Pfizer Inc. said it will meet with U.S. officials on Monday to discuss possible authorization for a third booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine. Last week, Pfizer cited data from Israel that found its vaccine is showing declining effectiveness at preventing milder coronavirus cases as the highly contagious Delta variant circulates in that country. But… read on > read on >
Black churches could prove crucial in improving COVID-19 vaccination rates among Black Americans, a new study suggests. The COVID-19 death rate among Black Americans is three times higher than among white Americans, and health officials had hoped that vaccines would narrow that gap. However, Black communities are disproportionately affected by barriers to vaccination, such as… read on > read on >
A major U.S. hospital system had a strong rebound in most cancer screening tests after a steep drop-off in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study shows. The findings are based on an analysis of data from the Boston-based Mass General Brigham system. Depending on the type of test, between March and… read on > read on >
Men with low testosterone levels have a much higher risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, a new study from Italy finds. The study included nearly 300 symptomatic male COVID-19 patients who arrived at the emergency department and were admitted to San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan during the first wave of the pandemic.… read on > read on >
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 >
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 >
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced Thursday they would seek approval for a booster COVID-19 shot and begin studies on a reformulated vaccine that targets the highly contagious Delta variant. “We continue to believe that it is likely, based on the totality of the data we have to date, that a third dose may be… 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 >
One of the big issues in prostate cancer care is overdiagnosis — men who are treated for low-risk, slow-growing tumors that might be better left monitored and untreated. Now, research out of Sweden suggests that having patients undergo MRI screening, along with targeted biopsies, could reduce the number of prostate cancer overdiagnoses by half. The… read on > read on >
(HealthDay News) – The air people breathe – and how much pollution is in it – may make a difference in their outcomes when infected with COVID-19, a new study finds. Researchers found that living in more polluted areas — including near sewage water dischargers and in close proximity to heavy traffic — was linked… read on > read on >
