. . . but we shouldn’t be too focused on finding out
Medication abortion could get harder to obtain – or easier: There’s a new wave of post-Dobbs lawsuits on abortion pills
Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States, but there are a raft of new legal battles that may expand or limit access.
States Strive to Reverse Shortage of Paramedics, EMTs
To stave off longer 911 call wait times and the closure of ambulance services, many states are rethinking how they recruit and retain both paid and volunteer EMS workers. Nearly 40 state legislatures and Washington, D.C., considered bills in 2022 related to various aspects of emergency medical services, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The science of holding your breath: How could Kate Winslet stay underwater for over 7 minutes in Avatar 2?
The current world record for breath holding, using a technique that is likely the same one the actor employed, is 24 minutes and 37 seconds.
Lung cancer rates have risen among nonsmokers and young women — why?
The American Lung Association reports that while lung cancer rates have risen by 79% for women over the last 44 years, they decreased by 43% for men. And for the first time in history, there are more young women than men diagnosed with lung cancer.
Rare genetic disease may protect Ashkenazi Jews against tuberculosis – new study
Genes carried by many Ashkenazi Jews that put them at a higher risk of a rare disorder, Gaucher disease, also help protect them against TB.
King County and the City of Seattle will no longer require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.
With King County’s high level of vaccination booster uptake and lower levels of community spread, hospitalizations due to COVID infection remained at a safe level, making the overall risk forecast low enough to lift the mandate for employees, volunteers, and contractors.
Yes, masks reduce the risk of spreading COVID, despite a review saying they don’t
An updated Cochrane Review published last week is the latest to suggest face masks don’t work in the community.
However there are problems with the review’s methodology and its underpinning assumptions about transmission. Well-designed real-world studies during the pandemic showed any mask reduces the risk of COVID transmission by 50–80%, with the highest protection offered by N95 respirators.
Native Americans have experienced a dramatic decline in life expectancy during the COVID-19 pandemic – but the drop has been in the making for generations
Even before COVID-19 emerged, life expectancy for Indigenous men was already five years lower than for non-Hispanic white men in the United States.
Artificial tears product linked serious eye infections, health officials warn
DOH, CDC encourage residents to stop using EzriCare Artificial Tears
COVID-19 conspiracy theories that spread fastest focused on evil, secrecy—WSU study finds
They found that the most common posts contained statements of belief that a theory was true, but those did not get as much engagement as posts about malicious purposes and secretive actions.
We tested the wastewater from planes to detect COVID among travellers – here’s what we found
It’s important for all countries to monitor what potential new diseases, and new variants of established diseases, are entering their borders.
NEW CASE OF MEASLES IN KING COUNTY
The individual was at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Providence Swedish First Hill while infectious. Anyone who was at these locations within the time span that this person passed through may have been exposed to measles.
Washington State Launches Investigation of Private Special Education Schools
A Seattle Times and ProPublica investigation found years of complaints by school districts and parents, including allegations of abuse, overuse of isolation rooms to manage student behavior and unqualified aides instead of certified special education teachers leading classrooms.
Stop hating on pasta – it actually has a healthy ratio of carbs, protein and fat
It can be healthy to eat up to 1.2 to 6.5 times more carbohydrates in a day than protein. The ratio of carbs to protein in pasta is 38g to 7.7g. That’s roughly a 5:1 ratio, well within the acceptable range.