A neuro-metabolic account of why daylong cognitive work alters the control of economic decisions A fascinating (and bizarre) article about the brain chemistry guiding human behavior.
”Highlights
•Cognitive fatigue is explored with magnetic resonance spectroscopy during a workday
•Hard cognitive work leads to glutamate accumulation in the lateral prefrontal cortex
•The need for glutamate regulation reduces the control exerted over decision-making
•Reduced control favors the choice of low-effort actions with short-term rewards”
About Covid-19
UK becomes first country to approve Omicron-specific Covid booster “The UK has become the first country to authorise a Covid-19 vaccine tailored to the Omicron variant, setting the stage for an autumn booster campaign using Moderna’s two-strain shot. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority — which was the first in the world to approve an original Covid-19 jab — has granted conditional authorisation to the vaccine, which targets both the original strain of the virus and Omicron BA.1. The vaccine is authorised for use in people aged 18 and over but, to prepare for an expected rise in cases over the winter, the UK plans to focus its booster programme on the over-fifties and those at higher clinical risk of developing severe Covid.”
To Avoid Paxlovid Rebound, Some Experts Call for Longer Courses of Treatment The extension would be three to five days.
CDC Back Control of Pandemic Hospitalization Data Despite Criticism ”The US won’t renew its contract with TeleTracking Technologies Inc., a private company that took over Covid-19 hospitalization data collection from CDC in 2020, according to an email seen by Bloomberg News. Hospitals will resume reporting the data to the CDC in mid-December, with TeleTracking’s contract expiring on Dec. 31.”
About the public’s health
WHO renames two monkeypox variants to avoid geographic references “The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Saturday that it renamed variants of the virus monkeypox as it looks to counter concerns about the original naming conventions.
’Newly identified viruses, related diseases & virus variants are given names to avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, & minimize the negative impact on trade, travel, tourism, or animal welfare,’ the WHO said in its announcement.
The Congo Basin and West African variants were reclassified as Clade I and Clade II, the latter of which has two subclades. The new names go into effect immediately.”
Person-years of life lost and lost earnings from cigarette smoking-attributable cancer deaths, United States, 2019 “Here, using state-specific population data and census data on annual median earnings, the authors estimated the number of smoking-attributable deaths and potentially avoidable losses in earnings for 2019. Analyses indicate that in 2019, for persons age 25 to 79, cigarette smoking-attributable cancer deaths accounted for 2.2 million person-years of life lost (PYLL) and approximately $21 billion in lost earnings. Analyses further suggest that greater than half of PYLL and lost earnings were avoidable.”
Risk of hip fracture in meat-eaters, pescatarians, and vegetarians: results from the UK Women’s Cohort Study “Amongst 26,318 women, 822 hip fracture cases were observed (556,331 person-years). After adjustment for confounders, vegetarians (HR (95% CI) 1.33 (1.03, 1.71)) but not occasional meat-eaters (1.00 (0.85, 1.18)) or pescatarians (0.97 (0.75, 1.26)) had a greater risk of hip fracture than regular meat-eaters. There was no clear evidence of effect modification by BMI in any diet group (p-interaction = 0.3).”
About healthcare quality
The Joint Commission to add health equity standards to accreditations “As of Jan. 1, accreditation programs for primary care clinics, behavioral health centers, critical access facilities and hospitals will include new mandates for their leaders.
The updated standards include designating an officer to lead a strategy for reducing health disparities and screening patients for social determinants of health.
The Oakbrook Terrace-based commission is also requiring accredited organizations to add demographic breakdowns to quality and safety data. The stratifications will assist organizations in identifying disparities in health outcomes, which the accreditation group will require them to use to develop an action plan to eliminate [them].”