The Trump administration’s efforts to slash medical research funding threaten progress toward a cure for hepatitis B. Its proposed budget calls for $1.8 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the elimination of all federal funding for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, along with additional cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, which has final say on approving new drugs and treatments. The cuts are just the latest in a series of hurdles that researchers and clinicians face in managing hepatitis B infections in the United States.
Category: Series
Posted inCommunity, Health, Hepatitis B: A ‘Silent Killer’, Social Services
Stigma, Insufficient Screening Keep Hepatitis B in the Shadows
Commonly known as a “silent killer” because it can have few symptoms, chronic hepatitis B can lead to liver damage or cancer, is not well studied and as a research area remains underfunded. Many living with it face significant social stigma, which discourages getting tested and leaves patients isolated and unwilling to open up about their experiences.
The silence hits immigrant communities the hardest, a phenomenon advocates have spent decades trying to fix. Asian Americans are disproportionately affected by hepatitis B, especially by chronic infections. Years of community work have led to better outreach, and new efforts like universal screening are starting to build momentum.
Posted inHealth, Hepatitis B: A ‘Silent Killer’, Immigration, Social Services
Poorly Tracked Virus Is a ‘Silent Killer’ Affecting Asian Americans Most
Hepatitis B is widely misunderstood, a problem worsened by insufficient screening and detection. Chronic hepatitis B isn’t as consistently detected as are acute cases, allowing the disease to frequently progress unchecked and do more damage. According to the World Health Organization, only 13% of those living with the virus know they have it, leaving many, especially in immigrant and marginalized communities, undiagnosed and without access to timely treatment.
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Economy & Business, Labor, Series, Technology
California Creatives Rally Behind State AI Rules to Save Their Artwork
Many creative professionals — including visual artists, writers, actors, singers and musicians — are concerned that companies are feeding existing creative work into data troves and applying generative AI to produce content based on their original work without giving credit or compensation. Creative professionals say their work is being used and monetized without their permission.
Posted inCity Hall, Health, Overdose Crisis
SF Criticized for Lack of Community Input on Opioid Settlement Funds Use
A coalition of addiction experts and treatment advocates is commending the San Francisco Department of Public Health for committing some of the $352 million opioid lawsuit settlement funds the city expects to receive over the next 18 years to expanding methadone treatment and addressing racial disparity in fatal overdoses.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Shuttered Radiation Lab Poses Ongoing Health Risks for Growing Neighborhood
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 6, we detail how cavalier attitudes toward radiation exposure and an indifference to how pollution left by the Navy might affect San Franciscans have been constants officials warned of plutonium blowing in the air three-quarters of a century ago.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Destroyed Records, Dying Witnesses Consign San Francisco Radiation Lab to Obscurity
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 5, we trace the obscure nature of the work at the lab to the military’s culture of secrecy, explore why officials shredded millions of pages of paper records and show how an ongoing lack of official interest in acknowledging this history has frustrated local people dealing with the shipyard’s environmental legacy.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Cold War Scientists Pushed Ethical Boundaries With Radiation Experiments
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 4, we examine the ethical implications of the lab’s use of radioactive substances on humans, when neither scientists nor study participants knew enough about the risks to offer informed consent — and how taking such gambles may have seemed more excusable in an atomic-age context than today.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Human Radiation Studies Included Mock Combat, Skin Tests and a Plan to Inject 49ers
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 3, we show how the lab’s scientific agenda expanded from monitoring workers’ occupational exposures to using radioactive substances in mock atomic combat and clinical experiments that included topical, oral and intravenous administration of potentially harmful isotopes.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
After Atomic Test Blunder, Government Authorized Study of Radiation in Humans
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 2, we examine public records that prove that exposing humans to radiation was part of the known cost of the lab’s research program, a toll accepted by top military and civilian brass at every level of the chain of command, from Washington down to the docks.