THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2020 (Healthday News) — Colleges across America struggled to control coronavirus outbreaks on campus, even as Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday that sending students home after an outbreak is “the worst thing you could do.” Universities continue to be hit with alarming infection rates, and many have already switched to online learning, the Washington Post reported. In some instances, students have been told to move out of their dorms and return home, the newspaper said. But Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, told NBC’s “Today” show that it was important to ensure that infected students are placed in isolation, “but don’t have them go home, because they could be spreading it in their home state.” Along with shutting down in-person instruction, many universities are cracking down on student activities that fuel the spread of COVID-19, the Post reported. At the University of Illinois, where more than 700 students have tested positive in less than two weeks, administrators instituted a ban on “gathering in small or large groups under any circumstances.” In what is the equivalent of stay-at-home orders, students will not be allowed to leave their dorm rooms for anything besides essential activities — attending class, buying groceries, solo outdoor exercise, religious services and medical visits. The college also plans to aggressively crack down on parties, the Post reported. “We…  read on >

In the midst of the ‘Me Too’ movement, a new study finds that people sexually harassed at work may be at increased risk for attempted suicide and suicide. The findings out of Sweden show that workplace sexual harassment may “represent an important risk factor for suicidal behavior,” said study author Linda Magnusson Hanson, an associate professor in the psychology department at Stockholm University, and colleagues. The research included more than 85,000 male and female workers in Sweden who completed a questionnaire between 1995 and 2013. It asked if they’d been sexually harassed at work in the past 12 months by either fellow workers, superiors or by what they termed “others,” such as clients, passengers, students or patients. Overall, nearly 5% of the workers reported workplace sexual harassment: about 2% of men and 7.5% of women. Those who said they were sexually harassed were more likely to be younger, single, divorced, in low-paid but high-strain jobs, and born outside of Europe. The workers were then followed for an average of up to 13 years. During that time, 125 died by suicide and 816 made a suicide attempt. While the study was only observational and did not prove a cause-and-effect link, workplace sexual harassment was associated with a nearly threefold increased risk of suicide and almost doubled increased risk of attempted suicide, the researchers found. The increased…  read on >

FRIDAY, Sept. 4, 2020 (Healthday News) — The chief adviser for the White House vaccine program said Thursday it was “extremely unlikely, but not impossible” that a vaccine could be available by the end of October. Speaking with National Public Radio, Dr. Moncef Slaoui said that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance to states to prepare for a vaccine as early as late October was “the right thing to do” in case a vaccine was ready by that time. “It would be irresponsible not to be ready if that was the case,” Slaoui said, adding that he first heard about the new CDC guidance from media reports, the Washington Post said. Still, Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, described getting a vaccine by late October as a “very, very low chance.” That message ran counter to optimistic claims from the White House that a vaccine could be ready for distribution before the November presidential election. During the National Republican Convention, President Trump announced that a vaccine could be ready “before the end of the year or maybe even sooner.” Slaoui did confirm that the two main vaccine candidates, referred to as Vaccine A and Vaccine B by the CDC, were being developed by Pfizer and Moderna, respectively. He said there was “no intent” to introduce a vaccine before clinical…  read on >

With the arrival of late summer, it’s essential to know the signs of heat exhaustion and how to intervene before it escalates to a more severe condition like heat stroke, emergency medicine experts say. Heat exhaustion comes with symptoms including: heavy sweating; breathlessness; a fast, but weak, pulse; headache; dizziness; nausea or vomiting. “Heat exhaustion can happen to anyone overexerting themselves in extreme heat,” said Dr. Laura Burke, an emergency medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “If symptoms are severe, call for medical help right away.” Some people have an increased risk of heat exhaustion, including: People with heart disease or high blood pressure. People over age 65. Infants and children. People with sunburn, which impairs the cooling mechanism of the skin. If heat exhaustion occurs and appropriate measures are not taken to cool down, it can sometimes escalate to a life-threatening condition called heat stroke. “During heat stroke, the body can no longer cool itself down through sweating, which can result in damage to major organs,” Burke said in a hospital news release. Symptoms of heat stroke include hot and dry skin, a fever higher than 102 degrees Fahrenheit, headache, confusion and unconsciousness. “If you see someone suffering from heat stroke, try to cool the person down by getting to shade or into the air conditioning. Apply cool water with…  read on >

It may seem like a paradox, but giving someone a gift to help them save money is a sure way to make them hate it. The reason: It will make the recipient feel inferior to you, researchers say. In contrast, a gift that helps a recipient save time is taken as a compliment. The findings, from a series of experiments, are outlined in a study recently published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. “Most of us have this belief that any gift we give is going to be appreciated — but the way a gift is presented can influence how people feel about it,” said study co-author Grant Donnelly, assistant professor of marketing at Ohio State University, in Columbus. “When you don’t have time, you’re perceived as busy and in high demand. There’s something high-status about that, compared to not having enough money, which is seen as low status,” Donnelly said in a university news release. In one experiment, the researchers asked 405 people how they felt about receiving a gift they thought was intended to save them either time or money. Those who received a gift that was intended to save them money were more likely to say it made them feel embarrassed, ashamed and bad, compared to those who received a time-saving gift. “They thought the gift-giver was implying they…  read on >

It may seem like a paradox, but giving someone a gift to help them save money is a sure way to make them hate it. The reason: It will make the recipient feel inferior to you, researchers say. In contrast, a gift that helps a recipient save time is taken as a compliment. The findings, from a series of experiments, are outlined in a study recently published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. “Most of us have this belief that any gift we give is going to be appreciated — but the way a gift is presented can influence how people feel about it,” said study co-author Grant Donnelly, assistant professor of marketing at Ohio State University, in Columbus. “When you don’t have time, you’re perceived as busy and in high demand. There’s something high-status about that, compared to not having enough money, which is seen as low status,” Donnelly said in a university news release. In one experiment, the researchers asked 405 people how they felt about receiving a gift they thought was intended to save them either time or money. Those who received a gift that was intended to save them money were more likely to say it made them feel embarrassed, ashamed and bad, compared to those who received a time-saving gift. “They thought the gift-giver was implying they…  read on >

As the World Health Organization cautioned on Monday that using plasma from COVID-19 survivors to treat other patients is still an experimental therapy, American scientists challenged a key statistic cited by U.S. officials as grounds for emergency approval of the treatment. In announcing the approval on Sunday, President Donald Trump and two of his top health officials spoke of the same stunning statistic — that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent, the New York Times reported. Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, went so far as to say that 35 out of 100 COVID-19 patients “would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.” But many scientists, including a researcher on the Mayo Clinic study from which the statistic was supposedly gleaned, said Monday they could not ascertain where the number came from and that Hahn had appeared to overstate the treatment’s benefits, the Times reported. “Do I know where the 35 percent comes from?” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, one of the May Clinic study’s main authors who hails from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “No.” The actual data from the Mayo Clinic study shows that, among a group of more than 35,000 patients, when plasma was given within three day of diagnosis, the death rate was about 22 percent, compared with 27 percent when it was…  read on >

Just weeks after colleges across the United States reopened their campuses for the fall semester, thousands of coronavirus infections are cropping up in students and staff alike. More than 1,500 American colleges and universities were tallied in The New York Times survey. That included every four-year public institution, every private college that competes in NCAA sports and others that identified cases. The case total: At least 26,000 cases and 64 deaths have been reported since the pandemic began, the Times reported. The trend is unfolding everywhere. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sent most undergraduates home after COVID-19 clusters popped up in campus housing. In-person classes were delayed at Notre Dame as students tested positive by the hundreds. Clemson, Baylor, Louisville and dozens of other Division I universities have confirmed COVID-19 cases in their athletic departments. Meanwhile, aggressive testing of students moving into dorms turned up scores of cases at Iowa State, the Times reported. Meanwhile, the potential of convalescent plasma as a treatment for severe COVID-19 was still unclear Tuesday, as the World Health Organization cautioned the therapy remains experimental and American scientists challenged a key statistic cited by U.S. officials as grounds for emergency approval of the treatment. In announcing the approval this week, President Donald Trump and two of his top health officials stirred controversy when they used the same…  read on >