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Morning Briefing

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Monday, Jan 14 2019

Full Issue

In Face Of Blood Shortages, Red Cross Aims To Recruit More Donors With New App

The agency, responsible for nearly half of the nation's blood supply, says the app helps people understand where there are shortages and where they can give blood. Public health news also focuses on a 22-minute workout; housing reforms for the mentally ill; science with borders; infections from Mexican surgeries; the importance of humility among researchers; suicides on campus; higher cancer death rates among the poor; 26 trillion steps and counting on Fitbit and more.

It happens every two seconds: a person needs donated blood or platelets to survive a surgery, cancer treatment, a traumatic injury. But blood stocks aren鈥檛 always high enough, especially during the winter when the holidays and nasty weather make some donations drop off. And each year, only 3 percent of eligible donors actually give blood to the American Red Cross, the organization responsible for a 40 percent of the nation鈥檚 blood supply. (Blakemore, 1/12)

Hard to fit exercise into your day? Then, maybe this workout is for you. It covers everything you need 鈥 from cardio to strength-training to stretching. "You can get a fantastic work out in 22 minutes," says Tim Church. He's a physician and researcher who's spent his career studying exercise. (Aubrey, 1/13)

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has asked U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to make 鈥渁djustments and modifications鈥 to an ambitious plan to move mentally ill New Yorkers from troubled group homes into their own apartments, in a letter citing an investigation by ProPublica and Frontline. (Sapien, 1/14)

There is something that is weighing heavily on the minds of some infectious diseases scientists these days. It鈥檚 not the challenging Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though that is deeply concerning. It鈥檚 not a new flu virus or slashed research budgets or laboratory safety violations. It鈥檚 an international treaty. More specifically, it鈥檚 an agreement within a treaty that could, depending on how negotiations play out, make it extraordinarily difficult to conduct disease surveillance or forge research collaborations around the world. (Branswell, 1/14)

Nearly a dozen Americans who went to Tijuana recently for surgeries from cheaper Mexican hospitals came back with something else: deadly, drug-resistant infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns Americans to avoid a specific Mexican hospital and to take precautions so they don鈥檛 get infected by the antibiotic-resistant form of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. (Gilmour, 1/11)

Can you recognize 鈥 and admit 鈥 when you鈥檙e wrong? If not, you鈥檙e not alone, science reporter Brian Resnick writes in Vox. In 鈥淚ntellectual humility: The importance of knowing you might be wrong,鈥 he examines the roadblocks that keep people from admitting and learning from their mistakes. What鈥檚 more, he considers how humility can help science move forward, even when researchers鈥 results are disproved or deemed impossible to replicate. (Blakemore, 1/13)

Campuses across the country are grappling with a rise in suicides and depression. Today, suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. (Traffic accidents is first.) (Downey, 1/13)

While the American Cancer Society鈥檚 Cancer Statistics 2019 report shows that the overall cancer death rate in the U.S. dropped 27 percent from 1991 to 2016, it also shows that disparities based on social and economic factors are increasing. During the five years ending in 2016, the cancer death rate was 20 percent higher in the nation鈥檚 poorest counties compared with its most affluent ones. (Viviano, 1/14)

Health experts have been saying for years that the path to a healthy self starts with being physically active. Apparently, people have been listening. Americans wearing a fitness tracker, specifically a Fitbit device, took more than 26 trillion steps last year 鈥 actually, precisely 26,857,655,603,500 steps. They accomplished this over 118.9 billion minutes; they also slept 12.4 billion hours. Fitbit says its U.S. clients averaged 7,994 steps a day, ranking 33rd worldwide (Hong Kong residents topped the list, averaging 10,493 steps a day). (Searing, 1/12)

Fewer than 40 percent of those with a hearing disability work full time, according to the Yang-Tan Institute at Cornell University's analysis of 2016 American Community Survey data. Despite improvements in technology and accommodations that are making it easier for deaf people to work and communicate, deaf job hunters say employers still don't believe they can do the work. (Morris, 1/12)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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