COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated Brain Aging Even in People Who Didn't Get Virus: Study
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications on July 22, found that in 2021 and 2022, brain scans from a large UK database showed signs of aging, including brain shrinkage, even in individuals who were never infected.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
'They make you doubt your sanity.' Staff describe toxic workplace at top mental health hospital
Many staff inside the country's leading mental health institution say they are suffering their own trauma from a toxic workplace rife with discrimination and bullying. Anonymous employee feedback from health-care providers at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) include widespread staff complaints about a work culture they say left them with mental health challenges including anxiety, depression and even suicidality. When they attempt to address their grievances, many say they were met with retaliation and a lack of accountability. 'I would throw up before work,' one employee said. 'I know no one would support me.' Some staff blamed the workplace culture at CAMH for mental health challenges. 'They make you doubt your sanity,' one respondent wrote. Some respondents explicitly noted a gap between the hospital's mental health mission and the psychological state of its employees. 'It is ironic that an organization that provides mental health support is so disconnected from the mental health of its staff,' said one respondent. Another wrote: 'The fact that the organization puts out statements about anti-racism that don't align with what we experience internally, it's a problem. They don't walk the talk internally.' CAMH, hailed as a leading international mental health voice that provides training on staff mental health to major employers in Canada, said it has reviewed the criticisms by staff and taken active steps to address them. 'I know this is what happens in workplaces — It is very different when you hear it from colleagues,' said CAMH equity director, Kwame McKenzie in an interview. 'It's very poignant. It's very raw. It makes you think of the urgency that you need to do something different.' The responses were gathered in 2021 and 2023 by an external consulting group and the hospital's equity office respectively, and were obtained by the Investigative Journalism Bureau through freedom of information legislation. The internal reviews, which unfolded during COVID and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, are only the latest attempts to understand longstanding issues at CAMH. Following a 2019 internal survey that raised concerns of racism, hospital administrators decided additional indepth interviews were needed to better understand the experience of employees. In 2021 and 2023, a total of about 2,000 employees — nearly half the hospital's staff — took part in separate workplace reviews. In 2021, a working group conducted in-depth interviews with 50 staff members representing a wide range of positions across the hospital that documented widespread allegations of harassment, bullying and intimidation. Some employees described toxic workplace environments and traumatic encounters with colleagues and leadership that led to significant mental health challenges. 'The story is consistent across participants — the themes are raw and clear,' the report concluded. One respondent said they became suicidal after repeated bullying and exclusion: 'I internalized how bad they made me feel about myself.' The respondent pool included staff identifying as Black, white, First Nation, Asian and from other racial groups, and reflected a wide range of religious affiliations. About 70 per cent of respondents expressed they experienced discrimination based on their racial and cultural background. One in eight reported feeling discrimination based on religion, and a third felt discrimination based on age. CAMH has been recognized multiple times by Mediacorp Canada on its annual list of Canada's Best Diversity Employers. Another key theme in the surveys is staff feeling unsupported by management after filing a grievance. 'We went to grievance and won. My manager did not want to fire him because they were friends.' About half of participants said they didn't know how to file a complaint, and 43 per cent said they would not refer colleagues to job opportunities at CAMH. I know this is what happens in workplaces — It is very different when you hear it from colleagues Kwame McKenzie, CAMH equity director In 2023, CAMH followed up with a survey that was completed by 45 per cent of the hospital's staff. The results continued to highlight equity concerns. McKenzie, a psychiatrist and director of health equity at CAMH for more than a decade, commissioned the surveys to help the hospital collect concrete data to improve the workplace, he said. While he acknowledged the findings being made public could raise difficult questions, he said the hospital is committed to transparency and improvement. 'We wanted to do it because we wanted to find out what was… upsetting staff in order to try and create some solutions,' said McKenzie. 'We are actually really proud of that fact, that we're a sort of organization that has the courage to try to do it.' Eight current and former CAMH nursing staff interviewed for this story described a culture that is often punitive and driven by blame. Jacqueline Boyce, a current nurse at CAMH for more than two decades, wasn't surprised by the findings. She said she's witnessed countless alleged inequities firsthand and understands the deep mistrust many staff feel toward the organization, as well as the fear among nurses of speaking out. She said most remain silent out of fear. 'If you speak up, they can come after your job,' she said. 'If you feel that's a threat, you just stay calm, your voice becomes powerless and nothing is done. 'People, they take whatever's handed out to them and shut up, right? Their safety is in being quiet.' CAMH was an early adopter of the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, launched in 2013. It promotes a culture where staff are encouraged to report errors or concerns without fear of punishment. But another current nurse, whose identity is being protected due to fears of retribution, said raising issues or defending her work frequently resulted in disciplinary meetings and veiled threats from leaders, leaving her feeling unsafe and anxious for her job. 'I would go home and just cry,' she said, her voice breaking as she recalled interactions with managers over the years. 'How would you feel working in a mental institution and every time you come in you feel (you're walking on) pins and needles. Would you be able to function in this environment?' Many of the concerns raised by staff at CAMH are echoed by health-care workers across Canada who cite staff shortages, heavy workloads and safety concerns for increasing burnout, absences and high turnover. But there are unique challenges for staff in mental health care who must manage both their own emotions and those of clients in extreme distress, said Kim Foster, a mental health nurse and researcher who has studied the well-being of the mental health clinical workforce in Australia. 'It's difficult to provide psychological care if you yourself are not feeling psychologically safe,' said Foster. 'We're a mental health service. We should be practicing what we preach.' But the challenges are often more deep-rooted than a few bad apples in management, she said. 'I do think managers get blamed for a lot of things that are perhaps not always their fault,' she said. 'They themselves are often working in stressed, pressured environments. If you haven't got managers who are experienced, or you have a culture in senior management that doesn't support staff, that of course makes things difficult.' Psychologist, N. Zoe Hilton, professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and research chair at the Waypoint Research Institute in Penetanguishene, Ont., led the Trauma Among Psychiatric Workers Project, a multi-hospital study designed to understand how workplace factors impact trauma experiences among nurses and other hospital staff. Part of the study, published in 2020, surveyed 761 staff across three psychiatric hospitals in Ontario and conducted interviews with two dozen workers. They found 29 per cent of participants met the clinical screening threshold for PTSD, depression or anxiety. 'I think that's really important research that CAMH has done,' said Hilton. 'I think it's important for giving that voice to staff who may not be able to speak out in their workplaces. CAMH's McKenzie said he takes staff accounts of a troubled workplace culture seriously. 'I'm always mortified to hear when our (staff) are disappointed in us or upset by us and think we should do better,' he said. 'There's a hell of a lot (of supports for clinical and non-clinical workers) at CAMH — there needs to be. If we've got people saying, 'we want more,' we need to be able to listen and work out what we can do in order to improve things for individuals.' CAMH promotes itself publicly as a leader in workplace wellness, advising companies like Maple Leaf Foods and Sun Life on how to improve employee well-being and organizational accountability. People, they take whatever's handed out to them and shut up, right? Jacqueline Boyce, CAMH nurse The hospital hasn't followed its own advice, said current and former staff who spoke with the Investigative Journalism Bureau. One nurse, whose identity is being protected due to fear of retribution, said that although she's aware of resources, she has avoided them. Her past experiences have left her fearful that anything she shares could be used against her. 'You lose trust because of the experiences that you go through — the trauma,' she said. 'You hurt me already and now you're telling me you set up someone to come help me. You think I'm going to accept that?… It's not safe for me.' Instead, she draws on support from her religious community outside of work and uses her vacation days as informal mental health leave. Staff feedback also suggests a double standard in how patient abuse toward staff is addressed. 'Patients calling me the 'N' word was the norm, no one had consequences,' one nurse said. 'If a white nurse was made uncomfortable, the patient would have been secluded. But for Black nurses, this is just our job.' Discriminatory patient care was also identified as a factor in staff mental health concerns, according to the CAMH research. CAMH's own 'Dismantling Anti-Black Racism,' published in February 2021, says Black patients at CAMH are restrained 44 per cent more than white patients. In a statement, CAMH said the decision to publicly release the restraint data was an intentional 'step toward acknowledging systemic inequities and holding ourselves to a higher standard to do better.' McKenzie said the disparity has significantly decreased since then through training and policy changes in the hospital. 'I don't think we have solved this problem,' he said. 'But I think that the plan of getting the data, showing the data and starting the conversations across CAMH about how we can improve and move towards equity have made a start. There's a long way to go before we can honestly say that we have totally equitable services at CAMH.' The path ahead Survey respondents in the CAMH reports made recommendations for addressing the issues including forming an independent, employee-led committee to address workplace violence and discrimination, an independent ombudsperson to mediate complaints and clear accountability mechanisms. CAMH has introduced several equity initiatives in recent years, including employee resource groups focused on anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, as well as better data collection. In a statement, CAMH said it recognizes its responsibility to provide ongoing mental health support for staff, not just in times of crisis, but as a sustained commitment to employee well-being. As of January 2024, the hospital said it increased mental health coverage for unionized and management staff and introduced unlimited coverage for Ontario Nurses Association members. In response to staff feedback, coverage was expanded to include off-site and private providers. Employees also have access to an employee family assistance program. 'We're not perfect, but we're giving it a bloody good try,' said McKenzie. In her two decades at CAMH, Boyce said she has seen some positive movement. But decades of inequity, she said, are a lot to unpack. At 66, the longtime nurse doubts the kind of meaningful change needed to address trauma, discrimination and bullying will happen in her lifetime. 'We chose this work to be advocates, to be caregivers… but who takes care of the caregiver?' The Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health is a collaborative investigative newsroom supported by Postmedia that partners with academics, researchers and journalists while training the next generation of investigative reporters. 'What the hell are we doing here?' Inside Canada's shockingly violent hospitals What the Law Society of Ontario isn't telling you about your lawyer Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our newsletters here.
Politico
3 hours ago
- Politico
Kennedy's plan to ‘fix' vaccine injury compensation
With help from Carmen Paun Driving the Day WHAT IS VICP? Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to the social media platform X on Monday — as well as conservative activist Charlie Kirk's show — to promote his plan to 'fix' the system that HHS uses to compensate people injured by vaccines. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has long been a target of Kennedy's ire, and now, he plans major changes to it. I spoke with POLITICO's Lauren Gardner, who covers the program closely, about how it operates and what we know so far about Kennedy's plans. Here's our conversation, edited for length and clarity. Why was the VICP created and how does it work? Congress created the VICP in 1986 after a series of lawsuits against vaccine makers prompted many of them to pull out of the market. Lawmakers worked with companies, public health advocates and parents who said their children were vaccine-injured to establish a no-fault alternative to the traditional tort system. Under the program, drugmakers' liability is limited, and compensation from an industry-funded tax is available with a lower burden of proof. The intention was to reduce the uncertainty for everyone involved and ensure the stability of the domestic supply of childhood vaccines. To be considered for compensation, a petitioner must file a claim generally within three years of the injury's onset. If the person's injury is listed on a table of injuries presumed to be caused by a given vaccine during a certain timeframe, it's typically easier for them to win compensation; otherwise, they must show their injury was 'more likely than not' caused by the immunization. Kennedy has repeatedly critiqued the program. What does he say is the issue? Some of the secretary's problems with the program are shared by public health experts and, unsurprisingly, vaccine injury lawyers who say the process has become more adversarial in recent years and can take many years to resolve. On the latter point, legal experts point to the law's limit on the number of 'special masters' — essentially judges who consider these cases — at the vaccine court as something Kennedy can't address without Congress. However, Kennedy also made several false or misleading claims Monday, including stating that 'the act has changed' so that the vaccine court is the 'exclusive remedy' for families who might prefer to sue drugmakers in state court. They can do that — as he should know, given his work as an injury lawyer outside of the program — but they have to exhaust their claim at the VICP first. What details do we have about how Kennedy wants to 'fix' VICP? Kennedy didn't say anything new about his plans in Monday's interview. So far, we know he wants to increase the statute of limitations and to somehow compensate people injured by Covid-19 vaccines via the VICP; they currently fall under a separate program that's been widely panned as ineffective. Kennedy specifically referenced a 1995 change to the vaccine injury table's definition of encephalopathy, a broad term for brain dysfunction, that he said 'made it so there's no way you can prove' it was caused by a vaccine. He called the program a 'heartless system that is designed to deny vaccine injury and to deny compensation to people who badly need it, and we are about to fix all that.' He also namechecked Attorney General Pam Bondi as someone who's working with him on this, so since the Justice Department works with HHS to administer the VICP, we could see changes come from that side of Washington, too. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE. Glad to be back in your inbox after taking some time off last week. What are you watching this week before the Senate heads out? Send your tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and sgardner@ and follow along @kelhoops and @sophie_gardnerj. AROUND THE AGENCIES PREMIUM RISES — Medicare drug plan premiums are expected to rise next year, according to the 2026 preliminary rate information for Medicare's prescription drug program released by CMS. The agency is projecting the average base premium will be $38.99, a slight increase from 2025's average base premium of $36.78, POLITICO's Robert King reports. CMS said it worked with insurers to blunt larger premium hikes from plans. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the rate release. 'Following these negotiations, CMS approved some revised bids and, for the first time, rejected standalone [prescription drug plan] bids that failed to address concerns regarding significant year-over-year premium increases,' the agency said in a release. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act included several major changes to Part D, chief among them a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs. CMS was concerned that Medicare Part D plans would raise premiums to compensate for the changes. Key context: Last year, the agency sought to blunt the premium impact through a $5 billion program that's expected to end after 2027. It provided insurers who signed with an additional $15 per member per month. Insurers will still receive extra money, but only $10. It will also increase the limit on a plan's total Part D monthly premium from $35 to $50. CMS said the changes will result in approximately $3.6 billion in additional Medicare payments for 2026, a 42 percent reduction compared to 2025 costs. GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS IN DRUG-USE SURVEY — The percentage of teenagers who seriously considered suicide declined between 2021 and 2024, Carmen reports. That's according to the Annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which reflects 2024 data, that HHS's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, published Monday. The good news: The percentage of teens who made a suicide plan over the past year dropped from 6.2 percent in 2021 to 4.6 percent in 2024, according to the survey, which relies on self-reported data. And the percentage of teens who attempted suicide decreased from 3.6 percent in 2021 to 2.7 percent in 2024. The use of certain drugs also declined in teenagers and adults, with reported prescription opioid misuse lowering from 3 percent in 2021 to 2.6 percent in 2024. The bad news: The percentage of people ages 12 and older who reported having a drug use disorder in the past year increased from 8.7 percent in 2021 to 9.8 percent in 2024. The use of marijuana increased from 19 percent in 2021 to just over 22 percent last year. So did the use of hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, with 3.6 percent reporting using them last year compared with 2.7 percent in 2021. Why it matters: In response to the country's mental health and drug use crises that worsened during the pandemic, federal officials and lawmakers have made efforts to regulate social media use and expand access to substance use disorder treatment. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's in long-term recovery from past opioid use, has promoted the ban of cellphone use in schools and healthier food to improve children and teens' wellbeing. HHS LAUNCHES HEP C PILOT — SAMHSA has put $100 million into a pilot program focusing on hepatitis C in people with a substance use disorder, a serious mental illness or both, Carmen reports. State and community-based organizations are among the entities that can apply for funding from the program, which 'is designed to support communities severely affected by homelessness and to gain insights on effective ways to identify patients, complete treatment, cure infections, and reduce' hepatitis C reinfection, HHS said in a statement Monday. HHS hailed the pilot program as 'a significant accomplishment in President Trump's agenda to Make America Healthy Again … This upfront investment is a common-sense and scientifically driven initiative projected to both save lives and save community health care costs in the long run.' The CDC estimates that between 2.4 million and 4 million people in the U.S. had hepatitis C between 2017 and 2020. The disease is an inflammation of the liver, caused mainly by a viral infection that can progress to severe liver disease or liver cancer if left untreated, according to the World Health Organization. Oral medication can treat and cure the disease if taken for eight to 12 weeks, but greater access to treatment is needed to achieve disease elimination, according to former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who has advocated for the cause as former President Joe Biden's science adviser. WHAT WE'RE READING POLITICO's Maya Kaufman reports that the Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe into New York-Presbyterian, one of the nation's largest hospitals. STAT's Anil Oza reports on a new analysis that outlines what the Trump administration's proposed cuts to the NIH could mean long-term.
CNBC
3 hours ago
- CNBC
AstraZeneca CEO doubles down on U.S. amid rumors of listing shift
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot on Tuesday reiterated the pharmaceutical firm's commitment to the U.S. market amid reports that he is considering shifting its listing stateside. Soriot said the U.K.-listed company had many reasons to be in the U.S., adding that it was "rapidly transferring manufacturing" across the Atlantic so it could serve all U.S. patient needs domestically. "We have lots of reasons to be here [in the U.S.]," Soriot told media during an earnings call. "This country [the U.S.] will represent, we hope, 50% of our revenue by 2030. We have thousands of employees … across the country," he added. AstraZeneca has been doubling down on the U.S. market, saying in its second-quarter earnings report on Tuesday that the country was key to its ambition of delivering $80 billion in revenue by the end of the decade. "We are a global company but we are certainly, very much, present and rooted in the U.S.," Soriot said, noting that it plans to soon become self-sufficient there. The company said last week it plans to invest $50 billion in bolstering its U.S. manufacturing and research capabilities. It marks the latest pharmaceutical firm to ramp up its stateside spending in the wake of U.S. trade tariffs and calls by President Donald Trump to reshore manufacturing. "Our investment is reflecting our belief in the growth of this country. We want to contribute to this," Soriot said, noting that he had met with the Trump administration to discuss growth plans within the sector. "The U.S. really leads in biopharmaceutical innovation these days," he added, criticizing Europe's failure to drive development. "Today, very little comes out of Europe." AstraZeneca, which made international headlines by developing one of the key Covid-19 vaccines, has long been prioritizing the U.S. market. The U.S. accounted for over 40% of the company's annual revenues in 2024. Earlier this month, The Times reported that the firm may move its listing from London to the U.S., in what analysts said would be a major blow to the U.K.'s public markets. AstraZeneca at the time declined to comment on the report. However, chief financial officer Aradhana Sarin said Tuesday that the company remains "committed" to the U.K. It comes as AstraZeneca posted better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, driven by demand for key cancer and biopharmaceutical products. The Anglo-Swedish pharma firm posted revenues of $14.46 billion over the three-month period to June 30, ahead of the $14.07 billion estimated by analysts in an LSEG poll. Quarterly adjusted core operating profit came in at $4.58 billion versus $4.48 billion anticipated. The FTSE 100 company maintained its full-year forecast for revenues to rise by a high single-digit percentage and core earnings per share to increase by a low double-digit percentage. It comes as the European pharmaceutical sector is facing anticipated levies of 15% on imports to the U.S. as part of a broader EU-U.S. trade deal. Analysts warned that the tariffs, if levied at 15% or above, could hamper European firms and the bloc's broader economy. AstraZeneca nevertheless suggested in April that it would maintain its 2025 sales guidance if U.S. tariffs on European pharma products came in in line with those levied against other sectors. "This issue of tariffs is not really an issue that is affecting us very much," Soriot said.
