Month: June 2021

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Men who received the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine did not see a drop in sperm count or quality, a new study found. Researchers at the University of Miami studied the sperm quality of 45 healthy volunteers before their first shot and 70 days after their second, and found there were no “significant decreases in any sperm parameter” after taking two doses of the mRNA vaccine. “Because the vaccines contain mRNA and not the live virus, it is unlikely that the vaccine would affect sperm parameters,” said study author Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at the University of Miami Health System. The findings, which were published Thursday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, should soothe fears of men who...

Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned Thursday about the potential for long-term brain loss associated with Covid, citing a new study from the United Kingdom. "In short, the study suggests that there could be some long-term loss of brain tissue from Covid, and that would have some long-term consequences," the former FDA chief and CNBC contributor said.   "You could compensate for that over time, so the symptoms of that may go away, but you're never going to regain the tissue if, in fact, it's being destroyed as a result of the virus," said Gottlieb, who serves on the board of Covid vaccine-maker Pfizer. The U.K. study examined brain imaging before and after a coronavirus infection and looked specifically at the potential effect on the nervous system.  Gottlieb explained to CNBC's...

Israel has seen a spike in cases of a common respiratory virus that typically does not circulate during the summer, including seven children in serious condition. Citing Health Ministry officials, Channel 12 reported Thursday that doctors were concerned about the unusual rise in RSV and were ensuring that hospitals had appropriate breathing devices to treat patients. Similar spikes in unseasonal RSV were seen in other places around the world, most notably in Australia and among the ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn in their respective spring seasons. In all the cases, there had been a significant drop in cases during the normal winter RSV season. RSV is one of the typically common illnesses that have receded during the pandemic, surprising many doctors. The virus,...