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Telemedicine rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic as people turned to their phones and computers rather than leave their homes for health care. But some groups of people were left behind in the telemedicine boom, a new study reports. Middle-aged and older folks are much less likely to complete their scheduled telemedicine visits, as well as Medicaid recipients and those whose first language is not English, the researchers said. Many groups are also unable to take part in video visits, including middle-aged folks and seniors, women, Black and Hispanic people, and those with a lower household income, according to the study authors. The pandemic has revealed a “digital divide” in telemedicine care, with some people unable to take full advantage of the service because they either lack access to the technology or find it too daunting, said lead researcher Dr. Srinath Adusumalli. He’s a cardiologist and assistant professor of clinical medicine with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. “Lots of the care we’ve historically delivered in person can be done via telemedicine, and therefore I do think telemedicine is here to stay,” Adusumalli said. “Our goal now is to start refining that process.” For this study, Adusumalli and his colleagues surveyed records for nearly 150,000 patients who scheduled telemedicine visits with Penn Medicine between mid-March and mid-May, 2020, at the height of… read on > read on >

A return to normal life in America might happen sooner than many expect, one of the nation’s leading vaccine experts told HD Live! this week. As the new coronavirus rages across the country, President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of one million doses of vaccine delivered every day once he takes office. If that ambitious target is realized, everyday conditions in the United States might return to normal as soon as the summer, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I think if we can do that, if we can get a million people vaccinated a day, I think then that by summer or late summer we should be able to have enough people vaccinated that we are able to have a normal life again,” Offit said during an HD Live! interview. So far, the rollouts of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been rather rocky. Only about 4.2 million people have had the first of two doses, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker — far fewer than the 20 million doses that Trump administration officials promised to put in people’s arms by the end of 2020. But Americans are further ahead than many might think in one crucial aspect, Offit said — a good chunk of the U.S. population… read on > read on >

Research brings grim findings for these economically tough times: People who must move because they can’t make the rent often miss out on needed medical care. The study, of over 146,000 California residents, found a connection between unaffordable housing and health care use: Of people who’d moved in the past five years because they couldn’t afford the mortgage or rent, about 27% had skipped or delayed necessary medical care. That was higher than the rates among Californians who’d stayed put and those who’d moved for reasons other than housing costs. The findings do not necessarily mean that the moves, per se, led to difficulties in getting health care. But it makes sense that there’s a connection, the researchers said. “The findings are intuitive,” said Dr. Katherine Chen, a fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, who worked on the study. People who struggle to afford housing, she said, are likely to face other financial hardships. Housing is such an essential need that people will put rent or mortgage payments ahead of all else, said Corianne Scally. Scally, who was not involved in the new research, studies housing issues at the Urban Institute, in Washington, D.C. She said that resource-strapped families can be forced to choose which basics they can afford. Medical care may be far down on the list, behind housing, food and bills.… read on > read on >

Cases of anaphylactic shock caused by COVID-19 vaccines are very rare, based on numbers from the first week and a half of vaccinations in the United States, federal public health officials said Wednesday. There have been 21 cases of anaphylaxis out of nearly 1.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine administered in the very first days of the national COVID-19 vaccination program, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We’re in the setting of 2,000 COVID deaths per day. If you make that comparison, I think it’s still a good value proposition for someone to get vaccinated,” Messonnier said. “Their risk from COVID and poor outcomes from COVID is still more than their risk of a severe outcome from the vaccine.” The average rate is 11.1 anaphylaxis cases per one million doses administered, which is higher than the rate of anaphylaxis for flu vaccine of 1.3 per one million doses administered, Messonnier noted. “I guess you could mathematically say that’s 10 times the amount, but I think that misses the point,” Messonnier said. “This is exceedingly rare, and I think that is still the message that the public should be getting from this.” Anaphylaxis occurs rapidly following COVID-19 vaccination, with symptom onset within 13 minutes of receiving the shot… read on > read on >

One in four doctors has been personally attacked or sexually harassed on social media, a new study finds. Women are more likely to be sexually harassed, while both men and women are attacked based on religion, race or medical recommendations, researchers say. Doctors received negative reviews, coordinated harassment, threats at work, public exposure of their personal information and threats of rape and death. Distressingly, this was reported before the 2020 pandemic. The survey of 464 U.S. physicians was conducted before the COVID-19 outbreak and highlight the intensity of online harassment of doctors. The situation has only gotten worse since the spring, the authors noted. “If anything, our data is likely an underestimate of the true extent of attacks and harassment post-pandemic since so many doctors started to advocate for public health measures during the pandemic and have been met with an increasingly polarized populace emboldened by leadership that devalues science and fact,” said senior author Dr. Vineet Arora, assistant dean for scholarship and discovery at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. The study also reported that 1 in 6 women doctors said they had been sexually harassed on social media. Study co-author Tricia Pendergrast, a second-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, described the findings as worrisome. “We worry this emotionally distressing environment will drive women physicians off… read on > read on >

After a short-lived tax on sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages was repealed, consumption of sugary drinks in an Illinois County escalated again, according to a new study. The tax was pitched to reduce Cook County budget deficits. It lasted four months — from Aug. 2 to Dec. 1, 2017, the researchers said. “We know that the tax worked to bring down demand for sweetened beverages significantly while it was in place,” said lead author Lisa Powell, director of health policy and administration at the University of Illinois Chicago, School of Public Health. “The repeal of the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax was a missed public health opportunity,” Powell said. “If it had stayed in place, we could have seen a lasting reduction in consumption of sweetened beverages, which are linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which, in turn, have recently been found to be associated with increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.” For the study, the researchers compared the price and volume of sweetened beverages sold in the county while the tax was in place, for the two years prior to the tax and for the eight months after the tax was repealed, with sales in St. Louis, Mo., which did not have a similar tax. The price of the beverages increased by 1.13 cents per fluid ounce in the county… read on > read on >

By Nov. 15 of last year, roughly 47 million Americans — about 14.5% of the U.S. population — had already been infected with the new coronavirus, a new study finds. That’s much higher than the close to 11 million known U.S. cases of infection that were recorded by that date, the researchers said, because reported cases “do not represent the full SARS-CoV-2 disease burden.” “Case reports are dependent on patients seeking health care,” among other factors, and at least 40% of all infections are thought to be asymptomatic, according to a team led by Dr. Frederick Angulo. He works in medical development and scientific/clinical affairs at Pfizer Vaccines, which has an approved COVID-19 vaccine already in distribution in the United States. It’s believed that everyone who becomes infected with the new coronavirus will develop some form of immunity. And if enough of the population (about 70%) were to gain immunity — either through infection or vaccination — so-called “herd immunity” would set in, thwarting the virus’ ability to spread further. But the numbers for Nov. 15, 2020 show that herd immunity is still far away, the research team said. “Findings of this study suggest that although more than 14% of the U.S. population was infected with SARS-CoV-2 by mid-November, a substantial gap remains before herd immunity can be reached,” they reported Jan. 5 in JAMA… read on > read on >

Loss of smell is common in COVID-19, but fewer people say they have this symptom than objective tests reveal, a new study finds. In fact, about 77% of COVID-19 patients who were directly measured had smell loss, but only 44% said they did, researchers found. Direct measures of smell involve having patients smell and report on actual odors, while self-reporting includes getting data through patient questionnaires, interviews or electronic health records, the study authors explained. “Objective measures are a more sensitive method to identify smell loss related to COVID-19,” said study co-author Mackenzie Hannum, a postdoctoral fellow at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Subjective measures, “while expedient during the early stages of the pandemic, underestimate the true prevalence of smell loss,” said Vicente Ramirez, a doctoral student at the University of California, Merced, and summer intern at Monell. The research suggests subjective measures underestimate the true extent of smell loss and that it may be an effective tool for diagnosing COVID-19 early, the authors said in a Monell news release. For the study, the researchers reviewed previously published studies on COVID-19 and loss of smell. Their findings were published online recently in the journal Chemical Senses. Senior author Danielle Reed, associate director at Monell, suggested that “measuring people for smell loss may become as routine as measuring body temperature for fever.” More information For… read on >

Researchers in the United Kingdom have reassuring news for people with psoriasis based on the first analysis of a global registry of COVID-19 patients who also have the skin disease. Moderate-to-severe cases of psoriasis are treated with drugs that suppress the immune system. This analysis of the international PsoProtect registry found that more than 90% of psoriasis patients survive infection with the new coronavirus. “We can reassure our patients that the survival for people with psoriasis is high, and the risk factors for psoriasis patients are similar to those of the general population,” said Dr. Satveer Mahil, a consultant dermatologist at St. John’s Institute of Dermatology in London, who co-leads the registry. The registry was established to understand how psoriasis and the medications used to treat it affect severity of COVID-19, according to a news release from the U.K.’s National Institute for Health Research. Psoriasis is a skin disease believed to be related to an immune system problem. It causes red patches and flaky plaques of skin that are covered with silvery scales. The findings were recently published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. For the study, the researchers analyzed 374 cases from 25 countries in which psoriasis patients had COVID-19 between March and July 2020. About 71% were taking biologic medications and 18% were taking traditional immunosuppressants. About 93% fully recovered… read on >

Replacing sugary drinks with diet versions may not be any healthier for the heart, a large, new study suggests. French researchers found that people who regularly drank artificially sweetened beverages had a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, versus people who avoided those beverages. In fact, they were no less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than people who regularly downed sugary drinks. The findings do not pin the blame on artificial sweeteners, per se, one expert said. People who use them may have an overall diet, or other lifestyle habits, that raise their risk of heart trouble. “This doesn’t indicate that artificially sweetened beverages caused the increased risk of cardiac events,” said Colleen Rauchut Tewksbury, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Cutting down on added sugar is definitely a good thing, said Tewksbury, who was not involved in the study. And if diet drinks help people do that, she added, then they can be a positive replacement. But, Tewksbury stressed, that’s “just one component” of a whole diet: If people switch to zero-calorie sodas, then eat extra fries or indulge in dessert, the effort is lost. The findings, published online Oct. 26 as a research letter in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, are based on over 100,000 French adults taking part in an ongoing nutrition… read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Some Americans Can’t Access Telemedicine, Study Shows

Vaccine Rollout Could Have Americans Back to Normalcy by Summer, Expert Says

Moves, Evictions Often Trigger Harmful Breaks in Health Care: Study

Allergic Reactions to COVID Vaccines Are Rare, Resolved on Site: CDC

1 in 4 Doctors Harassed Online, Study Finds

When Soda Tax Repealed, Soda Sales Rebound: Study

Almost 47 Million Americans Already Infected With Coronavirus by Nov. 15: Study

Loss of Smell More Common in COVID-19 Than Thought

Psoriasis Meds Don’t Raise Risk of Severe COVID-19: Study

Diet Drinks Don’t Do Your Heart Any Favors