(2020-07-04). [Comment] A Lancet Commission on women and cancer. thelancet.com Over the past decade, the global health community has begun to acknowledge that cancer is an increasingly important public health and economic challenge in all countries.1 What is not acknowledged is the disproportionate impact of cancer on the lives and livelihoods of women, and the downstream impacts this creates for societies. In 104 countries, breast cancer has the highest age-standardised incidence rate of all cancers in both sexes combined; in 23 countries, it is cervical cancer.2 Of the 938‚Äà044 deaths from these two cancers in 2018, most were premature and preventable and occurred in a…
(2020-07-04). [Correspondence] US Global Gag Rule increases unsafe abortion. thelancet.com The Trump administration issued the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy in 2017. This policy is an expansion of the Global Gag Rule that blocks US global health assistance to foreign non-governmental organisations that provide, counsel on, refer to, or advocate for abortion services; even if they do so with their own funding and in countries where abortion is legal. Following an additional policy expansion in 2019, foreign organisations that comply with the policy must now attach it to all subgrants that they give to other foreign organisations, including those that do not involve US global health…
(2020-07-04). [Comment] The Wakley—Wu Lien Teh Prize Essay 2020: Chinese health workers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. thelancet.com "I feel deeply the burden of the honour placed upon me in being chairman of this Medical Conference, which is unique in our history, powerful in its representation, and which gives China a strong position amongst nations seeking the welfare of the people", wrote Wu Lien Teh in his first publication in The Lancet,1 on his inaugural address delivered at the International Plague Conference in Shenyang, China, in 1911. Wu was elected as the chair of the conference for his work in controlling the pneumonic plague epidemic outbreak in 1910—11 in northeastern China, which ultimately claimed about 60‚Ä&a…
(2020-07-04). [Correspondence] Time for WHO to declare climate breakdown a PHEIC? thelancet.com At the opening plenary of the World Health Assembly in May, 2019, Richard Horton urged member states and the Secretariat of WHO to recognise climate change as a planetary emergency. A few days later, during a side event on air pollution, climate change, oceans, and health sponsored by the Government of Sweden, the Minister of Health for the Seychelles Jean Paul Adam argued that climate change has to be recognised as a public health emergency at the international level. Johan Giesecke1 once stressed that as public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs) evolve into more complex forms, it becomes neces…
(2020-07-04). [Correspondence] Methodology in the GBD study of China — Author's reply. thelancet.com The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2017 provides comprehensive assessment of population health for 195 countries and territories and subnational units for selected countries, including all province-level administrative units in China. It is important to point out that, as the GBD uses a hierarchical analytical framework, data input from all GBD 2017 analytical units, national or subnational, are integrated into a single modelling process to provide a set of estimates for all locations that are internally consistent and comparable across locations and over time.
(2020-07-04). [World Report] Collaborating on kidneys: Haiti's transplantation ambitions. thelancet.com Haiti lacks health programmes and facilities for kidney disease. Jane Regan reports on an ambitious collaboration between Haitian and US doctors to make kidney transplantation widely available.
(2020-07-04). [Perspectives] Salome Maswime: dynamic leader in global surgery. thelancet.com As Associate Professor and Head of Global Surgery at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, Salome Maswime is aware of the scale of the job in front of her. "For me the big problem is the disconnect between health systems and clinical care in low and middle income countries, especially concerning surgical care. Outcomes are often poor, there being not enough focus on the quality of surgery, and how it relates to integrated health care and overarching health systems performance", she explains.
(2020-07-04). [Clinical Picture] Coarctation of the aorta: a rare cause of severe hypertension in pregnancy. thelancet.com A 24-week pregnant 18-year-old woman was seen at her local health-care centre where she was found to have a respiratory rate of 38 breaths per min, a blood pressure of 250/90 mm Hg, and a heart rate of 39 beats per min. She collapsed and required intubation and ventilation. A chest x-ray showed bilateral infiltrates—pulmonary oedema—and she was treated with furosemide and nitroglycerin and transferred to our intensive care unit.
(2020-07-04). [Correspondence] Methodology in the GBD study of China. thelancet.com We found the Article by Maigeng Zhou and colleagues1 intriguing. However, we have some concerns. Our major concern arises from mixing data from mainland China and Taiwan. These two regions have distinct health-care and social welfare systems; they also have different time trends of how socioeconomic conditions evolved during the past half century. Therefore, mixing the data from these two regions might lead to biased estimates, especially for the health outcomes shaped by health policies (eg, vaccination programmes as a prevention strategy).
(2020-07-04). [Editorial] Zoonoses: beyond the human—animal—environment interface. thelancet.com World Zoonoses Day on July 6 marks the day, in 1885, when a young boy received the first vaccine against rabies—a zoonosis, a disease caused by a pathogen transmitted from animals to humans. Rarely is a World Zoonoses Day so relevant to consider these diseases and their disruption of societies.
(2020-07-04). [Comment] Investing in surgery: a value proposition for African leaders. thelancet.com Globally, poor access to high-quality surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia care remains a main contributor to global disease burden accounting for about a third of deaths worldwide.1 The need for strengthening surgical care systems is especially urgent in sub-Saharan Africa, where access is strikingly limited, leading to the highest mortality and morbidity from surgically preventable and treatable conditions in the world.2,3 Approximately 93% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to safe, affordable, and timely surgical care, compared with less than 10% in high-income countries.
(2020-07-04). [Comment] Ambulatory management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax: when less is more. thelancet.com Spontaneous pneumothorax is a pneumothorax that occurs in the absence of trauma or iatrogenic injury, and occurs in about 20‚Äà000 people per year in the USA.1 Primary spontaneous pneumothorax is typically defined as a pneumothorax that occurs in patients without evidence of underlying lung disease, and is estimated to affect about 3000 people per year in the UK,2 whereas secondary pneumothorax occurs in patients with known lung disease such as emphysema, lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome.
(2020-07-04). [Department of Error] Department of Error. thelancet.com Zhou M, Wang H, Zeng X, et al. Mortality, morbidity, and risk factors in China and its provinces, 1990—2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2019; 394: 1145—58—The appendix of this Article has been corrected as of July 2, 2020.
(2020-07-03). Over 800 Afghan civilians have lost their lives in six months: UN Assistance Mission. peoplesdispatch.org In a recent spate of at least 56 violent incidents, members of Afghanistan's civil society, religious leaders, healthcare workers, members of the judiciary, civil society activists, non-governmental organizations and journalists have been deliberately attacked…
(2020-07-03). Chileans carry out a two-day national protest against Piñera's government. peoplesdispatch.org The national strike has been called in rejection of the national government, its mishandling of the health and economic emergencies and the lack of food and aid for vulnerable population…
(2020-07-03). Caesarean delivery rates and analgesia effectiveness following injections of sterile water for back pain in labour: A multicentre, randomised placebo controlled trial. thelancet.com Compared to placebo, injections of sterile water did not reduce rates of caesarean delivery. For the main secondary outcome of pain relief the intervention did result in significantly more women reporting at least 30% and 50% reduction in pain for up to 90 min. Water injections have no effect on birth outcomes though can be an effective treatment for the relief of labour-related back pain.Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
(2020-07-03). The Mask as a Symbol of Subjugation. dissidentvoice.org 
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. — The New England Journal of Medicine, May 21, 2020 (T)hey told us exactly what was coming, and advised us to shut up and follow orders. Tragically, most people have done just that. — CJ Hopkins, 2020 It's …
(2020-07-03). 'Help raise our voice': Dialogue with Dr. Medhat Abbas, Gaza. workers.org 
Dr. Medhat Abbas has been director general of primary health care in Shifa Hospital and Al Aqsa in Gaza. He spent time in the Ministry of Health International Relations Department and has extensive experience in Health Services Management. Dr. Abbas is at the forefront of community health services and management . . . |
(2020-07-03). What do 6 months of COVID-19 pandemic tell us about USA? liberationnews.org 
Given the government's catastrophic profit-driven response and the lack of a vaccine, it's possible this pandemic is only in its early stages.
(2020-07-03). US govt providing unsterile Covid-19 screening supplies amid surge in testing demand, claims Washington state. rt.com 
Medical supplies sent by the federal government to help with coronavirus testing have been too slow to arrive and have failed quality control checks, according to Washington state's top health official. | A US government program aimed at supporting nationwide testing efforts has been "beset by logistical problems that impede our pandemic response and undermine our shared goals," Washington state Secretary of Health John Wiesman wrote in a letter to US Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir. | Wiesman claimed that his state had received around 250,000 bulk-packaged swabs from the federal government…
(2020-07-03). France to probe ex-PM & minister over handling of Covid-19 — prosecutors. rt.com 
France's former prime minister Edouard Philippe and its health officials will be the targets of a probe into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors say. | Health minister Olivier Véran and his predecessor Agnès Buzyn will be investigated, along with Philippe, the attorney general said. | The probe comes after nine complaints were found to be admissible by the Court of Justice of the Republic "on the sole count of abstention from fighting a disaster." | | Edouard Philippe arrives for a meeting at the Elysee Palace. © Reuters / Christian Hartmann | Philippe resi…
(2020-07-03). After thousands of coronavirus deaths in care homes, government announces regular testing programme for staff and residents. thecanary.co 
Staff and residents in care homes for people over 65 or with dementia will be regularly tested for coronavirus (Covid-19) from week beginning 6 July, the government has announced.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced a new social care testing strategy on 3 July. As part of the strategy, staff will be tested weekly, while residents will receive a test every 28 days. This is in addition to intensive testing in any care home facing an outbreak or at increased risk of a flare-up, the department added.The repeat testing programme will be rolled out over the next four weeks to all care homes for the…
(2020-07-03). Remdesivir for Covid-19: $1.6 Billion for a "Modestly Beneficial" Drug? globalresearch.ca The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recently "bought" all of Gilead Science's Remdesivir for $1.6 billion. "500,000 doses at $3,200 per patient — to be available to American hospitals but not for other countries"[6] | That's $1.6 …
(2020-07-03). "No One Has Died from the Coronavirus" globalresearch.ca A high-profile European pathologist is reporting that he and his colleagues across Europe have not found any evidence of any deaths from the novel coronavirus on that continent. | Dr. Stoian Alexov called the World Health Organization (WHO) a "criminal medical …
(2020-07-03). Hundreds of Saudi and Gulf Military Personnel Trained in Britain as Yemen War Continues. globalresearch.ca New data shows Britain's Royal Air Force trained Saudi personnel in 2019 on fighter jets used to bomb civilians in Yemen — a country on the brink of famine — while UK soldiers coached other forces in the Saudi-led coalition …
(2020-07-03). Huge COVID Case-counting Deception at the CDC. globalresearch.ca For this piece, we have to enter the official world (of the insane)—where everyone is quite sure a new coronavirus was discovered in China and the worthless diagnostic tests mean something and the case numbers are real and meaningful. Once …
(2020-07-03). US Buys Up Remdesivir: We Must Break Patents for Access to COVID-19 Drug. peoplesdispatch.org Newsclick's Prabir Purkayastha points out that countries must use the compulsory licence clause to make sure the drug is available to all. He also analyses how this might be a prelude to similar acts once a vaccine is available.
(2020-07-03). Black Immigrants On The Front Lines Of COVID-19. popularresistance.org As the country continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Black immigrants — immigrants who identify as Black regardless of country or region of birth — are playing an important role on the front lines in healthcare, food supply, education, and biomedical industries. Black immigrants make up a significant portion of healthcare workers. In 2018, there were more than 560,000 Black immigrant workers in the healthcare sector. These workers made up 3.4 percent of all healthcare workers, a share almost three times their share of the U.S. population. In the food industry at large, there are over 223,000 Black immigrant…
(2020-07-03). Cuba's Two Pandemics: The Coronavirus And The US Embargo. popularresistance.org As soon as the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in Cuba, our country mobilized all its resources to contain the spread of the virus. | Our healthcare workers go door to door checking people for possible symptoms. Those with symptoms are transferred to specially designated centers to receive treatment, mostly with medication developed by Cuba's own pharmaceutical and biotech industry. The medical examinations and treatments are all provided free of charge. | As of June 20, 85 people have died of COVID-19 in Cuba. Our mortality rate of 3.9 percent is very low compared to the rest of the world. We reached the p…
(2020-07-03). EU grants conditional clearance to COVID-19 antiviral remdesivir. yenisafak.com The EU executive said the drug, produced by Gilead Sciences Inc, was the first medicine authorised in the European Union for treating COVID-19 following a "rolling review" begun by the European Medicines Agency at the end of April.The agency reviews data as they become available on a rolling basis, while development is still ongoing.The Commission said on Wednesday it was in negotiations with Gilead to obtain doses of remdesivir for the 27 European Union countries.However, that may prove difficult after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it had secured all of Gilead's projected production…
(2020-07-03). China's COVID-19 complex to produce over 100M vaccine. yenisafak.com China has completed the construction of a research laboratory and workshop complex in the city of Wuhan for producing vaccines to combat COVID-19 or coronavirus pandemic, the state-run media said on Friday.While the laboratory is capable to research and study pathogenic virus vaccines, the workshop will produce over 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine annually, reported Xinhua news agency, quoting the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).The complex was earlier hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in Wuhan city located in Central China's Hubei province last December.China National…
(2020-07-03). Friday 7/3: Plague-Time Play-Time. indybay.org ATA GALLERY, 992 Valencia Street…
(2020-07-02). Activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham on Building a Lasting Movement. aclu.org 
In the last month, protests have erupted across the country calling for justice for Black lives, a wholesale restructuring of policing, and a greater racial reckoning across all facets of American society. , , "All of these things are interconnected," Brittany Packnett Cunningham told At Liberty this week. "If we're gonna talk about police violence, we're gonna talk about health care … we're coming for the whole thing.", , Packnett Cunningham is an activist, educator, and writer who has been on the front lines of many of these conversations, most prominently since the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Cha…
(2020-07-02). French health workers take to streets seeking higher wages, recruitment. peoplesdispatch.org The call for the mobilization was given by major trade unions, including the General Confederation of Labor (CGT)and health workers collectives like L'Inter-Urgences and Collectif Inter-Hà¥pitaux also joined the protests.
(2020-07-02). Riverside, California Nurses strike continues as ICU beds reach capacity. wsws.org Nurses are protesting unsafe working conditions while county health officials announced this week that ICU beds were at 99 percent capacity…
(2020-07-02). Already hollowed-out U.S. health system faces even more cuts. peoplesworld.org 
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century. Marshaled against a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million in the U.S., killed more than 126,000 people and cost tens of millions of jobs and $3 trillion in federal rescue …
(2020-07-02). It's Not Just Meat: All Farm and Food Workers Are in Peril. counterpunch.org 
COVID-19 outbreaks are now reaching far beyond the meatpacking industry. Migrant farmworkers in fruit orchards and vegetable fields, long the targets of intense exploitation, are seeing their health put in even greater jeopardy as they're pushed to feed an increasingly voracious supply chain in pandemic-time.
(2020-07-02). France ordered to pay up after epilepsy drug manufactured by coronavirus vaccine firm Sanofi caused birth defects. rt.com 
A French court has ordered the state to compensate three families whose children suffered birth defects due to the anti-epilepsy medication Dépakine. The drugmaker, Sanofi, is currently racing to certify a vaccine for Covid-19. | Dépakine is the brand name for sodium valproate, an ingredient used in the treatment of epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and migraines. However, it is known to
(2020-07-02). Arizona Department of Health Services activates plan to ration healthcare for COVID-19 patients. wsws.org As the pandemic surges throughout Arizona, the governor is seeking emergency support from the federal government to supplement the beleaguered hospital staff in hard-hit counties.
(2020-07-02). Mayo Clinic experts to help guide Delta Air Lines COVID-19 safety measures. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Industry leaders in health and travel formalize partnership to transform the future of safe flying ROCHESTER, Minn. — Delta Air Lines and Mayo Clinic, a global leader in serious and complex medical care, are deepening their relationship to provide additional safety and COVID-19 infection control measures for customers and employees. The collaboration is another significant …
(2020-07-02). The USPS is the only organization that was forced to pre-pay for health benefits decades into the future. nationofchange.org "
(2020-07-02). Health Workers Filed Over 4,000 Complaints With OSHA, Some Still Died. zcomm.org Federal officials rapidly closed many complaints without issuing citations, raising new questions over government inaction…
(2020-07-02). Workers in Germany express their solidarity with striking Fiat Chrysler workers. wsws.org The strikes at two Detroit Fiat Chrysler plants in Jefferson North and Sterling Heights against intolerable health and safety conditions for production workers have met with a powerful response from workers in Germany.
(2020-07-02). Counterpoint: Unemployment Benefits Should Depend on the Pandemic. cepr.net Tribune Content Agency, July 2, 2020 InsideSources, July 2, 2020 Bozeman Daily Chronicle, July 2, 2020 Killeen Daily Herald, July 2, 2020 Hoopeston Chronicle, July 2, 2020 See article on original site In recent weeks many members of Congress have been arguing against extending the $600 weekly supplement to unemployment insurance benefits that was put …
(2020-07-02). Unemployment insurance claims show crisis continuing. fightbacknews.org San José, CA – The latest report by the Labor Department on Thursday, July 2 indicated new claims for aid for unemployed showed no improvement for the third week in a row. While new claims for the regular state unemployment insurance benefits did fall by 50,000 from last week's report, to 1.43 million, new claims for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA actually rose by 110,000 from last week's report, to 840,000. Taken together, new claims for the two main programs to aid the unemployed totaled 2.27 million for the week ending June 27, slighting more than the previous week and the same as two week…
(2020-07-02). Herd immunity and COVID-19: What you need to know. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Curious as to whether herd immunity against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) might slow the spread of the disease? Understand how herd immunity works and what experts are saying about its potential impact on the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is herd immunity important? Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to …
(2020-07-02). Cuban Spies Disguised as Doctors. dissidentvoice.org The European Union now excludes travelers from the COVID-ridden U.S., but welcomes those from the virtually COVID-free Cuba. Cuba, the country that sends doctors and infectious disease specialists around the world to fight the pandemic, the country the U.S. has held in contempt for 60 years, villified with every epithet and sanctioned and embargoed and …
(2020-07-02). Germany tells Turkey travel warning will be regularly reviewed. yenisafak.com Germany will keep reviewing travel advice for Turkey, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told his Turkish counterpart on Thursday, saying any decisions were coordinated with the EU and based on reliable data on infections and the health situation.Turkey is disappointed that the EU has excluded it, along with the United States and others, from a list of countries recommended for non-essential travel and has called on it to correct its "mistake".Speaking to reporters after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Berlin, Maas said reviews of the situation took place every two weeks."Further steps will follo…
(2020-07-02). India's 1st plasma bank at service of COVID-19 patients. yenisafak.com India on Thursday opened the country's first blood plasma bank in the capital Delhi to improve access to blood plasma required in the treatment of novel coronavirus patients."People were facing difficulty in acquiring blood plasma. This plasma bank will thus help in accessing it, but it will only work if people come forward to donate blood plasma," Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said during bank inauguration.People who have recovered from COVID-19 develop antibodies against the disease in their blood, known as convalescent plasma. This can then be transfused into critical patients to boost their immune re…
(2020-07-02). Israel registers highest daily rise in virus cases. yenisafak.com Israel on Thursday confirmed 966 new cases of the novel coronavirus, the highest single-day spike since the virus was first detected on Feb. 21, the country's Health Ministry said.The country reported two more deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.Israeli authorities have so far reported 26,452 infections, including 324 deaths and 17,481 recoveries.The number of active cases, which dropped below 2,000 last month, rose to 8,647 after a spike in recent days.Israel lifted most of the COVID-19-related restrictions after the daily number of virus cases dropped below 20 last mon…