medicine - SlashGear

Pharmacists can now vaccinate children 3-18 in all 50 states

Chris Burns | Aug 19, 2020

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an amendment to the PREP Act that allows pharmacists to administer vaccines to children in all 50 states. This update to the PREP Act (Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act) was a third amendment made on August 19, 2020. This authority has several requirements which must be met before vaccinations can be ordered and/or administered.

WHO: COVID-19 has “a long way to burn, if we allow it”

Chris Burns | Aug 13, 2020

This morning the World Health Organization held a press conference in which they outlined the importance of vigilance in the fight against COVID-19. Speaking on the current state of the global pandemic, with regard to containment and advancements in vaccinations, Dr. Michael Joseph Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Program, suggested that the disease has a lot of potential to become a lot worse, IF we allow it.

Russia’s claim of world’s first coronavirus vaccine raises alarms

JC Torres | Aug 12, 2020

The world has more or less gotten used to the fact of the COVID-19 coronavirus plaguing almost all countries even as some of those continue to struggle to keep their infection numbers and, worse, death tolls in check. What was previously a race to bring order to a suddenly chaotic world has now become a race to find a cure or, at the very least, a vaccine to prevent infection in the first place. Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly claimed the crown in that race, raising not just doubts but also deep concerns over releasing a vaccine that has not undergone proper and massive testing.

COVID-19 vaccine rules see FDA try to win over anti-vaxxers

Chris Davies | Jun 30, 2020

Fearing skepticism or even outright refusal among some Americans to consider a COVID-19 vaccination, the US Food and Drug Administration has preemptively published its guidelines for the development of a lasting coronavirus treatment. The recommendations, released today, cover the process by which the FDA will eventually approve potential COVID-19 vaccines, at least in part to try to bring "anti-vaxx" advocates onboard.

iFixit just published a massive medical device repair database

Eric Abent | May 19, 2020

At the moment, medical device repair is something that it's high demand because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, medical repair isn't always easy - much like device manufacturers who make our phones and laptops, the corporations that produce medical devices can sometimes make their repair information difficult to access, if that's something that's at all possible.

Scientists think they may have found the “off switch” for cancer cells

Shane McGlaun | Apr 21, 2020

Scientists from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a binding site where drug compounds could activate a key braking mechanism in many types of cancer cells. The discovery is said to be a critical step toward developing a potential new class of anti-cancer drugs to enhance the activity of a prevalent family of tumor suppressor proteins.

Drinking alcohol won’t kill coronavirus, says WHO

Chris Burns | Apr 16, 2020

An alert from the World Health Organization this week did a bit of a mythbuster on the subject of alcohol during our current global pandemic. Misinformation spread over social networks and person-to-person in text chains over the past few weeks suggested high-strength alcohol could "kill the COVID-19 virus." According to the World Health Organization: "It does not."

FDA expands on 2 coronavirus treatment trials

Chris Burns | Apr 3, 2020

The FDA announced expansions of clinical trials and potential for expanded access programs for two treatments for COVID-19. The FDA announced this latest national effort to bring blood-related therapies for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic this afternoon. The two potential treatment products are called convalescent plasma and hyperimmune globulin.

Dyson, Airbus, McLaren making coronavirus ventilators, UK joins EU effort

Chris Burns | Mar 26, 2020

Manufacturers in the UK expect the government to give them the green light to move their facilities from normal operations to making medical supplies. Dyson is in one group, another group is led by Airbus. Both groups have announced that they have only to be given the go-ahead by the UK government by next week. In separate news, the UK's ALSO joined the EU effort to ramp up ventilator production worldwide.

Saffron found to improve sleep quality, but there’s a catch

Brittany A. Roston | Mar 2, 2020

A popular, but pricey, spice called saffron may be able to improve sleep quality in adults who often experience unrestful nights, according to a new study. The research comes from the same team that previously linked saffron with an antidepressant effect, at least in people who have up to moderate depression and who are also taking a prescription antidepressant medication.

Novel coronavirus vaccine has shipped, but you can’t get it yet

Brittany A. Roston | Feb 25, 2020

Biotech company Moderna has announced the release of its mRNA-1273 vaccine against the novel coronavirus behind the outbreak in China and multiple other countries. This vaccine is released for human use, according to Moderna, which says that it has shipped some vials of the product to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the NIH.

Artificial intelligence finds compound that can destroy superbugs

Brittany A. Roston | Feb 24, 2020

Antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs' are a growing concern, spurring efforts to develop new types of treatments that can eradicate these bacteria. Here to help is a machine-learning algorithm developed by researchers with MIT; it identified a new compound that can destroy several varieties of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, among them being certain bacteria that are now resistant to all available antibiotics.