Society Needs Regulations to Prevent Research Abuses

Society Needs Regulations to Prevent Research Abuses

A tension exists between scientists/doctors and government regulators.

(© wladimir1804/Fotolia)


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Robert Klitzman
Robert Klitzman, MD, is a professor of psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Joseph Mailman School of Public Health, and the director of the Masters in Bioethics program at Columbia University. He has published over 130 scientific journal articles and eight books, including When Doctors Become Patients; A Year-Long Night: Tales of a Medical Internship; In a House of Dreams and Glass: Becoming a Psychiatrist; Being Positive: The Lives of Men and Women With HIV; The Trembling Mountain: A Personal Account of Kuru, Cannibals and Mad Cow Disease; Mortal Secrets: Truth and Lies in the Age of AIDS (with Ronald Bayer); Am I My Genes? Confronting Fate and Other Genetic Journeys; and The Ethics Police?: The Struggle to Make Human Research Safe. He has received numerous awards for his work, is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a regular contributor to the New York Times and CNN.
The flu shot looks different this year, thanks to the pandemic.

Thanks to safety cautions from the COVID-19 pandemic, a strain of influenza has been completely eliminated.

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If you were one of the millions who masked up, washed your hands thoroughly and socially distanced, pat yourself on the back—you may have helped change the course of human history.

Scientists say that thanks to these safety precautions, which were introduced in early 2020 as a way to stop transmission of the novel COVID-19 virus, a strain of influenza has been completely eliminated. This marks the first time in human history that a virus has been wiped out through non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as vaccines.

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Sarah Watts

Sarah Watts is a health and science writer based in Chicago.

After his grandmother’s dementia diagnosis, one man invented a snack to keep her healthy and hydrated.

Founder Lewis Hornby and his grandmother Pat, sampling Jelly Drops—an edible gummy containing water and life-saving electrolytes.

jellydrops.us

On a visit to his grandmother’s nursing home in 2016, college student Lewis Hornby made a shocking discovery: Dehydration is a common (and dangerous) problem among seniors—especially those that are diagnosed with dementia.

Hornby’s grandmother, Pat, had always had difficulty keeping up her water intake as she got older, a common issue with seniors. As we age, our body composition changes, and we naturally hold less water than younger adults or children, so it’s easier to become dehydrated quickly if those fluids aren’t replenished. What’s more, our thirst signals diminish naturally as we age as well—meaning our body is not as good as it once was in letting us know that we need to rehydrate. This often creates a perfect storm that commonly leads to dehydration. In Pat’s case, her dehydration was so severe she nearly died.

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Sarah Watts

Sarah Watts is a health and science writer based in Chicago.