Covid death toll in US likely 16% higher than official tally, study says

The Covid death toll in the US is likely at least 16% higher than the official tally, according to a new study, and researchers believe the cause of the undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing. The second year of the pandemic also had nearly …

Malaria drug Trump touted as Covid cure increased chance of death – study

People who took an anti-malaria treatment that Donald Trump touted as a cure for Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic and waning days of his presidency were 11% more likely to die from the virus, according to a new scientific study. The study’s authors – who published their findings in the peer-reviewed Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy journal …

Republican former Florida lawmaker sent to prison for Covid-19 aid fraud

A former Florida state lawmaker who sponsored the state’s divisive law nicknamed don’t say gay was sentenced to prison on Thursday for fraudulently collecting Covid-19 pandemic small business government aid. [...] Harding applied for loans in 2020 with the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a company called the Vak Shack Inc, but Vak Shack had not been …

‘That decision cost lives’: Covid data case further deflates Ron DeSantis’s [R] campaign

The department will pay the plaintiffs’ $152,000 legal bill and resume regular posting of the data that DeSantis’s communications team insisted at the time was no longer necessary because cases had “significantly decreased” and that Florida was “returning to normal”. In reality, as DeSantis dismissed reporting on the pandemic as “media hysteria”, the Delta variant …

The media needs to cover the climate crisis as seriously as it covered Covid

Inexplicably, climate crisis remains a niche concern for most mainstream news outlets. In the US, most TV coverage of this summer’s hellish weather did not even mention the words “climate change” or “climate crisis”, much less explain that the burning of oil, gas and coal is what’s driving that hellish weather. Too many newsrooms continue …

Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds

The Royal Society report, called Covid-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions, reviewed the evidence gathered during the pandemic for six groups of NPIs and their effectiveness in reducing transmission. These included masks and face coverings, social distancing and lockdowns, test, trace and isolate, travel restrictions and controls across international borders, environmental controls, and communications. [...] …

Long Covid symptoms create a greater burden of disability than heart disease or cancer, new study shows

People who survived Covid-19 early in the pandemic, before there were vaccines, continued to be at higher risk for a slew of health problems for up to two years after they got over their initial infections, a new study finds, and that was especially true if they were hospitalized. These health problems include heart problems, …

South Dakota state senator resigns and agrees to repay $500,000 in pandemic aid

A South Dakota state lawmaker stepped down Thursday after agreeing to repay $500,000 in federal COVID-19 relief she received for her day care business in violation of the state constitution. Republican Sen. Jessica Castleberry, of Rapid City, announced her resignation the same day she signed a settlement with the attorney general's office in which she …

COVID Vaccine Hesitancy and Risk of a Traffic Crash

Coronavirus disease (COVID) vaccine hesitancy is a reflection of psychology that might also contribute to traffic safety. [...] A total of 11,270,763 individuals were included, of whom 16% had not received a COVID vaccine and 84% had received a COVID vaccine. The cohort accounted for 6682 traffic crashes during follow-up. Unvaccinated individuals accounted for 1682 …

Experts slam Florida surgeon general’s warning on coronavirus vaccines

But Ladapo’s recommendation — extrapolated from a short state analysis that has not been peer-reviewed, carries no authors and warns thatits findings are “preliminary” and “should be interpreted with caution” — was swiftly condemned by medical and public health leaders, who said the Florida surgeon general’s announcement was politics masquerading as science and could lead …