People who were born with a heart defect have a nearly doubled risk for severe COVID-19 illness or death and need to get vaccinated, wear masks and take other steps to protect themselves, researchers report. Those patients at the highest risk for severe COVID-19 were 50 and older, men, and those with other health conditions…  read on >  read on >

Florida legislators voted on Thursday to ban most abortions after 15 weeks, a move that would severely restrict access to the procedure for women in that state. The bill — modeled after a similar abortion ban in Mississippi that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on this summer — now heads to Gov.…  read on >  read on >

Sleep apnea may be linked with joint pain and fatigue in postmenopausal women, a new study suggests. “This study highlights an opportunity to increase identification of women with OSA [obstructive sleep apnea], which is underdiagnosed in women who often present with vague symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue and morning headaches. According to these findings, joint…  read on >  read on >

Accelerated research into new vaccines that could be ready within 100 days of the emergence of a new variant is one of the key features of a new COVID response strategy released by the White House on Wednesday. The strategy has four main objectives: protecting against and treating COVID-19; preparing for new variants; avoiding shutdowns;…  read on >  read on >

The coronavirus infects the genitals of male monkeys, claims a small study that may shed some light on symptoms such as erectile dysfunction that have been reported by some men with COVID-19. Special whole body scans were used to detect sites of coronavirus infection in three male rhesus macaques and those revealed that the virus…  read on >  read on >

Women who enter menopause early may be more likely to develop dementia later in life, new research indicates. During menopause, production of the female sex hormone estrogen drops dramatically and a woman’s periods come to an end. While women typically enter menopause in their early 50s, many do so earlier — either naturally or due…  read on >  read on >

The United States has had about 140 million COVID infections since the start of the pandemic, new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. That number is far higher than the 74.3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide as of Jan. 31. The new findings are from the CDC’s national antibody seroprevalence…  read on >  read on >