FDA rehires staff to its medical devices division after mass layoffs
The Trump administration is reinstating some employees in the Food and Drug Administration's medical devices division after dozens were laid off as part of a government-wide cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, according to two people familiar with the matter. Around 180 employees from the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, including physicians and cybersecurity experts, were let go on Feb. 15, two workers said they were told by their supervisors.
Utah close to fully banning fluoride in water, stripping cities’ ability to decide
Utah appears to be the first state ready to put a full ban on fluoride in public water systems under a bill that doesn’t allow cities or communities to decide whether to add the cavity-preventing mineral. A bill sponsor and an organization opposed to fluoridating water said Utah’s proposal would set a precedent in the U.S. — and it would come as new federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed skepticism about water fluoridation, which is considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
Could bird flu vaccines help tackle high egg prices? Experts say it’s not so simple
On her first day on the job last week, new US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins held a meeting to review the agency’s options for controlling the bird flu outbreak and possibly help lower the price of eggs. In another meeting last week, Rollins met with two dozen farmers to hear their ideas about how to fight bird flu. She promised them relief.
A kindergartner’s hopes for beating cancer are tied to federal grants now on the chopping block
here are some things that Aly and Cody Vela have slowly grown accustomed to, like the three-hour drive from their home in Muskegon, Michigan, to Ann Arbor and sleeping on a mattress topper on a hospital room’s pull-out couch. But other things never seem to get easier. For Aly, in particular, the recent nights away from their almost 2-year-old daughter, Alyssa, have been tough to stomach. “We missed her first steps, talking and all of those milestones,” Aly said.
Drugs that reduce dementia risk — and others that increase it
Some medications could have the unintended benefit of reducing dementia risk. That’s according to a recent study by the universities of Cambridge and Exeter, where researchers evaluated several existing drugs to see if they could do double-duty as dementia treatments. The team reviewed data from 14 prior studies, which included more than 130 million patients and one million dementia cases, according to a press release.
'Dessert stomach' lives in your brain, say scientists
Scientists recently determined why people always seem to have room for something sweet after eating a meal. It's because the "dessert stomach" is a real thing in a person's brain. "We wanted to find out why, even in a state of satiety, we consume high-sugar-containing foods," Henning Fenselau, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne,
5 years after COVID, Americans are split on whether it's still a threat
This winter marks five years since the onset of COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that led to a global pandemic and more than 1.2 million deaths in the U.S. To mark the milestone, Pew Research Center conducted a survey to gauge Americans’ views on the current COVID risk and how the pandemic was handled. Around 21% of respondents said they still consider COVID-19 to be a "major threat" to the health of the U.S. population, down from 67% in July 2020.
Knowing your sleep chronotype can lead to better rest and health
If you feel more sluggish during certain times of the day, it could be due to your sleep chronotype. The chronotype affects the body’s natural tendency to be asleep or awake, according to the Sleep Foundation. Knowing and adapting to the ideal schedule for your sleep chronotype could improve your rest and help you accomplish daily tasks more efficiently, sleep experts say.
Dementia risk could be lowered by doing this for 5 minutes a day: study
Think five minutes isn't enough time to make a difference in terms of health and well-being? It could actually be enough time to stave off a disease that afflicts many people in their later years. Just five minutes of light exercise a day could help prevent dementia, even for frail older adults, new research has found.
New bat coronavirus discovered in China sparks pandemic concerns
The discovery of a new bat coronavirus in China has sparked concerns about another pandemic. The virus, named HKU5-CoV-2, is similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in that it targets the same human receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2), according to a report in the South China Morning Post. HKU5-CoV-2 could potentially lead to human-to-human or even cross-species transmission, the researchers found.