Final Data Shows COVID Pill Stays Strong Against Severe Illness
TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Pfizer Inc. announced Tuesday that a final analysis shows its experimental antiviral pill Paxlovid sharply reduced hospitalizations and deaths among people at high risk for severe illness. The latest results, which reinforce an earlier analysis released in November, Pfizer’s drug cut hospitalizations and deaths by nearly 90 […]
Could Gene Therapy Help Cure Sickle Cell Disease?
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Dec. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) — A gene therapy that could provide a permanent cure for sickle cell disease continues to show success through a third wave of patients, researchers report. The therapy, LentiGlobin, restored normal blood function in 35 sickle cell patients who had the one-time procedure, according […]
FDA, CDC Authorize Pfizer Boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds
Dec. 9, 2021 — The FDA has authorized booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, clearing the way for millions of teenagers to get a third dose of vaccine starting 6 months after their second dose. The CDC quickly followed suit, allowing the boosters to begin immediately. The FDA said it was basing its emergency use […]
Stop the Spread of Misinformation: Sanitize Before You Share
If we’ve learned anything since the COVID-19 pandemic upended all our lives nearly 2 years ago, it’s how to sanitize our hands, homes, workplaces, and just about anything we encounter to stop the spread of the virus. Turns out, we also need to maintain that vigilance when encountering information about COVID-19 in our social media […]
Supreme Court Leaves Texas Abortion Law in Place
Dec. 10, 2021 — In a highly anticipated decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the controversial Texas abortion law that restricts the procedure to women pregnant for 6 weeks or less may continue to be enforced, but allowed for state and federal courts to hear challenges to whether it violates the Constitution. As […]
Drop in COVID Vaccine Effectiveness Suggests Need for Boosters
Dec. 10, 2021 — The effectiveness of the two most common COVID-19 vaccines declined over time in an older group of patients, suggesting that booster doses may be needed to protect recipients over the long term, according to a new study. Also seen in that group of U.S. veterans, who had a median age of […]
Biden’s COVID Vaccine Mandates: Where Do They Stand?
[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: How does a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine work? COVID vaccines are now available. Some of the COVID-19 vaccines are mRNA vaccines, but what does this mean? mRNA vaccines are different from traditional vaccines. mRNA vaccines don’t expose you to any real virus instead, they’re made with messenger Ribonucleic Acid or mRNA. This is […]
Exercise Gains Traction as a Way to Fight Cancer
Dec. 10, 2021 — Nancy Howe’s oncologist was emphatic: You need to take it easy. It was 1997, and Howe had just had surgery for head and neck cancer. Now she had to withstand 7 weeks of radiation therapy, and the side effects that go with it — deep fatigue most of all. Howe had […]
Amputees Lost in the COVID-19 Shuffle
Medscape: “COVID-19-induced Vascular Inflammation Behind Mortality Risk.” Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis: “Coagulopathy in COVID-19.” Circulation: “Reducing Nontraumatic Lower-Extremity Amputations by 20% by 2030: Time to Get to Our Feet: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association.” European Journal of Applied Physiology: “Effect of speed on the energy cost of walking in unilateral traumatic […]
Stool Samples From the 1980s Hold Clues to Fighting HIV Today
By Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Dec. 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) — What do all the microbes living rent-free in your gut have to do with disease risk? Perhaps a lot. A groundbreaking analysis of decades-old stool and blood samples from the early AIDS epidemic suggests that men who had high levels of inflammation-causing bacteria […]