CNN – Health

By Maggie Fox, Jamie Gumbrecht and Jacqueline Howard, CNN Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted Friday to recommend emergency use authorization of a booster dose of Pfizer’s vaccine to people 65 and older and those at high risk of severe Covid-19 six months after they get their first two shots. But

By Maggie Fox and Madeline Holcombe, CNN Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted unanimously to recommend emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s booster shot six months after full vaccination in Americans 65 and older as well as those at high risk of severe Covid-19. That vote came after the group had

By Maggie Fox, CNN Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration start meeting early Friday to discuss whether Americans need booster shots yet. It’s a simple question but one that has become bogged down in politics and turf battles. It’s sometimes seemed to put the FDA’s independence at odds with a White House

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN As we head back to work, we again come face to face with delicious diet-breaking temptations we were able to avoid at home. Office snack tables are often decorated with sweets from “well-meaning” coworkers. Vending machines are full of cheap, highly processed chips, candies, cookies, ready-made sandwiches and sugar-packed sodas. Even

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Weeks of deliberation are coming to a head Friday when the US Food and Drug Administration meets to discuss Covid-19 boosters. But the science of the vaccine’s effectiveness will not be up for debate, one expert said. There is widespread agreement that the vaccines are primarily intended to reduce hospitalizations and

By Maggie Fox, CNN Clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines should include examination of any possible effects on women’s menstrual cycles — if only because so many women are worried about possible problems, a British expert argued Wednesday. But there’s also evidence the immune response prompted by both vaccines and viral infections can temporarily affect menstrual

By Maggie Fox, Jacqueline Howard and Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN Three reports published Wednesday support the argument that people may need a booster dose of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine over time, and suggest such boosters would be safe. The reports are part of a batch of data that will be discussed Friday by vaccine advisers to the

By Maggie Fox, CNN The US National Institutes of Health said Wednesday it’s starting a $470 million study to try to understand what’s become known as long Covid—the long-term, sometimes serious effects of Covid-19. The study will aim to include 30,000-40,000 people and will make use of digital data — including input from wearable devices,

By Arlette Saenz, CNN The US government is buying more doses of monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid-19, and the Biden administration is taking over distribution in order to avoid shortages of the key therapeutics. The moves come as demand for monoclonal antibodies has increased as cases surged due to spread of the Delta variant and

By Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN Most Americans believe that the public health benefits of restrictions due to Covid-19 are worth the economic and lifestyle costs, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. Pew researchers surveyed 10,348 adults in the US between August 23 and 29. Most adults say that restrictions on public

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN The United States has reached another grim milestone in its fight against the devastating Covid-19 pandemic: 1 in 500 Americans have died from coronavirus since the nation’s first reported infection. As of Tuesday night, 663,913 people in the US have died of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. According to

By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Last December, when advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration met to consider whether the agency should authorize Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, it was generally understood that the answer would be yes. Nine months later, those advisers are meeting to discuss booster shots, and the situation is very

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Black and Hispanic people in the United States are more likely to catch Covid-19, and they’re more likely to be hospitalized or even die of it. But both groups are still missing out on testing and vaccination in many states, according to new data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and shared

By Madeline Holcombe, Holly Yan and Christina Maxouris, CNN Covid-19 vaccines for children between the ages of 5 and 11 could get the green light from the US Food and Drug Administration sometime this fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. “If you look at the studies that we at the (National Institutes of Health) are doing

By Jen Christensen and Amir Vera, CNN Covid-19 infections have risen “exponentially” among children in the US since July, according to data published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The group reported 243,373 new cases among kids over the past week. While this is a decline from last week, when 251,781 cases were

By Elissa Strauss, CNN Some of Ellie Zerr’s go-to spots for a confidence boost are Instagram and TikTok. Yes, there is plenty of content on theses social platforms that could make a 16-year-old like her feel worse, including manipulated images that make bodies slimmer and faces more symmetrical. But then there are accounts like Lizzo’s

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Hospitals across the United States have been facing a crisis. As of Monday morning, more than 96,000 hospital beds are filled with Covid-19 patients nationwide — contributing to the 77% of all hospital beds across the country being currently in use, according to data from the US Department of Health and

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Millions of Americans still need to get vaccinated to slow or stop the spread of Covid-19 and getting the pandemic under control could take “many, many” more vaccine mandates, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said if more people aren’t persuaded

By Elizabeth Joseph, CNN A hospital in upstate New York is “pausing” deliveries of babies because of the number of maternity unit employee resignations over the state’s Covid-19 vaccination requirements, health officials say. Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville, about 60 miles northeast of Syracuse, will stop deliveries after September 24, said Gerald Cayer, chief

By Aya Elamroussi and Holly Yan, CNN New data shows 26 states have fully vaccinated more than half their residents, and those with the highest vaccination rates have among the lowest Covid-19 cases. Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts have fully vaccinated at least two-thirds of their population, according to data from the US Centers for Disease

By Aya Elamroussi, CNN As the US averages more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths daily, not getting vaccinated is akin to driving while intoxicated, one health expert said Friday. “We need to start talking about the choice to remain unvaccinated as the choice to go out and drive intoxicated,” CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen told

By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Ahead of a key meeting of vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration, the New England Journal of Medicine will publish Israeli data showing that a booster shot of Pfizer’s vaccine dramatically decreased severe Covid-19, Dr. Nachman Ash, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health,

By Casey Barber, CNN You can’t beat the convenience of tomato sauce from a jar, but what about when you’re craving something a little more homemade? You don’t need to keep an Italian nonna on speed-dial, just a helpful kid and a pint of cherry tomatoes or a can of tomatoes to start. Making tomato

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN More than 700,000 people die by suicide each year, according to the World Health Organization. Translated: Every 40 seconds, someone in the world takes their own life. That’s a sobering statistic to ponder today, on 2021’s World Suicide Prevention Day. Suicide rates have been climbing for years in some parts of

By Allie Torgan, CNN On a medical trip to West Africa nine years ago, Dr. Patricia Gordon had a wake-up call. She had traveled with a group of medical oncologists to bring a new radiation device to a hospital in Dakar, Senegal. While there, she saw how many women were needlessly being killed by a

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Yawning and exhausted from another night of little sleep? Congratulations, you have joined the multitude of people around the globe who suffer from sleep deprivation, a serious problem that can affect your mental and physical health. Sleep problems constitute a “global epidemic that threatens health and quality of life for up

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN For fully vaccinated Americans, the risk of being hospitalized or dying from Covid-19 is low — much lower than the risk for unvaccinated people. But in those rare cases when a fully vaccinated person gets infected, data suggests it’s older adults and those with multiple underlying medical conditions who are most

By Dana Santas, CNN Some forgetfulness — like occasionally forgetting to pay a bill or recall a word — can be expected at any age. But cognitive decline — such as consistently struggling to remember monthly bills or stay focused in conversations — is not a natural part of getting older, according to the National

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Surging Covid-19 cases — and the increasing proportion reported in children — are causing many health experts to worry about the outlook as the school year gets underway across the entire country. But Dr. Anthony Fauci said there shouldn’t be a big uptick “if we do it right.” “We’ve gotta get

By Kristen Rogers, CNN As more people get vaccinated against Covid-19 and the National Football League season starts September 9, you may be wondering whether the time to trade your couch for a stadium seat is finally here. The factors that made pre-pandemic sporting events fun — excited people crowding together, cheering, talking, eating, drinking

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Back-to-school after the Labor Day weekend could mean fresh spread of coronavirus unless schools take strong action to keep the virus in check, doctors and education experts are warning. August saw an explosion of Covid-19 cases when some schools resumed in-person classes without mask measures in place and tens of thousands

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Like many new parents, René Marsh felt her life was “transformed” in March of 2019 when her newborn son Blake was handed to her by a nurse. “It really is like someone hands you your heart,” said Marsh, who is a CNN correspondent. “My instinct from the second that I was

By John Duffy, CNN Within the first several weeks of any school year, I receive dozens of calls from parents concerned about their increasingly frayed connection to their children. Conflict about school and homework, laziness and screen time dominates relationships between parents and their kids during the school year. Parents too often find themselves frustrated,

By Ryan Prior and Kristen Rogers, CNN Can this year just stop already? It’s a thought ricocheting around the world as we cope with Covid-19, quarantine, wildfires and hurricanes. Now it can. Rosh Hashanah, which marks the Jewish New Year, begins Monday night. Even if you’re not Jewish, it’s a way to immerse yourself in

By Rob Picheta and Amir Tal, CNN One-year-old Israeli twin girls, who were born joined back-to-back at the head, have been separated after a rare and complicated surgery. The sisters, whose names were not provided, underwent a 12-hour operation at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel last week. The procedure was extremely rare, the hospital

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN As she held up her cell phone to take back-to-school selfies with the new school resource officers last week, the excitement of the first day swept through Liz Pray just as it had in previous years. But Pray, a school nurse, was nervous, too. “I don’t know what the school year

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Dr. Anthony Fauci says there’s an important step adults can take to protect children who are too young to be vaccinated against Covid-19. “The way you protect children who, because of their age, cannot get vaccinated yet is to surround the children — be it friends, family, school teachers, personnel in

By Angela Dewan, CNN Human health is already being harmed by the climate crisis, and the impacts could become catastrophic and irreversible unless governments do much more to address global warming, the editors of more than 230 medical journals said in a joint editorial Monday. The editorial points to established links between the climate crisis

By Travis Caldwell, CNN With the more contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 sweeping across the country this summer, health care workers and officials are finding themselves returning to a crisis experienced last year when hospitals struggled to handle an influx of patients. In the Southeast, Georgia is now seeing its highest number of hospitalizations since

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Ping! It’s the email you’ve been dreading — your child may have been exposed to Covid-19 at school. How are you to cope with the possibility of 10 days of quarantine and the fear that your child — or another member of the family — may fall ill? By being prepared,

By Randi Kaye, CNN A Florida teen who spent 11 days on a ventilator after she contracted Covid-19 has a message for her peers and others. “My message, technically is: If you’re eligible to get the vaccine, please do,” Paulina Velasquez told CNN from her home in Coral Springs, Florida. “I plan on getting vaccinated

By Aya Elamroussi, CNN Health experts are reinforcing the point that full vaccination remains highly effective against severe illness and death caused by Covid-19 as federal regulators consider the possibility of authorizing a third dose in the upcoming weeks. “What’s the goal of this vaccine? The stated goal by (CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky) and

By Luke McGee, CNN One of the greatest success stories of the Covid-19 crisis has hit an alarming bump in the road. The initial stages of the vaccine rollout earlier this year in countries such as Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States provided hope that the misery of lockdowns and isolation would soon

By Travis Caldwell, CNN With the latest Covid-19 surge upending American life yet again, an official rollout of booster doses could begin within weeks, pending FDA authorization. And it’s likely that three doses of the vaccine are needed for full protection, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. He cited two Israeli-based studies that showed a decrease in

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the opioid crisis. Experts say the United States is in the throes of an opioid epidemic. An estimated 9.5 million Americans aged 12 and older misused opioids in 2020, including 9.3 million prescription pain reliever abusers and 902,000 heroin users. Opioids are drugs formulated to replicate the pain-reducing

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN A new study of breakthrough Covid-19 infections finds that vaccines not only reduce the risk of severe disease and hospitalization, but can lower the odds of having long-term Covid-19 symptoms too. “We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by