Sep 24th, 2021 - WASHINGTON -- The FDA on Friday issued two orders officials say are aimed at making sunscreens safer and clarifying requirements regarding active ingredients, although for now there won't be any noticeable effect on which sunscreen products consumers see on retail shelves. "Americans can reduce risks from sun exposure with continued use of sun protection measures, including broad-spectrum sunsc...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with cladribine (Mavenclad) or teriflunomide (Aubagio) had appropriate humoral response against SARS-CoV-2 a month after vaccination, but those treated with anti-CD20 therapies or sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor (S1P) modulators did not, a Swiss study showed. Of 120 MS patients at the Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland who received either the Moderna o...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Recommending Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) booster doses for adults at high occupational risk of COVID-19 exposure based on individual risk was not a decision that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, came to lightly. In a press briefing on Friday, Walensky described her decision as a "scientific close call," and reiterated that she listened to not only the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization ...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Assuming they survive an ongoing legal challenge and are as effective as advocates hope, the new graphic warnings to appear on cigarette packages beginning next year could prevent millions of deaths from smoking over the following 8 decades, researchers estimated. Modeling by Rafael Meza, PhD, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues indicated that, depending on the degree to ...

Sep 24th, 2021 - In a rare move, CDC overruled the recommendations of the agency's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding who should get a booster of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty). In a statement released early Friday, the agency said those at high risk of occupational exposure, such as healthcare workers, may receive the Pfizer booster shot at least 6 months after the two-dose pr...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Note that some links may require registration or subscription. A consensus statement from more than 100 scientists and clinicians warned about the possible fetal development dangers of prenatal exposure to acetaminophen. (Nature Reviews Endocrinology) Does new Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD, have ties to controversial America's Frontline Doctors? (Slate) In other Florida news, a...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Katalin Kariko, PhD, a senior vice president at BioNTech, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, a professor in vaccine research at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, made a breakthrough discovery by modifying messenger RNA (mRNA), which provides instructions to cells to make prote...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Federal efforts to improve the quality, safety, and efficacy of over-the-counter sunscreens took a step forward today with the release of two orders aimed at updating regulatory requirements for most sunscreen products in the United States. "We see it as a key public health priority and our regulatory obligation to make sure that marketed sunscreen products offer protection from the sun's effec...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Within a day of testing positive for covid-19 in June, Miranda Kelly was sick enough to be scared. At 44, with diabetes and high blood pressure, Kelly, a certified nursing assistant, was having trouble breathing, symptoms serious enough to send her to the emergency room. When her husband, Joe, 4...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Serious adverse events remained rare and skin remained largely clear in adolescents treated with dupilumab (Dupixent) for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) for up to 52 weeks in a phase 3 open-label extension trial, researchers reported. At 1 year, 86% of 50 remaining patients with weights under 60 kg (132 lb) had achieved 75% improvement (EASI-75; Eczema Area and Severity Index), and 7...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians younger than 40 faced uncertainty regarding physician office closures, the treating of patients with and those without the virus, and the possibility of contracting the virus themselves. But financially speaking, young physicians landed on their feet, according to a new report. Young primary care physicians took home $242,000 in 2020, while their spe...

Sep 24th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Confusion continues to circulate in the wake of decisions on booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, all announced within 1 week. Many people — including those now eligible and those who officially have to wait for their shot at a third dose — have questions. Multiple agencies are...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted Thursday to unanimously recommend a booster dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) for adults ages 65 and up and those in long-term care facilities, as well as for adults ages 50 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions (by a vote of 13-2), but that was where their agreement ended. ACIP voted 9-6 that adults ages 18 to 49...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - Expert witnesses offered conflicting perspectives on whether masking children in schools prevents transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during a hearing of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Wednesday. Several Republican committee members said that protecting children from the virus has had unintended consequences for their overall well-bei...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - Depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders are not uncommon among patients diagnosed with cancer. Counseling, psychotherapy, and mental health services provide the opportunity for patients to develop coping skills and inspire hope; however, patients often experience hurdles to accessing such care. Among these obstacles are cost, unawareness that programs exist, the COVID-19 pandemic...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black patients were significantly less likely to undergo prostate cancer surgery compared with White patients, highlighting potential systemic inequities in care across medical specialties, and providing further rationale to recognize and the unintended diversion in cancer care due to the pandemic, according to data published in JAMA Oncology.1 Res...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - The addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to erlotinib (Tarceva) continued to provide a significant progression-free survival (PFS) benefit over erlotinib alone when used in the frontline treatment of patients with EGFR-mutated, nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data from the final analysis of the phase 3 BEVERLY trial (NCT02633189).1 The data, which were virtually pre...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - Note that some links may require registration or subscription. With Alaska hospitals crippled by the overwhelming number of COVID patients, the state has adopted crisis standards of care, Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) announced on Wednesday. (Reuters) Gilead said a 3-day intravenous course of its antiviral drug remdesivir (Veklury) reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 87% in high-risk indiv...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - Sepbember 24, 2021 — Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the CDC director's decision to add healthcare workers to the boosters list. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices earlier Thursday voted to allow several groups of Americans to get a booster shot, but voted not to recommend it for adults aged 18 to 64 who live or work in a place where the risk for COVID-...

Sep 23rd, 2021 - The observed mortality increase in COVID-19 patients with a history of cancer during the first wave of the pandemic appears to have disappeared by the second wave, leaving cancer patients at no greater risk, suggests a UK analysis. This could be due to a number of factors, including more effective treatment for COVID-19, the protective effect of vaccination against the virus, and the resumption...