Today is International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day started in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City to demand shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights after being oppressed and mistreated in the workplace since the Industrial Revolution. The movement spread across the globe in the following years, reaching Europe by 1910 and Russia by 1913. International Women’s Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 1975. Women’s health is an important part of International Women’s Day. Women remain an underserved community with unique healthcare costs that are often overlooked by those drafting insurance guidelines. Women […]
Imagine a Better, More Equitable World Through Disability Awareness
March has been observed as National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month since 1987. In recognition, we aim to spotlight the disabled community and educate the public how they can help people with developmental disabilities with understanding, encouragement, and opportunities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), developmental disabilities are defined as impairments in physical, learning, language, or behavior areas including autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, hearing loss, vision impairment, and other developmental delays that affect a person’s growth and/or cognition. Roughly one in six children in the U.S. have one or more developmental disabilities or […]
Politics Affect Interpretation of COVID Science, Prolong Pandemic
This article originally appeared on BeMedWise. An up-to-date version can be found here. The response to COVID-19 is still a political issue and the resulting division between political parties within the United States has persisted and is still having an adverse effect on the pandemic. The division began almost as soon as the presence of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in this country. Much of this division was the result of some politicians downplaying the pandemic for political reasons by giving false information: it doesn’t look good to voters to have a major pandemic during your term in office. Another […]
COVID-19: Omicron Variant and Beyond
This article originally appeared on BeMedWise. An up-to-date version can be found here. Omicron BA.1 has had a major impact on the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the multiple differences from the Delta variant, the Omicron variant has prolonged and intensified the pandemic, made COVID more difficult to treat, and reduced the effectiveness of currently available coronavirus vaccines and infections from previous variants to prevent further spreading and disease. A new Omicron variant, BA.2, has now entered the picture, although its impact on the epidemic is as yet unknown. The good news is that both Omicron variants are generally milder illnesses. […]
Awareness for American Heart Month
February is American Heart Month, a time when all people can focus on their cardiovascular health and risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women, affecting Americans of all backgrounds. In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds and someone dies from heart-disease related causes every minute. One out of every four deaths in the United States is from heart disease. Coronary heart disease alone costs the United States over $200 billion each year in healthcare costs, medications, and lost productivity. There are a […]