A new coronavirus variant called Mu that may be able to evade existing antibodies, including those from vaccines, is under close watch by U.S. health officials. The variant hasn’t taken extensive hold in the United States at this point, but the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is taking it “very seriously,” according… read on > read on >
An ongoing study of more than 6 million Americans found no serious side effects linked to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. “These results from our safety surveillance are reassuring,” said Dr. Nicola Klein, director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, Calif. She spoke in a Kaiser Permanente news release. Klein is also a leader… read on > read on >
Opposition is mounting among U.S. and international health experts against President Joe Biden’s push to make COVID-19 booster shots available later this month. The scientific evidence simply isn’t there to support booster shots, and those doses would be better used in the arms of the unvaccinated around the world to prevent future mutations of COVID,… read on > read on >
As the school year gets underway across the United States, new data shows that coronavirus cases among children are climbing. Since the pandemic began, children have represented 14.8% of total cases, but for the week ending Aug. 26, that percentage jumped to 22.4%, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. While child COVID-19 cases declined… read on > read on >
COVID-19 care is likely to get more expensive for Americans with the expiration of insurers’ temporary waivers on costs associated with treating the illness. Earlier in the pandemic, patients didn’t have their normal co-payments or deductibles for emergency room visits or hospital stays for COVID-19, and most tests were also free, The New York Times… read on > read on >
Smaller packages of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine that could be available this fall might improve vaccine access and reduce the number of wasted doses, government documents show. The Pfizer vaccine has been available in two packages, one with 450 doses and another with 1,170, but the vaccine’s storage requirements make it difficult for smaller facilities to… read on > read on >
Radiologists still outperform artificial intelligence (AI) when it comes to breast cancer screening, a new paper shows. Many countries have mammography screening programs to detect and treat breast cancer early. However, examining mammograms for early signs of cancer means a lot of repetitive work for radiologists, which can result in some cancers being missed, the… read on > read on >
Just because you didn’t have a significant reaction after your COVID-19 shot doesn’t mean it’s not working, researchers say. “It wasn’t known if a lack of symptoms following vaccination or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection would indicate a less-than-adequate antibody response in people who received either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, so we studied an available group… read on > read on >
Hotter weather driven by climate change is bad news for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study warns. Researchers say warming trends could worsen COPD symptoms, such as shortness of breath, wheezing or coughing. Millions of people have COPD, a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis that is often tied to smoking.… read on > read on >
If other people’s fidgeting drives you nuts, you may be one of many people with a condition called misokinesia, which means “hatred of movements,” Canadian researchers report. They conducted experiments with more than 4,100 people and found that about one-third have the condition. Typically, folks with misokinesia “experience reactions such as anger, anxiety or frustration”… read on > read on >
