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News Articles: Public Health

Immunity Americans acquired through vaccination or via prior infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may account for the lighter than expected COVID surge in the U.S. this winter, researchers say.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

This winter's U.S. COVID surge is fading fast, likely thanks to a 'wall' of immunity

The main reason the surge is ebbing now, pandemic experts suspect, is the significant immunity many people in the U.S. have acquired from prior infections and COVID vaccinations many received.

February 03, 2023
|
By:
  • Rob Stein
A sign calling attention to drug overdoses is posted in a gas station on the White Earth reservation in Ogema, Minn.. A new study shows that early deaths due to addiction and suicide have impacted American Indian and Alaska Native communities far more than white communities.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Native Americans left out of 'deaths of despair' research

During the time that deaths from addiction and suicide among white Americans rose by about 9%, deaths among Native Americans shot up by about 30%, a new study shows.

February 01, 2023
|
By:
  • Rhitu Chatterjee
Wide Shot of Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia

Tagged as: 

  • Health

State health departments seek their part of billions in appropriations during start of session

Budget hearings at the start of Georgia’s legislative session saw state departments dive into Gov. Brian Kemp’s  proposed budget and make a case for funding priorities.

January 27, 2023
|
By:
  • Sofi Gratas
More than 30 years ago, Johnnie Haire, grounds supervisor at Sunset Gardens of Memory cemetery in Millstadt, Illinois, set up a birdbath and purchased angel figurines for a special garden for deceased children called "Baby Land." He carefully painted each angel a hue of brown. He says he wanted the angels to be Black, like many of the children laid to rest here.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

When gun violence ends young lives, these men prepare the graves

Just outside St. Louis, a cemetery for children sits on a hill. A wooden, weather-worn sign welcomes mourners to "Baby Land." The gravediggers who made the special spot work quietly in the shadows.

January 27, 2023
|
By:
  • Cara Anthony
Rapid antigen tests are ubiquitous, but some Americans  have learned the hard way that a negative test result isn't necessarily the final word.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Is it time for a reality check on rapid COVID tests?

At-home rapid tests have become a staple of COVID-19 precautions, but some experts worry that people are relying too much on these tests and that's creating a false sense of security.

January 21, 2023
|
By:
  • Sydney Lupkin
A Healthcare worker closes a plastic bag containing a coronavirus test kit

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Political Rewind: When will it end? Where Georgia stands with COVID three years into the pandemic

Friday on Political Rewind: On Jan. 21, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S.. Since then, more than 2 million Georgians contracted the virus and nearly 40,000 have died. As a milder variant goes around this winter, we ask a panel of health experts how to best protect ourselves.

January 20, 2023
|
By:
  • Bill Nigut ,
  • Natalie Mendenhall ,
  • and 1 more
Northside Hospital Atlanta

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Northside Atlanta is first hospital in the U.S. with top-tier maternal care designation

The Maternal Levels of Care program from the Joint Commission designates facilities by available services for moms and babies, expanding a public health health program meant to improve perinatal outcomes. 

January 19, 2023
|
By:
  • Sofi Gratas
In hopes of getting a better sense of which SARS-CoV-2 variants might be coming into the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently expanded its voluntary testing of some passengers exiting from international flights at certain airports.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

China's COVID surge prompts CDC to expand a hunt for new variants among air travelers

It would make more sense to screen a plane's wastewater to look for new variants than to screen individual passenger volunteers, some researchers say. Others say any information is helpful.

January 17, 2023
|
By:
  • Rob Stein
A bookmark with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is displayed by Lance Neiberger, a volunteer with the Natrona County Suicide Prevention Task Force, in Casper, Wyoming.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

988 Lifeline sees boost in use and funding in first months

The 3-digit suicide and crisis lifeline – 988 – fielded nearly half a million more calls, texts and chats in its first 5 months than the old 10-digit Lifeline did during the same time in 2021.

January 16, 2023
|
By:
  • Rhitu Chatterjee
U.S. infectious disease experts fear that a winter surge of respiratory illness — like the one that overloaded emergency rooms with COVID-19 patients in January 2021 — could yet materialize this winter, with several circulating viruses wreaking havoc. So far, though, it looks like early peaks of RSV and the flu are receding.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

RSV recedes and flu peaks as a new COVID variant shoots 'up like a rocket'

RSV and the flu appear to be receding in the U.S., but COVID is on the rise, new data suggests, driven by holiday gatherings and an even more transmissible omicron subvariant that has become dominant.

January 06, 2023
|
By:
  • Rob Stein
Cannabis candies, made to look appealing, are being ingested by children under 6, sending some kids to the hospital. Most of the children found the edible weed at their own homes.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

3,000+ young children accidentally ate weed edibles in 2021, study finds

The cases of accidental ingestion of cannabis candies and baked goods among small children increased 1,375% in five years, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

January 03, 2023
|
By:
  • Rhitu Chatterjee
Bithaniya Fieseha, a high school senior, graduates from the Youth Public Health Ambassador program run by the Fairfax County Health Department at West Springfield High School in Fairfax County, Va.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Short on community health workers, a county trains teens as youth ambassadors

In Fairfax County, Va., the health department is training high school students to become health ambassadors in underserved communities and get a leg up on future careers in public health.

January 01, 2023
|
By:
  • Pien Huang
Bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are readied for use at a clinic in Richmond, Va., Nov. 2022. Just 15% of eligible Americans have gotten the most recent booster shot, according to the CDC.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

It's not too late to get a COVID booster — especially for older adults

Public health officials want more Americans to get the latest COVID vaccine booster. Only 35% of people over 65 have gotten the shot, though 75% of COVID deaths are among people in this age group.

December 28, 2022
|
By:
  • Selena Simmons-Duffin
In 2021, the three leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer and COVID-19.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

American life expectancy is now at its lowest in nearly two decades

A new report shows the pandemic and the overdose crisis helped push down the average life expectancy in the U.S. for a second year in a row.

December 22, 2022
|
By:
  • Yuki Noguchi
Caitlyn Houston kisses her seven-week-old daughter, Parker, as they wait in the ER for a hospital bed to open up on Dec. 7 at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "There's so many kids in here that they have to take the ones that are really bad," Houston said.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Children's hospitals are struggling to cope with a surge of respiratory illness

Pediatric cases of RSV and flu have sent families crowding into ERs, as health systems struggle with staff shortages. In Michigan, only 9 out of more than 130 hospitals have a pediatric ICU.

December 16, 2022
|
By:
  • Kate Wells
  • Load More

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