FRIGID TEMPERATURES BRING HEALTH RISKS

When the temperature drops, staying safe and warm and performing everyday activities can be challenging and dangerous. Young children, older adults, and the chronically ill are most at risk of having cold-related health problems. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges people affected by the ongoing cold weather to take steps to protect themselves, and to check to be sure their families, friends, and neighbors stay safe and warm this winter.

Van Andel Institute Cuts Ribbon on $178 Million Expansion

Grand Rapids, Mich. (December 7, 2009) – On December 8, Van Andel Institute (VAI) cuts the ribbon on its eight-story, $178 million, 240,000 square foot Phase II expansion. The expanded facility creates economic and scientific opportunity both for VAI and West Michigan’s burgeoning life sciences sector and adds to the more than $1 billion investment in infrastructure already in place along Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile. When operating at capacity, the expansion will support a $125 million annual research operation that expands the number of laboratories from the current 18 to more than 50, and provides the capacity for 550 additional jobs.

Phase II nearly triples current laboratory space and promises to significantly increase the Institute’s capacity to impact human health through an expansion of its current basic and translational cancer research, and an expanded commitment to neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s through an endowed chair and the new $4.2 million Jay Van Andel Parkinson Research Laboratory.

THE HEALTH CARE VOTE
by Vern Ehlers, U.S. House of Representatives

As early as this Saturday, the U.S. House could vote on reforms to change the way health care is
delivered and insured in America. I expect Democratic leadership in the House to allow a vote not only on Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990 page bill (H.R. 3962), but also a Republican alternative.

Speaker Pelosi’s bill was introduced last week, and I oppose it for several reasons:

• The Pelosi bill would result in large tax increases, which are the absolute last thing Michigan needs. It contains nearly $500 billion dollars in tax increases on taxpayers from certain incomes, the majority of whom are small business owners. It includes $729.5 billion in tax increases overall, as well as $135 billion in new taxes on employers who cannot afford to provide their workers health insurance. This would result in millions of lost jobs.

Controversy abounds over whether to get a flu shot this year.

On the one hand, the government and most health facilities are urging you to get that vaccination, especially if you fall into certain categories. To make it more difficult, those categories are different for regular (seasonal) flu and for the H1N1 flu making headlines this year. There is also the decision whether to get a traditional shot (dead virus) or a nasal spray vaccine (live virus). Which is better?