Gifting a DNA test? You might reveal a life-changing family secret
Discovering your roots can start with a home DNA testing kit. The results, for many, can tell someone about their family history. But for a small percentage of people, the test results can give them a sudden reveal of an unknown relative. MPR News host Angela Davis spoke with a writer who discovered her […]
Boy who got new heart inspires tribe to boost organ donation
Greyson Parisien’s time on earth was short. But the boy with dark-rimmed eyeglasses who was enchanted by the music in “Frozen,” the sound of ripping paper and his dad playing the guitar is having an outsized impact on his tribal community in the far reaches of North Dakota. His journey to correct a heart defect […]
Abortion stories on TV get closer to reality, says new report
In an episode of P-Valley (Starz), Mercedes (Brandee Evans) and her daughter Terricka (A’zaria Carter) face protesters outside an abortion clinic. Kyle Kaplan/Starz Law & Order, Grey’s Anatomy, Better Things, Station 19, Call the Midwife and Teen Mom: The Next Chapter are all TV shows that had depictions of abortion in 2022, according to the […]
Minnesota opioid treatment clinics overwhelmed as needs rise, staffs shrink
Duluth’s Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment is the only licensed opioid treatment program across Minnesota’s Arrowhead, a territory roughly the size of Massachusetts. Its ClearPath Clinic has space for 475 people; some drive for hours to meet with a counselor or re-up on methadone. It’s a lifeline for those trying to break free of […]
Updated COVID booster shots reduce the risk of hospitalization, CDC reports
A fourth Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot is administered at the Dr. Kenneth Williams Health Center in Los Angeles on Nov. 1. Damian Dovarganes/AP New bivalent COVID booster shots are more effective at reducing risk of hospitalization than boosters of the original vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in two new studies Friday. […]
Perceiving without seeing: How light resets your internal clock
Fred Crittenden, 73, lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa when he was 35 years old. Today he has no visual perception of light. “It’s total darkness,” he says. Still, he has cells in his eyes that use light to keep his internal clock ticking along nicely. Marta Iwanek for NPR Every baseball season, 73-year-old Fred […]
COVID steady, RSV and flu down, but hospitals still packed tight
Last week the CDC reported a 49.6 percent increase in average new daily cases of COVID-19—the largest such increase since last January, when the nation was in the grips of the initial omicron surge. On the eve of holiday gatherings, this raised the specter of another such wave—and was followed by the White House announcement […]
You can order free COVID tests again by mail
Households can order four free COVID tests on COVIDtests.gov starting on Thursday. They’ll begin shipping by mail next week. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Americans can order four more free COVID-19 tests through the mail, starting on Thursday. It’s part of the Biden administration’s plan to deal with an increase in COVID cases sparked by indoor holiday […]
Minnesota nurses union approves three-year contract
Thousands of Minnesota nurses at 15 Minnesota hospitals have ratified a new three-year contract. It comes after months of bargaining and a three-day strike this September. The contract includes wage increases — 18 percent in the Twin Cities, 17 percent in the Twin Ports — as well as more input on staffing levels, union officials […]
How did COVID warp our sense of time? It’s a matter of perception
Jun Cen for NPR The pandemic did something strange to our sense of time. For Ruth Ogden, lockdown spent confined to her 3-bedroom duplex in Manchester, England, with a newborn and two boys home from school, “was like climbing a mountain that never ended.” Time stood still, she says, filled with children moaning of boredom, […]