Month: February 2021

View original article Contributor: Benjamin Mueller and Rebecca Robbins

Right now, COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out at pace across the UK. People from priority groups are being vaccinated every day and the aim is to vaccinate 14 million of the most vulnerable people by the end of February. In this blog we answer some of the most common questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. … Read more

Coronavirus deaths in the United States surpassed 450,000 on Thursday, and daily deaths remain stubbornly high at more than 3,000 a day, despite falling infections and the arrival of multiple vaccines. Infectious disease specialists expect deaths to start dropping soon, after new cases hit a peak right around the beginning of the year. New COVID-19 … Read more

In a new—yet to be peer-reviewed—study, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and its partners at the University of Oxford report that their COVID-19 shot may not only protect against disease but also help to prevent spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The news was heralded by policy makers desperate to see a vaccine that can curb spread … Read more

Across the U.S., people of color have been contracting and dying from COVID-19 at higher rates than white people throughout the pandemic. Now, preliminary vaccine rollout data suggest another disturbing pattern: Minorities are getting vaccinated at lower rates than white people. Currently, 23 states publish vaccination statistics broken out by race. After analyzing those data, … Read more

In recent months, several former Bachelor cast members have used their Instagram accounts to promote the fertility awareness app Natural Cycles as a method of contraception. The celebrities touting the app to their millions of followers have sent up red flags to health experts. Some say the app and its messaging presents a simplified, and … Read more

When does a pandemic end? Is it when life regains a semblance of normality? Is it when the world reaches herd immunity, the benchmark at which enough people are immune to an infectious disease to stop its widespread circulation? Or is it when the disease is defeated, the last patient cured and the pathogen retired … Read more

In May 2020, Dr. Francis Collins, the longtime head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was called to the White House to meet with Jared Kushner, the then President’s son-in-law and adviser, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. A few weeks earlier, Congress had given the NIH … Read more

Pulmonologists, emergency responders and intensive-care teams have been the point of the medical spear in battling the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. over the past 12 months, but before long, expect another group of specialists to be more engaged than ever: cardiologists. Take a nation that already eats too much, drinks too much, exercises too … Read more

0000000000000If the vaccine receives regulatory clearance by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the third authorized vaccine in the United States. View original article Contributor: Carolyn Y. Johnson