As U.S. coronavirus infections surged in many states, four of America’s top health officials plan to testify in Congress on Tuesday about how to safely reopen the country. Originally billed as an “update on progress toward safely getting back to work and back to school,” members of the Senate’s health and education committee will instead…  read on >

About two-thirds of U.S. parents say they’ll send their kids to school again this fall, and most also support COVID-19 testing and social distancing policies for schoolchildren, a new survey finds. Among parents, only about 12% said they would not send at least one of their kids to school, while 21% were still uncertain about…  read on >

As the worldwide coronavirus case count passed 10 million and the death toll topped 500,000 on Sunday, 36 U.S. states continued to struggle with alarming spikes in COVID-19 infections. Experts cautioned that Florida could become the next epicenter for infections while Texas has seen record-breaking case counts and hospitalizations, CNN reported. Officials across the country…  read on >

COVID-19 is being diagnosed in Hispanic communities at a disproportionately high rate, a new study of the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area shows. Researchers found that among nearly 38,000 patients tested for SARS-CoV-2 at Johns Hopkins Health System, 16% were positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. That figure was much higher — almost 43% — among…  read on >

Working at home during a pandemic isn’t an option for about three-quarters of U.S. workers, putting them at increased risk of infection, a new study finds. Those 108 million workers tend to be among the lowest paid and are more likely to face pandemic-related job disruptions, including layoffs, furloughs or reduced hours. “This pandemic has…  read on >

Canadian provinces that allow retail displays promoting e-cigarettes had nearly three times the teen vaping rate, a new study found. Until May 2018, e-cigarettes weren’t widely available in Canada and it was illegal to advertise those containing nicotine. When the law changed, Quebec and Manitoba adopted their own restrictions, including bans on retail displays and…  read on >

Kids as young as age 8 can show signs of being at increased risk for diabetes in adulthood, a British study finds. Researchers analyzed blood samples collected from more than 4,000 participants at ages 8, 16, 18 and 25, looking for patterns specific to early stages of type 2 diabetes development. “We knew that diabetes…  read on >

COVID-19 patients with no symptoms are as likely as those with symptoms to contaminate many surfaces in their rooms, researchers report. The investigators sampled the surfaces and air of six negative pressure non-intensive care unit rooms with 13 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients — two of whom had no symptoms — who had returned from overseas and…  read on >

An experimental vaccine helps protect monkeys against bacteria that cause diarrhea in millions of children worldwide, researchers report. Bacterial gastroenteritis — a digestive problem associated with malnutrition among millions of children younger than age 5 each year in developing nations — can be caused by Campylobacter bacteria. Repeated infections can stunt growth and impair brain…  read on >