Pandemic Only Made Inequities Between Men and Women Worse
The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have exacerbated the inequalities that already existed between men and women across the globe, a review of data showed. Analyses of gender-specific datasets from 193 countries found that women were more likely than men to report employment loss from March 2020 to September 2021 (26% vs 20.4%, respectively), and were […]
Primary Vaccine Series Alone Can’t Stop Omicron Infection
Protection against symptomatic COVID-19 with the Omicron variant shot up after a booster dose among adults who received the two-dose Pfizer vaccine primary series (Comirnaty), though even that faded with time, British researchers found. While protection against symptomatic disease dwindled to next to nothing (8.8%, 95% CI 7.0-10.5) at 25 or more weeks, vaccine effectiveness […]
COVID Cases & Deaths Plummet
New COVID-19 cases have continued to drop, marking a monthlong decline in infections.
Opinion | Medicare Cuts Threaten Specialty Practices Nationwide
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront inequities and vulnerabilities that have always existed in our healthcare system. Yet, as the pandemic persists, policies that further limit access to care for underserved populations continue to be pushed forward. For about a year now, providers have been ringing alarm bells about devastating cuts to Medicare […]
Hopeful Dads Can Relax About COVID Vax: No Link to Infertility
Researchers of a recent study looking at whether the authorized COVID-19 vaccines harm male fertility were deluged with hundreds of emails from freaked-out men and their worried partners leading up to publication. Now, the findings from 45 vaccinated men are in: none showed any significant signs of lower sperm counts after getting their shots. It’s […]
COVID Vax Response Still Impaired in Some MS Patients After Third Shot
Immune response was attenuated after a third COVID-19 vaccine dose for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients taking certain disease-modifying treatments, interim data from a longitudinal study showed. Two weeks after a third shot, many MS patients on anti-CD20 drugs and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulators still had significantly reduced total spike and receptor-binding domain (RBD) antibody responses, […]
Health Officials Warily Eye Rising New BA.2 Omicron Strain
[embedded content] Health officials are keeping a sharp eye on the COVID-19 omicron subvariant BA.2, which appears to be more contagious than the current BA.1 strain — but its health impacts are still unclear. A new World Health Organization study reported that even as COVID-19 cases are falling, BA.2 accounted for 21.5% of all new […]
Your Risk Of A Mental Health Disorder Increases After COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating mental health consequences for millions of people around the world, from children still reeling from the impact of extended school closures to older adults who’ve struggled with bouts of profound isolation. New research published this week shines a light on another group of people whose mental health and well-being […]
COVID Makes Everything Worse in Pregnancy
Pregnant women with COVID-19 had worse outcomes across the board, especially if the mother-to-be was also co-infected with HIV, according to a study from Botswana. Adverse birth outcomes, such as premature delivery and stillbirth, were observed in 31% of women who tested positive for COVID-19 compared with 26% of women who did not (adjusted RR […]
Study strengthens case that vitamins cannot treat COVID-19: Vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc were not found to lessen a patient’s chance of dying from COVID-19
A new review of COVID-19 hospitalization data by researchers at The University of Toledo has found that taking immune-boosting supplements such as vitamin C , vitamin D and zinc do not lessen your chance of dying from COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, healthcare providers tried a variety of micronutrients as potential therapies for the new […]