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 >

Higher levels of testosterone don’t give men or women an edge in life, claims a new study that challenges a common belief. “There’s a widespread belief that a person’s testosterone can affect where they end up in life. Our results suggest that, despite a lot of mythology surrounding testosterone, its social implications may have been…  read on >  read on >

Unlocking a clue to why Black women might be more susceptible to COVID-19, a new study shows that low levels of vitamin D may increase their risk of infection. That doesn’t mean that people should rely on vitamin D supplements to protect themselves against COVID-19, however, because vaccines are the only proven protection against the…  read on >  read on >

There’s some encouraging news for U.S. teens and young adults with cancer. Survival rates have improved for several types of cancer, though gains have been limited for some common kinds, according to a long-term study published online July 26 in the journal Cancer. The researchers used a wealth of accumulated data “to piece together a…  read on >  read on >