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Mississippi seeks docs, nurses, ventilators as Covid sufferers pack ICU beds

Mississippi seeks doctors, nurses, ventilators as Covid patients pack ICU beds

A prisoner at the Bolivar County Correctional Facility receives a Covid-19 vaccination administered by medical workers with Delta Health Center on April 28, 2021 in Cleveland, Mississippi.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves pleaded Friday with residents to get vaccinated as the state scrambles to hire hundreds of temporary doctors, nurses and EMTs.

He’s also requested ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile as the spread of the delta variant fills hospitals in the state with mostly unvaccinated patients. The state even asked federal officials to send a medical U.S. Navy ship but was turned down, he said.

“When you look across the country, to a certain extent, this current wave is the pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Reeves said at a press conference, adding that the state was headed toward a new peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We continue to see more and more data, and the data is becoming more and more clear. Those who received the vaccine are significantly less likely to contract the virus.”

For the few breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated people the state has seen so far, “they’re much less likely to spread the virus and it is highly unlikely that if you have the vaccine that you end up in the hospital or that you end up in an ICU bed,” he said.

Mississippi extended a state-of-emergency order on Thursday that was set to expire this week after the state hit a record of more than 5,000 new Covid cases in one day, said Reeves, a Republican. The spike in cases will likely be followed by an increase in hospitalizations and deaths.

The state requested 65 physicians, 920 nurses, 41 nursing aides, 59 advanced practice nurses, 34 physician assistants, 239 respiratory technicians and 20 EMTs, according to Reeves. The extra help would open up 771 medical surgery beds and 235 ICU beds, he said.

About 97% of people currently hospitalized for Covid in the state are unvaccinated, a trend seen throughout the country. This week, Mississippi’s daily hospitalization rate reached numbers higher than any the state has seen throughout the pandemic.

In the last four days, “we’ve lost four healthy people in their 20s, two of whom were pregnant, zero vaccinated,” Mississippi state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during the briefing. “In the past four days, we’ve lost 10 people in their 30s, and these aren’t people who are chronically ill cancer patients.” None in their 30s who died were vaccinated.

In other age groups, the number of deaths in unvaccinated people continued to overwhelmingly eclipse the number of deaths in vaccinated people.

“I mean, there’s a pattern here … by and large the vaccines have been incredibly protective and helpful and especially for people who are under 50,” Dobbs said.

The state has one of the lowest vaccination rates per capita in the United States, but daily vaccination rates have tripled over the past month amid the spread of the dominant delta variant, according to state health officials.

The governor said he has no intention of mandating masks or vaccines for state employees “or for anyone else” and emphasized that he believes those things are personal choices.

“I have no intention based upon the data that I have seen of issuing a statewide mask mandate,” Reeves said in a press briefing on Friday.

Reeves said he does not plan to impose mask mandates on schools either, saying that school districts “have every right” to encourage mask use if they deem it necessary.

More than 5,000 children are currently quarantining after positive cases were detected in just the first couple of weeks of schools reopening, some without mask mandates.

In total, Mississippi has recorded 381,147 Covid cases and 7,761 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.

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Docs name for flu testing as Covid threatens to coincide with flu epidemic

Doctors call for flu testing as Covid threatens to coincide with flu epidemic

British doctors have urged authorities to make flu testing available amid concerns that an influenza epidemic may be about to collide with a third wave of Covid-19.

In a report published Thursday, physicians from the U.K.’s Academy of Medical Sciences warned a resurgence of respiratory viruses such as flu and RSV — a common virus that can be serious for young infants and the elderly — was likely to increase pressure on the country’s National Health Service.

The U.K. is due to lift nearly all Covid restrictions on July 19. However, the country is currently experiencing a rise in new cases of the virus, which has been linked to the highly transmissible delta variant.

On July 14, 42,302 people tested positive for Covid in the U.K., making it the country with the fourth-highest number of new cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

Doctors warned in Thursday’s report that overlapping symptoms between flu and Covid meant routine testing for both viruses, and possibly additional respiratory infections — known as multiplex testing — would be important ahead of an expected uptick in common winter illnesses. Medical experts have expressed concerns the U.K. could be headed for an influenza epidemic later this year, and multiplex testing would help doctors differentiate between viruses, allow them to monitor the growth of epidemics, make timely decisions about treatments and reduce transmission rates, the report said.

“We strongly support multiplex testing,” its authors said. “However, if this is not feasible, well evaluated and accurate point-of-care testing for influenza should be deployed in hospitals, primary care settings, care homes and community pharmacies.”

They added that “the symptoms of influenza and other winter respiratory viruses are typically clinically indistinguishable from Covid-19 without a test,” and warned demand for PCR tests may surge this year given the potential rise in winter diseases with similar symptoms.

A recent study of Covid symptoms in the U.K. found that the most common symptoms of the virus included a headache, sore throat and loss of smell. However, these can vary and people with the virus can also experience flu-like symptoms such as fever and a cough, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.K.’s NHS.

The AMS noted that while a successful vaccine rollout would mean mortality would be lower in the next wave than in the winter of 2020/2021, continuous transmission of Covid among the under-50s could result in higher levels of “long Covid” than seen in the previous two waves. The medical body also warned that if Covid cases rise or remain elevated throughout the fall and winter, the third wave could coincide with a resurgence of flu and RSV, adding pressure to the NHS.

Outbreaks of RSV and flu during the fall and winter may be twice as large as the numbers seen in a “normal” year, according to the report. Social distancing and lockdown measures had prevented these illnesses from spreading at their usual rates during the coronavirus pandemic, meaning population immunity may have been diminished.  

“Very low levels of influenza over the last two seasons will have led to lower levels of immunity than usually seen, which means a wave of influenza could be problematic,” the report warned. A priority should be to ensure vulnerable groups were given a flu vaccine, its authors said, although flu vaccines were less effective than those for Covid.

Around 10,000 deaths are caused by flu in a regular year in England and Wales, according to the NHS.

Meanwhile, non-infectious illnesses like asthma and stroke were also likely to be exacerbated in the winter, the AMS report warned, adding more pressure to health care services.

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Hospitalizations rising once more as delta variant spreads among the many unvaccinated, medical doctors say

A mobile Covid-19 vaccination center outside Bolton City Hall in Bolton, where the number of cases of the Delta variant identified for the first time in India was relatively high.

A mobile Covid-19 vaccination center outside Bolton City Hall in Bolton, where the number of cases of the Delta variant identified for the first time in India was relatively high.

Peter Byrne | PA pictures | Getty Images

Top infectious disease specialists say the spread of the Delta variant over unvaccinated parts of the country is causing flares and spikes in hospital admissions as cases rise.

The number of cases is on the rise again nationwide, as the highly transferable variant prevails as the dominant burden in the USA.The seven-day average of the newly confirmed Covid cases has risen to around 23,300 per day, almost twice as high as the average a week ago . according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Health officials and doctors have hoped that high vaccination rates among the most vulnerable and oldest Americans would also prevent hospitalizations, which are generally delayed by a few weeks. But that hasn’t happened before, doctors said in a call hosted Tuesday by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“Hospital admissions and ICU deaths are all lagging behind (new cases), so we expect these to get worse, much worse, over the next two to three weeks,” Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, director of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said on the call.

Hospital stays are on the rise again as the Delta variant spreads among the unvaccinated, doctors say doctors

After several weeks of declining infections, cases are rising again in many parts of the country, said Dr. Jay Butler, associate director of infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the conference call. “Unfortunately, this has also been accompanied by an increase in hospital admissions and emergency room reviews for people who have ultimately been confirmed to have Covid-19,” he said.

Since the Delta variant is spreading in the US, it hits states with low vaccination rates particularly hard. First discovered in India in October, the variant quickly spreads to more than 100 countries around the world and has established itself as the dominant variety in America in just a few weeks.

“When the Delta strain emerged, it quickly became the dominant strain … For the last full week of data, more than 80% of the viruses sequenced were Delta viruses, and this week 92% of all variants” (in Utah) said Pavia. “When you think about what it means for a virus to spread so quickly, it means that it is the most suitable virus that spreads more efficiently, that it spreads in unvaccinated pockets, causing a lot of disease and a lot of stress . “

In Missouri, Arkansas, Nevada, Utah, and Florida, cases have risen faster than any other state in the past few weeks. New infections and hospital admissions are highest in rural areas, where vaccination rates are low, Pavia said. “That’s what drives outbreak vulnerability.”

In Utah, infection rates are highest among young people ages 15 to 45, and hospital admissions are similarly higher in these younger age groups than they were earlier in the pandemic, he said.

About 80% of Americans over 65, the most vulnerable population group, are fully vaccinated, which helps reduce hospital costs. Scientists have yet to figure out whether or not the Delta variant makes people sicker than the original ancestral tribe.

US health officials and doctors still disagree on whether or not a booster vaccination will be required in the fall or winter.

“We don’t see any evidence at this point that people who were vaccinated last December or January have declining immunity and are at greater risk of breakthrough infections,” said Butler, of the CDC.

Based on statements made by World Health Organization officials Monday, Butler also said that breakthrough cases are often milder and that vaccines are extremely effective at reducing hospital stays and deaths.

“There’s even evidence that people with breakthrough infections who are fully immunized shed fewer viruses … this may reduce the risk of spreading it to others,” Butler said.

The WHO recently recommended that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people continue to wear masks and practice social distancing, citing the reduced effectiveness of the vaccine against the Delta variant and increased social mixing in countries with different vaccination rates.

“Everyone wants this to be over, and a lot of the behavior that I think is driving the spread of infection is people wanting it to be over, and pretending it’s over, and even really give up the more humble precautions like wearing masks. ” said Pavia.

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Authorities Warns Medical doctors and Insurers: Don’t Invoice for Covid Vaccines

Government Warns Doctors and Insurers: Don’t Bill for Covid Vaccines

The New York Times is investigating the costs associated with coronavirus testing, treatment, and vaccination. You can read more about the project and submit your medical bills here.

The Biden government is reminding doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurers that it is illegal to bill patients for coronavirus vaccines, a letter received from The Times shows.

The new warning responds to concerns from unvaccinated Americans that they could get a bill with their shot. A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that about a third of unvaccinated adults weren’t sure if insurance covered the new vaccine.

“We understand that there are costs associated with administering vaccines – from training staff to storing vaccines,” wrote Xavier Becerra, the health and social services secretary, in a letter to vaccinators and insurers. “Providers cannot bill patients for these expenses, but can request reimbursement through Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, or other applicable coverage.”

The letter warns that billing patients could lead to state or federal “enforcement action” but does not specify what the penalty would be.

The federal government has written strong consumer protection to ensure patients don’t have to pay for coronavirus vaccines.

In the economic legislation last spring, insurers were prohibited from charging patients co-payments or deductibles for vaccines. The same law also created a fund that would cover the cost of vaccinating uninsured Americans.

Layered on top of these legal safeguards are the contracts doctors and hospitals have signed to get vaccines. These documents stipulate that vaccinations cannot charge patients for the service.

The stronger protection seems to have worked. While many patients have come across coronavirus bills for testing, only a handful have come with vaccines.

Still, the rules aren’t foolproof, and some patients have been illegally charged. In April, the Inspector General’s Office of Health and Human Services released a letter saying it was “aware of patient complaints about fees from providers to get their Covid-19 vaccines.”

Some patients have submitted bills with surprising fees for a Times project that collects patient bills for tests, treatments, and vaccinations. Fees range from $ 20 to $ 850. If you’ve received an invoice for your coronavirus vaccine, you can submit it here.

Patients who are billed for coronavirus vaccines can dispute the fee. Health insurers can turn to their plan to ask why they got a bill when two federal laws – the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the CARES law – prohibit it.

A small part of health insurance is exempt from the law. These “grandfather” plans existed prior to the Affordable Care Act and are not subject to requirements to fully cover the coronavirus vaccine or other preventive services.

But these patients, too, are still protected by the contract that the doctors concluded, excluding any invoicing. Doctors can send the outstanding fees to a new Coverage Assistance Fund created by the Biden administration last month to fill gaps in patient care.

Uninsured patients can instruct their providers to bill for the uninsured Covid-19 program that was set up to cover those without insurance.

If an insurer or doctor is unwilling to withdraw a bill, patients can seek help from state regulators. State insurance departments typically handle complaints about whether health insurances are not adequately covering medical care, while attorneys general tend to file complaints about possible inappropriate bills from doctors and hospitals.

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Doximity recordsdata for IPO and says docs will get allocation

Doximity files for IPO and says doctors will get allocation

Uber offered it to the drivers. Airbnb did it for hosts. Now Doximity is making it available to doctors, but in a much bigger way.

In its IPO prospectus on Friday, health tech company Doximity – often referred to as LinkedIn for Doctors – announced that it will allocate up to 15% of the shares in the Doctors offering through a “reserved share program”.

This means eligible doctors can get shares at the same price as the select group of institutional investors who so often benefit from the IPO pop because they get an early allocation and don’t have to wait for trading to start. Doximity hasn’t yet said how many shares it plans to issue or at what price. In order to qualify for the program, members must meet certain activity thresholds.

“We strive to be the world’s largest physician-owned technology company, and our reserved stock IPO program is designed to both thank our members and help the process,” wrote co-founders Jeff Tangney, Nate Gross and Shari Buck in the Founder’s Letter section of the prospectus.

Airbnb, which went public in December, has reserved up to 7% of the shares in its IPO for hosts on the platform. After the stock fell 112% on its debut, hosts who bought the maximum number of shares posted a paper profit of over $ 15,000 on day one.

There is no guarantee that the stock will rally like this. When Uber went public in 2019, the hailship company made up to 3% of its offering available to drivers. IPO buyers are only up 14% while the Nasdaq Composite is up 74% over that stretch. Meanwhile, trading app Robinhood announced last week that it was launching a product called IPO Access to give retail investors more opportunities to get into deals at asking price.

Founded in 2011, Doximity is largely under the radar, despite being based in San Francisco. The company has not borrowed since 2014, only raised around $ 80 million in venture finance in its decade as a private company, and spent very little on marketing. The company is also profitable: net income rose 69% to $ 50.2 million last fiscal year.

Doximity has grown rapidly as doctors have become the standard location across the country to connect with each other and stay up to date on new research. It was also a very valuable tool for medical recruiters. The service is now used by 1.8 million medical professionals in all top 20 hospitals and health systems, according to the prospectus.

Revenue rose 78% last year to $ 206.9 million. Sales and marketing accounted for 30% of total sales. Most of that is “staff expenses, sales commissions, travel expenses, and other event expenses,” with a little bit spent on Google and Facebook ads. Only $ 2.6 million went into advertising last year.

While Doximity doesn’t do a lot for advertising, it generates a healthy amount of revenue from medical and pharmaceutical companies that use the app to reach out to doctors. All top 20 drug manufacturers use the service to educate medical professionals about their products. The company said its subscription paid marketing solutions product represented over 80% of sales in the past fiscal year.

Most of the remaining revenue comes from hiring solutions used by healthcare systems and medical recruitment firms to connect with Doximity’s doctors.

Doximity said it has more than 600 subscription customers, including 200 who spent $ 100,000 in fiscal 2021. Of those, 29 spent at least $ 1 million. Subscriptions made up 93% of total sales.

Doximity also launched a telemedicine product last year when Covid-19 forced patients to stay at home and communicate with their doctors remotely. The company only started charging for the telehealth service in early January.

“We have seen rapid adoption of our telehealth solutions by our healthcare customers as Doximity members who have used our productivity tools in the past have used organically,” the company said.

Doximity said it is competing with LinkedIn for members. It competes against recruiting companies in hiring and recruiting, while in the telemedicine market it faces competition from Teladoc and American Well and the universal video chat app Zoom.

CLOCK: Robinhood to allow users to get involved in IPOs

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Panicked sufferers name medical doctors as Covid vaccine hesitancy rises with J&J blood clot challenge

Panicked patients call doctors as Covid vaccine hesitancy rises with J&J blood clot issue

More Americans are likely to refuse to receive the Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson after U.S. health officials said six women developed a rare bleeding disorder with one dead and another in critical condition, experts said for public health and vaccines using CNBC on Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration asked states early Tuesday to temporarily stop using J & J’s single-shot vaccine “out of caution” after six women aged 18 to 48 out of the roughly 6.9 million people who received the shot developed blood. A coagulation disorder known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, or CVST.

All women developed the condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in the venous sinuses of the brain that prevents blood from flowing back to the heart within about two weeks of receiving the shot from the brain, health officials told reporters on a phone call .

“People who have recently received the vaccine in the past few weeks should be aware if they are looking for symptoms,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the deputy chief director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference on Tuesday. “If you have received the vaccine and have severe headache, stomach pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath, you should contact your doctor and see a doctor.”

Shortly after the FDA issued the warning, more than a dozen states, as well as some pharmacies, took steps to stop vaccination with J & J’s vaccine. Some replaced scheduled appointments with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Some doctors say they are already taking calls from worried patients.

People were already skeptical of vaccines before the coronavirus emerged as a new pathogen in China in December 2019, infecting more than 31.2 million Americans and killing at least 562,718 people in just over a year. Warning from U.S. health officials to states is likely to be even more reluctant to take J & J’s shot and the other vaccines, and threatens to hold back the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, health experts told CNBC.

“Unfortunately, this is likely to exacerbate those who are a little hesitant about getting a vaccine,” said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist who served on several drug data and safety oversight panels. “Senior public health officials need to continue to be open, honest, transparent, and most importantly, contextualize that this is a low risk.”

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer, the goal is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the US population – or about 232 to 281 million people – to achieve herd immunity and suppress the pandemic.

To date, more than 120 million Americans, or 36% of the total US population, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. Around 74 million Americans, or 22% of the total US population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Children under the age of 16 are not yet eligible to shoot in the United States, and some adults are likely to refuse to get a vaccine.

“This puts a wrench in the plans. It will slow down the rollout,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. “People will say, ‘I don’t want this, I want one of the others who don’t have this problem,’ even if it’s an extremely rare occurrence.”

Some Americans, especially in black, Hispanic, and rural communities, have already been reluctant to get the J&J vaccine, especially because they found it to be worse than Pfizer and Moderna’s. The highly effective J&J shot, especially against serious illnesses, showed 72% effectiveness in protecting against Covid in the US about a month after inoculation. This is comparable to the effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines with two doses of around 95%.

Single-dose vaccines like J & Js were critical to “getting into communities where a two-dose regimen was impractical or even possible,” Kahn said. US health officials used J & J’s vaccine primarily to reach poorer urban and rural areas where residents could not easily get to a vaccination clinic or did not have reliable internet access.

“These communities are also the hardest hit by Covid,” said Kahn. “Interrupting Use of J & J. [is] one stroke to do that effectively and quickly. “

Dr. Stephen Schrantz, who was part of the team leading a J&J vaccine study at the University of Chicago Medicine, said he already had patients who didn’t want the J&J vaccine and said the news would give them more evidence give to say, “See, I told you.”

“I suspect that vaccine adoption and uptake will slow down, there will be a move away from the J&J vaccine even if the CDC and FDA conclude that there is no causal link,” he said. “And as the wearing of masks wears off, there may be more cases like we have in Michigan.”

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board of directors, predicted the move will fuel “the reluctance” of some people to get a Covid vaccine.

“Even if there is no causal link, even if it is extremely rare, we will see that the whole conversation is now ignited on social media,” he told CNBC in an interview.

Dr. Purvi Parikh, an infectious disease allergy and immunology specialist at NYU Langone Health, described the FDA warning Tuesday as a “double-edged sword” and said it would likely raise concerns for already reluctant Americans. She also said she had already received “panic calls” from her own patients about the J&J vaccine.

“But if anything, I would like to repeat again: This only gives me more confidence in our system because these security checks work. Hopefully it will give some people peace of mind,” she added on “Squawk on the Street”. “” “Again, to look at the bigger picture, the benefits still far outweigh the risks of this vaccination.”

Dr. Archana Chatterjee, pediatric infectious disease specialist and member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, echoed Parikh’s remark. She added that there is nothing “unusual” in the way US health officials are addressing the problem.

“This is a normal procedure that occurs,” she said.

“But of course whenever a serious adverse event is reported about a vaccine that raises public concern,” she added. “If you talk about vaccine trust or vaccine reluctance, could it have an impact? It certainly is possible.”

Dr. Paul Offit, another member of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Allied Biological Products, hopes Americans will be “rational” about the problem, adding that cases of blood clots seem extremely rare. He noted that convincing people in hard-to-reach communities could be a challenge.

“It should be reassuring to the people that the officials are still looking [at the vaccine], even for rare side effects, “he said.

– CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz contributed to this article.

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Medical doctors Accuse UnitedHealthcare of Stifling Competitors

Doctors Accuse UnitedHealthcare of Stifling Competition

UnitedHealth is competing directly with U.S. Anesthesiology, according to the lawsuit in Texas, through an interest in Sound Physicians, a large medical practice that provides emergency and anesthesiology services. Sound Physicians plans to expand into markets like Fort Worth and Houston, and US Anesthesia alleges in the lawsuit that its doctors were contacted by Sound Physicians to persuade them to leave and the non-compete agreements in their contracts to work with the United Group in To ask a question.

The primary insurer is throwing its weight around in other ways, the lawsuit alleges. While the company’s Optum division, which runs the surgery centers and clinics, is technically segregated from the health insurer, doctors are accusing United of forcing OptumCare facilities to sever their ties with the anesthesia group and forcing the network’s surgeons to do theirs Operations to relocate hospitals or facilities that do not have contracts with US Anesthesia.

“United and its subsidiaries have expanded their tentacles to almost every aspect of the healthcare sector, enabling United to crush, suffocate and destroy any market participant who stands in the way of United’s higher profits,” the doctors claim in their lawsuit.

According to United, it is common for an insurer to sponsor the use of hospitals and doctors on its network.

Unlike many smaller medical groups struggling with the pandemic, United has maintained a strong financial position and propped up profits while elective surgeries and other legal proceedings have been suspended, resulting in fewer medical claims. The company was therefore expanded further, more doctors were hired and additional practices were bought up. The company plans to add more than 10,000 salaried or affiliate doctors this year.

The relationship between insurers and providers has become more complicated as more and more insurers own groups of doctors or clinics. “You want to be the referee and play on the other team,” said Michael Turpin, a former United CEO who is now executive vice president of USI, an insurance broker.

Employers who rely on UnitedHealthcare to insure their employees have difficulty assessing who will benefit when insurers fail to reach an agreement to keep a provider on the network. “This is as much about profit as it is principle,” said Turpin.

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Medical doctors Are Investigated After Posting Organ Pictures On-line as ‘Value Is Proper’ Sport

Doctors Are Investigated After Posting Organ Photos Online as ‘Price Is Right’ Game

A Michigan health network said it was investigating after some doctors in the operating room posted photos on social media last week of themselves as part of a game they compared to “The Price Is Right.” a surgically removed organ and tissue material.

Doctors who work as medical residents at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, asked people how much an unidentified organ weighed, according to one of the Instagram posts posted by NBC – Daughter WOOD were received – TELEVISION.

The station said it blurred part of the picture so people couldn’t tell what type of organ was featured in the post, which was publicly shared.

The broadcasts appeared to show at least one patient in the background, the broadcaster reported. They were dismantled shortly after the station contacted medical residents on Friday.

“The other game we play in the operating room is guessing that weight,” the post said. “It applies to a lot more than just babies. As always, the rules for “the right price” apply. So if you think about it, you are out! “

The doctor was referring to the television game show’s long-standing rule that contestants who overestimate the value of a prize are disqualified.

Spectrum Health, which operates 14 hospitals in West Michigan, three of which are in Grand Rapids, said in a statement Sunday evening that patient confidentiality is of the utmost importance.

“We were shocked and dismayed to learn that surgical images were posted on an Instagram account that is not officially affiliated with Spectrum Health and was used by a group of medical residents,” the statement said. “This unacceptable behavior in no way reflects our organization, the outstanding professionalism of our medical staff or our practicing doctors in private practice.”

It wasn’t immediately clear which hospital or how many doctors were involved in the episode. None of the doctors involved were identified. The Instagram handle used by the medics was @grandrapids_obgyn_residency.

“We are actively and fully investigating this unfortunate incident,” said Spectrum Health. “These contributions are not in line with our Code of Excellence, our values, or our expectations of team member behavior. We value our patients’ trust in us very much and work every day to strengthen this bond. “

Another photo shared publicly by the medical professionals on Instagram shows a doctor pointing to a strand of tissue after a patient underwent surgery to remove uterine fibroids, which are usually benign tumors, but which are hide a dangerous type of cancer.

The doctor had just completed a procedure known as morcellation, in which a surgeon extracts tissue through small incisions.

The doctor wrote that medical residents could be a little competitive if the attending doctor challenged them in morcellation, the station reported.

“Longest wins!” The broadcaster quoted the post as saying. “Good work.”

Arthur Caplan, professor of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, said in an interview on Sunday that the social media posts could prompt serious disciplinary action against the doctors, which could potentially result in the loss of their license .

“It is certainly a serious violation of ethics,” he said. “There is absolutely no excuse for turning something that should be treated seriously and with respect into some kind of silly carnival.”

Many patients still view tissues or organs that have been surgically removed as part of themselves, especially female reproductive organs, said Dr. Caplan. Posting a photo with a patient, partially visible in an operating room, crossed a line.

“We try to explain that a key aspect of professionalism is always respecting the patient and understanding that patients have a strong sense of their body and intimacy,” he said.

At least one person complained about the Instagram posts before they were removed.

“And do you think the patient would appreciate it if you post that?” The TV station quoted the person in a comment under the organ photo. “Has she agreed to have her body featured on social media as part of your ‘game’?”

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Superior Cancers Are Rising, Medical doctors Warn, Citing Pandemic Drop in Screenings

Advanced Cancers Are Emerging, Doctors Warn, Citing Pandemic Drop in Screenings

Yvette Lowery usually gets her annual mammogram in March. But last year when the pandemic took hold and medical facilities closed, the center she goes to canceled her appointment. Nobody could tell her when to set a new appointment.

“They just said keep calling back, keep calling back,” said Ms. Lowery, 59, who lives in Rock Hill, SC

Ms. Lowery felt a lump under her arm in August but was not able to make an appointment until October.

Eventually she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, started chemotherapy in November, and had a double mastectomy that month.

“I’ve seen a lot of patients at an advanced stage,” said Dr. Kashyap B. Patel, one of Ms. Lowery’s physicians and executive director of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates. If her cancer had been discovered last May or June, it would likely have been caught before it spread, said Dr. Patel.

According to experts, months of bans and waves of Covid cases closed clinics and testing laboratories or cut working hours in other locations over the past year, leading to a sharp decline in the number of screenings, including breast and colon cancers.

Numerous studies have shown that the number of patients screened or diagnosed decreased in the first few months of the pandemic. By mid-June, the rate of screenings for breast, colon and cervical cancer was still 29 to 36 percent below their prepandemic levels, according to a data analysis by the Epic Health Research Network. According to network data, hundreds of thousands fewer screenings were done in the past year than in 2019.

“We still haven’t caught up,” said Dr. Chris Mast, vice president of clinical informatics at Epic, who develops electronic health records for hospitals and clinics.

Another analysis of the Medicare data found that cancer screenings declined as Covid cases rose over certain periods in 2020. Analysis, conducted by Avalere Health, a consulting firm for the Community Oncology Alliance, which represents independent cancer specialists, found test scores in November were about 25 percent lower than in 2019. The number of biopsies used to diagnose used by cancer decreased by about a third.

While it is too early to fully appreciate the full impact of the delays in screenings, many cancer specialists are concerned about the emergence of patients with more severe disease.

“In practice, there is no question that we see patients with advanced breast cancer and colon cancer,” said Dr. Lucio N. Gordan, President of the Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, one of the largest independent oncology groups in the country. He is working on a study to see if these lack of screenings have resulted in more patients with later-stage cancer overall.

And although the number of mammograms and colonoscopies has risen again in recent months, many people with cancer go undetected, doctors report.

Some patients, like Ms. Lowery, were unable to make an appointment after the clinics reopened due to pent-up demand. Others skipped regular tests or ignored worrying symptoms because they were afraid of getting infected or because they couldn’t afford a test after losing their job.

Updated

March 17, 2021, 8:59 p.m. ET

“The fear of Covid was more tangible than the fear of missing a screen that detected cancer,” said Dr. Patrick I. Borgen, the chairman of surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, who also directs the breast center. His hospital treated so many coronavirus patients early on that “we are now called a Covid hospital,” he said, and healthy people stayed away to avoid contagion.

Even patients at high risk due to their genetic makeup or because they had cancer before have missed critical screenings. Dr. Ritu Salani, director of gynecological oncology at UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said a woman at risk for colon cancer had a negative test in 2019 but did not go to her usual screening last year because of the pandemic.

When she went to see her doctor, she had advanced cancer. “It’s just a devastating story,” said Dr. Salani. “Screening tests are really designed for when patients are not feeling bad.”

Ryan Bellamy was in no hurry to postpone an aborted colonoscopy last spring, despite the presence of blood in his stool prompting him to check for symptoms. “I really didn’t want to go to the hospital,” said Mr Bellamy. He decided he was unlikely to have cancer. “They’re not following me, so I’m okay with Googling,” he told himself.

Mr Bellamy, a Palm Coast, Florida resident, said that after his symptoms worsened, his wife insisted that he go for a test in December and have a colonoscopy in late January. With a new diagnosis of stage 3 rectal cancer, 38-year-old Bellamy is undergoing radiation and chemotherapy.

Colon screening stayed significantly lower in 2020, declining about 15 percent from 2019, according to data from the Epic network, although overall screening was down 6 percent. The analysis looked at screenings for more than 600 hospitals in 41 states.

Lung cancer patients have also been delayed in seeking appropriate treatment, said Dr. Michael J. Liptay, chairman of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. One patient had an imaging that showed a spot in their lungs and they should follow up just like the pandemic. “Additional workup and maintenance has been postponed,” said Dr. Liptay. By the time the patient was fully examined, the cancer had grown in size. “It wasn’t good waiting 10 months,” said Dr. Liptay, although he wasn’t sure if previous treatment would have changed the patient’s prognosis.

Just as previous economic recessions resulted in people foregoing medical care, the economic downturn during the pandemic also prevented many people from seeking help or treatment.

“We know there is cancer,” said Dr. Barbara L. McAneny, the executive director of New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants. Many of their patients stay away, even if they are insured, because they cannot afford the deductibles or co-payments. “We see this, especially with our poorer people who are marginalized anyway and live from paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

Some patients ignored their symptoms for as long as they could. Last March, Sandy Prieto, a school librarian who lived in Fowler, California, had a stomach ache. But she refused to go to the doctor because she didn’t want Covid. After a telemedicine visit to her family doctor, she tried over-the-counter medication, which did not help with pain and nausea. She continued to refuse.

“It got to a point where we had no choice,” said her husband Eric, who had repeatedly urged her to see a doctor. Jaundice and severe discomfort, she went to the emergency room in late May and was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She died in September.

“If it hadn’t been for Covid and we’d taken her somewhere sooner, she would still be with us today,” said her sister Carolann Meme, who had tried to convince Ms. Prieto to go to an academic medical center where she could go a clinical trial may be advisable.

When patients like Ms. Prieto are treated virtually instead of being seen in person, doctors can easily overlook important symptoms or recommend medication instead of telling them to come in, said Dr. Ravi D. Rao, the oncologist who treated Ms. Prieto. Patients could downplay how sick they feel or fail to mention the pain in their hip, he said.

“In my opinion, telemedicine and cancer don’t travel together,” said Dr. Rao. He also used telemedicine during the pandemic but said he had worked to keep his offices open.

Other doctors defended the use of virtual visits as a critical tool when office visits were too dangerous for most patients and staff. “We were grateful for robust telemedicine when people just couldn’t come to the center,” said Dr. Borrowing from Maimonides. However, he acknowledged that patients were often reluctant to discuss their symptoms during a telemedicine session, especially a mother whose young children could hear what they were saying. “It’s not private,” he remarked.

Some health networks say they have taken aggressive steps to counter the effects of the pandemic. Kaiser Permanente, the major California managed care company, saw a decline in breast cancer screenings and diagnoses on their first home order last year in the north of the state. “Doctors immediately teamed up” to get in touch with patients, said Dr. Tatjana Kolevska, Medical Director of the Kaiser Permanente National Cancer Excellence Program.

Kaiser also relies on its electronic health records to make appointments for women who are overdue for their mammograms, when they want to book an appointment with their GP, or even get a prescription for new glasses.

While Dr. Kolevska says waiting to see data for the entire system, she was encouraged by the number of patients in her practice who are now up to date with their mammograms.

“All of these things helped tremendously,” she said.

Categories
Health

Docs react as EU international locations droop shot

Doctors react as EU countries suspend shot

A healthcare worker prepares a syringe with the dose of AstraZeneca Covid-19 in Coria City Hospital, Spain.

Gustavo Valiente | SOPA pictures | LightRocket via Getty Images

LONDON – Health professionals are disappointed and confused about the numerous suspensions of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. They warn that there is not enough data to justify these decisions.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain joined a rapidly growing list of European countries on Monday that are stopping use of the vaccine as a precautionary measure after reports of blood clots.

Other countries such as Austria have temporarily stopped using certain lots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Thailand became the first Asian nation on Friday to stop using the shot because of safety concerns.

The UK, Canada and Australia, which continue to use the vaccine, are among the countries trying to reassure citizens about its benefits.

The World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency and the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis have recommended that countries continue to use the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

There is still no evidence of data to really justify these decisions.

Michael Head

Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton

“The decisions made by France, Germany and other countries look amazing,” said Dr. Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, UK

“The data we have suggests that the number of blood clot-related adverse events is the same (and possibly fewer) in vaccinated groups compared to non-vaccinated populations,” he continued.

“Pausing the introduction of a vaccine during a pandemic has consequences. This creates delays in protecting people and a possible delay in vaccine due to people who have seen the headlines and are understandably concerned. There is still no evidence of data that really justify these decisions, “added Head.

WHO experts will meet on Tuesday to review the safety of the shot.

The European Medicines Agency, which also evaluates the drug’s safety, says there is no evidence that it causes blood clots and believes the benefits of the vaccine “continue to outweigh the risks”.

What did AstraZeneca say?

More than 17 million people in the European Union and the United Kingdom have received a dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. As of last week, fewer than 40 cases of blood clots had been reported, AstraZeneca said in a statement.

The pharmaceutical company said that 15 events involving deep vein thrombosis and 22 events involving pulmonary embolism were reported among those vaccinated in the EU and the United Kingdom.

“This is much less than expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size, and it is similar to other approved COVID-19 vaccines,” said AstraZeneca.

The EMA has also said that the data available so far showed that the number of blood clots in vaccinated people is no higher than in the general population.

A bottle of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Igor Petyx | KONTROLAB | LightRocket via Getty Images

Europe’s caution regarding the drug has exacerbated the problems of the battered vaccination campaign in the region and comes at a time when the German health department has warned that a third wave of coronavirus infections has already begun.

Dr. Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the University of Leeds School of Medicine, said the news that many countries in Europe had suspended the introduction of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was “disappointing”.

“With many European countries currently experiencing a resurgence of SARS-CoV2 infections and still lagging behind on adoption, the importance of continuing vaccination programs and the harm done by people having access to one should not be underestimated Vaccine denied will do. ” even the worst-case scenarios probably outweigh the odds, if at some point a connection to the coagulation disorders is found, “said Griffin.

“It should also be noted that nationwide gestures like these inevitably create hesitation or a more extreme sentiment towards vaccines and further undermine vaccination efforts,” he added.

How does the vaccine work?

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is designed to prevent coronavirus in people aged 18 and over. It’s made up of an adenovirus that has been modified to contain the gene to make a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Therefore, the vaccine does not contain a virus and cannot cause Covid.

The most common side effects of the shot are typically mild or moderate and get better within a few days after vaccination.

In late clinical studies, the AstraZeneca Oxford shot was found to have an average of 70% effectiveness in protecting against the virus.

“We are carefully reviewing the reports, but the evidence available does not suggest that the vaccine is the cause,” said Dr. Phil Bryan, Vaccine Safety Director for the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency.

“Blood clots can occur naturally and are not uncommon. In the UK, more than 11 million doses of the AZ vaccine have now been given and the number of blood clots reported after the vaccine is no more than the number that would have occurred naturally in the UK of the vaccinated population, “he continued.

“We are working closely with international colleagues to understand the global safety experience of COVID-19 vaccines and to share safety data and reports quickly. People should still get their COVID-19 vaccine when prompted,” said Bryan.