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why is stress so bad for our immune systems?
study finds that stress not only impacts the heart and blood pressure, but it also ages our immune systems and makes it more difficult to fight infections, like covid-19.
covid-19 daily update: covid 'is a snake bite, monkeypox a bedbug'
you don't want either, of course, but only one is likely to be deadly.
"the risk of monkeypox becoming a covid like pandemic is zero%," said faheem younos, chief of infectious diseases at the university of maryland in a tweet. getty
we can’t take it anymore
a new study is reporting what many of us have known for awhile: mentally and emotionally, we are done.
according to a survey of 3,000 professionals by lifeworks, a human resources services and technology company, overall mental health scores dropped 0.8 points in june (out of 100), the largest decrease since january. part of what’s driving the decrease is the state of the economy.
“we’ve had a big change over the last short while with the economic situation,” paula allen, senior vice-president of research and well-being at lifeworks, told the toronto star. “we’ve had more uncertainty and anxiety in our lives, and that seems to be the big factor that made the difference in last month’s drop.”
in response to the findings, the canadian mental health association (cmlha) is calling on employers to beef up their mental health and well-being policies and resources — adding that those that do will come out ahead.
“the companies that take care of the psychological health and safety of their employees and put into place programs and policies will be the ones that are going to come out on top whether that’s through recruiting, retention, or productivity,” said katherine coons, the national senior manager of workplace mental health at cmha.
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snake bites vs. bedbugs
in case the who’s declaration of monkeypox as a global emergency has you wondering how worried you should be, perhaps you may be interested in the opinion of faheem younos, chief of infectious diseases at the university of maryland, who tweeted that “the risk of monkeypox becoming a covid like pandemic is zero%.”
and perhaps more reassuring, younus took to the reptile and gross insect world to compare the gravity of the two infections, tweeting that, “if covid is like a snake bite, monkeypox is like bed bugs.”
whew. everyone feel relieved?
how important are masks when you are donating blood?
not judging, but as the daily news overflows with news of increasing covid cases and growing numbers of people battling long covid, not to mention monkeypox (which according to some, is just a mere “bedbug,” see above), one would think that this would not be the time to relax covid prevention protocols — especially if you are considered a health-care establishment.
but apparently the folks at the canadian blood services think otherwise, suspending mask-wearing in its buildings, vehicles and blood collection events. the cbs has also quashed the requirement to maintain physical distancing.
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as one might expect, the comments are full of tweets expressing outrage, including one from dr. nili myrth (@nilikm): “my patients who reliably donate to @canadaslifeline aren’t going to show up if masks aren’t required. if you want donations, make it safe.”
there were also numerous notes from canadians saying that they will no longer donate as long as there aren’t protective protocols in place.
just what we need as the number of blood donations continue to drop to worrying levels.
lisa machado is the executive producer of healthing.ca.
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