MAJOR UNIVERSITIES IN Massachusetts are declining to comment or offering muted responses to a new paper suggesting COVID vaccine booster mandates for students are likely causing more harm than benefit and should be lifted. An essay published earlier this month in the Journal of Medical Ethics concluded that, based on available evidence from clinical trials […]
Health
Posted inCourts, Health, Health Care
SJC rules physician-assisted suicide is illegal
THE MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTION does not protect a right to physician-assisted suicide, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday, leaving it up to the Legislature to decide a controversial end-of-life issue that has spawned more than a decade of impassioned debate and years of litigation. “Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Opioid overdose deaths leveling off, but at high level
AFTER A SHARP SPIKE in opioid-related overdose deaths during the COVID pandemic, the numbers appear to be leveling off this year, but they still remain higher than before COVID hit, according to new data from the Department of Public Health. Gov. Charlie Baker, in a statement, noted that since taking office in 2015, he has […]
Posted inHealth Care
Study says COVID vaccine mandates for university students causing ‘net harm’
LAST MONTH, in a commentary piece in CommonWealth, Tufts Medical Center physician and epidemiologist Shira Doron and Monica Gandhi, a professor medicine at the University of California – San Francisco, issued a call for a “campaign of honesty” when it comes to the state of knowledge around COVID vaccines, including making clear the uncertainty of […]
Posted inHealth, Opinion, Transportation
Mass. plagued by regional inequities
THIS PAST ELECTION DAY, Massachusetts celebrated several historic milestones with the shattering of glass ceilings that we have long sought to break through. As we look ahead to the new administration and the new legislative session in 2023, I hope we can begin to address long-entrenched regional inequities across the Commonwealth. Until we take a […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care
Epidemiologist lays out her COVID-19 ‘campaign of honesty’
WHEN THE CORONAVIRUS vaccines first emerged, they were shown to have 94 to 95 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. It was a situation where the message from public health officials was fairly simple – get the shot and help prevent the spread of the disease. Vaccine mandates, passports, and other measures were all deemed […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care, Opinion
Time to come clean about COVID-19
RATES OF COVID-19 vaccination in this country are too low. Less than half of those over 65 have received a second booster and, among children under 5, the rate of vaccination with any dose is in the single digits. Uptake of the new bivalent booster is worryingly slow, with just 31 million Americans (10.1 percent […]
Posted inOpinion
Are nursing homes really in tough shape?
THE HEADLINE for a recent story iminously noted, “Massachusetts nursing home job vacancies hold at historic highs.” That isn’t news to anyone in government, the nursing home industry, or the job placement industry. Worker shortages in nearly every aspect of life are a fact of life in most job fields, but in professions like education […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care, Opinion
Peer-led group support offers a way out of our mental health crisis
WE ARE LIVING through an unprecedented, pandemic-fueled, mass-scale crisis of behavioral health. Deaths from suicide and alcohol and substance use increased 20 percent during the pandemic. Rates of depression and anxiety increased 25 percent across all age groups, demographics, and geographic locales. In response, Massachusetts lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker enacted the Mental Health ABC Act: Addressing Barriers to Care in […]
Posted inHealth Care
Report says there are 19,000 unfilled hospital positions in Mass.
THERE ARE AN estimated 19,000 unfilled positions in Massachusetts acute care hospitals, according to a new report by a trade association representing the hospitals. For more than a year, health care providers have been complaining of staffing shortages. There is a generally tight labor market nationwide. Hospitals have been hit particularly hard by pandemic-related […]