Tag Archives: medical research

Is this Progress?

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NY Times
Author Headshot By Alexandra Sifferlin. New York Times

Health and Science Editor, Opinion

Amid all the other news lately, it might have been easy to miss Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest big move as health secretary: the firing and replacement of the committee of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines. In a guest essay for Times Opinion, the immunologist Dr. Michael Mina called it a “Code Red” moment for U.S. vaccine policy.

The recommendations of the C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices help determine the vaccines doctors provide to patients and whether insurers will cover them. Kennedy’s abrupt removal of all 17 members is “a warning of what might be coming,” Mina wrote, explaining that “a reconstituted committee will be in a position to more directly rearrange, alter or dismantle the national vaccine schedule as it sees fit.”

Since we published Mina’s essay last week, Kennedy announced eight new committee members, including people who have spoken critically about vaccines. There are still more spots to fill, and the committee is scheduled to meet soon to discuss immunization for Covid-19, RSV, Lyme disease, human papillomavirus and more. If the recommendation for a vaccine is withdrawn, patients who still opt to receive it could be left footing the bill.

As Mina outlines in his essay, the committee shake-up isn’t the only change. The administration has also canceled contracts for the development of new vaccines and revised Covid vaccine guidance. Mina has closely studied vaccine-preventable diseases and also regularly questions consensus, so I was curious about his perspective on which changes may be less concerning and which are keeping him up at night. “When once-reliable guidance is muddied by conspiracy thinking, the risks to vaccines and the health of Americans increase,” he wrote. “This is a precarious moment for vaccine policy — the damage may not be obvious until it’s too late.”

READ THE ESSAY HERE

See also, THIS article in which Carolyn Kennedy says there is no worse person to be in charge of the nation’s health.

Breakthroughs in Ebola, ALS, Paralysis and Prosthesis Research

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While looking for something else, I stumbled upon these three articles that give such good news in medical research that I had to share them:

Ebola vaccine efficacy trial suggest vaccine provides high protection against disease

Date: July 31, 2015, Source: The Lancet

Summary: Tests of the experimental Ebola vaccine VSV-ZEBOV in over 7500 participants in Guinea suggest that the vaccine provides high protection against the disease as early as ten days after vaccination, in adults who have potentially been exposed to the virus by coming in close contact with a recently infected person.

for more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150731103901.htm

Brain-controlled prosthesis nearly as good as one-finger typing

Years of work yield technique that continuously corrects brain readings to give people with spinal cord injuries a more precise way to tap out commands by using a thought-controlled cursor (May be used by those affected by ALS!!!)

Date: July 31, 2015, Source: Stanford School of Engineering

Summary: Brain-controlled prostheses sample a few hundred neurons to estimate motor commands that involve millions of neurons. Sampling errors can reduce the precision and speed of thought-controlled keypads. A new technique can analyze this sample and make dozens of corrective adjustments in the blink of an eye to make thought-controlled cursors more precise.

for more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150731103744.htm

Paralyzed men move legs with new non-invasive spinal cord stimulation

After training, men move legs independently, without stimulation

Date:July 30, 2015, Source:NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering

Summary: Five men with complete motor paralysis were able to voluntarily generate step-like movements thanks to a new strategy that non-invasively delivers electrical stimulation to their spinal cords. The strategy, called transcutaneous stimulation, delivers electrical current to the spinal cord by way of electrodes strategically placed on the skin of the lower back. This expands to nine the number of completely paralyzed individuals who have achieved voluntary movement while receiving spinal stimulation.

For more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150730162240.htm