Every year in the U.S., people die after police fire gunshots, tase and restrain them, or accidentally crash into their cars during pursuits. But try to figure out how many police killings occur annually, and an unsettling answer emerges: There’s no official, accurate count. At a time when police accountability, especially in the deaths of […]
There were days, nights and weekends in the early months of the pandemic when Denise Von Bargen was the only person running covid tests at the public health lab in Ventura County. She once had eight or nine employees to assist her, but, one by one, they had all retired or left for other jobs. […]
For parents living in poverty, “diaper math” is a familiar and distressingly pressing daily calculation. Babies in the U.S. go through six to 10 disposable diapers a day, at an average cost of $70 to $80 a month. Name-brand diapers with high-end absorption sell for as much as a half a dollar each, and can […]
How much space we need to feel comfortable when interacting with others may be increasing as a result of the pandemic. Are the changes permanent? What to know: Using the “stop distance procedure,” where a person moves closer and closer to a study participant until told to stop, researchers can evaluate how much personal space […]
In April, the Journal of Hospital Medicine retracted an article entitled “Tribalism: The Good, The Bad, and The Future” (by Zahir Kanjee and Leslie Bilello of Harvard Medical School). The article, which had been promoted on social media, was met with sharp criticism stating that the term “tribalism” was disrespectful to indigenous people. On May […]
A self-administered Pap test may be a lifesaver for women in countries where there’s no alternative, but it’s a rarity in wealthy countries such as the United States. Unless you’re Black, it seems. “I’ve literally been in doctor’s offices where I’m there for a Pap smear and they wouldn’t even touch me,” a participant at […]
The number of American children who identify as a gender other than male or female appears to be increasing, a new study in the journal Pediatrics reports. In 2017, a CDC survey asked high school students if they considered themselves to be transgender and found 1.8% said yes. But a doctor at the University of […]
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new portable, low-cost rapid magnetofluidic platform delivers a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for gonorrhea and simultaneously detects ciprofloxacin resistance, researchers say. The platform, called PROMPT, could provide faster and more affordable testing for sexually transmitted infection (STI) in low-resource regions and help combat the spread of drug-resistant strains, […]
Cheri Williams looks back with regret at the start of her career as a child welfare caseworker in 1998. Systemic racism is a major reason why. “I removed probably about 100 kids from their homes in the 15 months I was an investigator … a lot of them were children of color,” said Williams, who’s […]
(Reuters Health) – Studies and clinical trials funded by the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) generally enroll youth from a variety of racial and ethnic groups at proportions at or above their representation in the population, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on 10,918 participants enrolled in 33 BPCA-funded studies of medical devices […]
