Health

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Families are getting an early gift this holiday season: the chance to protect their children between the ages of 5 and 11 against Covid-19 through vaccination. For many, the winter holidays mean gathering with family and friends from near and far to share meals and quality time, situations that can quickly

By Holly Yan and David Williams, CNN When 8-year-old Nate Wittenborn saw a photo of Pfizer’s pediatric Covid-19 vaccine, he jumped up and down. “I showed him the picture, and he read the box, and I think his eyes went straight to the 5- to 11-year-old (label),” his mom Brandy Wittenborn said. “He said, ‘Wait

By Faye Chiu, CNN The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky officially gave the green light on that guidance Tuesday. This development follows the US Food and Drug Administration approval last Friday of emergency use authorization for

By Virginia Langmaid, CNN Suicides in the United States decreased by 3% from 2019 to 2020, despite risk factors for suicide generally increasing, according to data published Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics — part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicides among men declined 2%, and suicides among women

By Sherry Liang, CNN A full belly makes a happy heart, but your heart will be happier if you focus on sustaining long-term habits. Heart-healthy eating starts with your eating patterns, according to the American Heart Association’s recent scientific statement, “2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health.” That doesn’t mean giving up takeout or that

By Rob Picheta, CNN At the start of the pandemic, much of the Western world followed a similar playbook for tackling Covid-19. Spikes in transmission were met with lockdowns; international travel was heavily restricted; and though domestic constraints frequently proved controversial, hygiene measures like social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing were strongly encouraged — if not

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN The United States’ Covid-19 vaccination program for children ages 5 to 11 will be “running at full strength” next week, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said during a virtual White House briefing Monday. “While vaccinations may start later this week, the program will still be ramping up to its

By Maggie Fox, CNN It’s among parents’ top worries around kids getting vaccinated against Covid-19: Could the vaccine somehow impair their child’s future fertility? A survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation last week found that 66% of parents of 5- to 11-year-olds worried that vaccines might negatively impact children’s fertility later on. Doctors and

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Many pediatricians have already placed their orders for child-sized doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and are anxiously awaiting their shipments of shots. And parents are coming at them with a lot of questions: When can my child come in to get their vaccine? And what are the side effects? But

By Megan Marples, CNN “Trick or treat!” Those words will be echoing in neighborhoods across the country as children go door-to-door in search of delicious treats this Halloween. Going trick-or-treating outdoors is a low-risk activity, according to CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen. Families should assess if they are comfortable going to higher-risk indoor activities,

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN The tides are turning against Facebook. But no matter how much they may want to, some people just can’t seem to break away. Controversy has spilled out of the tens of thousands of pages of internal company documents leaked by company whistleblower Frances Haugen, who said the files show that the

By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent If you’re vaccinated against Covid-19 and wondering if you’re eligible for a booster shot, the answer is probably yes. After months of debate about who should be eligible for a booster, an analysis done for CNN shows that at least 89% of vaccinated American adults are eligible once

By Jen Christensen, CNN With testing and other mitigation measures in place, playing college football games did not contribute to coronavirus spread among players in the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference last year, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. At some points in the pandemic, it wasn’t clear that there would even be

By Jason Hanna, CNN Rates of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have sunk significantly in the US since a wave driven by the highly contagious Delta variant peaked in September. But with cases still relatively high, many children still ineligible to be vaccinated, and colder weather coming, it’s not time to feel comfortable about the

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN Travis McAdam scours local newspapers and extremist social media content, along with receiving personal reports from community members about the threats. Some reports detail protests swarming outside of a public health officer’s home. Others describe the hostile voicemail messages or emails sent to health officers. McAdam, an expert on extremism and

By Jen Christensen, CNN A Covid-19 vaccine could be available for little kids soon, and public health leaders say vaccinating them could help end the pandemic — but only if parents actually get them vaccinated. A new survey suggests that’s uncertain at best. The majority of parents say they will not get their younger children

By Megan Marples, CNN Is it a bones or no bones kind of day? One small pug is influencing how millions of people live their lives with his adorable morning routine. Meet Noodle, a 13-year-old rescue dog whose owner, Jonathan Graziano, records and posts waking his pug up nearly every morning on TikTok. Graziano, a

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN When a US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended Tuesday that the agency grant emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 for children between the ages of 5 and 11, it was based on data gathered during clinical trials conducted around the United States. One of those clinical trials was conducted

By Maggie Fox, CNN A cheap, generically available anti-depressant may reduce the risk of severe Covid-19 disease by close to a third in people at high risk, researchers reported Wednesday. A trial among about 1,500 patients in Brazil showed those who took the drug, known as fluvoxamine, were less likely to progress to severe disease

By Katia Hetter, CNN A US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended Tuesday that the agency grant emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. Next, the FDA decides whether to authorize the vaccine, and then the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee will

By Jen Christensen, CNN People with certain health conditions that make them moderately or severely immunocompromised may get a fourth mRNA Covid-19 shot, according to updated guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC authorized a third dose for certain immunocompromised people 18 and older in August. It said a third

By Maggie Fox, CNN Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted 17-0 with one abstention Tuesday to recommend emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11. Members of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee agreed the benefits of vaccinating younger children appeared to outweigh