Parents of woman who died when Irish doctors refused to perform abortion meet with Indian government to demand justice

• Savita Halappanavar, 31, was found to be miscarrying when she was admitted to Galway University Hospital
• The dentist, who was 17 weeks pregnant, was denied a medical termination, and died from septicaemia on October 28
• Indian officials have promised parents Anadappa and Akka Mahadevi Yalgi all possible help
• Pro-choice campaigners plan mass rallies in Ireland calling for abortion to be legalised
  

By Rebecca Seales

Published: 14:53 EDT, 16 November 2012 | Updated: 16:49 EDT, 17 November 2012

The parents of an Indian woman who died of blood poisoning after Irish doctors refused her an abortion have met officials to demand justice for their daughter.

Savita Halappanavar, 31, was 17 weeks pregnant when she began miscarrying, and died of septicaemia a week later.

Her husband Praveen Halappanavar, 34, has told how he begged doctors at Galway University Hospital to terminate the pregnancy, but they refused to do so because she was ‘in a Catholic country’ and the foetus’s heartbeat was still present.

The tragedy has provoked soul searching in the Republic of Ireland, where abortion is illegal, as well as considerable anger in some quarters.

Campaigners are demanding a change in the law to allow abortion in the case where the mother’s life is in danger.

Savita’s parents Anadappa Yalgi, 62, and his wife Akka Mahadevi Yalgi, 54, met with municipal government officials late on Friday afternoon at the family home in Belgaum, South West India.

The grieving couple asked Belgaum’s Deputy Commissioner, Anbu Kumar, to help ensure every possible assistance from the Indian government.

Mr Kumar said of the encounter: ‘I visited the house and offered our government’s help where possible.’

A photo of Savita now hangs in the family home covered in a garland, as is traditional in India’s Hindu community after the death of a loved one.

Echoing comments made by her parents, India’s ambassador to Ireland said today that Mrs Halappanavar might still be alive today if she had been treated in India.

Debashish Chakravarti told RTÉ radio that he hoped the Irish government would take steps to ensure the circumstances which led to her death never arose again. 

Abortion is not illegal in India when the mother’s life is at risk, the ambassador noted.

Meanwhile Ireland’s ambassador to India, Feilim McLaughlin, was officially summoned by the Delhi government on Friday to discuss an inquiry into Mrs Halappanavar’s death.

Madhusudan Ganapathi, secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry, told the Irish envoy he hoped the inquiry into the tragedy would be independent.

He also conveyed the sadness felt by people in India as ‘a young life had come to an untimely end’.

India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said of the tragedy: “Saving the life of the mother is of prime importance, if you can’t save the life of the child.”

Mr Halappanavar, Savita’s husband, has described how he held her hand as she died.

Reliving her final moments, he said: ‘In the night, at around one o’clock, the nurse came running, as I was standing outside ICU.

‘She just told me to be brave, and she took me near Savita, and she said: “Will you be OK to be there, living her last minutes?

‘I said: “Yes, I want to”. I was holding her hand, they were trying to pump her heart, there was a big team around. The doctor just told me they lost her.’

Mr Halappanavar, who works as an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, came to Ireland from India with his wife four years ago to start a new life together. She had a job in Westport, Co Mayo and the pair lived in Galway city.

Happy couple: Savita and her husband Praveen dancing at 2010 Diwali festival in Galway, video from YouTube

They were so excited about the expected birth of their first child, which was due on March 20, that they had an early baby shower in recent weeks when Mrs Halappanavar’s parents were visiting.

Pro-choice activists in Ireland have turned to social media networks to organise a mass protest against the country’s abortion laws on Saturday.

A rally in central Dublin is expected to attract several thousand demonstrators, and follows similar rallies on Thursday night in Belfast and on Friday in Derry.

A record number of doctors applied to be certified to treat obesity this year amid the soaring popularity of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Nearly 1,900 doctors signed up for the annual exam this October, the medical board behind the test said, which was a 50 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Passing the exam distinguishes doctors as competent in treating obese patients and could set them on A path to rake in higher salaries.

It comes after official data showed a record 40 percent of adults are now obese in three states — West Virginia, Louisiana and Oklahoma — while every state had seen a rise in rates compared to just a decade ago.

Weight loss drug prescriptions have surged in the US with five million written last year, up 2,000 percent in 2019. 

Analysts suggest this market will be worth $56billion by 2030, with doctors who have specialized in obesity medicine likely able to charge more to patients. 

Data from the American Board of Obesity Medicine revealed a record number of doctors had signed up to take the exam this year.

Back in 2012 — when the accreditation scheme was set up — barely 200 doctors applied.

Healthcare workers do not need the obesity certificate in order to treat obese patients, but it can make them more competent in caring for the patients. 

It can also serve as a stepping stone to doctors signing up for further training as bariatric surgeons — or a doctor who has specialized in performing weight loss surgeries such as a gastric bypass.

This would require another one to two years of training on top of the initial four required to become a doctor plus the three-to-seven-year residency.

Bariatric doctors earn about $450,000 per year on average, statistics suggest, compared to $412,000 for general surgeons. In some cases, they can be paid upward of $700,000.

The ABOM says doctors are expected to become certified by them in order to become a bariatric surgeon. 

Modules taught to doctors in the course look at the causes of the disease and how to help patients lose weight through diet changes and exercise.

They may also be taught about ‘pharmacotherapy’ for helping patients reduce their waistlines, which may include being taught about popular weight-loss drugs.

Dr Kimberly Gudzune, the medical director for the ABOM, told Insider: ‘As there’s more awareness of both obesity as a chronic disease and all of the effective treatment options, patients are coming into their physicians and saying: “I want to be treated”.

‘And I think that that is oftentimes the trigger for a lot of busy practitioners to say, “I really need to know how to do this”.’

She added: ‘We’re working to address that gap [on obesity knowledge among doctors].

‘But it does take time, and I think that the growth does speak to us working in that direction.’

There are more than one million doctors in the US, of which nearly 7,000 — or 0.007 percent — have the board certification to treat obesity.

The specialization is not needed in order to be allowed to treat obese patients, but it will give doctors advanced knowledge.

As well as their busy schedules, doctors will also need to complete at least 30 hours of lectures and another 30 of studying before taking the exam.

A gold rush is currently on among pharmaceutical giants to tap into the nascent weight-loss medications market.

Novo Nordisk — which is behind semaglutide used in Wegovy and Ozempic — raked in a record $5.5billion last year after investing in factories to manufacture the drug in the United States.

It is also behind a number of drugs for diabetes patients and some medicines for hemophilia patients.

Eli Lilly has also cashed in on the market with its obesity treatment tirzepatide, projected to make $48billion once approved.

Pfizer — which made billions with its Covid vaccine — is also developing its own class of weight-loss drugs in order to access the market.

• More than 100,000 operations and appointments may be cancelled from strike
• Walkouts will be repeated next month to coincide with Tory party conference 

By Kate Pickles Health Editor

Published: 19:57 EDT, 19 September 2023 | Updated: 02:47 EDT, 20 September 2023

Consultants have taken to picket lines today in their ongoing row with the Government over pay.

The senior medics walked out of hospitals across England at 7am this morning as part of a 48-hour strike and are providing a stripped-back ‘Christmas Day’ level of service — meaning routine appointments and operations are set to be significantly disrupted. 

Junior doctors will then stage a joint strike with consultants tomorrow — for the first time in the health service’s 75 year history — marking an escalation in the dispute.

Striking medics claim their salary has been slashed over the last 15 years but officials say their have already made their final pay offer and patients are at risk. 

Here, MailOnline details all you need to know about the action and how it could affect you.  

Who is striking this week and when?

Consultants and junior doctors in England are taking industrial action this week, coordinated by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Senior doctors will walk out from 7am today to 7am on Thursday.

This includes 24 hours of joint action with junior doctors from 7am on Wednesday to 7am on Thursday.

The junior medics will take to picket lines from 7am on Wednesday to 7am on Saturday.

What services will be hit? 

Many routine hospital appointments and treatments, including cancer care, have been postponed as a result of both junior doctor and consultant strikes.

Some hospitals have had to halve their normal levels of activity on strike days. 

However, patients have been urged to still attend their appointment if they have not been told it is cancelled — as some doctors are still working.

There will be ‘Christmas Day’ cover throughout hospitals on Tuesday and Wednesday, with emergency units staffed and a basic level of cover on wards. 

On Thursday and Friday — during the junior doctor strike — there will be a ‘full strike’ meaning consultants will be used to provide cover in hospitals.

GP services and pharmacies are expected to operate normally during the strikes, though some junior doctors work at GP surgeries, so some practices may be affected from Wednesday.  

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, said: ‘The NHS has simply never seen this kind of industrial action in its history. It poses an enormous challenge.’ 

Professor Powis urged the public to use NHS ‘wisely’ to ensure care is delivered to those who need it most.

He said to only call 999 or attend A&E for life-threatening emergencies and otherwise contact NHS 111 for non-urgent needs.

Why are they striking?

The BMA argues that junior doctors and consultants have seen their pay be eroded over the last 15 years, meaning it hasn’t kept up with inflation.

As a result, the medics’ pay has fallen by around 35 per cent, the union claims.

Junior doctors have called for a full 35 per cent pay uplift, while consultants set their pay demand at 11 per cent. 

For comparison, the Government has offered junior doctors a pay rise between 8.1 and 10.3 per cent, depending on what level they are at.

The average junior doctor in their first year of training will see their salary rise from £29,300 to £32,300, while a medic with three years’ experience will get a boost from £40,200 to £43,900. 

Meanwhile, pay for consultants will increase by six per cent. It means starting basic pay has increased from £88,300 to £93,600. The average consultants’ earnings are expected to be £134,000 a year, after including overtime and on-call payouts. 

Why are health leaders more worried about these strikes? 

NHS bosses have long warned that strikes mean disruption for patients, with nearly 1million appointments and operations cancelled over nine months of walkouts.

For this round of action, health chiefs are warning that increasing numbers of patients who have already had their operation cancelled due to industrial action are having their rescheduled appointments cancelled again.

This includes a growing numbers of cancer patients. 

NHS Confederation warned that the BMA is now putting ‘more patients at risk than ever’ and describe the situation as ‘dangerous’.

What impact will the strikes have on patients?

Hospitals are reporting that some patients have now had their appointments cancelled up to three times because of strike action.

Health leaders say there is a ‘clear risk’ that the health of some patients will deteriorate the longer they are left to wait. 

While NHS bosses report that around 1million apportionments have been rescheduled because of strikes, the true toll is thought to be much higher. 

This is because hospitals are now routinely not booking in patients for strike days, meaning the true scale of the impact won’t be reflected in the official data.

Is there any end in sight for the NHS strikes? 

The Health Secretary Steve Barclay and the BMA, which is coordinating the consultant and junior doctor strikes, have not met in more than three months.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that they pay offer the Government has granted is fair and final.

But BMA leaders have said they will only call off action if presented with a higher pay uplift and ‘cannot cancel strikes to simply enter talks’.

This suggests that there is no end in sight, with the union warning that without an agreement, strikes will continue into winter. 

• Consultation considers minimum service levels that covering urgent care 
• Junior doctors have so far held 19 days of industrial action in hospitals this year 

By Shaun Wooler Health Editor

Published: 19:01 EDT, 18 September 2023 | Updated: 02:34 EDT, 19 September 2023

A Sri Lankan teenager had to have a wire surgically removed from his penis after a dangerous masturbating technique went wrong.

The 17-year-old – who has not been named – had developed a fetish for putting electrical wire down his urethra to intensify his orgasms.

But on one occasion, he accidentally shoved an eight-inch-long wire too far, and it became lodged inside his penis, causing him extreme pain when he peed.  

He went to the hospital nine days after the pain in his abdomen became too intense. At that point, doctors had to surgically remove it. His tale was revealed in a medical case report.

Polyembolokoilomania, or PEKamania for short, is a condition that sees people repeatedly insert foreign objects from wires and toothbrushes to lightbulbs into bodily orifices such as the urethra, rectum, and vagina while masturbating to reach orgasm.

The teen did not suffer any severe health consequences from the masturbation session gone awry, though doctors lost touch with him soon after the procedure, meaning if he did endure further bodily harm, the hospital would not have known about it. 

The doctors at the hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka discovered the unknown coiled mass in the patient’s abdomen via ultrasound scan. 

They performed a quick procedure called a cystoscopy which involves inserting a tube with a light and a camera at the end into the urethra to see inside the bladder. 

Once they got a more comprehensive view of the calcium salt-encrusted wire in the bladder, doctors were then able to surgically remove it. 

A few days elapsed between the patient going to the hospital and finally admitting to his care team that he had engaged in the risky habit of inserting foreign objects into his body while masturbating.

He disclosed to them that he had been doing it for the past two years and was usually able to remove the foreign object himself.

The man had shown signs of being hooked on masturbating. He admitted to doing it about three times a day and added that he had no control over his urges to do it despite wanting to cut back. 

The condition PEKamania is not only a rare masturbatory phenomenon, but it can also be dangerous, potentially leading to a severe infection that kills off bladder tissue.

Doctors said: ‘Complications of inserting a foreign body into male urethra are numerous. Serious complications including bladder tissue necrosis have been reported after the insertion of corrosive substances like batteries.’ 

After the wire was removed, doctors sent the young man for psychological counseling that included efforts to help him cut down on his urges to masturbate. He was found to have some anxieties around forming social and romantic relationships, but was otherwise in good mental health overall. 

The patient was also issued a prescription for the generic version of the antidepressant Prozac to treat his paraphilia, a psychological disorder marked by abnormal sexual desires that are often harmful, such as pedophilia.

The patient, however, ‘was lost to follow-up after discharge,’ meaning doctors lost track of him and he never continued with psychological help.

While the patient was not diagnosed with a particular mental disorder, doctors pointed out that a ‘wide spectrum of psychiatric conditions can motivate the insertion of foreign objects through orifices of the body.

‘Some of the main psychological and psychiatric causes are sexual gratification, paraphilic disorder, non-pathologic sexual preferences, non-suicidal self-harm attempts and borderline personality disorder.’

The patient was also found to have a moderately low IQ of 78. The doctors pointed out that individuals with low IQs may be more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors.

They added: ‘It is anticipated that his risk of re-engaging in such behavior with associated surgical complications is high.

‘Sri Lanka has been identified as a country with a high level of stigma attached to mental disorders. It is our opinion that stigma may contribute to in these patients avoiding contact with health services.’

The case study was published in the journal Psychiatry Research Case Reports. 

Claims that the world is becoming ‘overpopulated’ have been in the zeitgeist for decades, but it’s a lack of new babies that really concerns experts in developed countries.

Japan announced this week that as many as a third of 18-year-old women may never have children due to a ‘sex recession’ that has plagued the country for decades.

One out of every 10 Japanese men in their 30s is still a virgin, and the country’s fertility rate has plummeted from 1.5 in 1992 to 1.34 births per woman in 2020.

The lack of babies being born is already having real-world impacts — Japan’s economy has stalled and caused the country to lose its place as an economic superpower. 

And experts warn the US is barreling towards the same fate, with fertility rates at a historic low and an increase in sexless relationships.

As well as having one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Japan also has one of the highest life expectancies, meaning it is left with a rapidly aging society, a shrinking workforce and fewer taxpayers.

Experts told DailyMail.com that America could be in store for a host of problems, such as a slump in economic growth and difficulties for retirement systems, if the birth rate does not pick up.

A baby boom in the mid-20th century saw the average woman in the US give birth to between three and four children. Today, that rate is just 1.6 — the lowest level recorded since data was first tracked in 1800. 

And there is ‘nothing in the data to suggest this trend is going to reverse itself anytime soon,’ Dr Phillip Levine, a professor of economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told DailyMail.com.

He added that financial incentives — such as those promised in Japan for families with three or more children — are ‘unsuccessful’ at significantly raising a country’s birth rate, and we may have to ‘learn to live in a world in which the birth rate is low.’

In January 2023, Japan increased its financial incentives and offered 1m yen ($7,500) per child to families who moved out of greater Tokyo.

It topped an existing relocation fee of 300,000 yen ($2,000). It is too early to tell if it will make a lasting difference, but experts are not optimistic.

Dr Levine told DailyMail.com there will need to be economic reorganization to keep the country afloat, adding ‘jobs will be lost’ in manufacturing, construction and other fields and move into care and other services for the elderly.

This will ‘eventually have a damaging impact both on social cohesion and general wellbeing, and on economic dynamism’, he warned.

Dr Christopher Murray, a global health expert from the University of Washington, told DailyMail.com: ‘Since most purchases of real estate or consumer durables are in the working age adults, it will tend to put downward pressure on these types of assets.

‘In the long run, societies have to adapt to having more grandparents than grandchildren.

‘We are actually only just beginning to understand the myriad [of] challenges that sustained low fertility will have on societies.’

Previous research has revealed Americans are having far less sex than former generations.

A study from 2017 found that married or live-in couples had sex 16 fewer times per year in 2010-2014 compared to 2000-2004.

And couples had nine times more sex in 1995-1999 than they do now.

Experts have many theories as to why our interest in sex is dwindling – including porn addiction, lipido-sapping drugs like antidepressants, low testosterone levels among men, obesity and other factors.

Dr Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told DailyMail.com that there needs to be a public mind shift where Americans start thinking about sex as a productive activity for the greater good and have more ‘goal-directed’ sex to increase the birth rate. 

In Japan, the falling birth rate has been attributed to a waning appetite for marriage and parenting and growing financial worries, leaving couples questioning whether they can afford children.

It is also due to a vicious cycle of fewer children who then have fewer children, said Takuya Hoshino, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

As people have less children, they are able to spend more on each child than families have in the past. That drives up the average cost of raising a child for the broader population, putting some people off from having children, he said.

In the US, similar problems are blamed, as well as women prioritizing careers and the rise of fertility treatments, leaving many to think they can wait.

But Dr Levine said the evidence for these theories ‘isn’t really that great’ and admitted that researchers don’t have a ‘firm grasp’ on why American women are having fewer children.

‘States where housing costs are rising more or childcare costs are rising more don’t have birth rates that are falling more rapidly than other states,’ he said.

For example, Massachusetts has the most expensive childcare but has the fourth lowest fertility rate out of the states.

‘It doesn’t seem like it’s about the finances; it seems like it’s about what people want out of their lives.’

He said: ‘The Great Recession definitely started the ball rolling in the US and births are routinely linked to economic activity. 

‘But when the recession ended, births didn’t rebound, they just kept going down. So that clearly played a role at the beginning, but not an ongoing role because the recession did end.’

Instead, Dr Levine thinks the falling birth rate is likely due to ‘changing preferences, life goals and aspirations’ among women and their partners.

‘Marriage and childbearing may not be quite as much of a priority among more recent waves as young people, as they have been in the past,’ he said, but added that this is not ‘country-specific.’

An erosion of family values and religious principles might also be a factor, Dr Fischer said.

In Japan, the number of children has been falling for more than four decades, which is having a disastrous effect on GDP and productivity. 

Japan’s population of 126.15 million in 2020 is projected to fall to 87 million by 2070, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

In China, the infamous one-child policy had catastrophic effects. Described as the worst policy in history, it caused China’s fertility rate to crash by more than half, from 5.8 births per woman in 1970 to 2.7 births per woman in 1979. 

And the effects are still being felt. Government data estimates showed China’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.09 in 2022 — the lowest of any country with a population over 100 million.

A falling birth rate is detrimental to a country for several reasons. Fewer births means fewer workers, which has ‘implications for economic activity and economic growth,’ Dr Levine said.

‘It causes problems for retirement systems that are based on current workers paying benefits for current retirees,’ he said, as well as difficulties ‘funding and managing a school system.’

Dr Fischer agreed that the reasons for America’s falling birth rate are sociological.

‘People are more anxious than ever,’ he said. ‘People are in more desperate conditions; the economy is obviously very, very unstable. This is not the situation that would have occurred after winning a World War, let’s say, where you’re happy and you want to start a family. This is the antithesis of that.’

The rising cost of living has been a deterrent for people to start a family, Dr Fischer said.

He also noted how dating has changed over the years. ‘In the old days, that would be arranged marriages,’ he said.

Dr Fischer said the pandemic, technological advances, and increasing use of the internet have caused people to become ‘more insular.’

‘It’s easier to become isolated from society on the internet… and you don’t really want to go out because you’re depressed,’ he said, pointing to America’s growing mental health crisis, with one in five adults currently clinically depressed.

He added that rising obesity rates could be having an impact on fertility for both men and women.

‘When you have obese men, the balance of testosterone and estrogen isn’t correct, so there can be fertility problems,’ he said.

Calls for Covid face masks to return are ramping up amid increasing virus rates and the rise of a highly-mutated new variant.

An Atlanta college has become the first since the government declared the pandemic over to mandate masks for students and staff just days after classes began.

Morris Brown College, a private liberal arts school, is requiring students and employees to wear face masks in hallways and lecture halls for two weeks due to ‘reports of positive cases among students.’

Officials have also told students to maintain social distancing and banned all parties and large student gatherings for two weeks. 

Meanwhile, in an editorial published by the American College of Physicians (ACP), Government doctors and public health experts in Seattle have called for face coverings to be made compulsory in all healthcare facilities once more.

They argue that hospital patients are at a higher risk of dying from or being seriously ill with Covid and would benefit from the ‘reduce[d] risk for Covid contracted in the hospital among patients and health care workers.’

The 10 experts — from Seattle & King County health department and the University of Washington — said we should ‘find ways to adapt to this new reality’ rather than ‘accepting unnecessary risks to patient and provider health.’

Talk of masking up in public has been gaining traction after the CDC said it was monitoring new Covid variant BA.2.86.

Numbers of Covid cases in Georgia have increased for three weeks in a row, but overall, the number of infections and hospitalizations remains low.

Meanwhile, the academic paper was likely written before the new variants came to light, and before Covid hospitalization rates started rising in the US.

Earlier today, a former FDA boss said he is ‘pretty concerned’ the variant known as BA.X, BA.2.86 or Pirola, which is ‘highly mutated’ and therefore likely to be better at escaping the immune systems of vaccinated or previously infected people.

Dr Scott Gottlieb acknowledged there is no evidence the variant is deadlier than older versions of the virus, but Covid fatalities in the US have already started to creep up, though they remain at near historic lows.

Hospitalizations and fatalities are now rising in the US, however, although these are coming up from historic lows and still well below this time last year.

In the article published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the ACP’s academic medical journal, said there is ‘rationale to integrate precautions’, including ‘the ongoing disease burden among persons at highest risk for severe Covid-19, the large proportion of transmission from asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases, uncertainty about the future course of the pandemic, and the effects of post–Covid-19 conditions.’

Statements expressed in the journal do not necessarily reflect the views of the ACP.

The researchers recognized that Covid cases have dropped dramatically since the pandemic due to vaccines, antivirals and increased community immunity, but said that ‘severe outcomes’ are still occurring due to the virus.

They argued that patients in hospitals are far more vulnerable due to age and underlying conditions.

The authors added: ‘If we accept the benefits of increased mask wearing in clinical settings, we should find ways to adapt to this new reality rather than accepting unnecessary risks to patient and provider health. 

‘Perhaps rather than removing masks to improve rapport building and enhance perceived empathy, we could find ways to improve masked communication.’ 

Patients should also be allowed to ‘request that their providers wear a mask when they believe it is appropriate,’ the commentary said.

The authors said the masking could take different approaches, such as across healthcare settings in targeted settings like transplant, oncology, and geriatric units, where risk is highest for patients, but noted this is a ‘less desirable’ option.

It could also be done in certain months of the year when the respiratory season is highest, depending on where the hospital is in the US, or when the burden of respiratory viruses on the community reaches a level deemed too high.

They reference Washington State — where healthcare organizations decided to extend universal masking in patient spaces, with individual facilities ‘given the flexibility to tailor policies to their own unique spaces.’

When Biden ended the Covid national emergency, the Covid measures were meant to have been dropped for good.

But some UK scientists — known for making gloomy predictions earlier in the pandemic — are so concerned about the new Covid variants they have advised people to mask up again.

Masks have long been a controversial Covid strategy due to the lack of hard evidence that they are effective.

One of the most comprehensive meta-analyses of face coverings found that masks made ‘little to no difference’ to Covid infection or death rates in community settings.

The debate around masks first turned sour in 2020 when health officials flip-flopped on their effectiveness.

Then-NIAID director Dr Anthony Fauci said in 2020 that masks were ‘not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.’

He later suggested people should wear masks as a mark of ‘respect’ for others. He admitted to lying to the public about masks’ effectiveness to prevent panic buying and preserve masks for healthcare workers.

The agency still recommends Americans wear masks in places with high transmission levels, such as on public transport.

Critics of masks claim they have hindered communication and children’s development and progress at school.

Rises in RSV and flu in the winter were partly attributed to face-covering mandates because they prevented children from gaining natural immunity to other illnesses.

Madonna‘s grueling preparation for her epic 80-show world tour may have left her vulnerable to falling ill, doctors warned today after news broke that the 64-year-old icon was hospitalized with a ‘serious bacterial infection’.

The legendary hitmaker — whose chart-topping career has spanned four decades — is expected to make a ‘full recovery’ after being intubated in intensive care.

Details over the exact cause of the ‘Material Girl’ singer’s health scare have yet to be released by her family, who were left ‘preparing for the worst’.

They claimed the star believes she is ‘invincible’ and has ‘been wearing herself thin’ over the past few months to ensure her upcoming five-month tour of the US, Britain, Canada and Europe went perfectly.

Doctors today said it was possible Madonna’s punishing preparations — thought to involve rehearsing and exercising six days a week — may have worn her immune system down and left her vulnerable to infection. Any stress she may have faced due to the tour also ‘doesn’t help the picture’, they added.

Bacterial infections are usually mild, with their symptoms clearing naturally or with the added punch of antibiotics.  

Yet they can pose a much more serious threat to those with a weakened immune system. 

Dr Thomas Moore, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Kansas, said it was possible the singer was run down.

‘Exhaustion, certainly when you are run down, can be an issue,’ he said. ‘It is generally true that if you are very run down and not getting enough rest your immune system can be challenged.’

Madonna’s exercise routine may have actually worked against her, he said. 

‘A vigorous workout [or lifestyle] is not inherently dangerous as long as you take care of yourself,’ Dr Moore added.

‘But say your immune system is challenged [by a bacteria], if you have been working too hard this makes it more difficult for it to respond and insults arise.’

Madonna’s partying lifestyle has also likely not helped matters, Dr Moore added.

‘Your body is designed to be taken care of, and with this it can do amazing things and achieve physical feats,’ he said. 

‘But when you start to abuse your body with drugs or alcohol or stay awake for long periods when your brain wants you to go sleep, these can have an indirect effect on its ability to fight a viral infection.’

Exhaustion raises inflammation and stress levels in the body, which can suppress the number and function of immune cells making them less able to tackle infections.  

Poor sleep also has an impact, leading to a decline in the number of immune cells in the body because it has less time to manufacture new ones.

Dr Stuart Fischer, an emergency doctor in New York City, said it was possible that stress had also weakened her immune defenses.

He said: ‘Any stress due to the concert doesn’t help the picture.

‘Stress is immunosuppressive. Her stress is from going on tour and fans waiting to see her. This could have an impact.’

It was also suggested that Madonna’s age, at 64 years, could also have been involved.

Dr Moore said: ‘As you age your immune cell function… begins to decline,’ he said. ‘The immune system also becomes less nimble.’

Both doctors wished Madonna well with her recovery, saying ‘thank goodness she is out of the woods’ and congratulating her for bringing generations happiness with her music. 

Madonna is well-known for her ‘punishing’ fitness regime, which sees her exercise six times a week with a personal trainer to maintain her ‘dancer’s physique’.

The singer, who is known for being a perfectionist, has also had a six-day working week since April to gear up for her shows, those close to the star revealed.

Lee Mitchell, a personal trainer at www.jogger.co.uk, told MailOnline that Madonna’s intense exercise routine may have contributed to her unspecified illness. 

He noted that her workout plan — which includes strength training, cardio exercises and Pilates — can ‘yield positive results when appropriately managed’.

But he cautioned that ‘it is crucial to strike a balance between pushing physical limits and allowing for adequate recovery’.

Mr Mitchell said: ‘Intense exercise can temporarily suppress the immune system due to various factors, such as increased stress hormones, elevated levels of inflammation and oxidative stress. 

‘Pushing the body beyond its limits may lead to physical exhaustion, compromised immune function, hormonal imbalances and increased susceptibility to infections.’

He noted that it is ‘challenging to definitively attribute her health situation to her extreme exercise routine alone’.

Mr Mitchell added: ‘It is possible that other factors — such as her overall health, immune system, stress levels or lifestyle choices — may have contributed to her current condition. 

‘It serves as a reminder that even highly trained individuals should listen to their bodies, prioritize recovery and seek professional guidance to ensure long-term health and wellbeing.’

One of Madonna’s family members has told DailyMail.com that the shocking collapse was a wake-up call for Madonna, who believes she is ‘invincible’ and has been pushing herself extremely hard to prepare for the tour.

They said: ‘She has not been living as healthy a life as she should be for her age, and she has been wearing herself thin over the past couple of months. 

‘She thinks that she is still young when, in fact, she is not. She also believes that she is invincible.’ 

It is currently unclear exactly what infection or complications the Michigan-born singer is suffering from.

But bacterial infections can affect various parts of the body, including the skin, lungs and blood. 

While most bacteria are harmless, some can enter the body through an opening in the skin — such as a cut, insect bite or surgical wound. Others get into the body via the airways, eating contaminated food or through sex.

Antibiotics, which can come in pill, liquid, cream or IV form, are used to treat such infections. 

While most cases are mild, some untreated bacterial infections can lead to serious complications, such as sepsis.

It occurs when the immune system, which helps fight off infections, overreacts to an infection and starts attacking the body’s tissues and organs.

Professor Robert Read, chair of infectious diseases at the University of Southampton, told DailyMail.com that being under psychosocial stress increases the risk of sepsis and its severity. However, he noted that it is not fully understood why this is the case.

Surgery can be another trigger of bacterial infections.

Madonna seemed to admit to undergoing cosmetic surgery this year after she looked almost unrecognizable while presenting an award at the 2023 Grammy’s in February. 

Leading plastic surgeons said at the time that she may have had ‘excessive filler’, Botox, a facelift and nose job, as her skin appeared ‘tight and pulled back’.

Later that month, the singer posted a picture of herself on Twitter stating that her ‘swelling from surgery has gone down’.

It is unclear if she has undergone any further cosmetic procedures.

But any surgery that breaks the skin can lead to an infection, usually within 30 days of an operation.

They are usually caused by bacteria infecting the wound through touch from a contaminated medic or surgical instrument or germs in the air or already on the body that spread to the wound.

The singer is also famed for her intense partying lifestyle and has been pictured in nightclubs and parties and was previously hailed as the ‘nightlife queen’ in the 1990s.

Decades of drinking alcohol are known to hamper health.

One recent study by Oxford University researchers found that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of developing 60 ailments, including infections.

Madonna’s health scare was shared with the world by her long-time manager Guy Oseary, who revealed on Instagram that Madonna has been forced to postpone her hotly-anticipated 40th-anniversary tour as a result of her medical struggles. 

Oseary insisted in his post that the singer is ‘expected to make a full recovery’ and that her ‘health is improving’, but added that she is ‘still under medical care’.

While Madonna used to play tours featuring around 40 shows earlier in her career, she has upped her commitments in recent years and has performed twice as many.

On her most recent Madame X tour, Madonna performed 75 dates from September 2019 until March 2020 and put her ‘blood, sweat and tears’ into the performances.

Jose Extravaganza, a dancer who used to work with Madonna, told how the star had been exercising ‘a lot’ ahead of the tour.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘I think she’s exercising a lot. I mean, the rehearsals. Rehearsals are six days a week from what I hear, you know, like the only day off is Sunday.’

Mr Extravaganza also revealed how Madonna had planned to incorporate her love of boxing and fitness into her concerts by bringing martial arts into her upcoming shows, showing how important fitness is in the star’s life. 

The star was previously forced to cancel more than a dozen shows during her 2019 and 2020 The Madame X Tour after injuring her coccyx on stage. 

She wrote on Instagram at the time: ‘If only knees didn’t twist and cartilage didn’t tear and nothing hurt and tears never fell out of our eyes.

‘But alas they do and thank god for this important reminder that we are human.’

Madonna was left on crutches for ten months following the injury and operation she underwent and other ‘physical challenges’, she said at the time.

As the Covid pandemic put the final nail in her tour’s coffin, Madonna decided to undergo knee surgery in April 2020 followed by hip surgery in November 2020 as well as ‘regenerative treatment for missing cartilage’.

A woman from Kentucky who was told to carry a fetus ‘with no brain’ for 18 weeks has slammed the state’s male-dominated legislature as being out of touch.

The fetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a condition where the brain and parts of the skull do not form properly – and it cause death at birth or the first few days of life.

Heather Maberry, 32, said that lawmakers behind its abortion ban — one of the most restrictive in the country — simply ‘do not know how it feels’ to hear the worst news an expectant mother could face.

‘They are never going to have to carry a child. They are never going to have to be in that position,’ she said. ‘They are never gonna be the one that was carrying that baby and had to go through hell.’

Ms Maberry — who used to be anti-abortion — was forced to travel 300 miles out of state to Chicago for $7,000 after being told her baby, who she named Willow, was non-viable and didn’t have a brain.

Ms Maberry explained to ABC News that before the experience, she did not believe in abortion for herself but was not against others having terminations.

She told a local publication: ‘They [the legislators] do not know how it feels to carry a child, to have someone tell you the most devastating news of your life, and then say I can’t even hold her.

‘They have stolen that from me.’

Kentucky was the first state to make abortion virtually impossible in April last year and force all clinics to close.

The state legislature — where 107 out of 138 members are men — enacted a law banning all terminations after 15 weeks but also put onerous requirements on clinics — such as issuing birth-death certificates — that forced their closure.

There is a loophole allowing abortions in cases when there is no fetal heartbeat after six weeks, but doctors said this would not help Ms Maberry because her nonviable baby still had a heartbeat. Nearly half of US states have enacted limits on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June last year. 

In Ms Maberry’s case, she had been excited to try for another child with her husband Nick after tying the knot last year.

She first fell pregnant in October 2022, but suffered a miscarriage before finding out she was pregnant again just two days before Christmas.

‘We were super excited,’ she said, ‘but we were also very nervous because we had just lost a baby. So, we just kept trying to take care of me the best we could’.

The pregnancy was complicated, with Ms Maberry developing hyperemesis gravidarum — a severe type of nausea and vomiting — in the early stages.

She was put on medications to help ease this and they then found out she was pregnant with her fourth girl, who they named Willow.

It was shortly afterward, however, that doctors diagnosed her daughter with anencephaly, a serious condition where major sections of the brain and skull have not developed.

It is caused by the neural tube — the pre-cursor to the brain and spinal cord — failing to close properly around 23 to 26 days after conception. Estimates suggest that about one in 4,600 babies in the United States have the condition.

Dr Sadia Haider, an obstetrician at Rush University Medical Center, said: ‘In this scenario, it’s irrelevant whether there’s a heartbeat or not.

‘Anencephaly basically means there’s no brain, essentially like no neurologic development, which is essential for survival.’

She said the fetus would die during birth or shortly after childbirth.

When she was told the devastating news, Ms Maberry said it felt like she was living the ‘worst nightmare a mother could imagine’.

After a discussion with her husband, she said she only wanted to get the chance to kiss her daughter on the forehead and bury her quietly.

But because of Kentucky’s laws, doctors said she would have to carry the fetus to full term unless she headed out of state for an abortion.

‘The only option I had here was to continue carrying her with the same outcome for another, you know, 17 or 18 weeks,’ she said.

‘I said: ‘I physically can’t and mentally can’t continue carrying her knowing that she’s never gonna breathe, we’re never going to have a life with her’.

‘So, we came to the decision that we were going to try to get an abortion.’

She was linked up to the National Abortion Hotline, which referred her to a clinic in Chicago for the procedure. 

She was quoted $3,300 for the termination, but she would also need to cover the cost of flights for herself and her husband, food, and accommodation. 

This was when the hotline stepped in to help offset the expenses, which Ms Maberry said could easily have topped $7,000 without them.

Describing her position on abortion now, she said: ‘There’s so much involved in choosing to continue with the pregnancy, choosing to go through the delivery as far as like physically, emotionally and otherwise.

‘Allowing patients to have a choice in how long they have to continue this for — given the negative outcome that they’re gonna face — is really important.’