Rolling Backward Plus: Hezbollah escalates, congestion pricing halted, the Didion-Dunne family feud, GIMBYism, and more... Reason · Jun 6, 2024
Lisa Jarvis: Eli Lilly’s new weight-loss drug is even better than Ozempic New data from an experimental drug being developed by Eli Lilly & Co. raises an intriguing question about obesity treatments: How low can the weight loss go? Tribune News Service · Jul 2, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: For many women seeking abortions, all roads now lead to Illinois June 24, 2022, was a devastating day for Jennifer Welsch, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois. That was the day the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision overruled Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for states to ban or severely restrict abortion. Tribune News Service · Jun 27, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: Goodbye, body mass index. You won’t be missed. The scales are formally shifting on Body Mass Index, a measurement that has been the source of much scorn in recent years. The American Medical Association has now weighed in to say that doctors should look at factors beyond BMI to determine whether a patient is unhealthily obese. Tribune News Service · Jun 21, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: If TikTok, SnapChat aren't harming kids they should prove it The US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has issued a warning that social media could be harming our kids. His social media advisory is a welcome road map for what everyone — policymakers, tech companies, parents, kids and researchers — should be doing to better understand the impact of platforms like… Tribune News Service · May 25, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: How to solve America’s drug shortage problem Drug shortages in the US are forcing physicians and the public to scramble for access to vital medicines. While the problem isn’t new, the number of products in scarce supply is nearing an all-time high — and could get worse as generic drug makers pare back on the breadth of… Tribune News Service · May 23, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: Abortion pill ruling threatens pharmaceutical innovation A Texas federal judge’s ruling to remove the 23-year-old drug mifepristone from the market not only threatens abortion access in the U.S. — it’s also an appalling sideswipe at the Food and Drug Administration’s authority and expertise. Tribune News Service · Apr 12, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: A Texas judge hits preventive health care with a gut punch A federal judge in Texas ruled last week that insurers no longer have to cover some preventive services that have long been included under the Affordable Care Act. It’s a frustrating decision that will likely hurt Americans’ health. At least some insurers are likely to take the opportunity to cut… Tribune News Service · Apr 2, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: The teen mental health crisis is no place to cut corners It’s no secret that kids in the U.S. are struggling with mental health issues in increasing numbers. Now, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association emphasizes the severity of the situation: Pediatric mental health hospitalizations are rising, and many more kids are being hospitalized for attempting… Tribune News Service · Mar 29, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: Florida bill would make puberty even more awkward Florida legislators don’t want teachers to talk with kids about racism or being gay. Soon we might be able to add puberty to the list of verboten subjects. The state is considering a bill that would ban elementary school teachers from talking about puberty and menstruation with students, many of… Tribune News Service · Mar 26, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: An urgently needed TB shot could democratize vaccines Tuberculosis surrendered the title of the world’s deadliest infectious disease after COVID-19 struck, but it reclaimed that terrible distinction last year. As with COVID, a new vaccine could go a long way to sharply curtailing the disease, which killed about 1.4 million people a year before the pandemic and increased… Tribune News Service · Mar 25, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: Schizophrenia drug may offer much-needed progress Next year, doctors might finally have something new to offer people who suffer from schizophrenia: a much-needed drug that can better improve their symptoms without the side effects that too often cause them to stop taking their medications. Tribune News Service · Mar 22, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: The age of colon cancer prevention is getting younger A new report from the American Cancer Society points to an alarming increase in colon cancers among younger people. Tribune News Service · Mar 8, 2023
Lisa Jarvis: Free COVID care will be gone soon. Should you worry? On May 11, the COVID-19 public health emergency officially comes to a close in the U.S., and with it comes an end to largely free access to all related healthcare. House Republicans might want to declare it over this instant, but a cushion is needed — and this one might… Tribune News Service · Feb 3, 2023
Tribune News Service · Jan 21, 2023 Lisa Jarvis: Trans teens benefit from gender-affirming care In the largest study of its kind in the US, researchers found that gender-affirming hormones have a positive effect on transgender teens’ mental health: The more trans teens’ appearance aligned with their gender identity, the more satisfied they were in life and the less depressed and anxious they felt.
Tribune News Service · Jan 13, 2023 Lisa Jarvis: Obesity drugs for kids? Why new guidelines make sense A leading organization of pediatricians is recommending that teens with obesity be offered weight-loss medication as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. But unless barriers to access fall, it won’t move the needle on the U.S. childhood obesity epidemic — something that affects more than 1 in 5 kids in…
Tribune News Service · Dec 31, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: Cancer vaccine hunt makes progress, finally The long-awaited cancer vaccine revolution is getting a little closer to reality. New data from Moderna Inc. and Merck & Co. suggest that after decades of failures, researchers are finally figuring out the right way to design a vaccine that can teach immune cells how to recognize and combat tumors.
Tribune News Service · Dec 17, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: We need a public health campaign against teen marijuana use There’s good news and bad news when it comes to teen drug and alcohol use. The good news is that fewer teens are drinking, a trend that has been steadily improving over the last two decades. The negative is that cannabis seems to be picking up alcohol’s slack.
Tribune News Service · Dec 1, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: That blockbuster Alzheimer’s drug? It’s not a cure Biogen Inc. and Eisai Co. caused a stir in September when they announced positive results in a late-stage trial for a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab. Doctors tempered their excitement, though, until they could scrutinize the full peer-reviewed data.
Tribune News Service · Nov 29, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: A diabetes breakthrough in search of patients In a first, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a therapy that slows the onset of Type 1 diabetes. Teplizumab, developed by Provention Bio, typically delays the need for insulin shots, blood-sugar monitoring, and diet control by about two years. For some, the effect lasted years longer.
Tribune News Service · Oct 27, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: What parents can do as RSV spikes among children A surge in cases of a common respiratory virus is filling up pediatric hospital beds around the U.S. The early and swift arrival of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is stretching the limits of an already exhausted health care system. Layer on COVID and the flu, and you’ve got the…
Tribune News Service · Oct 22, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: Trans kids don't have the ‘regrets’ Republicans cynically claim A new study confirms what experts in transgender medicine have known for years: The overwhelming majority — 98% — of adolescents who begin gender-affirming treatment continue that treatment into adulthood.
Tribune News Service · Oct 20, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: New COVID variants have arrived. How worried should you be? Some rather alarming headlines recently circulated about the newest members of the omicron family. “Nightmare COVID variant,” read one. “The most immune-evasive COVID variants yet.” Or, as one would-be pandemic influencer said in a tweet shared thousands of times: “MOTHER OF GOD… #COVID variants worse than CDC has been admitting.”
Tribune News Service · Oct 12, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: Don’t cancel your colonoscopy just yet Many people in the U.S. may now be thinking that they’ve received a blessed reprieve from a middle age rite of passage: the colonoscopy. After all, a large study just made headlines for suggesting the procedure isn’t nearly as effective at lowering the risk of colon cancer as previously thought.…
Tribune News Service · Oct 3, 2022 Lisa Jarvis: Long COVID has become a parallel pandemic The price of “living with COVID” in a free and open society is turning out to be much heftier than public health experts predicted.