{"source":"Health","paragraphs":["\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\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\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","\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\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\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\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\u003eArchie Cochrane, the doyen of evidence-based
medicine, said we should ask three questions of any intervention: can it work, does
it work and is it worth it? The relative risk reduction you quote tells us of
population benefit and answers the first two questions, but it is the absolute risk
reduction that answers the \"is it worth it?\"question. Many patients would be
reluctant to take a tablet if told there was a greater than 97% chance that they
would derive no benefit from taking it over five years and it had no positive
effect on their length of life.\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"]}