Pharmacies and states have ordered millions of doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines for children younger than 5 in advance of possible U.S. authorization of the shots next week, the Biden administration said Thursday. Senior officials said that 5 million doses — half from Pfizer and half from Moderna — are initially available,…  read on >  read on >

You can add more risk of broken bones to the long list of health harms that smoking poses to men. Along with cancer and respiratory diseases, men who smoke have a significantly increased risk of osteoporosis, fractures and early death, a new study finds. Previous research has shown that men are more likely to smoke…  read on >  read on >

The Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading rapidly in the United States, but it’s not yet clear if they’ll trigger a new wave of infections or a surge in hospitalizations and deaths, experts say. The subvariants now account for 13% of new coronavirus cases nationwide, compared with 7.5% a week ago and 1% in…  read on >  read on >

As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighs banning the sale of menthol cigarettes, a new study strengthens the tie between mint-flavored tobacco and teen smoking. According to the survey, adolescents who began smoking using menthols tended to smoke an average of nearly three days more during a 30-day period than their peers who took…  read on >  read on >

Moderna announced Wednesday that its updated COVID-19 booster shot does a better job at thwarting the Omicron variant than the original version does. “We are thrilled to share the preliminary data analysis on mRNA-1273.214, which is the second demonstration of superiority of our bivalent booster platform against variants of concern and represents an innovation in…  read on >  read on >