Tag: illness

Sermo CEO Launches ‘Be Your Possible’ to Raise Funds for Medical Research and Advocate for Those Battling Critical Illness

Organization’s Core Goal: Helping Others Find and Take Steps Toward Their Own Possible

NEW YORK, March 28, 2023–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Peter Kirk, CEO of Sermo, has launched Be Your Possible, a global charitable organization committed to raising funds for medical research and inspiring others to take steps towards their “possible”.

Be Your Possible’s mission to inspire others and fundraise for research was born from Kirk’s own harrowing experience of surviving Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare cancer of the blood and bone marrow. After receiving a terminal diagnosis and being intubated in the ICU with double lung pneumonia, Kirk received a blood stem cell transplant that saved his life.

“A 25-year-old man named Sam saved my life when he donated 850 million wonderful stem cells that ultimately made my transplant possible,” Kirk said. “A kind stranger gave me another chance at life, and this wouldn’t have been conceivable without the decades of medical research that went into advancing the transplant process and the work of oncologists around the world. Through Be Your Possible, we’re aiming to expand access to life-saving medical treatments to people on a global scale by funding vital medical research, moving scientific breakthroughs forward, and offering support to those who receive critical diagnoses like mine.”

Peter’s “possible” is running 1,000 half marathons by the 10th anniversary of his transplant to raise $1 million for blood stem cell cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he received his own life-saving transplant. Be Your Possible will also offer opportunities and events to empower not only other patients, but everyone to take steps toward finding their own possible, from exercise to education and personal growth.

Be Your Possible’s flagship event is Run with Peter-Run for Research, a global doctor-led run that takes place annually in June. Inspired by Kirk’s incredible completion of the NYC Marathon five months post-transplant, the inaugural event mobilized thousands of physicians in 77 countries to run or walk with Kirk in support of medical research causes, chosen by physician runners themselves. Founding partner Sermo donated $250,000 to the various causes chosen by physician participants, including the American Heart Association, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where Kirk received his life-saving blood stem cell transplant.

Our core belief is that anything is possible, taking one step at a time TOGETHER. To learn more, visit beyourpossible.com

About Be Your Possible:

Born from Founder and Sermo CEO Peter Kirk’s harrowing experience with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, journey to recovery, and commitment to inspiring others to be their possible, Be Your Possible is a global charitable organization committed to raising awareness and funds for medical research to help others benefit from life-saving treatments, such as Peter’s own blood stem cell transplant.

The organization was founded in 2022 launching its first initiative, Run with Peter-Run for Research, a global movement mobilizing thousands of physicians to run or walk in support of medical research.

Peter’s “possible” is running 1,000 half marathons by the 10th anniversary of his transplant.

We pledge to empower not only other patients, but everyone to take steps toward finding their own possible, from exercise to education and personal growth. Our core belief is that anything is possible, by taking one step at a time, TOGETHER. To learn more, visit beyourpossible.com

About Sermo:

Sermo is the largest global healthcare research company and the most trusted physician engagement platform. Sermo engages with more than 1.3 million HCPs across 150 countries and has reach into the U.S. Payer market that now exceeds 230M commercial lives covered.

For over 20 years, Sermo has been turning physician experience, expertise, and observations into actionable business insights that benefit pharmaceutical companies, healthcare partners, and the medical community at large. Sermo offers on-demand access to physicians via a proprietary health-tech ecosystem to gain targeted HCP insights that inform strategic decisioning in real-time. Visit www.sermo.com/business

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230328005418/en/

Contacts

Media:
Allyson Noonan
AN Communications
allyson.noonan@gmail.com

Natural immunity as protective as Covid vaccine against severe illness

Immunity acquired from a Covid an infection delivers sturdy, lasting security in opposition to the most extreme results of the health issues, in accordance to exploration posted Thursday in The Lancet — safety, gurus say, that’s on par with what is furnished through two doses of an mRNA vaccine.

Infection-acquired immunity slice the chance of hospitalization and dying from a Covid reinfection by 88{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} for at minimum 10 months, the examine discovered.

“This is actually excellent news, in the perception that protection in opposition to serious disorder and loss of life following infection is genuinely fairly sustained at 10 months,” mentioned the senior review creator, Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of the Institute for Overall health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. 

The results might be a tiny silver lining to the explosive omicron outbreak of past wintertime. With so numerous people contaminated, several most most likely even now advantage from that defense towards serious disorder, Murray reported. 

Even now, authorities worry that vaccination is the preferable route to immunity, provided the challenges of Covid, especially in unvaccinated people today. 

“The difficulty of saying ‘I’m gonna get contaminated to get immunity’ is you could possibly be just one of individuals folks that finish up in the hospital or die,” Murray mentioned. “Why would you choose the hazard when you can get immunity through vaccination very safely?” 

The review was the largest meta-evaluation to day to glimpse at immunity subsequent an infection. It included 65 scientific studies from 19 nations and as opposed the threat of creating Covid again in people who had recovered from infections to persons who hadn’t been infected by September. Men and women who experienced hybrid immunity, or immunity from both equally infection and vaccination, have been excluded. Omicron subvariants that emerged in the late drop and early wintertime of very last calendar year, together with BQ.1 and the now-dominant XBB.1.5, weren’t integrated.

Whilst protection from critical illness remained significant, people could be reinfected — particularly with an omicron subvariant — consistent with proof that defense in opposition to getting signs or symptoms wanes speedier than safety towards hospitalization and demise.

Owning Covid just before the omicron variant emerged did not do considerably to stop reinfection with the mutated edition: Security from reinfection in that circumstance was 74{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} right after a single month but fell to 36{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} by thirty day period 10. 

Dr. Bob Wachter, the chairman of the division of medication at the College of California, San Francisco, explained he did not count on the protection obtained from an infection to be as sturdy as the meta-examination uncovered.

“The defense versus critical an infection, equally the extent and the size of it at just about a 12 months, is genuinely incredibly higher,” reported Wachter, who was not concerned with the analysis.

Does an infection-acquired immunity outperform vaccines? 

The immunity produced from an infection was observed to be “at least as significant, if not higher” than that presented by two doses of an mRNA vaccine, the authors wrote.

While Murray and Wachter agreed that vaccination remains the safest route, acquiring a past Covid an infection should at minimum be regarded as in policymaking decisions likely ahead, these kinds of as vaccination needs, they stated.  

“What Europe did with this evidence produced a whole lot of sense, which is in which proof of past an infection was noticed as fundamentally equivalent to vaccination in phrases of prerequisites to go into situations or for work,” Murray explained.

At the quite the very least, he added, officials really should take that proof of modern infection is equivalent to vaccination. 

Notably, the immunity acquired from an infection did look to wane a lot more little by little than the immunity from two doses of an mRNA vaccine.

Even so, Murray stated a booster dose would return safety to a greater level. 

When must I get a Covid booster?

The Centers for Disorder Control and Avoidance recommends waiting a few months just after an an infection to get a booster dose. 

It could be affordable for men and women with healthful immune methods to extend that out a very little bit more, to six months, as the immune response proceeds to establish, said Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunobiology at the College of Arizona. 

“We know that the immune response proceeds to mature over the system of about six months, both for vaccines and for bacterial infections,” he explained. “Waiting about 6 months gives you the ideal bang for your buck.”

Wachter reported that while it’s not hazardous to get a booster previously, there is some flexibility with the timing for people today who lately experienced Covid.

“If you are imagining about acquiring a booster, it’s a flawlessly acceptable simply call to seem at this and say I’ll wait six or 8 months before obtaining my booster,” Wachter stated. “That’s a sensible conclusion from wanting at the analyze.”

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