Health

Allergies aren’t just a sneezy seasonal annoyance. Hay fever has major health and economic consequences. It exacerbates asthma and weakens defenses against respiratory viruses, resulting in more emergency room visits and disrupted schooling and work. Climate change has already made pollen seasons in the United States and Canada worse, a new study of almost three

There’s lots of great news about Covid-19 vaccines and one major catch. First, the good news: — Almost 6 million Americans received a protective shot in the arm this weekend, and more than 11.3% are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19. — Millions more Americans are now eligible to get a vaccine this week as many

Don’t be fooled by the packed beaches and rollback of safety mandates in several states. Covid-19 is still spreading rampantly and must be tackled aggressively if we want life to get back to normal soon, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Sunday. Even though daily new cases have dropped since January, “over the last couple

In Oprah Winfrey’s bombshell interview Sunday with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, one takeaway was that help for mental health is still hard to get — even if you’re part of the British royal family. In Meghan’s first public comments since she and her husband, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, stepped down as senior

US health officials say how Americans act in the coming weeks could help determine how the Covid-19 pandemic continues to unfold. While infection numbers are down, they’re still far too high to let up on safety measures, experts warn. And while current Covid-19 trends may be encouraging, variants of the virus circulating in the US

As spring break travel picks up and states increasingly drop Covid-19 restrictions, Dr. Francis Collins, the National Institutes of Health director, is pleading with people to keep using masks regardless of prevailing rules. “If there ever was a time to put on the mask, this is it,” Collins told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Saturday. Collins’

I spent the week of March 9, 2020, in the office, sitting across from my patients, one after another, in my office. We talked about relationship issues, depression and anxiety, and the other stressors of everyday life. No distance, no masks. There was this vague idea of an impending pandemic. But we felt if anything

At the height of a luminous career in genetics, Ron Davis, professor of biochemistry and genetics at Stanford University in California, switched to researching a disease that many of his colleagues had never heard of. Prior to that shift seven years ago, his breakthrough work had led to dozens of patents and laid the groundwork

Covid-19 numbers may be on the decline in the United States after a year of collective grief. But with tens of thousands of deaths expected over the next few months, experts are warning Americans not to drop their guard just yet. “I think we are going to get fooled,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the

Exactly one year after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic and about three months since the first Americans outside of clinical trials got shots, one in 10 people in the US are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on its website that at least

Wesley Hamilton remembers the moment nine years ago when his life changed forever. On January 14, 2012, Hamilton got caught up in an altercation with a stranger outside an apartment complex. The man shot Hamilton twice in his abdomen. When the bullets pierced his body, he thought he was going to die. “I laid on

The allure, and controversy, surrounding princess play is a familiar story. Girls want to be princesses. Parents fret over their daughters wanting to be princesses. Few adults feel as though banning a category of play altogether is the right move. Kids’ imaginations need freedom, and kids want to be accepted by their peers. Caring about

Today, March 11, marks one year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, a pandemic. In the first months of 2020, as the unprecedented health crisis rapidly crossed borders — China, Italy, Spain, South Korea, Japan and soon, the United States — it started to take the shape

The European Union’s (EU) medicines regulator has recommended authorizing Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine. The decision from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday comes amid vaccine supply shortages across the 27-member state bloc. “After a thorough evaluation, EMA’s human medicines committee concluded by consensus that the data on the vaccine were robust and

An increasing number of states and communities say they are planning to resume or expand in-person learning a year into the coronavirus pandemic, as new infections decline and vaccinations rise. North Carolina’s governor on Wednesday announced an agreement on a bill with lawmakers — still to be passed — that would remove capacity limits from

Ultrathin dolls could be detrimental to young girls’ body image, a new study has shown. Researchers observed 5- to 9-year-olds playing with dolls of different body types and found girls who played with ultrathin dolls were more likely to want thin bodies, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Body Image. The ultrathin

Early in the pandemic, young people from all racial and ethnic minority groups had higher Covid-19 case rates than non-Hispanic White people under the age of 25, according to a study published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between January and April, case rates compared to young White people were about

Nearly one in 10 Americans — more than 32 million people — are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The progress offers hope that the brutal battle against the virus is slowly nearing its end. But we’re not there just yet. The growing number of

It’s hard to believe that the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a pandemic is this week. It has been a long, brutal year that has felt like a decade. One thing is clear: Everyone has been stressed in ways they could not have ever imagined. One of the biggest sources of stress — other

Sea levels are rising, and of course that’s affecting coastal cities. But the very infrastructure that makes those cities run compounds the problem. Here’s what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can also get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily.

I’m tired, you’re tired, we’re all tired — I know. I feel it in my bones. I have been in 8 states caring for thousands of patients with Covid-19. I have worked in coast to coast, north to south, in New York, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, California, and my home state of