Florida reached another grim milestone on Sunday when it broke a previous record for COVID-19 hospitalizations that was set before vaccines were available. The new hospitalization record came a day after the state recorded the most new daily COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. As of Sunday, Florida had…  read on >  read on >

Kids may be able to swim their way to a deeper vocabulary. That’s the takeaway from a study in which researchers taught 48 kids ages 6 to 12 a few new words before they swam, did CrossFit-type exercises or coloring. The swimmers did 13% better in follow up tests of the new words — an…  read on >  read on >

A new internal government document claims the Delta variant appears to cause more severe illness than earlier coronavirus variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox. In laying out the evidence that this variant looks like the most dangerous one yet, the document urges health officials to “acknowledge the war has changed,” the Washington Post reported.…  read on >  read on >

Extremely premature babies have a much higher risk of cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions than full-term infants, a large Israeli study affirms. Cerebral palsy — the name for a group of lifelong conditions that affect movement and coordination — is the most common cause of severe childhood physical disability and motor impairment. It can…  read on >  read on >