Marijuana is now legal in more states than ever before, with medical marijuana proving an essential tool to relieve symptoms caused by chemotherapy and AIDS, or for those in chronic pain. Others just use it to relax, especially during stressful times (like the ones we’re going through now). But it’s important to note that smoking marijuana doesn’t come without risks, particularly if you do it every day. Here is what could possibly happen, so you can be aware of the risks as well as the rewards. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had Coronavirus. 1 You Might Impair Your Senses&Have Mood and Behavior Changes Daily marijuana use can lead to “feelings of fatigue or apathy; feelings of anxiety, paranoia, or panic; temporary hallucinations,” says Dr. Jenna Liphart Rhoads. As well as, “trouble taking care of oneself and lack of hygiene practices; disconnecting from activities or people they once enjoyed; impaired memory and confusion.” 2 You Put Yourself at Risk for Respiratory Diseases “Chronically inflamed airways that result in a chronic cough, sore throat, or runny nose, and put the user at a higher risk for respiratory diseases or illnesses,” says Dr. Rhoads. 3 You Might Develop Marijuana Use Disorder “Make no mistake about it, smoking marijuana daily carries with it very real potential for addiction. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that between 9% and 30% of those who use regularly will develop marijuana use disorder,” says Dr. Mary Gay. “I have observed significant negative effects on clients who habitually use marijuana including reduced academic performance, job loss, legal consequences, depression, anxiety, and in several cases, psychotic symptoms requiring hospitalization.” 4 You May Have an Increased Risk of Heart Issues “Compared with placebo, marijuana cigarettes cause increases in heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and forearm blood flow via increased sympathetic nervous system activity,” says Dr. Kim Langdon. “In addition, marijuana has been associated with triggering heart attacks in young male patients. Smoking marijuana has been shown to increase the risk of MI onset by a factor of 4.8 for the 60 minutes after marijuana consumption, and to increase the annual risk of MI in the daily cannabis user from 1.5% to 3% per year.” 5 You Might Cause Functional and Structural Changes in Your Brain “Functional MRI studies have also revealed functional and structural changes in brain areas involved in reward processing after chronic cannabis use and in the processing of emotion,” says Dr. Langdon. “Some studies show a higher incidence of schizophrenia in chronic adolescent and teenage use of marijuana.” 6 You Might Have Changes in the Homeostasis in Your Body “Daily use of cannabis can desensitize the endocannabinoid system and override its natural capacity to maintain homeostasis. In layman’s terms, using medical marijuana too frequently can knock your endocannabinoid system out of whack a bit, which can have an effect (though not always a negative one) on some of your body’s natural processes, like your sleeping habits, mood, appetite, memory, and fertility,” says Dr. Daniel Whitelocke, M.D., Founder of AR MMJ Cards. “Because the endocannabinoid system was only identified as recently as the 1990s, experts are still working toward fully understanding it.” 7 You Might Have Pregnancy Issues “Marijuana use during pregnancy can be harmful to your baby’s health. The chemicals in marijuana (in particular, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) pass through your system to your baby and can harm your baby’s development,” says the CDC. “Some research shows that using marijuana while you are pregnant can cause health problems in newborns— including low birth weight.” 8 You May Have Fertility Issues Smoking daily increases the chances of having “problems with decreased fertility in both males and females,” says Dr. Rhoads. It can also be a factor in erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. RELATED: What Taking Ibuprofen Every Day Does to Your Body 9 What About Withdrawal? “Withdrawal from cannabis seems to induce a lack of motivation. Cognitive dysfunction and memory problems are other potential problems such as abnormal response to stress,” says Dr. Langdon. “A clinical diagnosis of cannabis withdrawal includes irritability, anger or aggression, nervousness or anxiety, sleep difficulty, decreased appetite or weight loss, restlessness, depressed mood, and physical symptoms causing significant discomfort such as shakiness or tremors, sweating, fever, chills, and headaches.” 10 On the Other Hand… “Marijuana is said to be a fantastic muscle relaxant, and people swear by its ability to lessen tremors in Parkinson’s disease.
The patient, who has a severe shellfish allergy, recovered quickly with treatment. Until now, reports of severe reactions had been linked to the Pfizer vaccine.
As we’re waiting for word on the authorization of a second vaccine for use in the US, glitches have been striking the distribution of the first through the federal government’s “Operation Warp Speed.” This week, the US saw the first use of the vaccine developed by a Pfizer/BioNTech collaboration. But immediately afterward, many states started saying that orders for shipments in the ensuing weeks were being cut. After some in the federal government had indicated that the problem might be in production, Pfizer issued a statement indicating that it had doses in its warehouse ready to ship out but no indication of where to ship them to.
All in all, it’s about what you’d expect in the first weeks of a massive undertaking like this.
One of the first states to report problems was Illinois, where its governor, J.B. Pritzker, said that it had indications it would only be receiving half the expected doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week. Since then, over a dozen states have indicated that they’ll be receiving fewer doses than planned in the second week
More than 100 local veterans were the Pittsburgh area’s first nursing home residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System said Thursday.
VA Pittsburgh said the vaccine was provided to every eligible veteran who wanted it in the community living center at the H. John Heinz III campus.
The healthcare system said vaccinations for front-line health care workers have also begun.
“VAPHS is one of the first 37 VA sites across the country selected to provide the vaccines for its ability to vaccinate large numbers of people and store the vaccines at extremely cold temperatures,” the VA Pittsburgh said in a news release.
KALAMAZOO, Michigan (AP) — The first shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States headed Sunday from Michigan to distribution centers across the country, with the first shots expected to be given in the coming week to health care workers and at nursing homes.
Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic that has killed 1.6 million and sickened 71 million worldwide.
Initially, about 3 million doses were expected to be sent out, and the priority is health care workers and nursing home residents as infections, hospitalizations and deaths soar in the U.S. With numbers likely to get worse over the holidays, the vaccine is offering a bright spot in the fight against the pandemic that’s killed nearly 300,000 Americans.
UNIONTOWN, Pa. —A two-week surge in COVID-19 patients has pushed Uniontown Hospital on the brink of capacity.
“We have doubled our COVID-19 inpatient volume twice in the past two weeks,” Uniontown Hospital chief medical officer Dr. Surabhi Gaur said.
Fifty-seven people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 at the Fayette County hospital, enough to push the hospital to the verge of being at capacity.
“We’re typically licensed for about 140 beds, and we’re pushing that capacity as we speak,” Gaur said. “We’re in the high 130s.”Officials said the 15-bed intensive care unit is filled with COVID-19 patients. A drastic reduction of elective surgeries has helped the hospital shift those rooms into beds for non-COVID patients requiring intensive care.
The blessing of these experts means that the agency will likely OK the vaccine’s use, paving the way for health care workers to begin getting shots next week.
Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine passed a critical milestone on Thursday when a panel of experts formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the vaccine. The agency is likely to do so within days, giving health care workers and nursing home residents first priority to begin receiving the first shots early next week.
The F.D.A.’s vaccine advisory panel, composed of independent scientific experts, infectious disease doctors and statisticians, voted 17 to 4, with one member abstaining, in favor of emergency authorization for people 16 and older. With rare exceptions, the F.D.A. follows the advice of its advisory panels.
GREENSBURG – A new UPMC outpatient center will open Monday in Greensburg.
The 2,520 square-foot multi-specialty clinic at
410 Pellis Road will be staffed by 14 clinicians from UPMC East in Monroeville, bringing an array of services.
“Every day, an average of 228 Greensburg-area residents travel to a UPMC location for their health care,” UPMC East President Mark O’Hern said.
“One of our goals in serving our communities is to make it as easy as possible for patients to obtain the high-quality care and services they need close to home, conveniently and efficiently.”
Orthopedic and sports medicine, heart and vascular, pain management, gastroenterology, general surgery and women’s health services will be available.
The new center is less than two miles from UPMC competitor Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital.
Regeneron’s anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody cocktail has significantly reduced medical visits in ambulatory COVID-19 patients. The phase 2/3 clinical trial linked REGN-COV2 to a 57% decline in medical visits associated with COVID-19 in the 29 days after treatment.
One month ago, Regeneron shared data on the first 275 patients enrolled in the study. That update, which provided early evidence that REGN-COV2 reduces viral load, set Regeneron up to apply for FDA emergency use authorization. Now, Regeneron has shared data on an additional 525 patients to further elucidate the effect of REGN-COV2 on viral load and clinical endpoints.
The primary endpoint looked at average daily change in viral load through to Day 7 of the trial. In patients with a high viral load, REGN-COV2 drove a 0.68 log10 copies/mL greater reduction than the placebo. The effect was particularly pronounced over the first five days of the trial, over which period Regeneron linked REGN-COV2 to a tenfold reduction in viral load. A smaller, but still statistically significant, difference was seen in patients with all levels of viral load at baseline.
People recovering from COVID-19 may suffer significant brain function impacts, with the worst cases of the infection linked to mental decline equivalent to the brain ageing by 10 years, researchers warned on Tuesday.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that combines the data from dozens of independent models predicts US deaths from Covid-19 could reach 233,000 by the end of the month.
Gates’ ‘funding’ results in an erasure of democracy and biodiversity, of nature and culture. His ‘philanthropy’ is not just philanthrocapitalism. It is philanthroimperialism…
In March 2015, Bill Gates showed an image of the coronavirus during a TED Talk and told the audience that it was what the greatest catastrophe of our time would look like. The real threat to life, he said, is ‘not missiles, but microbes.’ When the coronavirus pandemic swept over the earth like a tsunami five years later, he revived the war language, describing the pandemic as ‘a world war’.
‘The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus,’ he said.
In fact, the pandemic is not a war. The pandemic is a consequence of war. A war against life. The mechanical mind connected to the money machine of extraction has created the illusion of humans as separate from nature, and nature as dead, inert raw material to be exploited. But, in fact, we are part of the biome. And we are part of the virome. The biome and the virome are us. When we wage war on the biodiversity of our forests, our farms, and in our guts, we wage war on ourselves.
“Speed” and “action” are required to halt the rise in cases, the UK’s chief scientific adviser warns.
Sir Patrick Vallance said that “would be expected to lead to about 200 deaths per day” a month after that.
It comes as the PM prepares to chair a Cobra emergency committee meeting on Tuesday morning, followed by a statement in the House of Commons.
On Sunday, a further 3,899 daily cases and 18 deaths were reported in the UK.
Speaking at Downing Street alongside chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick stressed the figures given were not a prediction, but added: “At the moment we think the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days.
The Department of Defense and federal health agencies have outlined plans for a coronavirus vaccine, which include having them available for free for all Americans.
The plans came in the form of a report to Congress and a “playbook” for states and local governments, The Associated Press reported. The agencies are looking at January for a potential beginning of a vaccination campaign, although it remains possible that this could come later this year.
“We are working closely with our state and local public health partners … to ensure that Americans can receive the vaccine as soon as possible and vaccinate with confidence,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.
The Chinese scientist who alleges that the coronavirus that has spread throughout the world was man-made emerged for an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. Dr. Li-Meng Yan came forward recently to allege that the coronavirus was a lab-manufactured disease that did not come from nature and that the wet market story was a “smoke screen” aimed to pivot attention away from this virus’ apparent release. Dr. Yan said that this virus was China’s Frankenstein monster. Carlson asked about China’s motives in creating this virus if it is man-made, which Dr. Yan said you’d have to ask the Chinese Communist Party.
Director of the CDC Dr. Robert Redfield said that daily new cases still remain high and he’d like to bring that number down below 10,000 new cases per day.
KEY POINTS
Daily new cases of the coronavirus have been on a sustained decline since the end of July, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Deaths, which lag behind new cases as people fall ill, become hospitalized and die, have remained stubbornly high, at roughly 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths per day, on average, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data.
“I think we’re going to start to see a decline in mortality across the country now next week as we continue to get control of these cases,” Director of the CDC Dr. Robert Redfield said Thursday.
The program allows people in the Seattle area to easily take a coronavirus test at home. Researchers say such testing is essential for future monitoring of the virus.
SEATTLE — An innovative coronavirus testing program in the Seattle area — promoted by the billionaire Bill Gates and local public health officials as a way of conducting wider surveillance on the invisible spread of the virus — has been ordered by the federal government to stop its work pending additional reviews.
The program involved sending home test kits to both healthy and sick people in the hope of conducting the kind of widespread monitoring that could help communities safely reopen from lockdowns. Researchers and public health authorities already had tested thousands of samples, finding dozens of previously undetected cases.
But the program, a partnership between research groups and the Seattle and King County public health department that had been operating under authorization from the state, was notified this week that it now needs approval directly from the federal government. Officials with the Food and Drug Administration told the partnership to cease its testing and reporting until the agency grants further approval.
“Please discontinue patient testing and return of diagnostic results to patients until proper authorization is obtained,” the F.D.A. wrote in a memo.
Never forget, Bill Gates told the world via Twitter that COVID-19 couldn’t spread from human to human contact. Now Gates wants to microchip humans who have had COVID-19.
What do you and Bill Gates have in common? Both are equally qualified to offer medical advice.
Never forget, Bill Gates told the world via Twitter that COVID-19 couldn’t spread from human to human contact. Now Gates wants to microchip humans who have had COVID-19.
No. Just no. Considering our country was shut down for what equates to a flu, maybe Gates should spend his free time coming up with ways to help millions of people find employment rather than trying to track people who had the misfortune of contracting Chinese AIDS.
Crowder ripped Gates during his CNN Livestream last Thursday.
The tiny fossil is unassuming, as dinosaur remains go. It is not as big as an Apatosaurus femur or as impressive as a Tyrannosaurus jaw. The object is a just a scant shard of cartilagefrom the skull of a baby hadrosaur called Hypacrosaurus that perished more than 70 million years ago. But it may contain something never before seen from the depths of the Mesozoic era: degraded remnants of dinosaur DNA.
Genetic material is not supposed to last over such time periods—not by a long shot. DNA begins to decay at death. Findings from a 2012 study on moa bones show an organism’s genetic material deteriorates at such a rate that it halves itself every 521 years. This speed would mean paleontologists can only hope to recover recognizable DNA sequences from creatures that lived and died within the past 6.8 million years—far short of even the last nonavian dinosaurs.
But then there is the Hypacrosaurus cartilage. In a study published earlier this year, Chinese Academy of Sciences paleontologist Alida Bailleul and her colleagues proposed that in that fossil, they had found not only evidence of original proteins and cartilage-creating cells but a chemical signature consistent with DNA.
The ZIP codes in Westmoreland County with the highest numbers of confirmed cases are Latrobe (15650) with 68, Greensburg (15601) with 38 and New Kensington (15068, including part of Allegheny) with 35, according to state figures. The county has 291 confirmed cases.
ZIP codes often include multiple municipalities or parts of several communities, such as 15068 — which includes New Kensington, Arnold, Lower Burrell, Upper Burrell and parts of Allegheny Township, Murrysville and Plum. The number of cases listed includes the entire ZIP code.
Allegheny County has reported positive covid-19 cases down to the municipal level using an online map since late March.
The new coronavirus has upended all of our usual calculus about seemingly ordinary activities. Is running past someone on the street safe? How about shopping in a grocery store with a 6-foot (2 meters) distance? And what about packages and takeout? And which of these activities poses the biggest risk?Unfortunately, there’s a lot we still don’t know about the way the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads.”At this point, I don’t think anyone can take a group of people with COVID, say how each person has become infected, and then say that xx% got infected with droplets and yy% got infected via touching surfaces,” Dr. Jeffrey N. Martin, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, told Live Science in an email. “I don’t think this kind of study has ever been done for any infection. In most individual persons, we do not know how the person got infected.
Dr. Manny explains whether you should be taking zinc supplements to help prevent COVID-19.
Dear. Dr. Manny,
I’ve read that zinc supplements may help protect me against COVID-19. Is there any truth to that?
Thanks for your question.
Right now, the most important measure that you can take to protect yourself from the novel coronavirus is social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and following the guidelines that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put out for self-quarantine.
Zinc supplements have been touted for many years to be effective in shortening the phase of common colds, and there is data to support that impression.
There have been many randomized controlled trials that have shown that zinc supplements can inhibit replication of the common cold viruses and, therefore, reduce the average duration of a common cold.
AUGUSTA (Sun Journal) — Welcome to the start of tick season. May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month in the United States, and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a reminder that everyone be “tick aware and tick alert,” especially as the days get warmer. Maine game wardens are definitely seeing ticks, according to spokesman John MacDonald. Ticks like damp, wet grass and woods. The National Weather Service said Tuesday that Maine in April received 5.
President Trump has told Americans to “get their shots” as measles cases spread across the country.
“The vaccinations are so important,” he told reporters outside the White House.
Nearly 700 cases have been reported across 22 states amid a resurgence of the highly infectious disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.
Mr Trump has previously appeared to link vaccines and autism. Public health experts say there is no link.
Marijuana is now legal in more states than ever before, with medical marijuana proving an essential tool to relieve symptoms caused by chemotherapy and AIDS, or for those in chronic pain. Others just use it to relax, especially during stressful times (like the ones we’re going through now). But it’s important to note that smoking marijuana doesn’t come without risks, particularly if you do it every day. Here is what could possibly happen, so you can be aware of the risks as well as the rewards. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had Coronavirus. 1 You Might Impair Your Senses&Have Mood and Behavior Changes Daily marijuana use can lead to “feelings of fatigue or apathy; feelings of anxiety, paranoia, or panic; temporary hallucinations,” says Dr. Jenna Liphart Rhoads. As well as, “trouble taking care of oneself and lack of hygiene practices; disconnecting from activities or people they once enjoyed; impaired memory and confusion.” 2 You Put Yourself at Risk for Respiratory Diseases “Chronically inflamed airways that result in a chronic cough, sore throat, or runny nose, and put the user at a higher risk for respiratory diseases or illnesses,” says Dr. Rhoads. 3 You Might Develop Marijuana Use Disorder “Make no mistake about it, smoking marijuana daily carries with it very real potential for addiction. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that between 9% and 30% of those who use regularly will develop marijuana use disorder,” says Dr. Mary Gay. “I have observed significant negative effects on clients who habitually use marijuana including reduced academic performance, job loss, legal consequences, depression, anxiety, and in several cases, psychotic symptoms requiring hospitalization.” 4 You May Have an Increased Risk of Heart Issues “Compared with placebo, marijuana cigarettes cause increases in heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and forearm blood flow via increased sympathetic nervous system activity,” says Dr. Kim Langdon. “In addition, marijuana has been associated with triggering heart attacks in young male patients. Smoking marijuana has been shown to increase the risk of MI onset by a factor of 4.8 for the 60 minutes after marijuana consumption, and to increase the annual risk of MI in the daily cannabis user from 1.5% to 3% per year.” 5 You Might Cause Functional and Structural Changes in Your Brain “Functional MRI studies have also revealed functional and structural changes in brain areas involved in reward processing after chronic cannabis use and in the processing of emotion,” says Dr. Langdon. “Some studies show a higher incidence of schizophrenia in chronic adolescent and teenage use of marijuana.” 6 You Might Have Changes in the Homeostasis in Your Body “Daily use of cannabis can desensitize the endocannabinoid system and override its natural capacity to maintain homeostasis. In layman’s terms, using medical marijuana too frequently can knock your endocannabinoid system out of whack a bit, which can have an effect (though not always a negative one) on some of your body’s natural processes, like your sleeping habits, mood, appetite, memory, and fertility,” says Dr. Daniel Whitelocke, M.D., Founder of AR MMJ Cards. “Because the endocannabinoid system was only identified as recently as the 1990s, experts are still working toward fully understanding it.” 7 You Might Have Pregnancy Issues “Marijuana use during pregnancy can be harmful to your baby’s health. The chemicals in marijuana (in particular, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) pass through your system to your baby and can harm your baby’s development,” says the CDC. “Some research shows that using marijuana while you are pregnant can cause health problems in newborns— including low birth weight.” 8 You May Have Fertility Issues Smoking daily increases the chances of having “problems with decreased fertility in both males and females,” says Dr. Rhoads. It can also be a factor in erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. RELATED: What Taking Ibuprofen Every Day Does to Your Body 9 What About Withdrawal? “Withdrawal from cannabis seems to induce a lack of motivation. Cognitive dysfunction and memory problems are other potential problems such as abnormal response to stress,” says Dr. Langdon. “A clinical diagnosis of cannabis withdrawal includes irritability, anger or aggression, nervousness or anxiety, sleep difficulty, decreased appetite or weight loss, restlessness, depressed mood, and physical symptoms causing significant discomfort such as shakiness or tremors, sweating, fever, chills, and headaches.” 10 On the Other Hand… “Marijuana is said to be a fantastic muscle relaxant, and people swear by its ability to lessen tremors in Parkinson’s disease.
