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 >

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory panel on Tuesday recommended that Novavax’s COVID-19 shots be added to the vaccine arsenal that Americans have at their disposal. Twenty-one panel members voted to approve the vaccine, while one person abstained. Next, the FDA will have to decide whether to authorize the shot for emergency use,…  read on >  read on >

The sharp political divide in the United States may also be creating a widening gap in death rates between those on opposing sides, new research suggests. For the study, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston analyzed death rates and federal and state election data for all U.S. counties from 2001 to 2019.…  read on >  read on >

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory panel will weigh whether to recommend the emergency use of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. The decision will be based on clinical trial data the company released in January, when it first filed for approval of its vaccine. If the committee votes in favor of authorization, the…  read on >  read on >