US group the COVID Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) to vigorously promote ivermectin as a highly effective treatment for COVID-19, despite all evidence to the contrary, including basic pharmacokinetics. When last I discussed Lawrie, she had done what most quacks who believe in a particular treatment eventually do and embraced ivermectin as not just a highly effective treatment for COVID-19 but as a potential cancer cure.

    Given that background (and the title of this post, which gives it away), I suspect that you know what’s coming next. That’s right. Lawrie has now embraced The One Quackery To Rule Them All for COVID-19, long COVID, and a number of other things. That’s right, it’s homeopathy time, baby!

    Homeopathy: The air guitar of medicine

    Advocates of science-based medicine like to refer to homeopathy as the “air guitar of medicine,” because, like an air guitar, it’s performative and can appear impressive, but, just as pretending to play guitar doesn’t produce any actual music, homeopathy doesn’t produce any therapeutic effects because almost by definition it can’t. I realize that our regular readers know what homeopathy is and why it’s quackery, but whenever discussing homeopathy I always feel obligated to provide a brief explanation for those who’ve never encountered this blog before, rather than just links. I hope our regulars will bear with me.

    To reiterate, homeopathic remedies are the purest quackery, and I frequently refer to homeopathy as “The One Quackery To Rule Them All.” I also generally think it’s always worth a brief explanation of why. Basically, homeopathy was invented by a German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796 and is based on two “laws” that have no basis in science. (I suppose calling them “laws” made them sound more important, like Newton’s Laws of Motion.) The first is the Law of Similars, which states that you treat a given symptom using something that causes that symptom. No matter how much homeopaths try to claim otherwise and cite cherry picked examples, there is no physiologic, biochemical, or medical basis for such a broad general principle, and in fact what the first law of homeopathy resembles more than anything else is the principles of sympathetic magic, specifically Sir James George Frazer’s Law of Similarity as described in The Golden Bough (1922) as one of the implicit principles of sympathetic magic.

    The second “law” of homeopathy, the Law of Infinitesimals, is even more ridiculous and pseudoscientific (or even mystical). I also find it the easiest to explain to the uninitiated why this “law” is utter bunk. In brief, the Law of Infinitesimals states that homeopathic remedies become stronger with dilution. Indeed, the process of making a homeopathic remedy involves serial dilution, usually 1:100. The mother tincture (or original compound or medicine) is diluted 1:100 and then shaken vigorously (succussed), the succussion step being claimed by homeopaths to be absolutely essential to “potentize” the remedy. After that, the remedy is diluted again in the same way. Each 1:100 dilution is designated by “C”, such that a 6C dilution equals six 1:100 dilutions. The problem comes with the higher dilutions. For instance, a 12C solution is on the order of a 10-24 dilution ((10-2)12 = 10-24). Many homeopathic remedies are on the order of 30C, which is a 10-60 dilution, or more than 1036-fold greater than Avogadro’s number. Some homeopathic remedies go up to 100C or more, or 10-200. Here’s a hint: The number of atoms in the known universe is estimated to be around 1078 to 1082. The math just doesn’t work, and remedies over around 12C are basically water. “Lesser” dilutions contain so little remedy that it’s highly unlikely that they have a pharmacological effect.

    Even though these days Richard Dawkins gets on my nerves for a number of reasons that I will not go into here, I do have to give him props for perhaps the best two-and-a-half minute explanation why homeopathy is quackery ever committed to video:

    With that explanation taken care of, let’s move on.

    Tess Lawrie embraces homeopathy for COVID-19

    Yesterday, as I was looking for topics to blog about, I came across an article on Tess Lawrie’s Substack entitled Homeopathy for long Covid. It is, unfortunately for my purposes, one of her articles only for paid subscribers, but, as is her wont, Lawrie had posted a promotional Substack newsletter three days before entitled There’s a reason why the Queen had a homeopath. I was half-tempted to retort that there’s a reason why King Charles III is heavily into homeopathy—something we used to criticize him harshly for when he was Prince Charles—but it’s not because homeopathy works. Instead, I noted how Lawrie had bought into the usual homeopathy narrative about its being “suppressed,” with a tagline reading: “On the pernicious rewriting of homeopathy’s history, and how well-crafted research is revealing what many have known all along: homeopathy works.”

    Where have we heard that one before? Also, as our very own Dr. Mark Crislip has described, there is no good evidence that homeopathy is effective against COVID-19. As you will see, that is not unexpected given that homeopathy is basically quackery, mostly water or ethanol diluent with no medicinal value.

    Lawrie, as is the case with most quacks, is not happy with Wikipedia. Indeed, she starts out by looking at Wikipedia:

    Let’s start with the lies and misinformation about homeopathy. Here’s how the internet’s propaganda factory Wikipedia currently defines it:

    Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific[1][2][3][4] system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people; this doctrine is called similia similibus curentur, or “like cures like”.[5]

    The entry then describes homeopathy as ‘quackery and fraud’ and goes on to state:

    During the 1970s, homeopathy made a significant comeback, with sales of some homeopathic products increasing tenfold. The trend corresponded with the rise of the New Age movement, and may be in part due to chemophobia, an irrational preference for “natural” products, and the longer consultation times homeopathic practitioners provided.

    Reader, are you suffering from ‘chemophobia’? I think I may be, though I would argue that a preference for natural products is entirely rational. Out of curiosity, I thought I’d look at what the Wikipedia entry for homeopathy used to say. Here’s what it said on 31 October 2003:

    Homoeopathy is a method of treating diseases and medical conditions invented, or at least popularized, by the German Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is based on the theory that each naturally occurring element, plant, and mineral compound will, when ingested or applied, result in certain symptoms. Hahnemann believed that, by diluting these substances in a standardized manner, one could reach the true essence of that substance. Hahnemann described this process of dilution as “potentizing” (German: “potenziert”) the substance. These dilute amounts could then be used to treat the very symptoms they were known to produce.

    Hahnemann and his students approached their treatments in a holistic way, meaning that the whole of the body and spirit is dealt with, not just the localised disease. Hahnemann himself spent extended periods of time with his patients, asking them questions that dealt not only with their particular symptoms or illness, but also with the details of their daily lives.

    Well, that’s quite a shift in perspective isn’t it?

    Gee, Lawrie says that as though it were a bad thing to have quackery properly described as quackery and pseudoscience on Wikipedia!

    It is a shift in perspective, but the shift doesn’t show what Lawrie thinks that it shows. Rather, it shows just how much alternative medicine practitioners dominated Wikipedia entries. Indeed, back in 2004-5, when I first started blogging, one of my biggest complaints about Wikipedia was that cranks and quacks had a lot more time and believers to edit entries like the one on Wikipedia, far outnumbering skeptics, leading to credulous Wikipedia entries just like the one that Lawrie posted. At this point, a shout out to Susan Gerbic and her Guerilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project is obligatory, to express gratitude for working to change that.

    Complete with the narrative that homeopathy is being unduly “suppressed,” Lawrie continues, likening this “suppression” and “redefinition” to various narratives about COVID-19:

    It continues to amaze me how successfully nefarious influences can redefine how we see the world. We have seen this in technicolour over the past three years, with respected dictionaries redefining words such as ‘vaccine’ to comply with a big pharma narrative, and people described as ‘variant factories’ in a clear attempt to demonise a specific group.

    The claim that the word “vaccine” has been somehow “redefined” in order to encompass mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines is, of course, a favorite conspiracy theory of antivaxxers. Let’s just say that the word “vaccine” was not “redefined,” although the definition was clarified to try to prevent misunderstandings, basically changing a very specific definition of “vaccine” to a more general accepted phrasing of the definition. There was no nefarious intent, but Lawrie, being the conspiracy theorist that she is, imputes nefarious intent.

    She then likens that “redefinition” to what she perceives as having happened to homeopathy:

    I was reminded of this recently, when I spoke to Dr Philippa Fibert, my next Tess Talks guest. Philippa is a practising homeopath, and also Research Fellow at St Mary’s University, Twickenham here in the UK.

    She pointed out to me that the intense scepticism about homeopathy is actually a recent phenomenon. It wasn’t that long ago that homeopathy was fairly mainstream, and is still available on the UK’s National Health Service, albeit in only two locations: the NHS Centre for Integrated Care in Glasgow, and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine.

    The latter used to be called Royal London Homeopathic Hospital; this was where Philippa’s great aunt, Dr Lena Banks, and her great aunt’s partner, Dr Marjorie Blackie, worked. Dr Blackie was the Queen’s Homeopath.

    Only someone utterly devoid of knowledge of history can claim that skepticism about homeopathy is a recent phenomenon. Whenever I see that claim, I like to refer to a classic essay entitled Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions. The author? Oliver Wendell Holmes. The year? This essay was based on two lectures that he presented to the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge—in 1842! It is an essay worth reading in its entirety. Other than the lack of knowledge in the 1840s of Avogadro’s number, whose first accurate measurement was at the time of Holmes’ lectures decades in the future and whose magnitude lets us know that in 30C dilutions it is unlikely that even a single molecule of starting substance remains, its devastating critique of homeopathy as pseudoscience is relevant today.

    That must be why Lawrie invokes the fantasy of future vindication, which is a favorite of quacks and supporters of quackery everywhere—and writes:

    Like many safe, natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals, homeopathy has been under a sustained and calculated attack for some time. But I do believe that is about to change – and Philippa is playing a key role in its rehabilitation as an accepted and respected form of medicine.

    So what is Fibert claiming. I think you can predict. Again, as I pointed out, there is no evidence that homeopathy can effectively treat COVID-19—not that homeopaths would ever admit that—and it’s equally improbable to think that homeopathy could be used to treat long COVID. None of this stops Fibert or Lawrie:

    Those suffering from Long Covid have been turning to homeopathy – and so Philippa has led a service evaluation project to document the outcomes. The results have shown that people are experiencing improvements with homeopathic treatment so now, Philippa is spearheading a well-designed randomised controlled trial to evidence the outcome of the homeopathic treatment of the symptoms associated with long Covid.

    It is not my purpose to discuss all the ins and outs of why homeopathy is quackery and will not be useful for COVID or long COVID. It’s homeopathy, and we at SBM have spilled so much digital ink explaining why homeopathy is quackery that I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here yet again. Rather, what interested me is the inevitable progression we have seen in Tess Lawrie. First, she started out promoting ivermectin for COVID-19, helping an army of quacks cement the narrative that ivermectin is a cheap, safe, and “suppressed” cure for COVID-19 in the public’s mind. Then she decided that COVID-19 wasn’t enough; ivermectin should also be used to treat cancer, because of course she did. Now she has gone beyond ivermectin for COVID or cancer and embraced The One Quackery To Rule Them All, homeopathy.

    I will revisit this observation. First, however, who is Philippa Fibert, besides being a homeopath?

    How medical academia can promote COVID quackery

    At this point, I’m going to shift gears a bit and refer to an article by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling that appeared in this month’s issue of The New Republic entitled, A Doctor’s War Against the Right-Wing Medical-Freedom Movement, which carries the tagline, “As alternative medicine infiltrates mainstream health care, one physician is fighting back with everything he has.” I’ll come clean right here. The doctor in the article is me, and the article is basically about how alternative medicine quackery has infiltrated medicine over the last couple of decades, laying the groundwork for a lot of what we are seeing now. As the “main character” in the article, I will say that I’m (mostly) happy with the narrative and how I come off. (My quibbles might be a topic for a future post sometime. For example, I get the impression that I come across like the aging gunslinger played by John Wayne in The Shootist, whom all the young guns are looking to knock off and who is on the declining side of his career, which, come to think of it, might not be that inaccurate. I do prefer, however, to look at myself more like G’Kar in Babylon 5 episode The Long Twilight Struggle, if only because G’Kar does ultimately triumph even if he does later die a tragically foretold death. But I digress, as I often do.) What Hongoltz-Hetling gets right is how alternative medicine has infiltrated academic medicine:

    Between 1999 and 2017, NCCIH had spent a total of about $2.2 billion “for clinical trials [that] produced no sound, consistent evidence for the efficacy of any alternative therapies,” Dr. Donald Marcus of the Baylor College of Medicine pointed out in a 2020 article in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The National Library of Medicine lists 49 different NCCIH-funded studies that reference homeopathy; some of the study authors lack medical degrees, and yet have associations with top-tier medical institutions—for instance, Ted Kaptchuk, an acupuncturist who went on to direct an alternative-medicine program at Harvard Medical School; or Gary Schwartz, whose research at the University of Arizona is focused primarily on mediums and energy healing.

    The alternative-health industry also influences academia through overt lobbying. And even as it enjoys the financial benefits that come with being embraced by the political right (Americans spent $34 billion on products and services in 2007), it has aggressively wooed the academic circles that are usually dominated by the political left. For example, in 2017, after receiving a $200 million gift from the Henry and Susan Samueli Foundation, the University of California Irvine earmarked funds for up to 15 faculty chairs supporting a curricular focus on integrative health in its College of Health Sciences. Deep-pocketed alternative-medicine groups have also funded partnerships with University of California San Francisco, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. As of 2017, 15 research medical schools had begun offering alternative medicine to the public, according to Marcus. Johns Hopkins offers Reiki “to transmit Universal Life Energy to the client”; Duke University offers acupuncture for stroke victims.

    Why do I mention this—other than wanting to slip in a link to an article in a mainstream magazine about myself, something that has never happened before?—and point out how medical academia has been corrupted by quackery? Simple. Let’s take a look at Philippa Fibert. She is indeed a Research Fellow at St. Mary’s University Twickenham in the Department of Psychology and Pedagogic Science. Interestingly, this department is listed as a department of the Faculty of Sport, Allied Health and Performance Science, which lists itself as offering programs in these areas:

    • Applied Physics
    • Health and Exercise
    • Nutrition
    • Physiotherapy
    • Psychology
    • Sport Rehabilitation
    • Sport Science
    • Sports Coaching
    • Strength and Conditioning

    Worse, Fibert describes her history thusly:

    I am a Research Fellow with a particular interest in improving long-term outcomes for children, and assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments.

    I started out working with children with special needs as a teacher, then as a parent educator. I then came across a treatment that seemed to be really helpful for them, however few think it can work apart from those who have experienced it first hand.
    So, to start untangling the evidence, I embarked on research into this area. I completed a psychology research MSc at Goldsmiths University where I conducted a comparative case series examining the effectiveness of this treatment for children with ADHD. This was partly funded by Turner’s Court Youth trust, an ex borstal supporting crime prevention measures (1:4 prison inmates have had a diagnosis of ADHD).

    The treatment is called Homeopathy. The Case Series findings were significant, and in several cases, life changing. Patient stories are available in articles in Green Parent and Autism Now Magazines, case reports in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine, and the full case series in the journal ‘Homeopathy’.

    Quelle surprise. She plied her quackery on autistic children and children with ADHD, and Goldsmith University supported this research as part of her degree program. But let’s get to the quackademic medicine that allowed her to test water on children with significant medical conditions:

    A pilot randomised controlled pragmatic trial was then conducted at the University of Sheffield to provide more substantial information about the long-term effectiveness of non-pharmacological approaches. It assessed the effectiveness of homeopathy and nutritional therapy. Results suggest that both treatments may be helpful: in particular nutritional therapy for restlessness/inattention, and homeopathy for emotional dysregulation (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-019-03374-z).

    I now work at St Mary’s University, Twickenham: within the department of Psychology and Pedagogic Science where we’re running a trial exploring the effects of Kefir on ADHD, sleep and the microbiome; and I teach on the MSc in Chronic Disease Management.

    Meanwhile I continue to pursue my research interests in improving health outcomes. A recent study explored the effectiveness of the homeopathic remedy bacillinum for ringworm in rural Africa, and found it better and cheaper than conventional care over the long term. A service evaluation of homeopathic treatment for long COVID suggests that patients feel 47{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} better after 2 consultations (12 weeks).

    Let’s look at her study cited above. Basically, it claims to be a randomized trial of homeopathy and nutritional therapy in ADHD, but it was not blinded, much less double-blinded. Those assessing the subjects after interventions knew which child was in which group. So basically, it was a useless trial, even as a “pilot” trial.

    As for bacillinum? I hadn’t heard of this particular homeopathic remedy before, but a quick Google search revealed that it is purported to be made from the sputum of a patient with tuberculosis. I kid you not. It is claimed to be useful for:

    Addison’s disease. Alopecia. Consumptiveness Growth, defective. Hydrocephalus. Idiocy. Insanity. Joints, affections of. Phthiriasis. Pityriasis Ringworm. Scrofulous glands. Teeth, defective; pitted. Tuberculosis.

    If you ever want more of an indication that homeopathy is quackery, just look at the list of the diseases supposedly treated by a homeopathic remedy claimed to have been made by diluting the sputum of a patient with tuberculosis! Then be thankful that the sputum was diluted to nonexistence and bacillum is basically water, just as I was thankful to learn that Lyssinum, a homeopathic remedy purported to have been made from the sputum of a rabid dog, is also generally diluted to 200C, far beyond nonexistence. Ditto a homeopathic remedy to treat Ebola made from the sputum of Ebola patients. Again, you can’t make stuff like this up. (At least, I can’t.) It makes me wonder why the homeopaths didn’t use diluted SARS-CoV-2 to treat COVID.

    Quackademic medicine, COVID, and homeopathy

    We at SBM have been writing about quackademic medicine ever since the very beginning of this blog. Although I wish I could claim to have coined the term “quackademic medicine,” unfortunately I can’t. (Dr. R. W. Donnell has that honor.) The point, however, is how before the pandemic quackery had so thoroughly infiltrated itself into medical academia that even “hard core” academic medical centers, like Duke, Stanford, the Cleveland Clinic and even my alma mater, the University of Michigan, have embraced quackery, to the point where U. of M., for instance, has a naturopath in a high-ranking faculty position in its Department of Family Medicine who promotes homeopathy there.

    Across the pond, Philippa Fibert is fundraising £40,000 to do a “pilot RCT” of homeopathy for long COVID. with this preliminary data:

    Dr. Fibert told HINT: “This trial provides an excellent opportunity to develop much-needed evidence for the effectiveness of homeopathy at a time when other healthcare providers are struggling to develop effective protocols for the treatment of Long-COVID.

    “In a prelude to the pilot RCT, we have already been collecting the MYMOPs (Measure Your Own Medical Outcome Profile) of Long-COVID patients and found a 36{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} improvement after just one consultation. After their second consultation the improvement climbed to 48{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}.”

    We hope this project will put homeopathy front and centre as the medicine of choice for the symptoms associated with Long-COVID. You can be part of this ground breaking project by helping us raise the funding needed.

    We have the enthusiasm, now all we need is £40,000 and with your help we know we can do it!

    There’s nothing like subjective outcome measures in a survey as “evidence” that magic water helps a poorly understood condition that often has vague symptoms and whose diagnostic criteria aren’t fully solidified yet to guarantee that placebo effects will provide a seemingly positive outcome to justify raising money for a pointless RCT. Let me remind you what the remedies used in the “preliminary trial” were:

    Homeopathy for COVID

    If this is what homeopaths treated hospitalized COVID patients with, what else will they add to the list to treat long COVID?

    Basically, it’s just a grab bag of common homeopathic remedies, including the quite rightly mocked Oscillococcinum®, which includes extract of duck liver and heart. Basically, it’s a “throw everything but the kitchen sink” approach to COVID-19, if that everything is the water in the kitchen sink without the actual, you know, kitchen sink.

    I argued in Matt Hongoltz-Hetling’s piece that quackademic medicine is both a cause and symptom of what led so many doctors to embrace COVID quackery, antimask stances, and antivax beliefs. Certainly, homeopaths in universities and medical schools doesn’t help. It should thus be no surprise that people like Philippa Fibert exist and are now promoting homeopathy for long COVID, after having promoted it for so many other conditions.

    Unfortunately, this example of Tess Lawrie expanding her quackery suggests two things that seem new but are not. First, once a doc starts down the dark path of quackery, forever will it dominate her destiny. Consume her it will (with only rare exceptions). This has clearly happened to Lawrie, who started out embracing the then “sort of” quackery of ivermectin, which is now COVID quackery because the evidence clearly shows that it does not work, and then progressed to embracing ivermectin quackery for more diseases (like cancer), and then ran headlong into the arms of The One Quackery To Rule Them All. It is incredibly likely that there is any coming back from this for her. The question is: Is there any coming back from this, period?

  • POTS rose after covid. Patients face delays in diagnosis and treatment.

    POTS rose after covid. Patients face delays in diagnosis and treatment.

    Covid is causing a sharp rise in cases of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that causes rapid heart rate, fainting and dizziness

    February 27, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST

    Angelica Baez uses a motorized chair to get around a park in Sacramento on Feb. 3. Baez developed postural tachycardia syndrome, called POTS, after getting covid in 2020. She quickly becomes fatigued by walking. (Max Whittaker for The Washington Post)

    Comment

    A life-changing condition called POTS, which can cause fainting, irregular heartbeats and dizziness, particularly among young women, appears to be on the rise as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

    But the condition isn’t well understood, and doctors dismiss many patients as having anxiety, delaying diagnosis. Once diagnosed, many patients face waiting lists as long as two years to get treatment from specialists.

    POTS stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary functions like heart rate, blood pressure and digestion.

    “When the autonomic nervous system is not functioning properly, any or all of those things can go a little haywire,” said David R. Fries, a cardiologist and POTS specialist at Rochester Regional Health.

    POTS patients typically experience a marked rise in heart rate when standing and a complex combination of symptoms, including dizziness, brain fog, fainting, headache and fatigue, among many others.

    There is no known cure for POTS, but physical therapy, medications and diet changes related to salt intake can sometimes help.

    Experts say there is a dire shortage of medical professionals who know how to care for patients with POTS. Lauren Stiles, president and chief executive of Dysautonomia International, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates that the number of people with POTS has at least doubled since the start of the pandemic, while the number of specialists has remained the same and waiting lists are getting longer.

    “They were overwhelmed and flooded long before covid,” Stiles said “We need to increase the amount of experts in this because it wasn’t enough before covid, and it’s certainly not enough now.”

    POTS symptoms are often diagnosed as anxiety

    Symptoms can vary widely, and in some cases, can be debilitating.

    Angelica Baez, 25, of Sacramento, got sick with covid in March 2020. Soon after, she developed unusual symptoms, including tingling hands, frequent diarrhea and either feeling extremely cold or extremely hot. But the most debilitating symptom was that she almost constantly felt dizzy. She often felt like she might pass out and had trouble walking long distances.

    “My heart started going insane. I could feel it pounding in my chest,” she recalled. “I literally felt like I was going to die.”

    Just standing up or walking across the kitchen caused her heart rate to spike to 160 beats per minute, and she frequently rushed to the E.R., worried that she was having a heart attack. She tried consulting various doctors but was dismissed because nothing seemed wrong with her heart or overall health.

    “I would go to the doctor, and he just started telling me, ‘No, I think you just have anxiety,’” she said. “And I was like, you know what? I have anxiety because of what’s happening to me.”

    Baez was finally seen by a cardiologist who diagnosed POTS in early 2022.

    “I would go to the doctor, and he just started telling me, ‘No, I think you just have anxiety,’” she said. “And I was like, you know what? I have anxiety because of what’s happening to me.”

    — Angelica Baez

    Life has changed dramatically for Baez since developing POTS. She needs to use a wheelchair to go longer distances and a shower chair to bathe. She gets dizzy if she sits upright or stands for long periods of time. Before getting sick, she was painting and interviewing for a job as a medical secretary. She can no longer work and can only paint in short bursts.

    Now, Baez is taking salt tablets and fluids and wears compression garments, which are both common interventions for POTS. She hasn’t been able to find a POTS specialist in her area. She sees a cardiologist and has been trying alternative treatments like acupuncture and herbal medicine.

    A 2-year-waiting list for POTS patients

    Part of the problem in diagnosing and treating POTS patients is that many doctors aren’t familiar with it and patients often see multiple doctors before finally getting diagnosed. One study of more than 4,800 POTS patients found that most didn’t get diagnosed until a year or more after first seeing a doctor, and the average diagnostic delay was nearly five years.

    It’s still unclear how many covid patients develop POTS. Studies show that anywhere from 2 percent to 14 percent of people with covid develop POTS. One study of long covid patients found that overall 30 percent met the criteria for POTS, although it was far more common in women. In that study, 36 percent of women met criteria for POTS compared to 7 percent of men.

    Before the pandemic, Tae Chung, director of the Johns Hopkins Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) program, said he had an appointment wait list that was about a year long, which was on par with many other POTS clinics. Now it’s a little over two years long, he said.

    Fries, the cardiologist and POTS specialist at Rochester Regional Health, said most cardiology appointments take about 40 minutes, but because of the complexity of symptoms associated with POTS, most of his appointments with POTS patients take 60 to 80 minutes. Because his caseload of POTS patients has roughly doubled since the pandemic, leading to longer wait times, Fries has started working on Saturdays.

    After Jillian York, 17, of Spring, Tex., got covid in June 2022, she experienced stomach aches and excessive sweating, and began having trouble sleeping. She felt dizzy after standing up and like she might faint when she performed as a drum major in her marching band. Getting up from the sofa caused her to blackout for a few seconds.

    Her mother, Heather York, 49, said she initially thought the Texas heat was to blame, but it soon became apparent that something was off.

    She started taking her daughter to doctors, but felt dismissed. Doctors attributed Jillian’s symptoms to her recent weight loss, despite the fact that she remained at a healthy weight.

    Jillian said doctors made her feel “minimized.” “I just felt really lost,” she said.

    Finally, in November, her mother took her to a pediatric neurologist, who told Jillian that she had POTS.

    Jillian has struggled to find a treatment that works. She has seen numerous cardiologists and other specialists and tried alternative interventions like acupuncture. Physical therapy has offered some relief, she said.

    “The lack of answers is the most frustrating thing that I have to go through,” Jillian said. “I know that more and more people are getting it, so why is it not being talked about?”

    At least a million new patients

    While nobody knows exactly what causes POTS, symptoms commonly develop following a concussion or viral illness, said Satish Raj, a cardiac sciences professor and POTS expert at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Calgary. Most POTS patients are women.

    “There’s an element of dismissiveness and misogyny in the room. The POTS demographic is women who, for the most part, look pretty well,” Raj said. “They complain that their heart is racing, and I think that gets dismissed as anxiety a lot.”

    POTS wasn’t widely recognized as a real condition by the medical industry until a little more than two decades ago. In the United States, the condition only received a distinct diagnostic code in October 2022. Without a diagnostic code, POTS often got lumped in with other heart conditions, which is why it’s been difficult to track the overall number of POTS patients.

    “There’s an element of dismissiveness and misogyny in the room. The POTS demographic is women who, for the most part, look pretty well,” Raj said. “They complain that their heart is racing, and I think that gets dismissed as anxiety a lot.”

    — Satish Raj

    Before covid, experts estimated there were about 1 to 3 million Americans who had POTS. And now there are at least 1 million or more new POTS patients as a result of covid, said Pam R. Taub, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, who is researching post-covid POTS for National Institutes of Health’s Recover covid initiative.

    Another barrier is that even after POTS was recognized, there historically has been little funding from organizations like the National Institutes of Health to research POTS or any potential cure. One analysis found that the NIH allocated, on average, $1.5 million dollars for POTS research funding per year between 2015 and 2020, whereas other diseases that are about as common in women as POTS, like multiple sclerosis and lupus, have received an annual average funding of $118 million or $127 million respectively.

    Potential treatments for POTS

    POTS patients often have low blood volume and difficulty with blood vessel constriction, so their blood tends to pool below their heart when they stand up. This depletes vital blood flow to the brain and can result in dizziness, brain fog, or fainting.

    Ingesting more salt and drinking more water may help people with POTS retain more fluid and increase their blood volume, experts say.

    In a small, controlled Vanderbilt University study, researchers found that a high salt diet improved but didn’t eliminate many symptoms of POTS.

    How much salt and water an individual with POTS needs can vary, but a high-salt diet may not always be appropriate for patients with cardiac complications from covid or high blood pressure, according to Svetlana Blitshteyn, an associate neurology professor at the University of Buffalo who is the director and founder of the Dysautonomia Clinic, which specializes in treating POTS patients.

    Other interventions include beta blockers or other drugs that can decrease heart rate. Medications to help the body better absorb salt and fluid, or blood vessel constriction medication, which allows the body to more easily get blood back to the heart and brain, are also used, she said.

    Physical therapy can also help many POTS patients, according to Thomas Chelimsky, neurology professor and director of the Comprehensive Autonomic Program and Autonomic Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University.

    Because POTS patients are sensitive to the effects of gravity, he typically has his patients start exercising from a seated or lying down position, or while in a pool.

    With treatment, Maura White, 44, of Rochester, N.Y., has significantly improved. She was diagnosed with POTS in October after getting sick for a second time with covid in April 2022. Before she got help, she was fainting about once a week and had a fluctuating heart rate.

    “I met with my general practitioner four, five or six times: each time going in crying and saying, ‘I’m not getting better, I’m not getting better.’ She would just say, ‘You’re going to get better,’” White recalled.

    It wasn’t until White went to physical therapy that she found out she might have POTS. White was finally diagnosed by a cardiologist in October and started taking beta blockers along with wearing compression stockings, eating more salt and doing physical therapy.

    She hasn’t fainted since starting the treatments. Although she used to be an avid runner, she isn’t able to stand for long stretches of time. Now she sits on a bench to shower, relies on grocery pickup so she doesn’t have to walk store aisles and rents a scooter for longer outings. She also sleeps about 12 hours a night and continues to have other symptoms like tingling hands and feet, muscle twitches, diarrhea and brain fog.

    Worsening symptoms after covid

    In some cases, covid seems to be worsening symptoms for existing POTS patients. Hanna Rutter Gully, 32, of Brooklyn developed POTS at the age of 17 after a concussion while playing soccer. She wasn’t diagnosed until six and a half years after the injury.

    Her symptoms, which included dizziness, migraines, cognitive issues and fatigue, made it difficult for her to attend college. She took an extra three semesters to graduate, finished many semesters remotely and had her sister move in with her in her final year of college to help her.

    Once she got diagnosed and got treatment, she was able to work her way up to living independently in New York and working full time as a corporate partnerships manager for Girls Who Code. Then, she got sick with covid in spring 2020 and her symptoms worsened to the point where she had to stop working.

    “You name it, and it’s gotten worse,” she said.

    Pre-covid POTS patients are having trouble getting appointments with specialists as well. Cara McGowan, 37, of Deerfield Ill., leads an Illinois support group for POTS patients. She has noticed that people have started to become more desperate for help. Some have lost their jobs as a result of their inability to get treated, she said.

    “The patient community is in crisis,” she said. “If you can’t take care of your health, everything else falls apart too.”

    Patients supporting other patients

    In many cases, patients are learning more about POTS from each other than they are from doctors, said Charlie McCone, 33 of San Francisco.

    McCone was a tennis, running and cycling enthusiast before he got sick with covid in March 2020. Then, he developed shortness of breath, chest pain, full body twitches, a rapid heart beat and fatigue, among other symptoms.

    After a second covid infection in August 2021, his symptoms worsened to the point where he had to stop working in his nonprofit marketing job. He couldn’t stand for more than five minutes or sit upright for more than 10 minutes without experiencing symptoms.

    He was not taken seriously by doctors, he said, and one doctor laughed at him when he asked whether his symptoms could be related to his coronavirus infections.

    It was only through a long covid support group that he figured out others were having the same issues. After seeing three cardiologists and two neurologists, he was finally referred to Stanford’s Autonomic Disorders Program and got diagnosed with POTS in May 2021.

    With treatment like compression socks and increased salt and fluid, he can now tolerate sitting up for 20 minutes before symptoms begin but still has trouble leaving the house.

    “It’s so frustrating that we are three years into this and long covid patients are having an incredibly difficult time getting a diagnosis and having their symptoms validated,” he said.

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  • KAISER HEALTH NEWS: Era of ‘free’ Covid vaccines, test kits, and treatments is ending. Who will pay the tab now? | News

    KAISER HEALTH NEWS: Era of ‘free’ Covid vaccines, test kits, and treatments is ending. Who will pay the tab now? | News

    Time is running out for totally free-to-shopper covid vaccines, at-home test kits, and even some therapies.

    The White Home introduced this month that the national public wellbeing crisis, to start with declared in early 2020 in response to the pandemic, is established to expire May perhaps 11. When it finishes, so will a lot of of the procedures developed to overcome the virus’s unfold.

    Take vaccines. Right up until now, the federal federal government has been getting covid-19 photographs. It a short while ago bought 105 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster for about $30.48 a dose, and 66 million doses of Moderna’s edition for $26.36 a dose. (These are amid the providers that designed the first covid vaccines marketed in the United States.)

    Folks will be in a position to get these vaccines at low or no cost as extensive as the govt-acquired provides last. But even before the conclusion day for the public crisis was set, Congress opted not to provide more money to improve the government’s dwindling stockpile. As a outcome, Pfizer and Moderna had been now preparing their moves into the business industry. Equally have indicated they will raise prices, somewhere in the vary of $110 to $130 per dose, nevertheless insurers and governing administration wellbeing plans could negotiate decreased rates.

    “We see a double-digit billion[-dollar] marketplace chance,” traders have been explained to at a JPMorgan meeting in San Francisco not too long ago by Ryan Richardson, main system officer for BioNTech. The firm expects a gross rate — the total price tag just before any discount rates — of $110 a dose, which, Richardson stated, “is a lot more than justified from a health and fitness economics viewpoint.”

    That could translate to tens of billions of bucks in income for the companies, even if uptake of the vaccines is sluggish. And consumers would foot the invoice, either specifically or indirectly.

    If half of older people — about the same share as people who opt for an annual flu shot — get covid boosters at the new, increased prices, a recent KFF report estimated, insurers, employers, and other payors would shell out $12.4 billion to $14.8 billion. That is up to virtually two times as considerably as what it would have value for every single grownup in the U.S. to get a bivalent booster at the normal selling price compensated by the federal authorities.

    As for covid therapies, an August weblog post by the Office of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Reaction mentioned that govt-purchased provides of the drug Paxlovid are envisioned to final by midyear ahead of the non-public sector can take around. The government’s bulk order price tag from producer Pfizer was $530 for a program of procedure, and it isn’t nonetheless known what the companies will demand when government provides run out.

    How A lot of That Pinch Will Individuals Come to feel?

    One particular matter is specific: How significantly, if any, of the boosted charges are passed on to individuals will rely on their wellbeing coverage.

    Medicare beneficiaries, those people enrolled in Medicaid — the point out-federal wellness coverage program for folks with small incomes — and men and women with Very affordable Care Act coverage will continue on to get covid vaccines with no charge sharing, even when the general public health unexpected emergency finishes and the govt-bought vaccines run out. A lot of men and women with occupation-based mostly insurance policies will also likely not experience copayments for vaccines, until they go out of community for their vaccinations. People today with constrained-gain or short-time period insurance plan procedures could have to pay out for all or portion of their vaccinations. And persons who really do not have insurance will have to have to both fork out the whole price tag out-of-pocket or seek out no- or minimal-cost vaccinations from community clinics or other suppliers. If they cannot discover a absolutely free or minimal-cost alternative, some uninsured individuals may possibly be forced to skip vaccinations or tests.

    Coming up with what could be $100 or more for vaccination will be primarily hard “if you are uninsured or underinsured which is the place these cost hikes could push further disparities,” said Sean Robbins, government vice president of exterior affairs for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Affiliation. These will increase, he mentioned, will also have an affect on folks with insurance coverage, as the charges “flow via to rates.”

    Meanwhile, general public policy industry experts say lots of non-public insurers will continue on to go over Paxlovid, although people may perhaps deal with a copayment, at minimum until finally they meet up with their deductible, just as they do for other remedies. Medicaid will keep on to deal with it devoid of charge to people until at minimum 2024. But Medicare coverage will be restricted until the remedy goes by way of the standard Food and drug administration process, which usually takes lengthier than the unexpected emergency use authorization it has been promoted less than.

    Another complication: The rolls of the uninsured are very likely to climb more than the upcoming calendar year, as states are poised to reinstate the method of routinely identifying Medicaid eligibility, which was halted for the duration of the pandemic. Starting in April, states will get started reassessing whether Medicaid enrollees meet cash flow and other qualifying factors.

    An estimated 5 million to 14 million people nationwide might reduce coverage.

    “This is our No. 1 concern” appropriate now, said John Baackes, CEO of L.A. Treatment, the nation’s most significant publicly operated wellbeing prepare with 2.7 million users.

    “They could not notice they’ve shed coverage right until they go to fill a prescription” or request other healthcare care, such as vaccinations, he claimed.

    What About Covid Exam Kits?

    Regulations stay in area for insurers, which includes Medicare and Cost-effective Treatment Act plans, to cover the price tag of up to 8 in-property take a look at kits a month for every single individual on the system, till the community wellbeing emergency ends.

    For people — such as individuals with no insurance policy — a governing administration website is still featuring up to four examination kits for every family, till they operate out. The Biden administration shifted funding to invest in additional kits and produced them obtainable in late December.

    Commencing in May possibly, while, beneficiaries in original Medicare and numerous people today with private, task-centered insurance plan will have to start off having to pay out-of-pocket for the quick antigen exam kits. Some Medicare Advantage programs, which are an alternative to authentic Medicare, may well opt to go on covering them without having a copayment. Procedures will change, so test with your insurer. And Medicaid enrollees can carry on to get the take a look at kits devoid of price for a minor about a yr.

    State guidelines also can fluctuate, and continued protection without having expense sharing for covid exams, treatment options, and vaccines immediately after the well being emergency finishes may well be offered with some wellness options.

    In general, the foreseeable future of covid tests, vaccines, and treatment plans will replicate the complicated blend of coverage shoppers currently navigate for most other kinds of care.

    “From a consumer standpoint, vaccines will nevertheless be free, but for solutions and test kits, a large amount of people today will deal with charge sharing,” said Jen Kates, a senior vice president at KFF. “We’re having what was universal obtain and now indicating we’re likely again to how it is in the typical U.S. wellbeing method.”

    KHN correspondent Darius Tahir contributed to this report.

  • More Californians Are Dying at Home. Another Covid ‘New Normal’?

    More Californians Are Dying at Home. Another Covid ‘New Normal’?

    Phillip Reese

    The covid-19 pandemic has spurred a surge in the proportion of Californians who are dying at residence instead than in a clinic or nursing dwelling, accelerating a sluggish but continual rise that dates again at least two many years.

    The recent upsurge in at-home deaths started out in 2020, the 1st yr of the pandemic, and the level has continued to climb, outlasting the rigid lockdowns at hospitals and nursing residences that may well enable clarify the original shift. Virtually 40{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of deaths in California through the to start with 10 months of 2022 took area at dwelling, up from about 36{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} for all of 2019, in accordance to demise certification info from the California Office of Community Wellness. By comparison, U.S. Centers for Illness Regulate and Avoidance knowledge shows that about 26{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of Californians died at property in 1999, the earliest calendar year for which data on at-household fatalities is obtainable in the agency’s general public database.

    The development is amplified amongst California people with severe chronic conditions. About 55{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of Californians who died of cancer did so at home during the first 10 months of 2022, in contrast with 50{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in 2019 and 44{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in 1999. About 43{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of Californians who died of Alzheimer’s disorder in the initial 10 months of 2022 did so at residence, as opposed with 34{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in 2019 and approximately 16{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in 1999.

    Nationwide, the share of deaths transpiring at residence also jumped in 2020, to 33{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, then rose to practically 34{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in 2021. Nationwide information for 2022 is not yet obtainable.

    Covid’s early, deadly sweep across California does not in alone demonstrate the boost in at-home dying rates the large the greater part of men and women who have died of covid died in a healthcare facility or nursing household. In its place, medical gurus stated, the surge — at the very least at first — seems to coincide with sweeping policy improvements in hospitals and nursing residences as caregivers struggled to consist of a virus each virulent and minor recognized.

    The sweeping bans on in-individual visitation in hospitals and nursing homes, even to the bedsides of dying sufferers, developed an agonizing predicament for households. Quite a few selected to move a loved one back again home. “It was devastating to have Mom in a nursing property and dying, and the only way you can see Mom is by way of the window,” said Barbara Karnes, a registered nurse who has prepared extensively about stop-of-life treatment.

    At the similar time, fears of covid exposure led lots of folks to steer clear of hospitals in the very first several years of the pandemic, in some situations neglecting remedy for other significant problems. That, much too, is believed to have contributed to the increase in at-house deaths.

    Individuals who specialize in finish-of-lifestyle care say it is no surprise the trend has continued even as visitation guidelines have eased. They explained far more people today basically want to die in a comfortable, common spot, even if it suggests not fighting for each individual 2nd of lifestyle with health care interventions.

    “Whenever I ask, ‘Where do you want to be when you breathe your previous breath? Or when your coronary heart beats its previous conquer?’ no one particular at any time says, ‘Oh, I want to be in the ICU,’ or ‘Oh, I want to be in the healthcare facility,’ or ‘I want to be in a skilled nursing facility.’ They all say, ‘I want to be at dwelling,’” explained John Tastad, coordinator for the advance treatment preparing system at Sharp Health care in San Diego.

    Meanwhile, the doctors who focus in the diseases that tend to eliminate Us citizens, these types of as most cancers and coronary heart ailment, have turn into a lot more accepting of talking about household hospice as an selection if the treatment possibilities possible indicate distressing sacrifices in excellent of life.

    “There’s been a tiny little bit of a culture change exactly where maybe oncologists, pulmonologists, congestive heart failure doctors are referring individuals to palliative treatment earlier to aid with symptom management, superior treatment preparing,” claimed Dr. Pouria Kashkouli, associate medical director for hospice at UC Davis Overall health.

    The traits have created a booming sector. In 2021, the California Department of Well being Care Access and Data shown 1,692 accredited hospice organizations in its monitoring databases, a leap from the 175 organizations it shown in 2002.

    That substantially progress — and the funds powering it — has often led to problems. A 2020 investigation by the Los Angeles Instances observed that fraud and high quality-of-treatment difficulties have been widespread in California’s hospice business, a summary bolstered by a subsequent condition audit. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill in 2021 that placed a non permanent moratorium on most new hospice licenses and sought to rein in questionable kickbacks to medical professionals and companies.

    When finished appropriately, while, dwelling hospice can be a comfort and ease to people and sufferers. Hospice commonly lasts anyplace from a number of days to a few months, and even though providers differ, a lot of companies deliver common visits from nurses, health and fitness aides, social workers, and religious advisers.

    Most men and women applying hospice are insured as a result of the federal Medicare plan. The quantity Medicare pays differs by region but is generally all over $200 to $300 a day, reported Dr. Kai Romero, chief healthcare officer at the nonprofit Hospice by the Bay.

    To locate high-quality close-of-existence care, Andrea Sankar, a professor at Wayne State College and creator of “Dying at Household: A Relatives Information for Caregiving,” recommends trying to find out nonprofit vendors and possessing a listing of questions geared up: How usually will nurses pay a visit to in human being? In what conditions do patients have entry to a doctor? What support will be offered for a disaster in the center of the night?

    Though hospice providers provide crucial advice and help, family members need to have to be ready to shoulder the bulk of the caregiving. “It genuinely normally takes a rather developed loved ones method to be capable to rally to satisfy all of the requires,” stated Tastad at Sharp Healthcare.

    Several end-of-existence experts mentioned they be expecting the proportion of Californians selecting to die at house to preserve climbing, citing a wide range of variables: Health-related innovations will make it simpler for clients to obtain pain management and other palliative care at dwelling telemedicine will make it simpler for clients to consult medical professionals from property and two potent forces in American health treatment — coverage providers and the federal governing administration — significantly see dying at property as an inexpensive choice to prolonged medical center stays.

    Phillip Reese is a knowledge reporting expert and an assistant professor of journalism at California Point out University-Sacramento.

    This tale was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially impartial services of the California Well being Treatment Foundation.

    KHN (Kaiser Health and fitness Information) is a nationwide newsroom that generates in-depth journalism about wellbeing troubles. Collectively with Policy Investigation and Polling, KHN is one of the a few major operating systems at KFF (Kaiser Spouse and children Basis). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization offering data on wellness troubles to the country.

    USE OUR Articles

    This tale can be republished for cost-free (particulars).

  • Health News Roundup: Thailand introduced new entry regulations as China reopens border; China reports three COVID deaths for Jan 8 and more

    Health News Roundup: Thailand introduced new entry regulations as China reopens border; China reports three COVID deaths for Jan 8 and more

    Next is a summary of current overall health information briefs.

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    Thailand launched new entry rules as China reopens border

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    Thailand will have to have global tourists to display evidence they are fully vaccinated for COVID ahead of flying to Thailand, in accordance to the country’s aviation regulator, as it prepares for much more tourists just after China reopened its border on Sunday. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) explained in a assertion on Saturday that starting early Monday, all overseas arrivals sta

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    China stories a few COVID deaths for Jan 8

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    China described 3 new COVID-19 deaths for Jan. 8, as opposed with two fatalities a working day earlier, the Chinese Center for Illness Control and Avoidance explained on Monday. The formal death toll now stands at 5,272.

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    rting early on Monday will have to verify they are vaccinated or present a letter certifying that they have recovered from COVID inside 6 months.

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    SK Bioscience main states unlikely China will supply vaccines from it – FT

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    SK Bioscience Co Ltd main executive Jaeyong Ahn reported in a Economic Situations interview that it is not likely that the vaccine maker can provide COVID-19 vaccines to China amid its the latest outbreak thanks to Beijing’s “nationwide delight”. Ahn claimed that it was “unrealistic” to supply COVID vaccines to China, as the state insists on applying its possess, the newspaper quoted him as saying.

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    China states talks to incorporate Paxlovid in its well being insurance policy drug checklist are unsuccessful

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    China will not include Pfizer Inc’s Paxlovid in an update to its checklist of medicines covered by basic clinical insurance strategies as the U.S. agency quoted a high price for the COVID-19 drug, China’s Healthcare Safety Administration (NHSA) stated on Sunday. The COVID-19 antiviral drug is at present protected by the country’s wide health care insurance policy scheme below non permanent steps the regulator launched in March past calendar year as outbreaks rose.

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    ‘Life is shifting forward’: China declares new COVID section

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    China braced for a “new period” in its battle towards COVID-19 on Monday and economic marketplaces strengthened immediately after Beijing dropped pandemic border controls in the hottest easing of curbs that has permit the virus free on its 1.4 billion populace. Sunday’s reopening is one of the last ways in China’s dismantling of its “zero-COVID” regime, which commenced last thirty day period just after historic protests from curbs that retained the virus at bay for three a long time but prompted popular mental agony and severe harm to the world’s second-greatest overall economy.

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    Eisai, Biogen get U.S. Food and drug administration approval for Alzheimer’s drug, apply for entire approval

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    The U.S. Foods and Drug Administration on Friday authorized the Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab formulated by Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc for individuals in the earliest phases of the head-wasting disease. Eisai and Biogen stated on Saturday the Japanese drugmaker had utilized for entire Food and drug administration acceptance of the drug.

    (With inputs from businesses.)

  • Health News Roundup: Hong Kong eyeing Jan 8 to resume cross-border travel with mainland China; France urges EU peers to test Chinese travellers for COVID and more

    Health News Roundup: Hong Kong eyeing Jan 8 to resume cross-border travel with mainland China; France urges EU peers to test Chinese travellers for COVID and more

    Following is a summary of existing health news briefs.

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    Hong Kong eyeing Jan 8 to resume cross-border journey with mainland China

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    Hong Kong is working to resume quarantine-free of charge journey with mainland China by as early as Jan. 8, Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki reported in a Facebook post on Sunday. Chan, the city’s No.2 official, stated quotas will be established in the 1st phase of the prepare to limit the quantity of individuals who can vacation involving the town and the mainland.

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    France urges EU peers to test Chinese travellers for COVID

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    France on Sunday urged European Union friends to take a look at Chinese travellers for COVID right after Paris resolved to do so amid an outbreak sweeping the nation. Only Italy and Spain also need assessments in the 27-nation, mostly border-no cost EU and wellbeing officers from across the bloc failed last 7 days to concur on a joint system.

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    Uk to need COVID negative tests for arrivals from China

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    The British isles explained on Friday that travellers arriving in Britain from China will call for a detrimental COVID-19 examination following a surge in infections in China. Starting on Jan. 5, Chinese travellers will need to have to display a damaging COVID-19 test taken no extra than two times prior to departure, UK’s Office of Health and fitness and Social Care reported in a statement.

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    WHO urges China to share specific details regularly on COVID scenario

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    The Entire world Well being Corporation on Friday as soon as once more urged China’s wellbeing officials to consistently share precise and real-time information and facts on the COVID-19 condition in the country, as it proceeds to evaluate the most up-to-date surge in infections. The agency has requested Chinese officials to share additional genetic sequencing facts, as nicely as info on hospitalizations, fatalities and vaccinations.

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    Pandemic curbs connected to early start to Europe’s wintertime flu time

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    Pandemic limits that hampered the circulation of viruses other than COVID-19 could be powering the unseasonably early upsurge in respiratory bacterial infections in Europe this winter that the festive crack could extend, scientists say. Apart from COVID-19, laws to control motion and social interaction restricted the transmission of viruses that normally bring about most infections all through the colder, winter months, which include influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

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    Exclusive-Drugmakers to elevate selling prices on at minimum 350 medication in U.S. in January

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    Drugmakers like Pfizer Inc, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca PLC and Sanofi SA prepare to elevate rates in the United States on much more than 350 distinctive prescription drugs in early January, in accordance to data analyzed by healthcare analysis agency 3 Axis Advisors. The increases are expected to arrive as the pharmaceutical marketplace prepares for the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which permits the government’s Medicare wellness system to negotiate charges instantly for some medicine starting in 2026. The market is also contending with inflation and offer chain constraints that have led to better manufacturing expenditures.

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    Australia to require negative COVID assessments for travellers from China

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    Australia stated on Sunday that travellers from China will have to present adverse COVID-19 test success from Jan. 5, joining a growing amount of nations that have executed very similar limitations as cases surge in China. Citing a absence of epidemiological info and genomic sequencing information from China, Australian health minister Mark Butler mentioned the governing administration has made a decision out of an abundance of caution to have to have visitors to existing a destructive check taken in just 48 hrs of their departure.

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    India checking pharma exports to China amid COVID surge – supply

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    India’s Ministry of Commerce has been asked to check exports of medicinal items and tools to China to assure domestic availability for any COVID-19 surges, according to a supply common with the make any difference. India’s Wellness Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, requested pharma corporations and senior authorities officers to evaluate availability of medications, and watch their stocks and selling prices in a conference on Thursday, the resource told Reuters.

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    Chinese point out media look for to reassure community around COVID-19

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    Hundreds of Chinese took to the streets to mark the New Yr as authorities and point out media sought to reassure the community that the COVID-19 outbreak sweeping across the place was underneath management and nearing its peak. While numerous men and women in main metropolitan areas have continued to isolate as the virus spreads via the inhabitants, New Calendar year revelries appeared to be typically unaffected as folks celebrated the conclusion of 2022 and the transform into 2023.

    (With inputs from businesses.)