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Israel is bombing the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 19 Palestinians, including the deputy head of Hamas’ military wing, in the Gaza Strip, health officials said on Sunday. The strikes were carried out in the last 24 hours, adding that over 450 people have died in the conflict so far. Israel claims to have killed over 1,700 Palestinians…
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The Progressives feel abandoned by their allies in Israel
The US President Donald Trump’s administration is facing criticism for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Department of Health and Human Services said its response “may be insufficient”. Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “While there has been no confirmed or suspected case…
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Don’t get bamboozled by online misinformation
Videos, photos and witness accounts give clues about the explosion at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. In the hours after the attack, @Israel, the official Israeli account on X (formerly Twitter), posted a video it claimed was proof that the explosion was the result of a misguided rocket launched by Islamic Jihad militants.
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Officials say a deal has been reached to open the Gaza aid corridor
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that it’s working with Palestine Red Crescent societies to deliver supplies into Gaza “as soon as the border crossing is opened, hopefully tomorrow”. This comes after US President Joe Biden said that Israel will allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began…
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It is hard to know who is to blame for the Gaza Hospital explosion
The US said that the Israeli Defence Forces are not responsible for the Hamas blast at the Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip that killed hundreds of civilians on Tuesday. Vice President Biden Adrienne Watson said that the US assessing that Israel was not responsible for the explosion. The Palestinian group fired 10 rockets…
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There is evidence about what happened at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza
Israel said it tracked rockets fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that it wasn’t responsible for an explosion at a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of people. The explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by rockets fired by Palestinian militants, the Israeli military said. The hospital had previously been struck by Israeli fire on…
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The current bird flu strain evolved so quickly it was deadly
A study has revealed that the influence of wild bird migration on the spread of influenza through arctic and subarctic zones. Researchers analysed data from the WHO and the Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations between 2005 and 2022 and analysed more than 10,000 viral genomes. They said wild bird migration is driven by…
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What more should the children of Gaza suffer?
Palestinian Health Minister Tawfiq Tirawi said that at least 40 children were killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza. While Tirawi said that the death toll from the offensive was above 200, the Israeli Defence Forces said that several Palestinians were killed in cross-border fire. The United States has said it will provide “surging” military support…
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The US and Japan agreed to prevent disbursement of unfrozen Iranian funds
The Israeli military has said that it will continue its offensive against the Gaza Strip until all Hamas rocket launchers are destroyed. Over 60 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive since Saturday, while over 100 others have been injured, the military said. The Palestinian health ministry said that over 1,600 people have been injured…
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An reunion became a nightmare for an American family in Gaza
The US has raised its travel advisory for Israel and the West Bank to level three and “reconsider travel”, respectively, amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. The US is advising its citizens not to travel to any part of both Israel and the West Bank. The travel advisory for Gaza remains at level four, “do not…
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Israel has regained control of some towns near the Gaza border
The Palestinian Health Ministry has said at least 680 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip. According to the latest death toll provided by the health ministry, more than 900 people have been killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict so far. Hamas said the strike was aimed at easing the Israeli blockade…
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Child care centers face difficult cuts because of the money that is gone from the P.H
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, West Virginia made child care free for all children aged two and up in a bid to help families get back to work. The state had hiked the income eligibility threshold for subsidies for child care, making many more families eligible for subsidised care, according to Sarah Vanover, who was then…
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The Kaiser Strike is just part of what’s ailing the US health care system
Kaiser Permanente workers in California went on a three-day strike on Sunday to pressure the health provider to improve working conditions. “The people of Kaiser Permanente have faced…pandemic better than most frontline workers because we started from a different place,” the company said. It added that it has hired more than 1,000 nurses and other…
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There’s a lot running in a federal government shutdown
The US government has shut down for the third time in a year after President Donald Trump refused to sign a funding bill that did not include $5.7 billion for a US-Mexico border wall. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will remain closed and services will be suspended. However, CHIP and Medicaid…
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Do you have a complaint? Many just walked out
Thousands of US employees have gone on a three-day strike demanding better working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Kaiser Permanente executives “kicked can down the road” at the same time that the US was hit by the pandemic, its employees said. The strike would hit hospitals, clinics and medical offices from California and Colorado to…
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There is a search for a link between asthma and RSV
A study by researchers at York University in Toronto has found that nirsevimab, which is given before the start of first respiratory syncytial virus season, can help youngsters to avoid severe lung infections that often lead to hospitalization and death. As a one-time, lower- cost option, nirsevimab should streamline administration process, while also being “highly…
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The work begins now that the treatments are here
Doctors at a US hospital have said that they don’t have any record of a retired physician reporting any respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), according to a report in the journal, “The Lancet Infectious Diseases”. This comes after a recent study revealed that just 4.3% of 937 US hospitals tests people aged 65 and older who…
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Tracking the disease in low and middle-income countries
AstraZeneca has funded an RSV surveillance dashboard run by the non-profit organisation ReSViNET, based in the Netherlands, to collect data from 20 countries. The dashboard will collect data from 20 countries on the prevalence and severity of RSV in the community. It will be important to have multiple RSV antibodies on the market to increase…
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For Indigenous infants, prevention is better than a cure
A scientist from the University of Toronto has said it was a “perfect storm” of events that created the vaccine-enhanced disease that was experienced by infants who got the RSV vaccine. The pre-fusion form of the virus is an ideal target since it can be readily neutralized by antibody binding. The antibody produced by such…
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For health equity, location is important
Scientists in the US and Costa Rica have shown that prenatal and childhood exposure to pesticides affects the health and development of rural areas. Van Wendel de Joode, a researcher at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness in Costa Rica, said poverty and inadequate education were some of the factors that contributed to environmental health…
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Discrimination has resulted in people of color being trapped in the heat islands
A study in US’ Durham, North Carolina, found temperatures in historically Black neighbourhoods were up to 10 degrees higher than in affluent areas in the city. Researchers used heat-sensing instruments and fanned out along prescribed routes to collect data on air temperature and humidity in morning, afternoon and evening. The results showed temperatures in historically…
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For health equity, location matters
A new study has found that Detroit’s air pollution is linked to asthma. It said that the city’s air quality deteriorated over time, with the levels of pollution as high as 120 micrograms per cubic metre in some areas. The study further showed that children under the age of 18 are more likely to have…
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Years of progress towards cleaning up America’s air is being wiped out by wildfire smoke
An analysis of 545 counties in 2000-2007 in the US found that the impact of air pollution control on life expectancy in the country from 2000 to 2007 was similar regardless of whether people were living in wildfire smoke particles or from other sources. “We found no significant difference in terms of longevity for people…
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The AlphaFold tool can identify the genes that cause a disease
A new tool based on the AlphaFold network that can predict when a certain sequence of genes will cause health conditions, is likely to be the best predictor in two or three years, a researcher said. AlphaMissense is a network of genes linked to health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell…
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The auto strike threatens a supply chain already weakened by Covid
The United Automobile Workers (UAW) has announced a strike against General Motors, Ford and Ford affiliate Stellantis on October 3. UAW President Shawn Fain has said that the union will pay the health benefits of striking workers. UAW has built up a strike fund of $835 million, enough to last about three months if all…