In an opinion piece, News Team member Talia Gordon Wexler argues for using AI scribes in emergency rooms to increase the time available for doctors to care for patients.
Scientists Grow More Hopeful About Ending a Global Organ Shortage
By Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times
Donor human organs are not meeting the global need for organ transplants. Scientists have been working on alternatives such as xenotransplantation, in which organs from animals are used instead of human ones, and are making breakthroughs in a practice once believed to be unrealistic.
When they began the work, organs from animals were automatically rejected by the human body as foreign. Now, genetically modifying organs from animals such pigs allow them to be accepted on a cellular level. Recently, two patients were able to survive with kidneys from pigs, and in the United States, more genetically modified organs are being tested through clinical trials. One company, eGenesis, will start testing pig livers and also eventually hopes to offer pig hearts for transplant.
Pig organs, however, are still not working in human bodies as scientists have hoped for. With human organs, transplant patients often must receive medicines that suppress the immune system and prevent the body from treating the organ as a foreign object. For xenotransplants, a higher level of suppression is needed.
Viruses and pathogens may transfer alongside the transplanted organ. This is cause for concern. Previously, it was thought that such viruses could not infect human cells — but in the setting of a transplanted animal organ, they may find a niche to mutate.
— by Laniah Bowdery
The EPA Is in Chaos
By Molly Taft, WIRED
The recent government shutdown has caused chaos at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As of September, the EPA employed over 15,000 people, but now over 4,400 employees have been furloughed. The lay-offs appear to be somewhat random, and workers are dealing with increasing levels of uncertainty.
Funding for staff has been an added source of confusion and disorganization. In late October, supervisors told employees that the funding source for paychecks would be switched to a trust fund. This fund was originally meant to finance the Superfund program, whose goal is to clean up toxic sites around the country. Just one week later, leaders told workers that they had decided not to use the trust fund to pay employees. This lack of clarity about how workers will be compensated has added stress and uncertainty to many employees.
Even those who have retained their jobs feel they cannot work effectively. Travel for site monitoring has been delayed due to furloughs that affect staff who help coordinate and approve travel.
EPA supervisors also aren’t sure what will happen next. Some of them feel like the administration is only seeking to cause confusion and chaos to minimize the effectiveness of the EPA. Lee Zeldin, an administrator of the EPA, was not clear with reporters when funding would run out, and employees feel like they are being left in the dark.
— by Harrison Luba
Global Study Reveals Best Cities for Walking and Cycling
By Jesse Greenspan, Scientific American
A recent study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA scrutinizing more than 11,500 cities across 121 countries sheds light on the relationship between various economic factors and rates of walking and biking.
Among other things, they found that walking and biking increase as gas prices go up. People opt to cycle less in hilly or mountainous landscapes. Surprisingly, the study showed that there were no changes to levels of biking based on cold, heat or rain. Walking rates, however, were also shown to be strongly influenced by poverty more so than biking rates, which are driven by policy and urban planning.
Both walking and biking were shown to have benefits over car ownership. For example, vehicle emissions lead to poor air quality and cardiovascular disease. Reduction in vehicle use by walking and biking was estimated to have a potential saving of $435 billion in health expenditures.
The demonstrated benefits to air quality, activity levels, and childhood autonomy, among other things, found in countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark, can serve as examples for the United States to adopt.
This story highlights the necessity for both further studies and increased public awareness of the benefits of alternatives to car-dependency, along with concrete examples for how to move forward to combat the climate crisis and improve quality of life for citizens.
— by Jackson Bartelt
Weight-Loss Drug Zepbound Is Being Tested as a Treatment for Long Covid
By Emily Mullin, WIRED
US researchers are launching a nationwide, remote clinical trial to test if GLP-1, the active ingredient in the weight loss drug Zepbound, can treat Long Covid. This drug has been widely used to regulate appetite and promote weight loss. Now, it is being investigated for its anti-inflammatory effects, to benefit hearts and kidneys, as well as chronic conditions such as Long Covid.
About 20 million Americans live with Long Covid and experience a number of symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog and chronic pain. Many scientists believe that chronic inflammation in Long Covid occurs due to lingering viral fragments. Since evidence shows that GLP-1 have calming effects on systemic and brain inflammation, researchers hope that the drug could ease symptoms that have not resisted other treatments.
The Scripps Research Translational Institute is beginning their trial with 1000 adults with documented Long Covid. Participants will either receive the drug or a placebo for a year, along with a fitness tracker and smart scale. As many Long Covid patients are too sick to travel at times, the trial is remote to prioritize the participants’ needs and keep the study from failing.
Encouragingly, many doctors have already experimented with this drug at lower doses to treat Long Covid and other inflammatory diseases and have witnessed improvements. However, researchers attest that Long Covid is a complex and multifaceted illness which can sometimes be unpredictable.
— by Victoria Charles
Items summarized by: Laniah Bowdery, Harrison Luba, Jackson Bartelt, Victoria Charles
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