Novavax covid-19 vaccine works, but less so against variants
Novavax Inc. said Thursday that its covid-19 vaccine appears 89% effective based on early findings from a British study and that it also seems to work — though not as well — against new mutated versions of the virus circulating in that country and South Africa. The announcement comes amid...
Biden opens sign-up window for uninsured in time of covidVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered government health insurance markets to reopen for a special sign-up window, offering uninsured Americans a haven as the spread of covid-19 remains dangerously high and vaccines aren’t yet widely available. Biden signed an executive order directing the HealthCare.gov insurance markets to take...
Here’s why it’s hard to make coronavirus vaccines and boost supplies
With demand for covid-19 vaccines outpacing the world’s supplies, a frustrated public and policymakers want to know: How can we get more? A lot more. Right away. The problem: “It’s not like adding more water to the soup,” said vaccine specialist Maria Elena Bottazzi of Baylor College of Medicine. Makers...
New Biden health care orders begin to unspool Trump policies
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to take his first steps to reverse Trump administration health care policies. The White House said Biden plans on Thursday to sign orders on a range of issues including getting more Americans covered and removing curbs on abortion counseling. The most concrete short-term...
CDC study: Schools mostly safe to open with proper precautions
Schools operating in person have experienced scant transmission of coronavirus, particularly when proper precautions are employed, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Tuesday. The CDC researchers, who wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said indoor athletics have led to infections and...
Pa. overdose deaths likely to increase because of pandemic disruption
Overdose deaths in Pennsylvania will likely tick upward for the first time in several years when 2020 reports are finalized, according to state officials, showing the effects of a year marked by isolation and a cutoff of group and in-person services. Overdose drug deaths were higher month over month for...
Covid contact tracing still challenging in Pennsylvania
Contact tracing remains a challenge in Pennsylvania, officials said Monday. From Jan. 10 to Jan. 16, only 18% of the 46,708 covid cases reported had a case investigation started within 24 hours, according to the Department of Health. An additional 5% had a case investigation started within 48 hours. “We...
Pitt study examines racial differences in postpartum blood pressure
Lying on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance was when the severity of the moment hit Tyarra Kelly. It was 3 a.m. Her blood pressure was high. The new mom hadn’t been feeling well five days after her son Tristan’s birth seven months ago. “I was having trouble...
Pittsburgh doctor wants pregnant women included in covid vaccine trials
Dr. Kacie Kidd is doing her best to protect her unborn child. The 33-year-old mom-to-be decided to get the covid-19 Pfizer vaccine, despite lack of conclusive research concerning its safety for pregnant women. Kidd, an adolescent medicine fellow at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville, is 26 weeks pregnant....
Wolf announces nominations for Secretary of Health, appoints Acting Physician General
Gov. Tom Wolf will nominate his deputy chief of staff to lead the state Department of Health, taking the place of Dr. Rachel Levine, who was tapped earlier this week by President Joe Biden as his assistant secretary of health. Alison Beam, 34, will take over as Acting Secretary of...
As coronavirus surges, states reporting shortages of vaccine
NEW YORK — The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled. About half of the...
AP explainer: Why expansion of vaccine to smokers caused a stir
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey this week made millions of people eligible to get the covid-19 vaccine, including smokers, a move that prompted gripes about them skipping to the front of the inoculation line. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy made people 65 and older and those 16 and older with medical...
Another record decline reported in U.S. cancer death rate
NEW YORK — Researchers on Tuesday reported another record one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they attribute to success against lung cancer. The overall cancer death rate has been falling since 1991. From 2017 to 2018, it fell 2.4%, according to an American Cancer Society report,...
Updated Pa. vaccination plan adds new phase for more essential employees
Pennsylvania officials continue to retool the state’s vaccination plan to fall in line with recommendations from federal groups and further define who can get the vaccine and when, releasing the fourth iteration of plan on Friday afternoon. “It will take several months before there is vaccine available for everyone,” said...
Identical twins aren’t perfect clones, research shows
WASHINGTON — If you’re an identical twin who’s always resisted being called a clone of your sibling, scientists say you have a point. Identical twins are not exactly genetically the same, new research shows. Scientists in Iceland sequenced DNA from 387 pairs of identical twins — those derived from a...
How quickly do I need a 2nd covid-19 vaccine shot?
The first covid-19 vaccines in the U.S. require two doses a few weeks apart. People should get some degree of protection within two weeks of the first shot, with the second shot bringing about the vaccine’s full protection. For the vaccine by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, the second shot is...
UPMC employees get 2nd dose of covid vaccine, describe ‘first step’ toward ending pandemic
Fifteen UPMC employees received covid-19 vaccines Tuesday, 10 of whom became the first employees to receive a second dose and complete the full course of the vaccine. “I feel like it’s the first step in ending this,” said Alli Okonak, a certified registered nurse practitioner who has been working at...
If I’ve already had the coronavirus, can I get it again?
If I’ve already had the coronavirus, can I get it again? It’s possible, but such cases seem to be rare. Evidence is growing that people whose bodies mounted a strong defense to the virus are unlikely to test positive again for at least several months and maybe longer. It’s not...
Study: U.S. covid patients face more mental health issues; Excela Health bracing for uptickVideo
Researchers at the University of Oxford published a study reporting the first large-scale evidence that covid-19 survivors are at increased risk of anxiety or depression. The study looked at electronic health records for 69 million U.S. residents, including more than 62,000 covid-19 cases. In the three months following a positive...
For pregnant and nursing women, risks of covid-19 probably outweigh risk of vaccine, experts say
Although there’s very little data on how pregnant and nursing mothers will respond to a covid-19 vaccine, professional organizations and individual doctors say the benefits are very likely to outweigh the risks. Pregnant women appear to have the same chance of catching covid-19 as everyone else. But they might fare...
What Pittsburgh region needs to know about U.K. coronavirus strain
A new and seemingly more contagious strain of the coronavirus was diagnosed this week in a Colorado National Guardsman, bringing about a slew of questions regarding its severity and lethality. Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and critical care physician, offered his insights into what this new variant of...
New U.S. dietary guidelines: No candy, cake for kids under 2
Parents now have an extra reason to say no to candy, cake and ice cream for young children. The first U.S. government dietary guidelines for infants and toddlers, released Tuesday, recommend feeding only breast milk for at least six months and no added sugar for children under age 2. “It’s...
More covid-19 vaccines in the pipeline as U.S. effort ramps up
A huge U.S. study of another covid-19 vaccine candidate got underway Monday as states continue to roll out scarce supplies of the first shots to a nation anxiously awaiting relief from the catastrophic outbreak. Public health experts say more options in addition to the two vaccines now being dispensed —...
Canada records 1st cases of new coronavirus variant
TORONTO — Officials in Canada’s most populous province have confirmed the first two known Canadian cases of of a more contagious variant of covid-19 that was first identified in the United Kingdom. The province’s associate chief medical officer says that the cases are a couple from Durham Region, just east...
Q&A: Knowing when to get the coronavirus vaccine — and if pregnant women should get it
SEATTLE — Federal approval of the second coronavirus vaccine means more doses are coming to Washington and with them a growing interest about the distribution of vaccines. This week, Washington was set to receive 130,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine, which was approved by the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup...
