opinion
Giving patients "the full informed consent" on mental health crises and the police
As both a psychiatrist and as somebody who has been hospitalized while in her own mental health crisis, Rupinder Legha knows the dangers that police can bring to a situation and how carceral the conditions in an emergency room can feel. Yet calling 911 or going to your closest emergency room is the standard advice any clinician will give to somebody in an acute mental health crisis.
In light of the death of Sonya Massey and so many others who have been killed when what they needed was mental health support, Legha proposes a new medical standard for responding to mental health emergencies—a "full informed consent" that gives patients a clearer picture of the potential risks of police involvement and going to the emergency room. Writing in an editorial for PLOS Mental Health, she also recommends exploring other options when possible so that people in crisis can stay at home with their families monitoring them and with a provider's support.
"As healthcare providers, we can no longer stand by hands in the air while another death moves in and out of the news cycle," Legha writes. "We owe people more than this."
infectious disease
WHO director on whether mpox is a public health emergency
Last Monday, we learned that researchers are planning a clinical trial to test whether receiving an mpox vaccine can protect people who've been exposed to the infection from getting sick or reduce the severity of the illness. The stakes are high, as hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died from the disease this year. Now, sequencing of the virus shows that this deadly variant has also spread to Uganda and Kenya, according to reporting from ScienceInsider published Saturday.
"I am considering convening an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to advise me on whether the outbreak of mpox should be declared a public health emergency of international concern," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement to the outlet.
This is the first time that the agency has made a statement about a potential PHEIC regarding this mpox outbreak, STAT's Helen Branswell told me. Read STAT's mpox coverage to get up to speed.
first opinion
How the lab leak theory is damaging science
How did Covid start? The lab leak theory — which posits that the coronavirus was modified or even created in a Wuhan laboratory, then somehow escaped — has gained a lot of traction among politicians and the general public. But most scientists, and especially virologists, believe the virus spilled over from animals to humans.
In a First Opinion essay, microbiologist John P. Moore argues that the lab leak hypothesis is turning public sentiment against virology research at a time when it has an essential role to play in the face of pandemic threats. "Viruses are the real threat to humanity, not virologists," he writes. Read more from Moore on how the lab leak theory is threatening real science.
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