Author: Mike Woods

COVID-19
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No End In Sight for COVID

It looks like COVID-19 will be with us for a while longer, probably many years if we continue the way we are going.    Nationwide there is significant variation in both the COVID vaccination rate and the number of new COVID-19 cases. A recent increase in the number of cases, doubling or tripling in some areas, occurred in unvaccinated individuals due to the Delta variant. The Delta variant is currently the most contagious form and makes up 98.8% of new COVID cases. In response to this vaccinations have increased in some, though not all, areas. While the COVID infection rate […]

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COVID-19, Vaccinations
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Debunking Myths About COVID Vaccines

This article originally appeared on BeMedWise. An up-to-date version can be found here.   The number of new COVID-19 cases in our country is increasing again. This is occurring almost entirely in unvaccinated individuals. Despite this, the vaccination rates are declining. One of the major deterrents to vaccination is the misinformation being spread by social media and some news outlets. This blog will identify and attempt to dispel some of the common myths about COVID-19 vaccines.   Myth #1 ─ They are dangerous because we don’t know enough about the side effects.  When it comes to vaccinations, over a century […]

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Prescription Drugs, Specialty Drugs
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New Alzheimer’s Disease Treatments — The Eye of the Beholder

There has been a lot in the news lately about aducanumab (Aduhelm), a new monoclonal antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.    Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disease and is the most common cause of dementia. It causes destructive, progressive, and irreversible changes in the brain. A common feature is the accumulation of a protein called amyloid-β in the form of plaques and tau tangles. Both are thought to cause cell death, but they have not yet been shown to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.   Aducanumab (Aduhelm), a drug that reduces amyloid-β plaques, was approved by the FDA on […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform
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The Affordable Care Act in 2021

According to reported statistics, more than a half million people have used the healthcare exchange/marketplace created by The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to obtain health insurance under the Biden administration. This is possible due to the expanded open enrollment in 2021 which continues until August 15, 2021.   With the ACA often misunderstood/maligned and the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in millions of people losing their health insurance, especially vulnerable minority communities, we wanted to review what the ACA is really all about.   The ACA was enacted in 2010 to ensure access to adequate/minimum value affordable healthcare, […]

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Social Media and Healthcare, Technology
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Beware of Dr. Google (Part 2)

(This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. You can find part 1 here.)   Almost everyone is susceptible to self-diagnosis from well-meaning searches, but some people are more prone than others. When I was in medical school 39 years ago, before the internet took off, we called it Medical Student Disease. It usually involved one or more of us, depending on what ordinary symptoms we had that day, wondering if we had the disease we were studying. It usually subsided when we got into enough detail about these diseases to realize we didn’t have them. I’m sure it’s a […]

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About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.