Month: March 2021

Proof of vaccination may allow us to begin resuming our normal activities in the near future. Photos that display the COVID-19 vaccination card like a badge of honor have been making the rounds on social media for months, but the card is more than fodder for selfies, it could be your ticket to freedom in the coming months -- so it should be protected as such. The precious paper card contains vital information including the brand of vaccine you received and the dates you were immunized. According to public health experts, it's crucial to keep that information handy in case you need it to prove your vaccination status, or to streamline possible future booster shots. Vaccination records can likely eventually be replaced if they are lost or damaged, but it is especially important to take go...

Men who have stable coronary artery disease who also take Viagra may live longer and also have a decreased risk of having a new heart attack compared to those who suffer from the disease but do not take the erectile dysfunction drug, according to the findings of a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.  Researchers with the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden compared the effects of different ED drugs in men with stable coronary artery diease. All participants had experienced a heart attack, undergone balloon dilation (a cardiac catheterization procedure), or had undergone bypass surgery in the six months before they began treatment for ED.  Collecting data from patient, drug and cause of death registries, the researchers looked at 16,500 men who were tre...

A small study estimating the health consequences of prolonged shelter-in-place orders amid the coronavirus pandemic suggested Americans gained about 1.5 pounds every month. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco published a research letter in JAMA Network Open on Monday, drawing on results from 269 participants across 37 states and Washington, D.C in the Health eHeart Study. They analyzed data from participants’ Bluetooth-enabled scales, like a Fitbit, to track weight measurements from February to June 2020. PLANT-BASED 'GREEN' MEDITERRANEAN DIET LEADS TO MORE WEIGHT LOSS: STUDY "We found that, while weights were actually headed down (losing weight) pre-pandemic, they rose significantly as shelter in place order took hold," Dr. Gregory Marcus, cardiologist and pro...

Health officials reported 1,832 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus in Illinois Tuesday, including 13 deaths. The Illinois Department of Public Health is now reporting a total of 1,224,915 cases, including 21,116 deaths, since the pandemic began. Chicago’s COVID-19 emergency travel order lacks enforcement amid pandemic Within the past 24 hours, labs have reported 49,739 specimens for a total of 19,726,135.   As of Monday night, 1,270 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 272 patients were in the ICU and 117 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from March 16-22, 2021 is 2.5%.  The preliminary seven-day...

More than two months after he was fully vaccinated against Covid, a doctor in New York woke up with a headache and a dull, heavy feeling of fatigue. A fever and chills soon followed, and his senses of taste and smell began to fade. This, he thought, could not be happening. But it was: He tested positive for the coronavirus. “It was a huge shock,” he said. He knew that no vaccine was perfect and that the Pfizer-BioNTech shots he received had been found 95 percent effective in a large clinical trial. “But somehow in my mind, it was 100 percent,” he said. The doctor, who requested anonymity to protect his privacy, is among the few reported cases of people who have been infected after being partly or even fully vaccinated. Nearly 83 million Americans have received at least one dose of a Covi...