Last Word

Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Is Killing Patients. Yet There Is a Simple Way to Stop It.

Four years ago, when Karen Giuliano went to a Boston hospital for hip replacement surgery, she was given a pale-pink bucket of toiletries issued to patients in many hospitals. Inside were tissues, bar soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and, without a doubt, the worst toothbrush she’d ever seen. “I couldn’t believe it. I got a toothbrush with no bristles,” she said. “It must have not gone through the...

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The awake ape: Why people sleep less than their primate relatives

Ancient humans may have evolved to slumber efficiently — and in a crowd On dry nights, the San hunter-gatherers of Namibia often sleep under the stars. They have no electric lights or new Netflix releases keeping them awake. Yet when they rise in the morning, they haven’t gotten any more hours of sleep than a typical Western city-dweller who stayed up doom-scrolling on their smartphone. Research...

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Trauma Surgeons Detail the Horror of Mass Shootings in the Wake of Uvalde and Call for Reforms

When Dr. Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician in Uvalde, Texas, testified before a U.S. House committee Wednesday about gun violence, he told lawmakers about the horror of seeing the bodies of two of the 19 children killed in the Robb Elementary massacre. They were so pulverized, he said, that they could be identified only by their clothing. In recent years, the medical profession has developed...

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What is monkeypox? A microbiologist explains what’s known about this smallpox cousin

Monkeypox causes lesions that resemble pus-filled blisters, which eventually scab over. CDC/Getty Images ~~~~~~~~~ On May 18, 2022, Massachusetts health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a single case of monkeypox in a patient who had recently traveled to Canada. Cases have also been reported in the United Kingdom and Europe. Monkeypox isn’t a new disease....

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What’s Next if ‘Roe v. Wade’ Falls?

More Than Half of States Expected to Ban or Restrict Abortion If the Supreme Court’s conservative majority affirms the leaked decision overturning abortion rights in the U.S., the effects would be sweeping for 40 million women in more than two dozen states where Republican-led legislatures have been eagerly awaiting the repudiation of the right to terminate a pregnancy. Long before the Supreme...

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The first malaria vaccine is a leap forward, but we can’t stop now

OPINION: Next-generation vaccines, and a lot more money, are needed now to crack the stalemate in the fight against malaria When the World Health Organization endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine in October 2021, it was a pivotal moment in a very long quest. I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. I tweeted, emailed, texted and called colleagues, friends and family members. Some of us...

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