In kids and teens, symptoms of long COVID rarely last more than 12 weeks, a new international study reports. The researchers also found that exposure to the highly contagious Delta variant did not result in more serious disease in children compared to earlier variants, and that most cases of COVID-19 were asymptomatic or mild. Despite…  read on >  read on >

U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisors will meet Friday to consider whether it is safe and effective for Americans to receive a third “booster” dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA posted the materials it intends to use in the review on Wednesday. The advisory panel will review a variety of evidence, including new…  read on >  read on >

Health officials are bracing for a viral double whammy this fall and winter. “This year, we expect influenza and COVID-19 to circulate at the same time,” said Dr. Jonathan Grein, director of hospital epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. That’s why Grein and his colleagues remind Americans that it’s time to get your seasonal flu…  read on >  read on >

America’s waistline keeps widening. On Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 16 states now have at least 35% of their residents who are obese, a number that’s nearly doubled since 2018. The CDC’s 2020 Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps now show that Delaware, Iowa, Ohio and Texas have joined Alabama, Arkansas,…  read on >  read on >

The cost of providing hospital care for unvaccinated Americans has reached $5.7 billion in just three months, CBS News reported. Between June and August, about 287,000 people who were not vaccinated were hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Peterson Center on Healthcare, which…  read on >  read on >

The number of U.S. infants born with syphilis is climbing at an alarming pace, reaching a high not seen since the 1990s, according to new government figures. Newborn syphilis, a potentially fatal condition, was at one time nearly eliminated in the United States. But the disease has seen a resurgence in recent years — and…  read on >  read on >

As severe cases of COVID-19 rise and demand surges for monoclonal antibody treatments, the U.S. government is ordering more from two key suppliers. Monoclonal antibodies, which are lab-engineered immune system proteins, can help trigger a healthy immune response against COVID-19 infection. The Biden administration has also taken over distributing the therapeutics, to help avoid shortages…  read on >  read on >