Health

When one of my co-workers found out about a tiny, orphaned kitten that needed a home a few months ago, he didn’t hesitate to adopt it. He says his new companion helped make the months of Covid-19 isolation at home much less stressful. He is not alone. Animal shelters and breeders across the country have

“Forgiveness” in the time of Covid usually refers to loans, as in TD Bank’s recent announcement that, pending new information, it was no longer “accepting new forgiveness applications.” That phrasing got me thinking about how we, as individuals, sometimes struggle to accept a “forgiveness application” — aka apology — from someone who has done us

Health officials had warned the Covid-19 pandemic would make winter one of the most difficult times in US history. That prediction is quickly proving true. December was devastating. And January could be deadlier. For the past week, the US averaged more than 3,000 Covid-19 deaths per day. And Monday marked the seventh day in a

Biotechnology company Moderna believes its vaccine should protect people against Covid-19 for at least a year, a top official told investors Monday. “Our expectation is that the vaccination should last you at least a year,” Moderna’s chief medical officer Tal Zaks told the JP Morgan 39th Annual Healthcare Conference. Both Moderna’s and Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccines

Members of the general public in Kentucky were mistakenly allowed to sign up for Covid-19 vaccine appointments meant for health care workers, according to Louisville-based health system Baptist Health. Baptist Health provided the Kentucky Department of Health with an online vaccine appointment scheduling tool that could be linked to the state’s vaccine website for health

Doctors are running a clinical trial to see if a popular anti-depressant might keep someone from becoming severely ill with Covid-19. The researchers at Washington University of St. Louis are recruiting 1,100 people in the beginning stages of Covid-19 to test out the drug fluvoxamine, also known as Luvox. While an anti-depressant may seem like

Smoking weed may expose you to the same type of toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke, a new study finds. People who only smoked marijuana had higher blood and urine levels of several smoke-related toxins such as naphthalene, acrylamide and acrylonitrile than nonsmokers, according to the study published Monday in the journal EClinicalMedicine. Naphthalene is

As Ashlyn Atigre prepared to take her healthy son to the pediatrician for his 3-year-old well visit recently, a nagging concern was on her mind. “I want to talk about the social impact of the pandemic with the doctor,” said the Tampa, Florida, mother. “I’m an introvert but clearly need people. And I’m seeing his

Midway through his mission to learn chess, Tom Vanderbilt found himself facing off against an 8-year-old child. Vanderbilt had a successful writing career, a college degree and decades of real-world experience. The kid, though, had superior skills. Vanderbilt lost in a few dozen moves. Defeat, however, couldn’t dampen Vanderbilt’s enthusiasm for chess, one of five

With Covid-19 hospitalizations surpassing 100,000 for 40 days in a row, officials are trying to ramp up the pace of vaccinations across the United States. “We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly, because this is really our only tool,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said

As part of the hunt for new coronavirus variants, an international database shows the United States ranks 61st in how quickly virus samples are collected from patients, analyzed and then posted online. Countries with far fewer resources, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Suriname, process samples more quickly than the United States does. “It’s pathetic,” said

In some hospitals, health centers and pharmacies in the United States, there are vials of Covid-19 vaccines that aren’t making it into arms. Out of the more than 22 million doses of vaccine that have been distributed to hospitals and pharmacies so far in the United States, only about 6.7 million people have received their