Latest COVID-19 conundrum is when to get another shot

For most people, there is an upside to getting a COVID-19 booster. But because of human genetic differences, not everyone responds the same to the vaccines. | REUTERS

It feels intuitively right that a reformulated booster vaccine aimed at the omicron BA.5 variant would vastly improve our protection against it as well as any offspring that might threaten us in the fall. But intuition doesn’t always agree with scientific data. It’s not intuitive at all to think that waiting six months before getting

Hoping for a breakthrough, the search for answers on long Covid continues

Hoping for a breakthrough, the search for answers on long Covid continues

A new US study is the latest to identify several factors that make some people more susceptible to long Covid than others. Yet with millions around the globe experiencing debilitating symptoms weeks or months after first being infected, the medical establishment does not yet understand why.  Patients who have been obese at some point prior to

With supply more abundant, U.S. pharmacies struggle to use up COVID pills

Two pills used in the Paxlovid anti-viral treatment, at Demmy’s Pharmacy in Greenbelt, Maryland | SHURAN HUANG / THE NEW YORK TIMES

GREENBELT, Maryland – Last month, the owner of a small pharmacy in Greenbelt, Maryland, secured two dozen courses of Pfizer’s new medication for treating COVID-19, eager to quickly provide them to his high-risk customers who test positive for the virus. More than a month later, the pharmacy, Demmy’s, has dispensed the anti-viral pills to just

Over half of Japan’s population has received booster shot

A Rakuten Group Inc. employee (second from left) and his family member receive a dose of the Moderna Inc. COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at the company's head office in Tokyo on Feb. 18. | BLOOMBERG

Over half of Japan’s population has received their third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with 86.9% of those age 65 and above triple vaccinated, government data showed Monday. But vaccination rates among younger people still remain low relative to the general population, with only 30.1% and 33.2% of those in their 20s and 30s, respectively,

With a $2.1 million cure their only hope, Indian parents plead for help online

Rayapudi (left), and Stella Praveen look over their daughter Ellen's medical records on Feb. 14 at the family home in Eluru, India. She was diagnosed with Type 1 spinal muscular atrophy in October.  | SARA HYLTON / THE NEW YORK TIMES

ELURU, India – When her baby started struggling to breathe, Stella Praveen had a terrible feeling that something was gravely wrong with her 14-month-old daughter, Ellen. She ran barefoot to a nearby clinic, but the doctors there said the child needed to see a specialist right away. Without an ambulance, she jumped on the back

Japan team proves iPS-based cornea transplants are safe in first clinical trial

A sheet-like corneal tissue created from induced pluripotent stem cells | KOJI NISHIDA / VIA KYODO

Osaka – An Osaka University research team said Monday it has concluded that the world’s first clinical trial, spanning over years, transplanting corneal tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, into four almost-blind patients was safe and effective. None of the patients experienced rejection or tumorigenicity of the transplanted cells and all

How long should it take to grieve? Psychiatry has come up with an answer.

Joanne Cacciatore, an associate professor of social work at Arizona State University, at her Selah Carefarm, a retreat for bereaved people, in Cornville, Arizona | ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS / THE NEW YORK TIMES

Source link. IMAGE GALLERY (CLICK TO ENLARGE). In a time of both false information and too much details, quality journalism is more important than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW After more than a years of argument, psychiatrys most effective body in the United States added a new disorder

Women overtake men for first time in exam pass rate at Japan’s medical schools

Tokyo Medical University admitted in August 2018 to having unfairly lowered the scores of female applicants to limit their enrollment. | KYODO

PHOTO GALLERY (CLICK TO ENLARGE). Ladies surpassed guys for the first time in the acceptance rate at Japans medical schools for the 2021 academic year that started in April, an education ministry study showed Wednesday, in a sign of enhancement over gender-based discrimination in entrance examinations that came to light a couple of years ago.The

Some antibody drugs for COVID-19 may not be effective against omicron

Bottles of Merck & Co.'s molnupiravir COVID-19 oral drug  | BLOOMBERG

PICTURE GALLERY (CLICK TO ENLARGE). Some antibody medications, including Ronapreve, may not be reliable against the extremely mutated omicron version of the coronavirus, according to scientists at Japanese and U.S. institutes.The findings by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a professor of virology at the University of Tokyos Institute of Medical Science, and others were published in the New

Who’s afraid of evidence-based policymaking?

Almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world still has a surprisingly limited understanding of the health, economic and other effects of policies intended to mitigate the disease's spread. | POOL VIA / REUTERS

From finding the laws of physics and the bacterium theory of disease to establishing public policies, scholars have utilized experimentation to move society forward.Now, as societies struggle with restoring travel, resuming schools and work environment safety in the shadow of new COVID-19 variants, social experiments are urgently required to guarantee that we implement policies with

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