Health

Joseph Flavill slipped out of one world and woke up in another. On March 1, 2020, when the 19-year-old was struck by a car in Staffordshire, central England, the United Kingdom had recorded just 23 cases of a concerning new virus. The vast majority of Covid-19 infections were still confined to China, and the United

The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine appears to reduce transmission of the virus, rather than simply preventing symptomatic infections, UK researchers have suggested. The rate of positive PCR tests declined by about half after two doses, according to preliminary results by researchers at the University of Oxford that have yet to be peer reviewed. Their analysis, released

More than 100,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the United States so far this year, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Since January 1, the US reported a total of 100,317 Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total number of reported deaths in the US since the start of the pandemic to 446,689 by Tuesday evening.

A Covid-19 vaccine does not provide full or immediate protection, which means it’s still possible to get infected and test positive for the virus. Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts did. He tested positive after he got his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick Pitino, who coaches the men’s

A mutation that could allow Covid-19 to escape antibody protection has now been found in samples of a rapidly spreading strain in the UK, according to a report Monday by Public Health England. The mutation, called E484K, was already part of the genetic signature of variants linked to South Africa and Brazil. According to the

Over one-third of young adults misuse their psychoactive prescription drugs, a new study has revealed. Some 34% of adults ages 18 to 25 misused their psychoactive medications, defined as opioids, stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives, according to a study published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal. Misusing the drug was defined as taking a prescription in

The number of people who have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is now greater than the number of US Covid-19 cases reported during the entire pandemic. More than 26.3 million cases have been reported over the past year, according to Johns Hopkins University. And in less than two months, more than

Your loved ones are right to have questions about the Covid-19 vaccine — the American public hasn’t watched vaccine development this closely since Dr. Jonas Salk discovered how to immunize kids from polio in the ’50s. But vaccine hesitancy could put a dangerous damper on the country’s response. Pockets of some populations most at risk

There’s no evidence that animals are playing a significant role in the spread of coronavirus to humans, but precautions can help keep people and their pets safe, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said Monday. “Based on limited information available to date, the risk of animals, including pets, spreading Covid-19 to people is

After criticism last year for an early rollout, Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 and 100% effective against severe and moderate disease, according to an interim analysis of the vaccine’s Phase 3 trial results. The preliminary findings were published in The Lancet on Tuesday and are based on data gathered from

With multiple new coronavirus strains spreading across the country, the US is in an “absolute race” to vaccinate Americans before those variants overwhelm the country, health experts say. “What concerns me most is that we already know that they’re more transmissible, which means it’s much easier for them to infect people,” said emergency physician Dr.