Weekly Medical Briefs

September 29, 2022

Multiple Shots in One Arm?
Picking whether to give both shots in the same arm or separate arms seems to be a matter of debate and speculation rather than hard science when giving more than one vaccine at the same time. Some, including the White House, advocate giving both shots in one arm spaced at least one inch apart while others advocate using different arms for each.
Many pediatricians, who often have to administer four or five shots to a baby at once, are habitual splitters. “If there’s more than one vaccine syringe to give to a baby, generally, two legs are used,” “If there’s a local reaction to the vaccine, you can identify which vaccine it was if you separate them by space.” (The author of the article had a more painful reaction in her left arm, where she received the COVID shot. Others have reported the same disparity.)

The Atlantic

Stop Cooking Chicken in NyQuil
The FDA has issued a warning against cooking chicken in NyQuil after a social media challenge that encouraged people to try it went viral.
Called the “sleepy chicken challenge,” the trend tells people to cook chicken in NyQuil or something similar which include ingredients such as acetaminophen, dextromethorphan and doxylamine.
“The challenge sounds silly and unappetizing — and it is. But it could also be very unsafe,” the FDA said. “Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways.”
Even if someone doesn’t plan to eat the chicken, inhaling the vapors of the medication while it cooks could cause high levels of the drug to enter the body.

FDA

Pandemic Fraud
The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had charged 48 people with running a brazen fraud against anti-hunger programs in the coronavirus pandemic, stealing $240 million by billing the government for meals they did not serve to children who did not exist. The case, in Minnesota, is the largest fraud uncovered in any pandemic-relief program, prosecutors said, standing out even in a period when heavy federal spending and lax oversight allowed a spree of scams with few recent parallels. The Minnesota operation, prosecutors said, involved faked receipts for 125 million meals. At times, it was especially bold: One accused conspirator told the government he had fed 5,000 children a day in a second-story apartment.

New York Times

Reduce Risk of Dementia
A new study suggests that adults who take just under 10,000 steps per day have a lower risk of dementia. According to the results, there was an association between daily steps and a lower risk of dementia. The researchers observed that optimal step count was 9,826 steps and the minimal step count was 3,826 steps.

JAMA Neurology