Category: Uncategorized

WASHINGTON — Deciding when to get routine mammograms is confusing. Some health groups recommend women begin at age 40 or 45 while another recently opted for age 50. They also differ on whether yearly or every other year is best.

The conflicting advice is at least partly because guidelines for breast cancer screening are designed for women at average risk and with no possible cancer symptoms. But breast cancer is so common that it is hard to know who is really “average” and how to balance the pros and cons of screening.

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WASHINGTON — The deadly outbreak of a rare strain of hantavirus on a cruise has generated echoes of the pandemic era, including a reprise of a familiar drumbeat of questionable theories from social media personalities prominent for their Covid-19 skepticism.

At the moment, ironically, the public health establishment and the conspiracists challenging it actually seem to agree on the big picture: Hantavirus is not like the Covid-19 virus, and for now, the risk to the general public remains low.

But the speed at which a handful of people who became influential amid Covid-19 have begun recycling theories, from baseless suggestions about the origin of the current outbreak to unproven treatments, illustrates a new reality for any emerging public health threat.

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Bill Cassidy, a key Republican health care leader in the Senate, will lose his seat, as Louisiana’s Senate primary heads for a runoff between state treasurer John Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow, who won President Trump’s endorsement.

In initial election results, Letlow leads with just over 44% of the vote, followed by Fleming with just over 28% percent of the vote. Cassidy came in at 24.8% of the vote. The president has endorsed Letlow, a Trump loyalist who became a proponent for the Covid-19 vaccine in 2021 following the death of her husband to Covid. 

Cassidy’s defeat is a win for President Trump and his allies, who have criticized the senator for voting in 2021 to convict the president for inciting the January 6 insurrection. Later, Cassidy came into conflict with the administration when he expressed concerns with anti-vaccine statements made by then-health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before ultimately voting to confirm him. 

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The World Health Organization late Saturday declared the outbreak of Ebola that was first seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo an international public health emergency, underscoring the concern about the spread of the virus as travel-related cases were reported in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

The speed with which the emergency issuance was made — African health officials only confirmed the outbreak on Friday — is unusual. So too is the fact that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the declaration without first seeking the advice of an expert panel, called an emergency committee.

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