CNN – Health

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN The Covid-19 pandemic may have been three times deadlier than the reported death toll suggests. Researchers estimate in a new study that from the start of 2020 through the end of 2021, there have been at least 18 million more deaths than they would typically expect over the course of two

By Michael Nedelman, CNN About 1 in 8 US high school students — more than 2 million total — said they had used tobacco products in the previous 30 days, the vast majority being e-cigarettes, according to results from the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey. For middle-schoolers, that number was 1 in 25, or 470,000

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN When Kaitlyn Sinnamon was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child, doctors told her that her baby would be born with a heart defect that would require surgery at the beginning of his life. Easton Sinnamon was born at Duke University Hospital with single ventricle heart disease, which meant his heart

By Kristen Rogers, CNN As many schools in the United States are lifting mask mandates, some kids are taking their health into their own hands. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new measure for determining community Covid-19 levels and severity means that nearly 70% of the United States population lives in areas where

By Michael Nedelman, CNN A new move by Congress targets vaping products that remained on the market despite growing efforts to clamp down on flavors that are especially popular among young people. It comes down to the type of nicotine. While the US Food and Drug Administration has authority over tobacco products, some companies have

By Amanda Sealy, CNN Pfizer has begun a Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial of its Covid-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, in children ages 6 to 17, the company said Wednesday in a news release. The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment in children who have Covid-19 symptoms and a confirmed infection,

By Tasnim Ahmed and Steve Contorno, CNN The Florida Department of Health released new guidance Tuesday that says healthy children between the ages of 5 to 17 do not need to get the Covid-19 vaccine. “Based on currently available data, healthy children aged 5 to 17 may not benefit from receiving the currently available COVID-19

By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN In the last year and a half, Donnell Hunter has missed his daughter’s first day of kindergarten, his son’s standout season of youth football, the birth of his grandson and countless other memories, all because of his long battle against Covid-19. The 43-year-old spent 549 days in hospitals and long-term acute

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The man came to the ER at Charles Regional Medical Center in La Plata, Maryland, wide-eyed and scared. He couldn’t catch his breath. He was middle-aged, overweight and unvaccinated. He had also recently tested positive for Covid-19. Two weeks earlier, a doctor who had diagnosed the man during an urgent care

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN The rollout of the US government’s Covid-19 test-to-treat program is underway, with in-pharmacy clinics ordering shipments of Covid-19 antiviral medications and some locations expecting to offer the service within days. “We’ve had more than 1,000 pharmacy-based clinic sites register today, so that even exceeded our expectations for Day One of this

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN Americans can now order a second set of free at-home Covid-19 rapid antigen tests from the federal government. Covidtests.gov, the website to sign up for the free tests, launched in January, when people could order a maximum of four tests per household. Households that took part in that first round can

By Brenda Goodman, CNN As states roll back masking requirements for students, a new study shows that masks helped cut Covid-19 infections in public K-12 schools that required them in the fall. The study comes from a partnership between the US Centers for Disease Control and the Arkansas Department of Health. Investigators looked at Covid-19

By Christine Koh, CNN Forming new friendships is important for mental well-being, my husband recently told me. He’s a therapist and shared this advice during a podcast with me about weathering pandemic stress and uncertainty. I balked, because I feel too overwhelmed by life to reach out to new people like I did in high

By Travis Caldwell, CNN After Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared on Monday the state would issue guidance urging parents not to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, health experts and officials were quick to highlight the dangers of such a policy for individuals and for the country at large. Dr. Paul Offit, director of