Why is renaming monkeypox so hard? It's complicated

If you’ve been waiting for global health authorities to rename monkeypox, the end is not near. Ever since outbreaks outside Africa began to be reported in mid-May, starting with cases in the U.K., WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has joined others who wish to eliminate the racist overtones and stigma that hinder efforts to stop its spread. But it turns out it’s not so easy to rename the virus itself, the disease it causes, and the two clades or strains of the virus, each named after the parts of Africa where they are found. STAT’s Helen Branswell gives three reasons why:

Renaming raises concerns about the continuity of the scientific literature.
It can be difficult to find an alternative that doesn’t offend.
Something that works in one language or culture may not work in another.

Biden has a case of Paxolivid rebound

In case you missed it over the weekend. President Biden has joined many other Americans in the puzzling phenomenon known as Covid-19 “rebound.” As STAT’s Andrew Joseph reported, the 79-year-old president tested positive for Covid-19 again on Saturday. He first tested positive on July 21, and after a mild case, tested negative this past Tuesday and each day for the rest of the week. Biden, who is vaccinated and has gotten two boosters, isn’t experiencing Covid symptoms, he tweeted. “This in fact represents ‘rebound’ positivity,” his physician, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a memo Saturday.

Rebound cases following treatment with Pfizer’s five-day oral antiviral have stumped physicians as anecdotal evidence builds up, leading many to think cases are higher than the 1% to 2% reported in Pfizer’s clinical trials of the drug. Read more.

You've heard of wearables. Now scientists have designed a wearable ultrasound system

When you think of an ultrasound exam, you probably think of a technician wielding a wand that glides over a body part covered in a gel to help sound waves travel from a machine. Now imagine a wearable ultrasound probe that can provide continuous, hands-free monitoring of internal tissue and organs for hours. The system, described in new research published in Science, could deliver a far deeper look into the body than many current wearables can provide.

“It’s a very impressive new frontier about how we can use ultrasound imaging continuously to assess multiple organs, organ systems,” said Eric Topol, the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who was not involved in the study. “Forty-eight hours of continuous imaging, you’d have to lock somebody up in a hospital, put transducers on them.” STAT’s Edward Chen has more.

Closer look: Circling back to restore racial diversity in EMS

(heinz history center)

There’s a proud history in Pittsburgh of Freedom House (above), a pioneering ambulance service that in the 1960s and 1970s was staffed mostly by disadvantaged Black residents working to modernize the delivery of pre-hospital care. But those services in Pittsburgh and elsewhere now look more like police and fire departments that took them over. As of 2019, non-Hispanic Black people accounted for 8% of EMTs and 5% of paramedics.

That matters for people who want to work in EMS, and for the people who need them. When the race of EMS crews doesn’t match the population they serve, strokes are overlooked in Black women, and Black children are less likely to receive pain medications for long-bone fractures. There are differences in hospital transport destinations for Black and Hispanic patients in comparison with their white counterparts. STAT’s Akila Muthukumar traces the history and the struggle to reverse those trends.

Another way eating red meat might add to cardiovascular risk

The connection between cardiovascular disease and red meat is one of the strongest links forged by decades of research. Nutritional advice has focused on saturated fat in foods and cholesterol in the blood. Now a study in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology measures the impact of another factor: TMAO, or trimethylamine N-oxide, created by microbes during digestion of red meat.

Based on diet questionnaires and blood samples from nearly 4,000 people followed for an average of 13 years, the researchers concluded that eating more meat, especially red meat and processed meat, was linked to a 22% higher risk with each daily serving. TMAO and related metabolites explained roughly one-tenth of this elevated risk. “The interplay between diet, the gut microbiota, and microbial-generated metabolites increasingly appears to be a novel pathway linking [animal source food], especially red meat, to cardiovascular health,” the authors write.

Opinion: Patients deserve better than hallway beds in emergency departments

Hospital emergency departments are in gridlock. Overcrowding puts the squeeze on them when they can’t move emergency patients to a hospital room because there are no empty beds to send them to. Covid-19 didn’t create this problem, retired emergency medicine physician Stephen Bohan points out in a STAT First Opinion. But it doesn’t help a problem that’s been going on for more than a decade.

“No one wants to be cared for in the hallway of an emergency department or hospital, and hospital staff don't want to deliver care they know is inferior,” he writes. “The case for facility expansion is unarguable.” And Bohan has a suggestion: Everyone involved in local health oversight should spend from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. in a hospital ER, and “picture parents on gurneys in the hallway not for hours, but for days.” Read more.

What to read around the web today

The dangers of saying 'patient zero,' The Atlantic
How the Covid-19 pandemic changed Americans’ health for the worse, Wall Street Journal
Millions of Americans have long COVID. Many of them are no longer working, NPR
Opinion: Fast science can be good science, even more so when lives are at stake, STAT
Opinion: In the ICU, dying sometimes feels like a choice, New York Times