On the Health front: life expectancy drops again; polio returns to the US

"Life expectancy in the United States fell in 2021 for the second year in a row, reflecting the merciless toll exacted by covid-19 on the nation’s health, according to a federal report released Wednesday.

This is the biggest continuous decline in life expectancy at birth since the beginning of the Roaring Twenties. Americans can now expect to live as long as they did in 1996, according to provisional data released by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, life expectancy dropped from 77 years in 2020 to 76.1 years in 2021."

Continue reading the Washington Post article online (subscription maybe required) 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/31/life-expectancy-drops-again/

"Polio’s return to the US resulted from the confluence of a complicated set of scientific and societal factors that allowed a mutated version of the virus to start circulating in a susceptible community. This is the story of a life-saving vaccine with an unfortunate loophole that produced that version of the virus, and a calculated anti-vaccine campaign that created a vulnerable population."

Continue reading The Guardian article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/polio-us-vaccines-new-york-rockland-county

A decline in life expectancy during the coronavirus pandemic marked the biggest continuous decline since the 1920s. (Brandon Dill for The Washington Post)

The good (then) and the bad (now)

The Good that once was:

"Worn #onthisday in 1956 by Elvis Presley when he was photographed getting his polio vaccine to persuade teenagers to get vaccinated. 

Within the next 6 months, 84% of American children got the vaccine, released in 1955; by 1957, US cases had dropped by 81%. #OTD #rollupyoursleeve"   https://t.co/7HnZELqjrs

Shared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/WornOnThisDay/status/1453678218314194951

Elvis Presley when he was photographed getting his polio vaccine

The Bad that lingers on:

"A systematic disinformation campaign in Russian media to foster doubts and misgivings about COVID-19 vaccines in the West has backfired as the death toll in Russia rises to record daily tolls, a European Union report said on Thursday.

Facing a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths and a widespread reluctance among Russians to get inoculated, President Vladimir Putin approved a government proposal on Wednesday for a week-long workplace shutdown in Russia at the start of November to curb the spread of the virus."

Continue reading the article online. (Subscription maybe required)

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/covid-19-disinformation-backfires-russian-deaths-climb-eu-says-2021-10-21/

The Guardian also covers the Russian surge in cases:  (Subscription maybe required)  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/28/russia-brings-in-harsh-new-covid-measures-amid-record-cases-and-deaths

 

The Guardian covers the Russian surge in cases