Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/QJ-rZsjASZg

The FDA and Green Fields Farms Dairy have recalled Green Field Farms Whole Chocolate Milk with a code date of 9/29/21. This lot of milk was improperly pasteurized and could trigger a case of food poisoning if ingested.  If you have this milk in your fridge, return it to the place of purchase for a refund.  For more information, call Green Fields Farms at 1-330-263-0248.

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/green-field-farms-dairy-issues-voluntary-recall-whole-chocolate-milk

#greenfields #chocolatemilk #unpasteurized #foodpoisoning #recall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/e6tRDy5Y_m4

The CPSC and Harbor Freight Tools are recalling Bauer Forced Air Propane Portable Heaters.  This heater may leak propane gas through a loose fitting on the back of the heater risking a fire and burns.  About 19,000 of these heaters were sold at Harbor Freight Tools stores nationwide and online at www.harborfreight.com.  If you ave one of these heaters, begin with the soapy water test to see if there is a leak.  You put some soap water on the back of the heater to see if it bubbles.  If so, contact Harbor Freight Tools at 1-800-444-3353 or via email at [email protected] to find out how to tighten the fittings with the wrench that came with the heater.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2021/Harbor-Freight-Tools-Recalls-to-Repair-Propane-Portable-Heaters-Due-to-Fire-Hazard-Recall-Alert

#harborfreight #heater #propane #leak #fire #burns #recall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/MFHCp63kTaM

The CPSC and Textron now recall Textron E-Z-GO PTVs and Tracker Off-Road Vehicles.  The parking brake catch bracket may deteriorate causing the parking brake to fail and creating a crash hazard.   About 6600 of these vehicles were sold at E-Z-GO and Tracker Off-Road dealerships nationwide, online via E-Z-GO’s Dealer to Driveway program, and through Tracker Off-Road Ready to Buy program.  If you bought one of these vehicles, stop using it and contact Textron by phone at 1-888-525-6040 or via email at [email protected].

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2021/Textron-Specialized-Vehicles-Recalls-PTV-and-Off-Road-Vehicles-Due-to-Crash-Hazard-Recall-Alert

#textron #offroadvehicles #brakes #crashes #recall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/YxZTrsLC0e0

Eating healthy, plant based foods is associated with a 41% lower risk of contracting a severe case of CoVid.  Researchers at Harvard’s Mass. General Hospital and King’s College London analyzed data from 592,571 subjects in the US and UK accumulated from March to December, 2020.

Participants noted their dietary habits on a smartphone-based survey, and each was given a PlantBasedDiet score based on their consumption of foods such as fruits and vegetables. Based on their scores, each was placed in one of 4 groups representing the representing the highest versus the lowest levels of healthy eating. 

While the healthiest eating only reduced the risk of any CoVid infection by 9%, it provided significant protection against CoVid infections that landed you in the ICU, on a ventilator, or in the morgue.

https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2021/09/06/gutjnl-2021-325353

#CoVid #plantbaseeddiet #healthyeating #icu

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/W6oovAmIhHk

Masking singers and the bells of musical instruments significantly reduces CoVid-carrying aerosols, but keeping their performances safe requires limiting them to 30 minutes indoors and 60 minutes outdoors.  These conclusions stem from collaborative studies by engineers at the Universities of Colorado and Maryland.

The investigators compared the aerosol output from singers, woodwind instruments, and brass instruments utilizing flow visualization, anemometer measurements, and quantitative aerosol measurements.  Singers were masked with surgical masks, and instrument bells were covered with surgical masks or HEPA MERV 13 filters.

In general, brass instruments emitted more aerosols followed by singers and then woodwinds.  Masking provided near complete elimination of aerosols for singers, while instrument bell masks and HEPA filters couldn’t block aerosols escaping from keyholes and around mouthpieces.  As expected, aerosol accumulation reached critical levels faster indoors than outdoor.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenvironau.1c00007

#CoVid #aerosols #brass #woodwinds #singers

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/R44bfNmIRNo

When students in fully-open schools wear effective masks, the incidence of hospitalization of all in a community may be reduced by as much as 71%.  This the conclusion of a North Carolina study that employs a computer model using accumulated state data.  The simulation begins in July, 2021 with Delta CoVid predominant and predicts expected deaths and hospitalizations over the following year.

With schools fully open and students wearing masks with 70% filtration effectiveness, the expected rate of new CoVid infections in the community drops by an average of 36%.  

Masks with only 50% filtration only reduce the infections by 23%.  Infection reduction is greatest for the school-aged, but there is a substantial reduction in hospitalizations and CoVid deaths for their parents and grandparents too.

If the students were to wear KN95 or N95 masks in school, the reduction of serious and life-threatening CoVid cases would be even more substantial.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.11.21263433v1.full.pdf+html

#CoVid #masks #school

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/kxtrGTKuUn8

A University of Houston spinoff company has developed a nasal spray that triggers robust CoVid antibodies and cellular immunity while being storable without freezing for up to 11 months.  The vaccine has two components: spike protein and a nanoparticle adjuvant called nanoSTING.

The components are stored separately with the nanoSTING refrigerated and the spike protein in freeze-dried, powdered form.  Just before use, the spike protein is reconstituted, mixed with the nanoSTING, and sprayed in the nose as a single dose vaccine.  This vaccine formulation  makes storage and distribution around the world much simpler than with the mRNA vaccines.

This nasal vaccine induces strong lining immunity within the nose where CoVid usually enters the body.  The levels of IgA secretory antibody and killer T cells protect against viral penetration and proliferation but only so far in a mouse model.  Work is underway to initiate human trials.

https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(21)01005-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004221010051%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

#CoVid #vaccine #nasalspray #singledose

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GnDzgK4N5jM

It’s not just the football team that gets overheated.  The marching band, wearing heavy wool uniforms, is particularly susceptible to heat-related disease.  This according to an analysis by investigators at the Universities of Georgia, South Carolina, and Kansas that looked at this problem over a 31 year period using a newspaper report database.

Of the 393 exertion heat illnesses cataloged, 88% occurred in high schoolers, 32% during rehearsals, 29% during parades, 21% during games, and 15% during performances.  About 50% were treated on-site, but 44% went to the ER, and about 6% had severe heat stroke requiring in-patient hospitalization.  

All heat-related illness occurs during hotter weather, and we’ll certainly be having more and more of that. Band leaders, school administrators, and parents should all watch the mercury and and help school band members cool it when they are in uniform.  Helpful measures include: abundant water, lighter uniforms, shorter heat exposures, and cooling.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00484-021-02183-0

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210915135126.htm

#heat #heatexhaustion #heatstroke #marchingband #hospitalization #football

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/R0QnOSnV81s

From the CDC comes the latest comparison of our current CoVid vaccines in terms of ability to keep the average Jane or Joe without any medical issues out of the hospital.  Once again, Moderna come out on top.

A multi-center study of 1682 vaccinated persons 16 yrs or older and 2007 controls shows that, between March and August of this year, the Moderna vaccine was 93% and significantly more protective against hospitalization than the Pfizer at 88% and the Johnson & Johnson at 71%.  The Pfizer shortfall was due to a decline of effectiveness from 91% at 3 months or less to 77% after 3 months.

A subset of vaccinated patients had their anti-CoVid antibodies assayed.  Here, the Moderna vaccine again performed better than the Pfizer, particularly for levels of anti-RBD antibodies (4,333 vs 2,950).  Both of the mRNA vaccines bested the J&J vaccine with levels that had levels of only 59.

Those vaccinated with Pfizer but particularly with J&J should not only be extra careful with masking, distancing, hygiene, and ventilation but should get in line quickly for a booster.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7038e1.htm#contribAff

#CoVid #moderna #pfizer #j&j #janssen #hospitalization #antibodies

M

 Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/i00NgHL9wzo

Today’s newly announced medical discoveries that point to future therapy:

Microspheres improve female fertility

Promising new therapy for MRSA infections

Nanoparticles as long-term disinfectants

Your nose could fix your knee

Shirts that monitor your heart

Some women cannot conceive because the walls of their uteruses are too thin to permit embryo attachment.  Chinese investigators report a new technique for wall thickening using microsphere sprays of hyaluronic acid and vascular endothelial growth factor.  They show in a mouse model that these droplets trigger uterine wall thickening.  Not ready yet for prime time use in humans but very promising.

MRSA, methicillin-resistant staph aureus, is a formidable organism that triggers severe and life-threatening infections that often cannot be treated with conventional antibiotics.  Cornell University veterinarians show in a horse model that mesenchymal stem cells produce secretions that throttle MRSA bacterial growth.  Stem cells may be sourced from bone marrow, body fat, polyps, umbilical cord tissues, and amniotic fluid.  In the future, mesenchymal cell secretions may be available off the shelf to fight antibiotic-resistant infections.

For those of us who constantly are disinfecting doorknobs, buttons, shopping carts, and handrests, a nanoparticle-based disinfectant that lasts up to a week may be welcome news.  Investigators at the University of Central Florida’s Nanotechnology Center have developed a long-lasting disinfectant based on cerium oxide nanoparticles.  This formulation kills CoVid and other germs in 2 ways: the nanoparticles fire oxidizing electrons that kill and they attach to surfaces and pop viruses like balloons.  The best news: the nanoparticles are not toxic to the skin or even to eyes.

Your knees are the Dangerfields of your limbs.  They get no respect from sports trauma.  Swiss biomedical engineers have found a way to use cartilage cells from your nasal septum to help repair damaged knee cartilages.  They found an added bonus: the nasal cartilage cells are more resistant to inflammation.  This opens the door to their use in those with joint deterioration due to osteoarthritis in the knees and in other joints of the body.

Wearable health sensors are all the rage.  Rice University bioengineers now announce that they have developed carbon nanotube threads that are washable, flexible, stretchable and may be readily sewn into fabrics.  Shirts with these nanotube electrodes built in delivered EKGs comparable to those from conventional electrodes without that goo.  That’s because the threads have superior conductivity to skin.

These and other cutting edge solutions are coming to your doctor’s office and our hospitals…….some day soon!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00615