Month: March 2021

Health officials are tracking these different variants closely through genome sequencing.  "We estimate that 50%-65% of COVID-positive specimens tested March 16 to March 20 were B117," Minnesota State Epidemiologist and MDH Medical Director Dr. Ruth Lynfield said about the variant. "This is an increase compared with specimens tested March 10 through the 15th in which 38%-44% were estimated to be B117."  Of those positive cases that were tested for the variant, only 15% of those people reported having traveled. Health officials say that tells them the variant is becoming the dominant strain in Minnesota. They said they're also concerned about two other variants coming from California.  Dr. Fauci warns of possible vi...

Getting a flu shot is not the same thing as getting a COVID-19 vaccination. If it were, the world would be in a very different place right now. Still, a new study released by health researchers in Michigan has arrived at an intriguing finding, and it's one the scientists can't as yet fully explain.   In an analysis of medical records from over 27,000 patients in Michigan who got tested for COVID-19 by July 2020, patients who had received an influenza vaccine within the previous year were significantly less likely to test positive for the coronavirus than those who hadn't. Significantly, yes – but not by a large amount. All up, of the 27,201 patients in the study who got tested for COVID-19, 1,218 tested positive, representing 4.5 percent of the cohort. It's worth bearing in mind that...

With precautions like mask-wearing in place, experts predict travel is among many activities that may become safer by this summer. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images With precautions like mask-wearing in place, experts predict travel is among many activities that may become safer by this summer. Joe Raedle/Getty Images A year after t...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.