Public Health

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/43123056

At least 156 million Americans, about 46 percent of the population, live with unsafe levels of ozone, particulate pollution or both, according to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report.

Air quality in the United States has been generally improving since the Clean Air Act was enacted in 1970, with levels of key pollutants dropping by nearly 80 percent. But millions of Americans still breathe polluted air every day, leading to both acute and chronic health conditions that, in some cases, increase the risk of early death.

Plans by the Trump administration to loosen environmental regulations and cut funding for air quality research would make matters worse, the report says.

“The biggest thing that has saved patients’ lives in regard to lung health and overall health is the Clean Air Act,” said Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and spokesman for the lung association. “Clearly, legislation is needed because that’s what dictates the air quality you breathe.”

https://archive.ph/2VxzX

In the summer of 1982, seven heroin users were admitted to a California hospital paralyzed and mute. They were in their 20s, otherwise healthy — until a synthetic drug they had manufactured in makeshift labs left them frozen inside their own bodies. Doctors quickly discovered the cause: MPTP, a neurotoxic contaminant that had destroyed a small but critical part of the brain, the substantia nigra, which controls movement.

The patients had developed symptoms of late-stage Parkinson’s, almost overnight.

The cases shocked neurologists. Until then, Parkinson’s was thought to be a disease of aging, its origins slow and mysterious. But here was proof that a single chemical could reproduce the same devastating outcome. And more disturbing still: MPTP turned out to be chemically similar to paraquat, a widely used weedkiller that, for decades, had been sprayed on farms across the United States and Europe.

For a young Dutch doctor named Bas Bloem, the story would become formative. In 1989, shortly after finishing medical school, Bloem traveled to the United States to work with William Langston, the neurologist who had uncovered the MPTP-Parkinson’s link. What he saw there reshaped his understanding of the disease — and its causes.

https://archive.ph/DgsFC

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/61748028

Just a reminder that one of the biggest promoters of the lab leak theory is Trump's former CDC director Robert Redfield.

The accusation the virus originally escaped from a Chinese lab, while a possibility, has never been conclusively proven, and may have arisen in retaliation after the Chinese government circulated a video of Redfield as propaganda during the earliest months of the pandemic, in order to claim the U.S. was actually responsible for COVID.

Last June, Reuters released an investigative report which revealed the U.S. military had actually retaliated against the Chinese government's accusations by running a secret anti-vax campaign attempting to undermine China during the pandemic.

Tensions have since arisen regarding accusations against the NIH's involvement in "dangerous" gain-of-function research at a Wuhan lab, and testimony provided by Anthony Fauci.

I am working on a 3 part series covering this information, and how it relates to recent issues surrounding the creation of an updated bird flu vaccine. The first part covers common misunderstandings related to the NIH and Gain of Function research in detail.

I am still working on the two follow ups which will cover the lab leak theory and vaccine roll out, but have not had much time to get back into writing them. I hope to have time soon. I feel it's important to keep people informed ahead of the administration's attempts to spread new propaganda, because this all seems to be part of an elaborate public campaign that has been in the making for quite some time.

Please also keep in mind that Redfield actually wrote a public health commentary attacking "dangerous" gain-of-function research back in February, and praising Trump's planned EO to halt Gain of Function research, which was one of Trump's first announcements upon taking office. Redfield's commentary was published on the Heritage Foundation's website.

According to an article released today by a right wing White House press member, Trump's EO is nearing completion.

An increase in pregnancy-related deaths has been observed in the United States between 2018 and 2022, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

In 2015, the US maternal mortality rate was 26.4 per 100,000 live births, but Maternal Mortality Review Committees have reported that over 80% of deaths caused by pregnancy are preventable. These mortalities often occur with significant disparities, including a 2- to 3-fold increase in maternal mortality prevalence among non-Hispanic Black patients vs White patients.

“Given the increasing median age at childbirth and the decreasing number of live births observed annually, a more detailed characterization of the current US pregnancy-related death rates with age-standardized estimates would help guide tailored interventions necessary to reduce avoidable pregnancy-related deaths,” wrote investigators.

More evidence for an immune model of dementia onset

Since Spring of 2020, there have been ongoing convoluted political attacks against "dangerous" gain of function research. This includes attacks against American scientists, with many accusers citing the still unproven COVID lab leak theory.

One of the biggest supporters of this theory is former CDC director during Trump's previous administration, Robert Redfield.

Redfield also authored public health commentary for the Heritage Foundation in February, supporting Trump's proposed executive order to ban GOF research.

Some fungal diseases in humans no longer respond to medicines, which increases the risk of severe illness and death as well disease spread, according to a new report.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) published what it calls its first-ever report on the lack of tests and treatments for fungal infections.

Yeasts, moulds and mushrooms are all examples of fungi. Common toenail infections or vaginal yeast infections are common and treatable, but that's not always the case.

"Fungal diseases are an increasing public health concern, with common infections — such as Candida, which causes oral and vaginal thrush — growing increasingly resistant to treatment," WHO said.

The WHO report: https://www.who.int/news/item/01-04-2025-who-issues-its-first-ever-reports-on-tests-and-treatments-for-fungal-infections