Month: September 2021

Test your knowledge of this week’s health news. View original article Contributor: Toby Bilanow

Scientific advisers to the C.D.C. have been discussing the details of federal guidance on who qualifies for a Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot and why. A decision is expected on Thursday. View original article Contributor: Apoorva Mandavilli

In Tennessee, where the governor allows families to ignore school mask mandates, some parents are making excruciating calculations each morning about whether to send their children to school. View original article Contributor: Erica L. Green

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sept. 22 authorized booster doses for certain people already vaccinated against COVID-19 but at high risk of infection, including those over age 65 and those who are more likely to get exposed to the disease, such as health care, frontline, emergency and transportation workers, among others. The … Read more

When Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency-room physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, died by suicide in April 2020, her family and colleagues were cratered. She had been on the front lines of the huge, early COVID-19 surge before contracting the virus herself, and she confided in family that the anxiety, exhaustion and uncertainty were overwhelming—for her patients, … Read more

Jewel Pfaffroth could barely move while she pumped. She had struggled since her son was born in April to produce breast milk—he was underweight at his first doctor’s appointment, and she immediately had to supplement with formula. Her doctor had recommended she sit at specific angles while she pumped—“to let gravity do its thing”—but those … Read more

Some places have adopted statewide crisis standards of care, in which health systems can prioritize patients for scarce resources — based largely on their likelihood of survival — and even deny treatment. View original article Contributor: Hannah Knowles

But his plans face a tough road as pressure grows for big pharmaceutical companies to share their vaccine technologies with poorer nations. View original article Contributor: Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Regulators said that people over 65 or at high risk of severe Covid-19 were eligible for an extra shot, setting up a staggered national booster campaign. View original article Contributor: Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere

Of the 1.1 billion doses that the United States has committed to donations, only 300 million are expected to be shipped this year. View original article Contributor: Benjamin Mueller