“It’s been a tough flu year so we wanted to make sure that the vaccine was available. So, when the university reached out to King Soopers, we were able to donate 150 vaccines to provide to anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated yet to try and get some additional coverage and protection for those folks,” said Morgan.
… others complain that the vaccine has been oversold and is in sore need of further study. Dr. Robert Doebele, associate professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado Denver and a senior editor of the American Association for Cancer Research’s journal Clinical Cancer Research, recalls sitting in a meeting with a dozen other oncologists discussing the best way to market a drug. Someone in the room called out, “Do whatever Cimavax does!”
Richard Lindrooth, lead author and a professor the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health, said once these new patients were covered, hospitals saw fewer uninsured admissions, and increased Medicaid payments — helping their bottom line. "It's not as though Medicaid is an extremely profitable form of reimbursement, but it is something,” Lindrooth said. “On the margins it certainly helps the hospitals' cash flow."
Experts said residents in ski towns tend to lack intergenerational relationships and deep social attachments, which protect against suicide. “They’ve moved away from their natural support systems, and they have to rebuild a support system,“ explained Michael H. Allen, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Depression Center.
“When you don’t eat meals, especially at night, it is an ideal system,” said Dr. Satish Garg, an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Garg was a co-author on the study funded by Medtronic that examined the efficacy of the new device. “It totally nearly prevents hypoglycemia” or what is known as low blood sugar, Garg said.
Another promising lead came when pediatric pulmonologist Livia Veress of the University of Colorado in Denver and colleagues zeroed in on fibrin clots in rats exposed to mustard. When she dissected the animals, she pulled out of their lungs white clots called casts that looked like "tree branches," she says. "I realized I'd seen that before"—in children with plastic bronchitis, a rare complication of surgery to repair congenital heart defects. Veress tested a clot-busting drug, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), in rats exposed to normally lethal mustard doses—they all survived.
“I am fearful that the people who are appointed will be in line with the current philosophy of the administration,” said Lucy Bradley-Springer, associate professor of the University of Colorado Denver’s Division of Infectious Diseases and one of the advisory council members who resigned this summer. “In my mind that will mean a decrease in funding for important services, fewer people getting tested, and more people going without care.”
“I am fearful that the people who are appointed will be in line with the current philosophy of the administration,” said Lucy Bradley-Springer, associate professor of the University of Colorado Denver’s Division of Infectious Diseases and one of the advisory council members who resigned this summer. “In my mind that will mean a decrease in funding for important services, fewer people getting tested, and more people going without care.”
