Category: Bioethics Education

(Nature) – Researchers identify genetic mutation in small group of people who developed the serious disorder after receiving the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

About one in 200,000 people developed vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT), as the syndrome became known, after receiving a vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson in the United States. The rare condition was also reported in about three out of every 100,000 people who received the vaccine made by AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom. Both vaccines used a modified version of an adenovirus, a type of virus known to cause the common cold, to carry the gene for part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into human cells. This triggered the immune system to create antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. (Read More)

(NPR) – A new report from Congress has raised the alarm about children with mental health conditions being held in juvenile detention, rather than getting treatment.

“Prolonged Incarceration of Children Due to Mental Health Care Shortages,” released Thursday by the staff of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, is based on a survey sent to administrators of public juvenile detention facilities around the country. About half of those who responded to the survey reported they had, at some point, kept children incarcerated when they could have been released into offsite mental health care. (Read More)

(The Guardian) – Cognitive health in later life is ‘strongly influenced’ by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments, say researchers

Reading, writing and learning a language or two can lower your risk of dementia by almost 40%, according to a study that suggests millions of people could prevent or delay the condition.

Dementia is one of the world’s biggest health threats. The number of people living with the condition is forecast to triple to more than 150 million globally by 2050, and experts say it presents a big and rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems in every community, country and continent.

US researchers found that engaging in intellectually stimulating activities throughout life, such as reading, writing or learning a new language, was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, and slower cognitive decline. (Read More)

(MedPage Today) – Scientists are testing an entirely new way to fight heart disease: a gene-editing treatment that might offer a one-time fix for high cholesterol.

It’s very early stage research, tried in only a few dozen people so far. But gene-editing approaches being developed by two companies show hints that switching off certain genes could dramatically lower artery-clogging cholesterol, raising hopes of one day being able to prevent heart attacks without having to take pills. (Read More)

(ProPublica) – Critics say the current method of allowing manufacturers to choose the samples they send to labs is vulnerable to abuse and allows contaminated products to reach dispensaries.

Colorado marijuana manufacturers would no longer be allowed to choose which product samples they send for mandatory lab testing under a new regulatory proposal discussed at a policy forum on Friday. (Read More)

(Ars Technica) – In a news release late Tuesday, Moderna said it was blindsided by the FDA’s refusal, which the FDA cited as being due to the design of the company’s Phase 3 trial for its mRNA flu vaccine, dubbed mRNA-1010. Specifically, the FDA’s rejection was over the comparator vaccine Moderna used.

In the trial, which enrolled nearly 41,000 participants and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, Moderna compared the safety and efficacy of mRNA-1010 to licensed standard-dose influenza vaccines, including Fluarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline. The trial found that mRNA-1010 was superior to the comparators. (Read More)

(Washington Post via MSN) – Three leading social media companies have agreed to undergo independent assessments of how effectively they protect the mental health of teenage users, submitting to a battery of tests announced Tuesday by a coalition of advocacy organizations.

The platforms will be graded on whether they mandate breaks and provide options to turn off endless scrolling, among a host of other measures of their safety policies and transparency commitments. Companies that reviewers rate highly will receive a blue shield badge, while those that fair poorly will be branded as not able to block harmful content. Meta — which operates Facebook and Instagram — TikTok and Snap are first three companies to sign up for the process. (Read More)

(NPR) – But amid low compliance and other struggles implementing the policy since it took effect in 2021, the available price data is sparse and often confusing. And instead of patients shopping for medical services, it’s mostly health systems and insurers using the little data there is, turning it into fodder for negotiations that determine what medical professionals and facilities get paid for what services.

“We use the transparency data,” said Eric Hoag, an executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, noting that the insurer wants to make sure providers aren’t being paid substantially different rates. It’s “to make sure that we are competitive, or, you know, more than competitive against other health plans.” (Read More)

(WSJ) – Divergent diagnostic criteria is raising concerns that some patients are being misdiagnosed and unnecessarily treated

Divergent diagnoses for Alzheimer’s are the result of different criteria for diagnosing the disease. Some doctors worry the differing approaches can result in patients going misdiagnosed, or worse, being prescribed medications with potential negative health effects. 

The problem highlights a larger question: How should Alzheimer’s disease be defined? Is it a biological disease based solely on the presence of brain proteins? Or is it a more complicated diagnosis that involves weighing risk and other factors? (Read More)