A step toward a deafness cure*

Israeli scientists have cured a type of deafness using a virus to deliver a genetic treatment.

The bad news: It’s only one particular type of deafness (and a rare type at that); it’s also only been done in mice

The good news: “[T]his novel therapy could lead to a breakthrough in treating children born with various mutations that eventually cause deafness.”

* I refuse to use headlines like “Can you hear me now?” or “Now hear this” — too easy

Get ready to vaccinate

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a bit of news about vaccines these days. Soon enough you’re going to have a lot more people getting one in particular.

You know there’s paperwork, but are you sure you know the latest rules and regs?

Yes, this is a promo for a GPhA CPE class — and an important one: The Vaccine Protocol Update presented by the terrific Johnathan Hamrick, PharmD.

Get this: It’s now available for home-study CPE. Yep, you don’t need to step out of your home, and you can still get the same great education (minus the Q&A, to be fair).

Learn the protocols, what you can deliver, how things have changed, even storage, handling, and disposal. It’s a mere $20 for GPhA members.

Click here for info and to register today!

Face the face

You know how newspapers black out someone’s eyes to hide their identity? What happens when you can’t see someone’s nose or mouth because they’re wearing a mask?

York University researchers wondered that — how hard is it to recognize someone when you can only see their eyes. Turns out, it’s about 15 percent harder.

“[F]ace perception typically relies on holistic processing, that is the processing of the face as whole. However, for masked faces, this form of perception is not as efficient, and observers process different face features separately,”

And if you’re wondering what it means to process faces holistically, may we introduce you to the “Thatcher Effect“?

It’s the time of year for top-10 lists

Andy Miller of Georgia Health News has a list of “The Top 10 Georgia health care stories in 2020,” and no, they aren’t all about Covid.

Can’t possibly be true

“Clowns Make Hospitals Less Scary For Young Patients.” (Says Son of Buzz: “Maybe little kids who don’t know any better.”)

Timmy went to sleep real fast!

Don’t (necessarily) stop those CV meds

If you have patients with chronic kidney disease who are taking RAS inhibitors, there’s a chance their prescribers will want to stop those meds. Some small-scale studies found that cutting out RAS inhibitors can improve kidney function.

What you might need to know: It ain’t that simple. Especially when the kidney disease is advanced, the dangers of stopping might outweigh the benefits. Swedish researchers looking at the issue found there isn’t enough information to support discontinuing the meds:

“Rather than routinely discontinuing treatment, our results show that the issue is a complex one and that doctors must carefully weigh the protective effects of RAS inhibitors on the cardiovascular system against the potential harms on the kidneys.”

Captain Obvious…

…does a facepalm: “Privileged White U.S. Citizens Have Better Health Outcomes”

…and then a double-take: “White US citizens in the 1% and 5% highest-income counties […] had worse outcomes for infant and maternal mortality, colon cancer, childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia, and acute myocardial infarction compared with average citizens of other developed countries.”

ICYMI

The coronavirus relief bill that Congress passed (and that was signed into law) includes lifetime coverage of kidney transplant drugs for people on Medicare. It’s expected to save about 375 lives — and $40 million — per year.