Month: March 2021

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Teachers and food and agriculture workers will be among an estimated 1.2 million Los Angeles County residents newly-eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine beginning Monday. Vehicles wind their way through the parking lots at Dodger Stadium for COVID-19 vaccinations on Feb. 25, 2021. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images). Also newly-eligible to get vaccinated are childcare workers, law enforcement personnel and emergency services workers. They will join healthcare workers and those over age 65, who have been receiving the vaccine for several weeks now. However, health officials said those workers will have to be patient as vaccine supplies remain limited and staff are being trained to ensure only eligible people receive shots. “Therefore, it will take c...

As a World Health Organization team digs into the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, other scientists are unearthing tantalizing new clues suggesting that the virus behind it evolved naturally to infect humans. At least four recent studies have identified coronaviruses closely related to the pandemic strain in bats and pangolins in Southeast Asia and Japan, a sign that these pathogens are more widespread than previously known and that there was ample opportunity for the virus to evolve. Another new study suggests that a change in a single amino acid in a key component of the virus enabled or at least helped the virus become infectious in humans. Amino acids are organic compounds that form proteins. Public-health officials say it is critical to ide...

COACHELLA, Calif. — The sun-baked desert valley tucked behind the San Jacinto Mountains is best known for an annual music festival that draws 100,000 fans a day and a series of lush, oasis resort towns where well-heeled snowbirds go to golf, sunbathe and party. But just beyond the turquoise swimming pools of Palm Springs, more than 10,000 farmworkers harvest some of the country’s largest crops of date palms, vegetables and fruits. Mainly undocumented immigrants, they have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic in California: In some areas, up to 40 percent of the workers tested for the virus had positive results. The Rev. Francisco Gómez at Our Lady of Soledad church in Coachella said his parish had been averaging 10 burials a week. “You’re talking about an apocalyptic situation,” h...

When a person has pernicious anaemia, this simply does not happen; instead, intrinsic factor isn't produced and vitamin B12 is lost through excrement. The exact cause of pernicious anaemia is still unknown, but it's more often diagnosed in women around 60 years of age. It's also more prevalent in those with other autoimmune conditions, such as vitiligo. Others may develop a vitamin B12 deficiency if they follow a vegan diet or have a very poor diet.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition whereby one's risk of high blood sugar levels is higher than normal. Blood sugar - the main type of sugar you get from food - nourishes the body but high levels can damage the body. If you have type 2 diabetes, the main regulating force - insulin - is impaired, which leads to high blood sugar levels. Following a formal diagnosis, you'll be recommended to make healthy lifestyle changes to stabilise your blood sugar levels. There are two key components to blood sugar control - diet and exercise. There's nothing you cannot eat if you have type 2 diabetes, but you'll have to limit certain foods. Certain carbohydrate foods are broken down quickly by your body and therefore have a pronounced effect on blood sugar levels. They include: Some fruit and ve...