It’s probably fair to say that most people know of the so-called “Freshman 15” — the weight that college students are often said to gain when they’re away from home for the first time. But in recent decades, matters have gotten much worse in the United States. A new study using national data for people…  read on >  read on >

The first known person with COVID-19 was a vendor in a large seafood market in Wuhan, China, claims an American scientist whose findings challenge the World Health Organization’s conclusion that the first patient was an accountant who lived miles from the market. Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona expert in tracing the evolution of viruses,…  read on >  read on >

There was no smallpox virus in frozen vials recently discovered at a vaccine research facility in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Instead of the variola virus that causes smallpox, lab tests showed that the vials contained vaccinia, the virus used in smallpox vaccine, according to the agency. On Nov.…  read on >  read on >

Vaccinated health care workers with breakthrough COVID-19 infections shed less virus than those who are unvaccinated and infected, according to University of California, Los Angeles researchers. “SARS-CoV-2 viral loads are known to be a critical driver of transmission,” wrote authors led by Dr. Paul Adamson, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious…  read on >  read on >

A case of monkeypox in a traveler who returned to the United States from Nigeria is being investigated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Maryland Department of Health. The infected person is currently in isolation in Maryland. Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that typically begins with flu-like symptoms…  read on >  read on >