Routine Childhood Vaccinations in the U.S. Slipped During the Pandemic

By BY BENJAMIN MUELLER AND JAN HOFFMAN from NYT Health Nationwide, the number of kindergartners with the required shots fell below the target for broad immunity, raising fears of outbreaks of measles and other illnesses. https://ift.tt/lptnx6L

Health experts express alarm at the ruling striking down the mask mandate on U.S. public transit.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/H97j0y5

A New Covid Breath Test Holds Promise, but Wide Use May Still Be Far Off

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health The F.D.A. authorized a breath-based test made by a small Texas company, which said it hoped that mobile sites could use the device. https://ift.tt/LnPEtz1

A New Covid Breath Test Holds Promise, but Wide Use May Still Be Far Off

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health The F.D.A. authorized a breath-based test made by a small Texas company, which said it hoped that mobile sites could use the device. https://ift.tt/oFgWJSp

Many U.S. virus cases go uncounted. Are there better ways to track the pandemic?

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/ePXLT4l

Many Virus Cases Go Uncounted. Are There Better Ways to Track the Pandemic?

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health An increasing reliance on at-home testing and the closings of mass testing sites are making official case counts less reliable, scientists say. https://ift.tt/u6zEnMD

Two new Omicron subvariants are spreading quickly in New York State.

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health The new viruses, both related to BA.2, may help explain rising infections in the region. They have been found in more than 30 states. https://ift.tt/0bQLjaz

A new drug slashes deaths among patients with severe Covid, the drug’s developer claims.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/UQd9rAN

New Drug Slashed Deaths Among Patients With Severe Covid, Maker Claims

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health A late-stage trial was halted after strong early results, according to the company, but outside scientists have not yet seen the data. https://ift.tt/AxeZy9C

Medicare Officially Limits Coverage of Aduhelm to Patients in Clinical Trials

By BY PAM BELLUCK from NYT Health Officials cited data showing the new Alzheimer’s drug has serious safety risks and may not help patients. https://ift.tt/P3RaqZM

A second booster helped protect older people from Omicron infection, but waned quickly, an Israeli study says.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/4iGE6sm

A second booster helped protect older people from Omicron infection, but waned quickly, an Israeli study says.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/VwAocG9

The C.D.C. will undergo a comprehensive re-evaluation, the agency’s director said.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health The re-evaluation is the first step to modernizing the C.D.C. for the future. https://ift.tt/HbFTkdq

Mass distribution of coronavirus tests may have helped blunt the Delta surge in two Michigan cities, a study suggests.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/kayOwiT

Covid and Diabetes, Colliding in a Public Health Train Wreck

By BY ANDREW JACOBS from NYT Health After older people and nursing home residents, no group perhaps has been harder hit by the pandemic than people with diabetes. Experts hope policymakers will take notice, and finally get serious about tackling the nation’s diabetes crisis. https://ift.tt/JqPYFUN

House Passes Bill to Limit Cost of Insulin to $35 a Month

By BY MARGOT SANGER-KATZ from NYT Health The bill stands to benefit millions of Americans with diabetes, but to become law, it will need to attract at least 10 Republican votes in the Senate https://ift.tt/PdGYNia

New A.L.S. Treatment Lacks Evidence of Benefit, F.D.A. Panel Finds

By BY PAM BELLUCK from NYT Health With a 6-4 vote, the group of independent advisers to the agency narrowly concluded that results from another clinical trial are needed to assess whether the therapy, called AMX0035, can help patients. https://ift.tt/5LbdOGv

Covid Vaccines Did Not Protect Adolescents as Effectively During the Omicron Surge

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health Hospitalizations of children remained comparatively rare, but vaccine effectiveness fell sharply among adolescents who did not have life-threatening Covid-19. https://ift.tt/m4qjlwr

Ivermectin Does Not Reduce Risk of Covid Hospitalization, Large Study Finds

By BY CARL ZIMMER from NYT Health “At some point it will become a waste of resources to continue studying an unpromising approach,” one expert said. https://ift.tt/hM2NIgO

Is Covid Sparing Africans? The Mystery Matters.

By BY STEPHANIE NOLEN from NYT Health On a recent reporting trip to Sierra Leone, I came across a crowded soccer match, a rock concert and a huge wedding. No one had a mask on. But I didn’t find any Covid cases at the hospital. People said, there’s no Covid here. https://ift.tt/tJcyMf1

Cancer Patients Are at High Risk of Depression and Suicide, Studies Find

By BY JESSICA WAPNER from NYT Health Two new studies of millions of people around the world suggest that doctors should be thinking more about cancer patients’ mental health, experts said. https://ift.tt/gfxpChn

Concerns rise as a U.S. reimbursement fund for testing and treating the uninsured for the virus stops taking claims.

By BY ELLEN BARRY from NYT Health https://ift.tt/te3QrwG

Concerns rise as a U.S. reimbursement fund for testing and treating the uninsured for the virus stops taking claims.

By BY ELLEN BARRY from NYT Health https://ift.tt/5Z0dEkA

The war in Ukraine threatens to spread Covid and undo decades of progress against other infectious diseases.

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health https://ift.tt/z5qPEjF

F.D.A.’s Accelerated Drug Approvals Come Under Scrutiny

By BY CHRISTINA JEWETT from NYT Health A drug to prevent preterm birth may provide the next test of the agency’s process for speedily getting drugs on the market, despite limited evidence that some work. https://ift.tt/7xsECD3

A top virologist who visited a Wuhan market in 2014 said he found it to be a ‘pandemic waiting to happen.’

By BY CARL ZIMMER from NYT Health https://ift.tt/MluNcyI

Alcohol-Related Deaths Spiked During the Pandemic, a Study Shows

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health The deaths were up 25 percent in 2020 compared with 2019 as stressors accumulated and treatment was delayed, according to a new report. https://ift.tt/Dhd5yJu

Hong Kong’s high death rate shows the importance of vaccinating the elderly.

By BY BENJAMIN MUELLER from NYT Health https://ift.tt/7FdDtRm

Hong Kong’s high death rate shows the importance of vaccinating the elderly.

By BY BENJAMIN MUELLER from NYT Health https://ift.tt/IoGeQhM

Hospitalizations of young children with the virus surged during the U.S. Omicron wave.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/490QL3q

High Death Rate in Hong Kong Shows Importance of Vaccinating the Elderly

By BY BENJAMIN MUELLER from NYT Health Covid has surged in a number of Asian countries that had once held the virus at bay. Vaccination levels have largely determined how deadly those waves would be. https://ift.tt/0v1q3WO

‘He Goes Where the Fire Is’: A Virus Hunter in the Wuhan Market

By BY CARL ZIMMER from NYT Health For years, Edward Holmes worried about animal markets causing a pandemic. Now he finds himself at the center of the debate over the origins of the coronavirus. https://ift.tt/7Rol809

Hospitalizations of young children with the virus surged during the U.S. Omicron wave.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/FmfgBz2

Hospitalizations of young children with the virus surged during the U.S. Omicron wave.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/S7lnOr2

Fauci predicts an uptick in U.S. cases, saying it is not yet time to ‘declare victory.’

By BY CHRISTINA JEWETT from NYT Health President Biden’s top adviser on Covid noted that indoor masking and other restrictions were lifted before latest E.U. surge. https://ift.tt/j0ahFVT

How Long Should It Take to Grieve? Psychiatry Has Come Up With an Answer.

By BY ELLEN BARRY from NYT Health The latest edition of the DSM-5, sometimes known as “psychiatry’s bible,” includes a controversial new diagnosis: prolonged grief disorder. https://ift.tt/ZFgnvGa

Barrie R. Cassileth, Who Transformed Cancer Care, Dies at 83

By BY CLAY RISEN from NYT Health By advocating for acupuncture and other treatments, she helped countless patients weather the pain of chemotherapy and radiation. https://ift.tt/KWSPO6q

As Virus Data Mounts, the J.&J. Vaccine Holds Its Own

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health Once dismissed as less effective, the vaccine now seems to be preventing infections and illness about as well as the two mRNA options. https://ift.tt/cG82Yyh

A research team in Atlanta is at the center of a race to test the coronavirus tests.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/FrtuUh8

‘Stealth’ Omicron Is Stealthy No More: What’s Known About the BA.2 Variant

By BY CARL ZIMMER from NYT Health The subvariant of Omicron is not yet causing a new surge in the United States and probably won’t. https://ift.tt/zpjnRAW

Flu Vaccine Was Not Very Effective This Season, the C.D.C. Says

By BY ALYSSA LUKPAT from NYT Health The vaccine was only about 16 percent effective at reducing a person’s chance of getting a mild or moderate infection, the agency said. Experts said a good rate would be at least 50 percent. https://ift.tt/JHibfWs

Patient in Groundbreaking Heart Transplant Dies

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health David Bennett Sr. had received a heart from a genetically modified pig, a procedure that may yet offer hope to millions of Americans needing transplants. https://ift.tt/5VxM0Qs

The Loophole That’s Fueling a Return to Teenage Vaping

By BY CHRISTINA JEWETT from NYT Health Sales are rising of flavored e-cigarettes using synthetic nicotine that evades regulatory oversight, a gap that lawmakers are now trying to close. https://ift.tt/Z2G9r1y

Rural areas in the U.S. fall further behind in vaccination rates, the C.D.C. reports.

By BY BENJAMIN MUELLER from NYT Health https://ift.tt/z3CEu7k

The coronavirus invades cells in the penis and testicles of monkeys, researchers discover.

By BY RONI CARYN RABIN from NYT Health The study suggests that symptoms such as erectile dysfunction reported by some Covid patients may be caused directly by the virus. https://ift.tt/3qd7ZWb

Vaccine protection against moderate illness waned among adolescents, new C.D.C. data suggest.

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health Booster shots, however, dramatically increased that protection. https://ift.tt/sClkI4q

John Q. Trojanowski Dies at 75; Changed Understanding of Brain Diseases

By BY GINA KOLATA from NYT Health He was able to combine pathology and biochemistry to help figure out how and why people get diseases as disparate as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and A.L.S. https://ift.tt/p3E275r

Several common rapid antigen tests work well for Omicron, according to a new study.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health The new findings are from an ongoing U.S. study that began in October and was designed to assess the performance of rapid antigen tests in asymptomatic people. https://ift.tt/Jc27oe1

The coronavirus may be evolving in deer, two studies suggest.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/rsozBQd

Several common rapid antigen tests work well for Omicron, according to a new study.

By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/5CwM8SW