When schools open their doors this fall, teachers and students who are vaccinated can enter without masks, according to a new guidance issued Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The relaxed recommendation comes as a national vaccination campaign in which children as young as 12 can get COVID-19 shots unfolds, accompanied… read on > read on >
Although tens of millions of Americans turn to muscle relaxants for lower back pain relief, a new Australian review finds little evidence that such drugs actually work. That’s the conclusion of a deep-dive into 31 prior investigations, which collectively enlisted more than 6,500 lower back pain patients. Enrolled patients had been treating lower back pain… read on > read on >
COVID-19 vaccines have prevented at least 279,000 deaths and 1.25 million hospitalizations in the United States, but the Delta variant poses a significant threat to that progress, researchers say. “The vaccines have been strikingly successful in reducing the spread of the virus and saving hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States alone,” said… read on > read on >
There is “exponential growth” of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County as the Delta variant becomes the dominant strain, health officials there reported Thursday. Even though 60% of people older than 16 in the county have been fully vaccinated, the case rate rose from 1.74 cases to 3.5 cases per 100,000 people in one week,… read on > read on >
FRIDAY, July 9, 2021 (American Heart Association News) — Twenty weeks into her pregnancy, Hannah Lewis eagerly went to a doctor’s visit expecting to learn the gender of her first child. Only 19, Lewis was excited and nervous about becoming a mother, and thrilled when she learned she was having a boy. But that day,… read on > read on >
Millions of American adults haven’t seen a dentist in at least a year, a new U.S. government health survey reveals. In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic made dental visits difficult, a third of adults under 65 hadn’t had a dental exam or cleaning in the past 12 months, according to the report from the U.S.… read on > read on >
Why do some people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have either no or negligible symptoms, while others sicken and die? Scientists who’ve pinpointed several genetic markers associated with severe COVID-19 say their findings could provide answers to that important question — and targets for future treatments. The investigators spotted 13 locations in human DNA that are strongly… read on > read on >
A double dose of China’s CoronaVac vaccine is 83.5% effective against symptomatic COVID-19, researchers say. Their phase 3 trial included more than 10,000 people, aged 18 to 59, in Turkey who received either two doses of CoronaVac 14 days apart or an inactive placebo. An immune response analysis of 981 participants who got the vaccine… read on > read on >
Groggy? Grumpy? Depressed? Just a few nights of poor sleep can take a big toll on your mental health, a new study confirms “Many of us think that we can pay our sleep debt on weekends and be more productive on weekdays,” said lead author Soomi Lee, an assistant professor in the School of Aging… read on > read on >
Your job may significantly increase your risk of catching the flu, with potential implications for the spread of other infectious diseases including COVID-19, according to new research. On average, working folks are 35% more likely to get the flu than those without jobs, but an analysis of U.S. federal data found sharp differences between certain… read on > read on >
