Posts tagged with ‘CDC’
Office of Management and Budget review can be a good thing, but not when it duplicates peer review and delays generation of critical pubic health data.
As Nancy Scola explains, it has taken many people by surprise to learn that several of the foodstuffs involved in the peanut product recall are in fact organic brands. “Organic” means safe, right? Well, her investigation reveals, it’s not as simple as that.
Over the course of the current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak, the Centers for Disease [...]
The United States boasts a huge corps of public-servant scientists devoted to going where the evidence takes them and who, as of Wednesday, will for the first time in years be respected by the highest officials in the land for what they do.
The organizers of National Handwashing Awareness Week, which runs through Saturday, want you to know that washing your hands with soap and warm water, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, is the best way to stop the spread of germs.
The Washington rumor mill is buzzing with names of possible science appointees—and there are dozens of major science-related positions to fill. The questions appointees will face are an opportunity for a clear break with past approaches.
It’s been about a year since MRSA, or drug-resistant staph, last made major headlines. But the news this October is about a form of Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus, that is causing meningitis, pneumonia, and bloodstream infections, according to a report in The New York Times. Rather than resisting antibiotics, the organisms in this case may have outmaneuvered a proven vaccine.
Good news this week from the Centers for Disease Control: the vast majority of children in the United States have received nearly all the recommended vaccines. CDC’s new report indicates that immunization rates are “at or near record levels.” The survey data landed just after a new study reinforcing the fact that the measles vaccine has no connection to autism.
Why did it take almost four months after the first report of a Salmonella St. Paul infection for the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control to find the grower responsible? Two congressional hearings yesterday and today aimed at understanding why this most recent food safety scare took so long to understand.
A quick look at the issues making the rounds on the science blogs this week.
Vaccine safety has grabbed headlines in recent months, as some parents, fearing alleged links to autism, exempt their children from vaccinations. Multiple studies have demonstrated there is no such link, but there is more to understand about how vaccines keep kids safe, and how public health ensure the safety of vaccines.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held the first of what could be more hearings on the CDC’s failure to protect public health when it released a scientifically flawed report on formaldehyde levels in post-Katrina FEMA trailers, understating the health risk of extended exposure to the gas.
The Bush administration appeals court ruling on mercury pollution; the EPA faces congressional subpoena in wrangle over emissions regulations; Greenwire profiles CDC whistleblower; Tech companies call for increased H-1B visa cap; Al Gore launches new climate awareness campaign.
Texas A&M settles for $1 million in a lab safety investigation; the Supreme Court rules in favor of medical device makers; how does the CDC pick the right flu vaccine?
The National Research Council of the National Academies convened a symposium Wednesday to explore approaches among “Future Directions in Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences.” The intersections up for discussion ranged across the research spectrum: from synthetic biology to geoengineering to bioterrorism.
Healthcare professionals helping patients with mental health problems have an increasing array of treatment and prevention tools at their disposal. But on the horizon is a preventative tool that poses challenging public policy questions about ethics and privacy: personal genomic sequencing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. population carries the staph bacteria MRSA, which was for responsible for more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and 19,000 deaths in 2005.
The cuts the White House made to CDC Director Julie Gerberding’s congressional testimony began with the sentence: “Scientific evidence supports the view that the earth’s climate is changing.”
The University of Michigan is hosting a conference on developing technology corridors this week as the Senate considers two major appropriations bills that fund science agencies.
