CNN – Health

By Michael Nedelman, CNN Stopping the next major coronavirus variant involves knowing where it might come from. With Omicron, those answers are still a mystery: How did a variant that looked so different from all its older cousins appear so suddenly? How to explain its jumble of mutations, many of which had rarely been seen

By Kathleen Toner, CNN As Covid-19 infection rates and restrictions are waning in some places and a variant is surging in others, it’s difficult to understand where we are in the pandemic. But two years ago, the situation was clear: for many people, coronavirus had brought the world to a stop. That’s when pediatric surgeon

By Kathleen Toner, CNN As Covid-19 infection rates and restrictions are waning in some places and a variant is surging in others, it’s difficult to understand where we are in the pandemic. But two years ago, the situation was clear: for many people, coronavirus had brought the world to a stop. That’s when pediatric surgeon

By Brenda Goodman, CNN It takes just a tiny virus-laden droplet — about the width of a human blood cell — to infect someone with Covid-19. That’s just one of the findings from research that deliberately infected healthy volunteers with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine. Challenge studies

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN In 2003, the Human Genome Project made history when it sequenced 92% of the human genome. But for nearly two decades since, scientists have struggled to decipher the remaining 8%. Now, a team of nearly 100 scientists from the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium has unveiled the complete human genome — the first

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Mental health concerns among high school students in the United States were exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to survey results published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been significant increases in high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, considering suicide or

By Katia Hetter, CNN As the United States navigates a third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, cases are rising modestly in the Northeast, Philadelphia has reinstituted an indoor mask mandate and some colleges are requiring masks during the final days of the spring semester. People in the US won’t face a shutdown like the one

By Katia Hetter, CNN On Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded its authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines. Now, adults ages 50 and older are able to get a second booster if at least four months have passed since their first one. Within hours, the US Centers for Disease Control and

By Jen Christensen, CNN The Omicron coronavirus variant may be reaching around the world, but different places are seeing significantly different effects. In the United States, Covid-19 case numbers have been falling since January. They may have hit a plateau as a subvariant of Omicron, BA.2, becomes the main cause of infections. But in China,

By Nadia Kounang and Deidre McPhillips, CNN The youngest group eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the US, children ages 5 to 11, is also the least vaccinated one. In about half of US counties, less than 10% of children 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, according to a CNN analysis of data from

By Nadia Kounang and Deidre McPhillips, CNN The youngest group eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the US, children ages 5 to 11, is also the least vaccinated one. In about half of US counties, less than 10% of children 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, according to a CNN analysis of data from

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN Americans’ biggest health care priorities revolve largely around affordability, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, with most wanting to see Congress tackle drug prices. More broadly, inflation and rising costs dominate the public’s concerns. The findings, released Thursday, show that 55% of Americans call inflation and rising prices the

By Michael Nedelman, CNN Stopping the next major coronavirus variant involves knowing where it might come from. With Omicron, those answers are still a mystery: How did a variant that looked so different from all its older cousins appear so suddenly? How to explain its jumble of mutations, many of which had rarely been seen

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Bruce Willis is taking a break from acting due to a brain disorder called aphasia, “which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” his family announced Wednesday. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him,” his daughter Rumer

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN It’s not hard to see the Oscars blowup between Will Smith and Chris Rock played out at recess in the schoolyard. One person makes a mean joke about someone else that strikes a nerve, and someone who cares about the targeted person gets upset and hits or smacks or punches the

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Eating avocados reduced the risk of heart attacks in both men and women, including when eaten in place of butter, cheese or processed meats, a new study found. Cardiovascular disease is a leading killer worldwide, taking nearly 18 million lives every year, according to the World Health Organization. In the United

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN Fewer Americans are “thriving” today than 13 months ago while daily stress and worry remain steady and near pre-pandemic levels, according to a new life satisfaction poll released Wednesday by the polling firm Gallup. The percentage of Americans who said they were “thriving,” compared with “struggling” or “suffering,” fell 6 percentage

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized additional booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines for adults 50 and older — and now, many people in that group are wondering whether to get that dose now or later. On Tuesday, the FDA announced that it has expanded the

By Kristen Rogers, CNN Jada Pinkett Smith found herself at the center of conflict when her husband Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony March 27. Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head — a look she has said is more than a style preference. Pinkett Smith has shared publicly that she

By Brenda Goodman, CNN The US Food and Drug Administration has expanded the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to allow adults 50 and older to get a second booster as early as four months after their first booster dose of any Covid-19 vaccine. The move extends the availability of additional

by Brenda Goodman, CNN Arguably the most successful version of the Omicron coronavirus variant to date has been BA.2 — but it hasn’t been resting on its laurels. BA.2 has been picking up mutations, sometimes shifting into sleeker and, incredibly, even faster versions of itself. Global variant trackers have found 21 viral offspring associated with

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN Metformin use by men in the three-month period before they conceived a child was linked to a 40% higher risk of birth defects in the offspring, according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Metformin is a first-line drug in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN Prediabetes in America’s youth is following a concerning trend: Rates among children have more than doubled in about 20 years, according to a new study. The increase was seen over almost all subpopulations of young Americans, regardless of income, ethnicity and education, said study author Junxiu Liu, assistant professor of population

By Tasnim Ahmed, CNN Over a year after recovering from a Covid-19 infection, Jennifer Hobbs is adjusting to her new normal: brain fog, joint pain, elevated liver enzymes and, now, type 2 diabetes. Hobbs had prediabetes before she got Covid-19, but her blood sugar levels were under control, and she didn’t need any treatment. Recently,

By Lauren Kent, CNN The next time you feel pain, you might consider skipping the ibuprofen and reaching instead for an old photo. Nostalgia — that sentimental feeling of longing for the past — can reduce pain perception, according to new research published in the journal JNeurosci. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and