Health & healthcare December 2023-

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
World Health Organization (WHO)
Global Health and Healthcare Strategic Outlook:
Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare
Stephen Colbert: Beware The Elderly Antifa!
They’re old, and they’re coming for us all

14 July
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows some promise as researchers hunt new approaches
(AP via Yahoo!) An experimental drug might help slow early Alzheimer’s disease in a markedly different way than today’s treatments — by lowering levels of a brain protein called tau, researchers reported Tuesday. Tau is one part of a toxic duo fueling Alzheimer’s, but prior attempts to develop drugs that can target the protein have failed. Two Alzheimer’s drugs, lecanemab and donanemab, try to clear buildup of the better-known amyloid protein and can modestly slow cognitive decline. The new findings suggest Biogen’s diranersen did more than lower tau levels. The study of about 400 people found signs that it also slowed cognitive decline in one small subset enough to be comparable to amyloid therapy, according to results presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London. Biogen is planning a larger study to try to prove the drug’s benefit.

3 July
The Right Chemistry: Forget the supplements and bring on the berries
We’re all interested in slowing the aging process, but the notion that any simple intervention will have a dramatic effect is primitive thinking.
Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science & Society
… Just a handful of berries contains 50 milligrams of anthocyanins, a class of polyphenols that give berries and vegetables their red, purple and blue hues. That’s an amount shown to cause a clinically relevant improvement in blood flow, blood pressure and the elasticity of blood vessels. One study even found a dose-response relationship between berry consumption and faster reaction times on attention tasks and improved short-term verbal memory retention.
An added plus is that polyphenols not absorbed from the intestine travel to the colon where they are feasted upon by Bifido and other beneficial bacteria, allowing them to multiply. These bacteria also break polyphenols into smaller molecules like the “urolithins” that are then absorbed and have effect on important biological pathways such as ones that tone down inflammation.
Different berries produce somewhat different effects. Blueberries take the crown when it comes to reducing arterial stiffness and lowering blood pressure. Their polyphenol content has also been linked with preventing the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, a process implicated in the formation of the arterial plaque that causes coronary disease. Berries are also a source of fibre — with raspberries leading the pack, but blackberries do not lag far behind.
The best bet is to regularly consume a mix of berries, fresh or frozen.

3 June
The Ebola outbreak the world isn’t paying attention to (video)
(Al Jazeera The Take) A deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spreading across borders, with no approved vaccine or treatment for this strain.
A fast-growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has crossed borders, raising alarms far beyond Central Africa. This time, the virus is a strain with no approved vaccine or treatment. As cases rise and governments scramble to respond, can the outbreak be contained before it spreads further?

28 May
Ozempic may be reshaping the brain, scientists say
GLP-1 drugs may be rewiring circuits involved not only in appetite but in emotion, desire and beyond.
AI Overview
Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed.
Research on GLP-1 drugs reveals unexpected brain changes, scientists say, suggesting potential impacts on cognition, addiction and motivation. The drugs’ influence on the brain remains a significant area of investigation.
Unexpected brain changes observed in GLP-1 drug users.
Potential implications for addiction, cognition and motivation.
Mixed results in studies on Alzheimer’s and other conditions.
(WaPo) Scientists are studying GLP-1 drugs — medications that mimic the hormones involved in appetite, blood sugar and digestion — for how they affect not only eating behavior, but also addiction, cognition, neurodegeneration and even motivation and pleasure. The category includes older diabetes drugs that researchers have studied for decades; newer medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which contain semaglutide; and Mounjaro and Zepbound, which contain tirzepatide — a newer compound that targets both GLP-1 and a second metabolic hormone known as GIP, a distinction some scientists believe may matter neurologically.
The emerging research on GLP-1s is part of a larger scientific shift away from treating brain and physical health as separate domains. Increasingly, researchers see them as tightly intertwined.
… not all of the reported mental effects of GLP-1 drugs have been positive. On social media and at doctor’s offices, some users have reported a type of brain fog and others something broader and harder to define: a strange emotional flattening. People describe less pleasure, less motivation, diminished interest in hobbies and even reduced sexual desire.
Those accounts are beginning to raise deeper questions about what, exactly, these drugs are changing. If GLP-1s alter the brain systems involved in reward, craving and motivation, researchers wonder, where is the line between quieting a person’s destructive impulses and reshaping personality itself?

25 May
Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks prompt raft of conspiracy theories in divided US
Ever-growing influence of social media and AI means such ideas spreading at faster rates than before, experts say
(The Guardian) Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or “plandemic”, designed to upend midterm elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas.
Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned on Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, poses a “very high” risk at the national level. In the upside-down world of conspiracy theories it could be a bioweapon, a financial plot, or a scheme to extract national resources.
The hantavirus outbreak, which began on a cruise ship in the South Atlantic, killing three passengers and causing at least 11 to test positive, carries its own set of baggage in the form of conspiracy theories: passengers were crisis actors, or it was caused by Covid vaccines and Bill Gates, or perhaps it was an Israeli false flag operation and can be cured by the antiviral horse de-wormer ivermectin.
Inside the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in DRC as the virus spreads
(CNN) Locals in Ituri and North Kivu, the two provinces most heavily impacted by the outbreak, say they are not only contending with the delayed response to the epidemic, but also with health misinformation and a cavalier attitude toward face masks in their communities.

21-25 May
Trump admin shutting key US researchers out of global virus response talks, documents and sources reveal
(CNN) Key officials responsible for leading US research on infectious disease threats have been barred from speaking directly with the World Health Organization — effectively shutting some of them out of the global discussions on virus outbreaks, according to documents and multiple sources who spoke to CNN.
The Trump administration issued the directive stopping individuals at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from communicating with the WHO.
The prohibition has been in place during an outbreak of hantavirus that some Americans have been exposed to. The communication limits were relaxed slightly in the past week as another virus outbreak — an unfolding Ebola epidemic centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo — intensified.
US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say
Hundreds of cases reported in the DRC after USAID has been dismantled and key scientific research canceled
(The Guardian) A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts.
There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.
In the past year, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, thousands of staff at US health agencies were laid off, communications stalled and key scientific research canceled.
“The DRC is one of the most vulnerable health systems in the world, and was the second-biggest recipient of USAID funding,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University. The US withdrawal of funding with “zero notice” has been “disruptive to the country’s basic activities”, he said.
US foreign assistance to the DRC dropped from $1.4bn in 2024 to $431m in 2025 and only $21m so far this year. Assistance to Uganda dropped from $674m to $377m in 2025 and a negative $1.2m so far in 2026.
Vaccine to tackle Ebola outbreak will take six to nine months, says WHO
The response to the current wave of the disease, which has caused 139 deaths in central Africa to date, has been hampered by security concerns

5 May
World ‘unprepared’ for next pandemic as countries fail to agree on sharing information, tests and vaccines
Finalisation of pact governing global response to disease outbreaks delayed as talks on how to share benefits stall
A key deadline to finalise a global pandemic treaty has been missed by negotiators, prompting warnings that the world remains unprepared for the next major disease outbreak.
Countries have been trying to agree how they should share information on pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, that could cause pandemics – and what access to any resulting vaccines, tests and treatments they should be guaranteed in return.
That “pathogen access and benefit sharing” (Pabs) system must be in place before the World Health Organization’s pandemic agreement, governing how the world should respond to large-scale disease outbreaks in the future, can come into force.
It was “deeply regrettable” that countries had failed to find agreement ahead of this month’s World Health Assembly in Geneva, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former president of Liberia, and Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand, who co-chaired the WHO’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said in a statement.
World leaders first announced plans for a pandemic treaty in March 2021. However, high levels of mistrust between richer and poorer countries have slowed progress. One problem was the amount of disinformation circulating on social media, including false claims that the accord would cede national sovereignty to the WHO.

2025

19 November
WHO to shed over 2,000 jobs by mid-2026, document shows
Top donor US announced departure in January
WHO chief says process of reforms nearly over
Budget gap for next two years shrinks to $1.06bln
(Reuters) – The World Health Organization said its workforce would shrink by nearly a quarter – or over 2,000 jobs – by the middle of next year as it seeks to implement reforms after its top donor, the United States, announced its departure.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the body upon taking office in January, prompting the agency to scale back its work and cut its management team by half.

17 September
New AI tool can predict a person’s risk of more than 1,000 diseases, say experts
Delphi-2M uses diagnoses, ‘medical events’ and lifestyle factors to create forecasts for next decade and beyond
Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence tool that can predict your personal risk of more than 1,000 diseases, and forecast changes in health a decade in advance.
The generative AI tool was custom-built by experts from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Cancer Research Centre and the University of Copenhagen, using algorithmic concepts similar to those used in large language models (LLMs).
It is one of the most comprehensive demonstrations to date of how generative AI can model human disease progression at scale, and was trained on data from two entirely separate healthcare systems.
Details of the breakthrough were published in the journal Nature.

14 September
Every Cure
By harnessing our proven AI-approach to analyze the world’s knowledge of drugs and diseases, Every Cure identifies and advances the most promising drug repurposing opportunities to treat diseases without cures. Our team brings decades of experience in drug discovery, data science, and clinical research in pursuit of this ambitious mission.
Repurposing existing drugs for new uses is possible, because many diseases share the same underlying problem or mechanism in the body and many drugs can have multiple mechanisms of action.
We are pioneering a new approach called computational pharmacophenomics to interrogate the world’s biomedical knowledge to find and advance the most promising opportunities across all drugs and all diseases.
We turn traditional drug repurposing on its head: instead of starting with a specific drug or disease of focus, we make predictions looking across all 4k approved drugs and all 18k recognized diseases to identify the highest potential opportunities. This means that every single disease is in our platform and we are constantly evaluating all opportunities to find the very best ones.
We use multiple AI-powered approaches to create a ranked list of repurposing opportunities:
The Medical Matchmaking Machine
(CBC Radio Lab) David Fajgenbaum had months to live, if that. If he was going to survive, he was going to have to find his own cure. Miraculously, he pulled it off in the nick of time. From that ordeal, he realized that our system of discovering and approving drugs is far from perfect, and that he might be able to use AI to find dozens, hundreds, even thousands of cures, hidden in plain sight, for as-yet untreatable diseases.

21 August
‘Ozempic For All’ is starting to make economic sense
As prices come down and new benefits emerge, universal access to GLP-1s could become sound fiscal policy.
(WaPo) Universal access to GLP-1s isn’t a radical anti-capitalist concept or a pie-in-the-sky dream. It’s a policy choice that builds on health care systems and preventive medicine thinking that already work. It deserves to be our next great public health project.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the weight-loss benefits of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic (semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide), but scientists are still discovering that they have all kinds of other benefits too: They help prevent strokes and heart attacks, fight kidney disease and Parkinson’s, curb addiction, and lower risks for several particularly nasty cancers.
At this rate, just about every American will have some condition or risk factor that makes these drugs look appealing in their lifetime. And when that day comes, they should be able to get it. Universal access to GLP-1s should be the explicit goal of our federal government.

13 January
US Dementia Diagnoses Seen Doubling to 1 Million a Year by 2060
(Bloomberg) New US cases of dementia will double by 2060 from their level in 2020, according to a new study. The number of Americans diagnosed annually with the brain-impairment disorder is projected to rise to about 1 million over the next 35 years, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. More than two of five people over age 55 are expected to develop the condition during their lifetimes

2024

31 December
Ozempic economics: How GLP-1s will disrupt the economy in 2025
Weight loss drugs are saving lives, shrinking waistlines and shaking up the economy.
With adult obesity rates falling last year for the first time in more than a decade, drugs such as Ozempic and Zepbound are already reshaping Americans’ waistlines. Now, they’re poised to reshape the entire economy, too.
As of May, roughly 1 in 8 American adults have tried GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s for short). This percentage has almost certainly grown since then, as telehealth companies, “medi-spas” and compounding pharmacies aggressively market GLP-1 prescriptions.
We’re only just beginning to learn the full universe of effects for this class of drugs. Originally developed to treat Type 2 diabetes, GLP-1s were soon discovered to be effective in treating obesity and managing weight loss. Now there’s an ever-growing list of other potential uses (on- or off-label), including for treating heart disease, sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s, substance abuse and maybe even gambling addiction.
…seven reasons these blockbuster drugs will disrupt the U.S. economy in 2025 — and beyond.
1. Spending on GLP-1s is skyrocketing.
2. Consumers are spending less on [junk] food and alcohol.
3. Other consumer-facing industries are being transformed, too.
…rapid weight loss has encouraged some patients to replace their wardrobes. The clothing rental company Rent the Runway recently reported that more customers are switching to smaller sizes than at any time in the past 15 years. Airlines could save significant money on fuel if passengers slim down en masse, a financial firm projected. Life insurers could cash in, too, given the many mortality risks linked with chronic obesity.
4. Drug spending is distorting global financial markets.
The Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, nearly single-handedly kept its home country’s economy out of recession last year while most of Europe struggled. And because Americans are the primary customers of these meds, U.S. dollars flowed heavily into Denmark, causing the Danish krone to strengthen relative to other currencies.
5. Governments and private insurers are buckling under the cost of these meds …
6. … but they could ultimately save tons of money on other health spending.
Research suggests most patients who were prescribed these meds stop taking them within a year. Some stop because they’ve successfully reached their goal weight. But many others report stopping because of costs, unpleasant side effects, drug shortages or squeamishness about needles.
7. The labor market could get a boost.
Besides robbing many Americans of their energy, health and self-esteem, obesity has also robbed the U.S. economy of some of its most precious assets: workers.
Obesity-related disabilities, absenteeism, “presenteeism” (that is, showing up but not performing your best) and premature death all have enormous social and economic costs. Which means that making Americans healthier can make the labor market healthier, too, especially if interventions occur while patients are young and have many working years left.

5 December
Is RFK Jr. going mainstream?
(Politico) …some of Kennedy’s other views — especially on food — are surprisingly taking root on Capitol Hill. There’s still considerable resistance to Kennedy — and no certainty that he gets confirmed by the Senate. But his attacks on Big Ag and Big Pharma are resonating and RFK is finding allies among some populists who share the goal of taking on big corporate interests.
On the campaign trail and as part of his Make America Healthy Again movement, Kennedy spoke passionately about how large-scale, industrial agriculture operations and major multinational pharmaceutical companies are making Americans sicker and poorer. He railed against big corporations repeatedly, which resonated with a public reckoning with a byzantine healthcare system, strangled access to healthy food and a sense of powerlessness to do anything about it.
… During his campaign, Kennedy visited dozens of farmers all over the country, building rapport with a constituency that views large seed, pesticide and fertilizer companies as rapacious.
… The next Trump administration’s embrace of Kennedy signals a broad recognition of how well Kennedy’s message worked. If confirmed as secretary of HHS, which oversees the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, his supporters will expect him to be a counterweight to powerful food and beverage industry interests working overtime to block new policies on issues like ultraprocessed foods and toxic food additives that have bipartisan support.

Updated 24 November
24 August
Worried your attention span has shrunk? Five tips to fight distractions and stay focused
(Globe & Mail) This feeling of constant distractibility is what Johann Hari, a U.K.-based journalist and author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, calls an “attention crisis,” which he believes is a societal problem.
… It’s tempting to declare that in this age of smartphones and social media, our attention spans have shortened. Studies show that in 2004, people spent an average of two and a half minutes on a screen before switching to another window or app. That amount of time has shortened to 47 seconds, according to research by California-based informatics professor Gloria Mark, author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity.
But brain researchers are divided on whether our actual cognitive capabilities have shrunk or if our attention is much more divided than it once was, because of information overload, says Faria Sana, a cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Athabasca University.
With more research to be done, it’s hard to prove the former, but the latter is still concerning. When attention is divided, information is less likely to be encoded and stored effectively in your brain for later, says Sana: ”So, if you’re having trouble focusing, you’re also going to have trouble retrieving the information later.”
20 November
Why we can’t focus
Are we driven to distraction by our digital devices, or are our minds just built to wander? Five researchers concentrate on the root causes, and how we can make our time more meaningful
Zosia Bielski
(Globe & Mail) … Digital distraction is what we call this meandering state of mind. We bemoan our tech-warped brains, fearful the internet is rewiring them, siphoning off our focus and hijacking our hours. Learning disruptions in school, burnout at work, less time for connecting in person: We point to tech taking time away from the things that matter. But is that the whole story?
What if our efforts at self-control are failing because we fundamentally misunderstand the brain and distraction?
Today, research remains inconclusive on whether technology conditioned us to constantly seek out interruption, irrevocably shortening our attention spans. Some neuroscientists aren’t actually convinced tech rewired any of our brains. Instead, they say, the brain evolved to be distractible a long time ago. Then tech arrived, carefully designed to exploit the mind’s natural tendency to roam.
More scientists, psychologists and authors studying attention now propose that a closer understanding of this connection – what technology is and isn’t responsible for – might better steer our fragmented minutes, hours and days. Being more realistic about the inevitability of distraction, understanding there is a limited window of time to harness our concentration – these might be wiser ways forward than reproaching ourselves for our fragile focus.

5 September
Why and how should we regulate the use of AI in health care?
Matt Kasman and Ross A. Hammond
Key Takeaways:
There is substantial interest in the application of AI tools to health care by some of the largest players in the tech industry.
If and when large-scale application of AI tools to health care takes place, it could have substantial implications for Americans’ health as well as the U.S. economy.
The next presidential administration and Congress should preemptively identify a regulatory framework that can guard against potential negative consequences of the widespread use of AI tools in health care.
(Brookings) Artificial intelligence (AI) shows tremendous promise for applications in health care. Tools such as machine learning algorithms, artificial neural networks, and generative AI (e.g., Large Language Models) have the potential to aid with tasks such as diagnosis, treatment planning, and resource management. Advocates have suggested that these tools could benefit large numbers of people by increasing access to health care services (especially for populations that are currently underserved), reducing costs, and improving quality of care.
This enthusiasm has driven the burgeoning development and trial application of AI in health care by some of the largest players in the tech industry. To give just two examples, Google Research has been rapidly testing and improving upon its “Med-PaLM” tool, and NVIDIA recently announced a partnership with Hippocratic AI that aims to deploy virtual health care assistants for a variety of tasks to address a current shortfall in the supply in the workforce.

6-7 August
‘Tenacious’ Montreal philanthropist, dead at 91, helped thousands of cancer survivors, friend says
Sheila Kussner founded peer-based cancer support program Hope & Cope in 1981
It is with profound sadness that Sheila’s loving family announces her sudden, though peaceful passing on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, close to her ninety-second birthday. Beloved and devoted wife of the late Marvyn Kussner for 60 years. Adored and loving mother and mother-in-law of Janice, Joanne and John Leopold. Cherished and proud grandmother of Justin and Carolyn Leopold. Loving daughter of the late Jack and the late Sophie Golden. Predeceased by her dear brothers, Dr. Clifford Golden and Ronnie Golden. Sheila will be fondly remembered by her nieces and nephews.
“Sheila has profoundly shaped the development of cancer care in Montreal and beyond,” her family said in a Montreal Gazette obituary that also listed many achievements including her work spearheading the development of oncology as a separate discipline in McGill University’s the Faculty of Medicine.
A healthcare activist, fundraiser par excellence, philanthropist, consummate volunteer and pioneer in the field of cancer support, Sheila has profoundly shaped the development of cancer care in Montreal and beyond.
In 1981, she founded her beloved Hope & Cope, an innovative peer-based cancer support program affiliated with the Jewish General Hospital. Under her visionary leadership, Hope & Cope has grown into a nationally and internationally recognized non-profit that has attracted thousands of volunteers over the years.
While proud of the considerable funds she has raised for cancer care, Sheila found the greatest satisfaction and personal reward in the simple act of helping people from all walks of life – offering hope, empathy, practical help, a personal note, or a listening ear whenever needed. Sheila lived a life of meaning and purpose and will be deeply missed by her entire family, her many friends and all whose lives she has touched and inspired.

29 July
Alzheimer’s blood test shows 90% accuracy, outperforming other exams
The findings come amid larger efforts to develop a cheap, simple test that can diagnose Alzheimer’s without forcing people to undergo expensive or invasive exams.
(WaPo) A new study shows that a simple blood test can outperform traditional exams when it comes to determining whether Alzheimer’s is responsible for memory problems, accurately diagnosing the disease about 90 percent of the time.
Compare that with dementia specialists who successfully identified Alzheimer’s 73 percent of the time, while primary care doctors did so with a 61 percent rate, according to the study of 1,213 patients in Sweden that was published Sunday on JAMA, the journal published by the American Medical Association, and presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on the same day in Philadelphia.
The encouraging findings come amid larger efforts to develop a cheap, simple blood test that can quickly diagnose patients with Alzheimer’s without forcing people to undergo more expensive and invasive exams, such as spinal taps. Although blood tests are already used in clinics, they are often not covered by insurance, costing hundreds of dollars or more.

8 July
A treatment for anorexia nervosa?
McGill-led research team may have discovered neurological mechanism underlying common eating disorder
A McGill University-led research team working in collaboration with a French team (CNRS, INSERM and Sorbonne university) believes it has identified both the neurological mechanism underlying anorexia nervosa as well as a possible cure.
The international team’s findings, published this week in Nature Communications, have the potential to improve the lives of millions of people around the world, mostly women, who suffer from the common eating disorder, which has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease.
Working with mice, the researchers discovered that a deficit in the acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter in an area of the brain called the striatum, which is associated with the reward system, can lead to excessive habit formation and precipitate the compulsive self-starvation seen in people who suffer from anorexia nervosa.

17 June
Surgeon General Calls for Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms
Dr. Vivek Murthy said he would urge Congress to require a warning that social media use can harm teenagers’ mental health.
(NYT) The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage adolescents’ mental health.
Warning labels — like those that appear on tobacco and alcohol products — are one of the most powerful tools available to the nation’s top health official, but Dr. Murthy cannot unilaterally require them; the action requires approval by Congress.
The proposal builds on several years of escalating warnings from the surgeon general. In a May 2023 advisory, he recommended that parents immediately set limits on phone use, and urged Congress to swiftly develop health and safety standards for technology platforms.
He also called on tech companies to make changes: to share internal data on the health impact of their products; to allow independent safety audits; and restrict features like push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll, which he says “prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use.”
Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms
The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.

7 May
An observational study has found that regular olive oil consumption may have cognitive health benefits.
Is olive oil really a health boon? Or is it just a sign of healthy eating habits?
A study published in JAMA Network Open on Monday rekindles that debate. The observational study led by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health examined two groups of U.S. health professionals and found daily olive oil consumption is associated with a lower risk of dying from dementia.
The study found that consuming at least a half tablespoon of olive oil every day was associated with a 28 percent lower risk of dying from dementia, as compared with those who never or rarely consumed olive oil.
Participants who reported more olive oil consumption had a lower risk of dying from dementia, regardless of the quality of their diet or their adherence to the Mediterranean diet, which consists of plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and moderate amounts of fish and poultry.

2 April
Immigration to address the caregiving shortfall
By the time the last baby boomers turn 65 in 2030, the Census Bureau projects that 73 million older Americans will make up over one-fifth of the U.S. population.
The caregiver shortfall, and associated increase in price, means that the caregiving burden often falls on family members, particularly female relatives.
The positive impacts of immigration on the availability and quality of long-term care are well-documented, particularly as they pertain to nursing homes.
(Brookings) In the upcoming years, a confluence of factors will produce an unprecedented shortfall in the necessary supply of caregivers. If left unchecked, this shortfall will result in a series of harmful economic outcomes—including sharply raised caregiving costs, outsized burdens on informal caregivers, and subpar quality of care. Since demand for care is largely out of policymakers’ control, the most promising way to address these challenges is by expanding the supply of caregivers. And one of the best strategies for expanding the supply of caregivers is through expanded pathways for legal immigrants.

12 March
Virginia bill would give alternate licensing path to foreign doctors
Valerie Plesch
(The World) Across the United States, communities are facing physician shortages, especially in rural and medically underserved areas. In Virginia, a new bill seeks to address these shortages. If passed, it would create a pathway for foreign-trained doctors to continue with their careers, while contributing to the medical workforce in those communities. Valerie Plesch reports from Maryland and Virginia on the foreign doctors interested in using their medical expertise here, and the places that need them.

14 January
Neurosurgeon works to slow Alzheimer’s progression, treat addiction with cutting-edge technology
(60 Minutes) Dr. Ali Rezai allowed us to witness his revolutionary attempt to use ultrasound to slow down the cognitive decline in three patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s never been done before.
Dr. Ali Rezai: There’s no miracle cures here. It’s advancing medicine with calculated risks and pushing the frontiers.
Dr. Rezai and his team are focused on these red patches in the patient’s brain scans. The red indicates the densest beta-amyloid protein. That gummy protein is believed to play a major role in Alzheimer’s by disrupting communication between brain cells.
Dr. Ali Rezai: In people with Alzheimer’s it accumulates much faster. And over time, these protein aggregates, we call them plaques. Like plaques in the arteries, they keep on accumulating and impacting function.
Dr. Ali Rezai: Typically, you go into the clinic, and you get an IV, and you have the antibody infusion over one to two hours. And you have to do it once a month or twice a month for 18 months and longer. And during those 12 to 18 months, the brain is continuing to progress. Alzheimer’s is not going away.
It takes so long because the drugs have a hard time getting through something called the blood brain barrier. This tight filter of cells line the blood vessels to keep toxins from leaking into the brain…but it also prevents almost all of the medication from getting in too.
Dr. Rezai thought he could solve that problem with ultrasound – the same technology that’s been used for 70 years to give doctors a view of organs and fetal development.
He chose ultrasound because it easily penetrates the skull and can be focused — like sunlight through a magnifying glass – to help open the blood brain barrier and allow the drugs to rush in.
Dr. Ali Rezai: This way we’re getting the payload– the therapeutic payload exactly to the area it needs to go with a high penetration.…

11 January
I Have Covid. Should I Take Paxlovid?
We asked experts about who should take the antiviral medication, how well it works and where to get it for free.
(NYT) As hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 rise, fueled by a fast-moving new variant that now accounts for a majority of U.S. cases, Paxlovid can help protect patients from some of the worst outcomes of the illness.
But few people end up taking the antiviral medication. Some may not realize they qualify for the drug, or are wary of having a rebound case of Covid.
But there is clear evidence that Paxlovid can prevent severe illness in people at high risk, and it’s still possible to get the drug for free or at a low cost. Here’s what to know.

2023

14 December
A cry for help: Early detection of brain injury in newborns
(via FaceBook post) Since the 1960s, neonatal clinicians have known that newborns suffering from certain neurological conditions exhibit altered crying patterns such as the high-pitched cry in birth asphyxia. Despite an annual burden of over 1.5 million infant deaths and disabilities, early detection of neonatal brain injuries due to asphyxia remains a challenge, particularly in developing countries where the majority of births are not attended by a trained physician. Here we report on the first inter-continental clinical study to demonstrate that neonatal brain injury can be reliably determined from recorded infant cries using an AI algorithm we call Roseline. Previous and recent work has been limited by the lack of a large, high-quality clinical database of cry recordings.
Charles C. Onu: Did you know that using a simple recording of a baby’s cry, you can learn about their health?
We worked closely with AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Doina Precup to validate this in clinical settings. Our AI was accurate in detecting neonatal brain injury from cry sounds by a striking 92.5%!
This is the first clinical study to demonstrate the utility of the infant cry as a vital sign, in collaboration with leading neonatologists across 3 continents. This work opens the door for non-invasive and contact-free monitoring in newborns.

3 December
COP28: The climate crisis is also a health crisis
(UN news) Health has made it onto the agenda of a UN climate conference, and health advocates at COP28 in Dubai on Sunday said the topic was long overdue for discussion as climate inaction is costing lives and impacting health every single day.
Our planet has logged higher mean temperatures each year, with 2023 set to be the hottest on record. Ice sheets are melting at an unprecedented rate. Wildfires have made the air hazardous in some regions, while in others, floods regularly threaten to contaminate drinking water.
Against this backdrop, more and more people are being affected by disasters, climate-sensitive diseases and other health conditions.
WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told delegates at COP28 that it was long overdue for talks around environmental health, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers to include the direct impacts of such climate shocks on human health.
This first-ever dedicated ‘Health Day’ at a COP is highlighting several key events, including on public-private partnerships for healthcare climate action and on unlocking relevant financial and political commitments.