For each of the last two years, Thanksgiving helped usher in some very unwelcome guests: Devastating waves of COVID-19. No one thinks this year will be anything like the last two dark pandemic winters, at least when it comes to COVID-19. But the country is now dealing with a different kind of threat — an […]
Category: Personal
More US men now embracing vasectomies
More young men are inquiring about and getting vasectomies. It’s a trend that’s been observed informally in several countries, and has particularly spiked in the United States since the Supreme Court’s decision. Google Trends tracked a huge uptick in US searches for ‘vasectomy’, along with the related search terms “Roe” and “abortion”; search volume was […]
NIH looking into Boston University’s COVID-19 ‘Gain of function’ research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is looking into COVID-19 research that was conducted at Boston University to determine whether the experiment should have been subject to agency guidelines. Earlier this month, researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine published findings from a preprint study in which they combined the ancestral COVID-19 virus with […]
Vaccine for Cancer could be ready by 2030
The world could be only a few years away from a cancer vaccine, according to the couple behind the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine. “We feel that a cure for cancer or to changing cancer patients’ lives is in our grasp,” professor Ozlem Tureci told BBC News in an interview over the weekend. Her husband, professor Ugur […]
COVID is now less risky than flu say scientists
Has COVID-19 become no more dangerous than the flu for most people? That’s a question that scientists are debating as the country heads into a third pandemic winter. Early in the pandemic, COVID was estimated to be 10 times more lethal than the flu, fueling many people’s fears. “We have all been questioning, ‘When does […]
Poliovirus detected in wastewater near NYC
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday the state was stepping up its polio-fighting efforts as the virus that causes the life-threatening disease was detected in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area. Health officials began checking for signs of the virus in sewage water after the first case of […]
New Omicron Booster tested only on mice
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is using a controversial strategy to evaluate the next generation of COVID-19 boosters. The approach is stirring debate as the agency works to make new, hopefully improved, boosters available in September to help prevent severe disease and save lives in the fall and winter. For the first time, the […]
Gen Z’s are embracing ‘Situationships”
Long gone are the days when seeing a film or sharing a milkshake was all it took to solidify a couple as definitively together. Instead, modern dating has evolved into a delicate – at times complicated – series of ‘baby steps’ for young people. Research has shown that Gen Z’s attitudes towards dating and sex […]
Ultraprocessed foods linked to cancer and early death
Eating a lot of ultraprocessed foods significantly increases men’s risk of colorectal cancer and can lead to heart disease and early death in both men and women, according to two new, large-scale studies of people in the United States and Italy published Wednesday in British medical journal The BMJ. Ultraprocessed foods include prepackaged soups, sauces, […]
Marijuana use is now outpacing cigarette use
More people in the U.S. are now smoking marijuana than cigarettes, according to a Gallup poll. Cigarette use has been trending downward during the past decades, with only 11% of Americans saying they smoke them in a poll conducted July 5 to 26, compared to 45% in the mid-1950s. Sixteen percent of Americans say they […]
Young adults are using pot & hallucinogens at highest rates recorded
Young adults are using more weed and hallucinogens than ever. The amount of people from ages 19 to 30 who reported using one or the other are at the highest rates since 1988, when the National Institutes of Health first began the survey. “Young adults are in a critical life stage and honing their ability […]
COVID Fades As Major Issue For Americans
President Joe Biden’s victory lap this week to celebrate a string of recent victories in Congress comes as the administration faces a looming deadline to extend the public health emergency for COVID-19. But in a sign of how much has changed since the pandemic began, Biden’s expected extension of the public health emergency may not […]