{"source":"Health","paragraphs":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Fauci and Dr.

Birx showed charts

indicating that coronavirus cases in New York and New Jersey had risen far higher
than in other parts of the country, a fact that they said gave them hope that the
overall number of deaths might be lower if people in the rest of the states
followed the guidelines for at least the next month. Mr. Trump displayed none of
the carefree dismissiveness that characterized his reaction to the virus in
February and early March, when he repeatedly said that \"we have it totally under
control\" and that \"it’s going to be just fine.\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe
government’s Office of National Statistics released figures indicating that deaths
could be at least 10 percent higher than the official toll — 12,107 as of Tuesday —
which does not take into account many people who die in nursing homes or at home.
More than 2,000 nursing homes, about 13 percent of the country’s total, have had
coronavirus cases, said Dr. Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser.
Workers in many of the homes have complained of an acute shortage of protective
gear. Care England, a charity representing independent care agencies, has estimated
that nearly 1,000 Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes have gone uncounted. Two major
home operators have reported 521 deaths in recent days, many of which are not yet
included in official totals.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe mechanism that causes
the calcium to be deposited has been difficult to unpick, but now scientists say
they have the answer: it is triggered by a molecule, called poly(ADP-Ribose) or
PAR, that is produced when the cells, or the DNA inside them, are damaged. That,
they say, makes sense: ageing, high blood pressure, smoking and fatty plaques are
risk factors for stiffening of the arteries, and are linked to damage to cells, or
even their DNA.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe study, published today in the
journal Neurology, reports smaller brain volumes and worse memories in people with
higher-than-average levels of cortisol — popularly known as the stress hormone. But
any media coverage that warns stress is going to shrink your brain is
premature. \"Right now all we can say is A is associated with B, we can’t really
say anything about causality,\" says Sudha Seshadri, a professor of neurology at
the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and senior author on
the study.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eA US study saw 12,000 people who were
either obese or overweight given the pills or a placebo – with those who took the
drug shedding an average of 4kg (9lbs) in 40 months. Further analysis showed no big
differences in tests for heart valve damage. Tam Fry, of Britain’s National Obesity
Forum, said the drug is potentially the \"holy grail\" of weight-loss medicine. \"I
think it is the thing everybody has been looking for,\" he
said.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003ePublic health investigators asked people what
they’d eaten, and 79 percent said they’d had romaine — both at restaurants, and at
home. So far, no one knows whether there’s a common link. E. coli naturally hangs
out in animal intestines, and one of the grossest ways it spreads is through poop.
Produce can become contaminated if poop-tainted water gets into the field where
it’s grown, or if the produce comes into contact with contaminated surfaces during
harvest, shipping, or at the store.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe hunt began
Jan. 10, when Chinese scientists posted the genetic makeup of the virus on a public
database. The next morning, researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s
Vaccine Research Center in Maryland went to work. Within hours, they had pinpointed
the letters of the genetic code that could be used to make a vaccine. Historically,
vaccines have been one of the greatest public health tools to prevent disease. But
even as technology, genomics and global coordination have improved, allowing
researchers to move at top speed, vaccine development remains an expensive and
risky process.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe study is the work of researchers at
Nottingham University’s School of Medicine who focused on chemicals known as
antigens. These are produced by cancer cells and trigger an immune response inside
humans. In particular, they cause our bodies to make auto-antibodies that target
and try to block those invading antigens. Researchers wanted to know if they could
detect the presence of specific auto-antibodies in patients and show whether they
had been triggered by antigens from tumour cells.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe
advice left many medical experts scratching their heads. The coronavirus is a new
pathogen, and little is known about the disease it causes, called Covid-19, or how
patients respond to common medications. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization
said it was aware of no research showing that ibuprofen should not be taken by
patients with Covid-19.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDespite the benign assessment
of the medical establishment, Dr. Curry’s flawed reports were amplified by alarmist
websites, prompted articles linking cellphones to brain cancer and served as
evidence in lawsuits urging the removal of wireless classroom technology. In time,
echoes of his reports fed Russian news sites noted for stoking misinformation about
5G technology. What began as a simple graph became a case study in how bad science
can take root and flourish. \"I still think there are health effects,\" Dr. Curry
said in an interview. \"The federal government needs to look at it more
closely.\"\u003c/p\u003e"]}