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Category Archives: Medicine

What the data says about abortion in the U.S.

“Pew Research Center has conducted many surveys about abortion over the years, providing a lens into Americans’ views on whether the procedure should be legal, among a host of other questions. In our most recent survey, 61% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal all or most of the time, while 37% say it should… Continue Reading

Is abortion illegal in the U.S. now? Depends where you live

AP: “The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states, although the timing of those laws taking effect varies. Some Republican-led states will ban or severely limit abortion immediately,… Continue Reading

Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites

The Markup: “A tracking tool installed on many hospitals’ websites has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information—including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor’s appointments—and sending it to Facebook. The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them we found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending… Continue Reading

Genetic paparazzi are right around the corner, and courts aren’t ready to confront the legal quagmire of DNA theft

Via LLRX – Genetic paparazzi are right around the corner, and courts aren’t ready to confront the legal quagmire of DNA theft – Liza Vertinsky and Yaniv Heled, are law professors who study how emerging technologies like genetic sequencing are regulated. They believe that growing public interest in genetics has increased the likelihood that genetic… Continue Reading

Hospitals are required to post prices for common procedures. Few do

NBCNews: “Few hospitals are posting the prices of their common procedures online, despite a federal law that went into effect more than a year ago. The Hospital Price Transparency Law is intended to make the hidden costs of services such as X-rays, medical tests or colonoscopies clear to patients before they enter the hospital. But… Continue Reading

Taking Paxlovid? Here’s What To Know About This Antiviral Drug For COVID

BuzzFeedNews: “…Paxlovid is used to treat mild-to-moderate COVID in adults and kids ages 12 and older who test positive for the coronavirus and face high risks for hospitalization and death. People at high risk include those who are unvaccinated or who have cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders, asthma, and more.… Continue Reading

13 Ways Overturning Roe v. Wade Affects You (even if you think it doesn’t)

Via LLRX – 13 Ways Overturning Roe v. Wade Affects You (even if you think it doesn’t) – Kathy Biehl is a lawyer licensed in two states, as well as a prolific multidisciplinary author and writer. Roe v. Wade has been settled law during her entire career. In this article Biehl succinctly and expertly identifies… Continue Reading

Global.health – resource of real-time infectious disease data

Global Health – A Data Science Initiative: “Our COVID-19 dataset contains detailed information on over 100 million anonymized cases from over 100 countries. Global.health is the first of its kind, easy-to-use global repository and visualization platform that enables open access to real-time de-identified epidemiological line-list case data. This platform was created by researchers from leading institutions… Continue Reading

What the public wants in COVID news vs. what the press provides

Ars Technica: “Misinformation posing as news has been a problem that only got worse with the ease of publishing on the Internet. But the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have raised it to new levels, driving lots of attention to rumors, errors, and outright falsehoods. Given the magnitude of the threat, there would seem to be… Continue Reading

Abortion Surveillance After Roe

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Report, May 24, 2022: “Abortion rights will soon be a thing of the past for millions of Americans. At the time of publication, a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion shows a majority of justices are poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and any federal constitutional right… Continue Reading

The Surveillance State Is Primed for Criminalized Abortion

Wired – “A new report lays out existing US policing capabilities that can easily be repurposed to monitor pregnant people. In the three weeks since a draft opinion leaked from the United States Supreme Court promising to roll back the federal constitutional right to abortion in the United States, reproductive rights activists and privacy advocates… Continue Reading