Health & Fitness

America’s coronavirus epidemic has taken a turn for the worse, with many more states showing sharp increases in daily cases compared with two weeks ago. How long will it take for researchers to catch up and develop more effective therapies against Covid-19? The federal government’s Operation Warp Speed is working with drugmakers to accelerate the development and manufacturing of vaccines. Five candidates are in clinical trials, including one from Pfizer (on whose board one of us, Dr. Gottlieb, sits). More vaccines are expected...

Vaccine researchers are trying new tacks in an unprecedented effort to recruit the tens of thousands of healthy volunteers needed to finish testing coronavirus shots in late stages of development. Quickly lining up all the subjects for so many studies at the same time poses several challenges, creating competition among companies. Given the...

Washington — Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, warned Sunday that the United States is "right back where we were" when the country experienced its first peak in coronavirus infections earlier this year. "We're right back where we were at the peak of the epidemic during the New York outbreak," Gottlieb said on "Face the Nation." "The difference now is that we really had one epicenter of spread when New York was going through its hardship. Now we really have four major epicenters of spread: Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida and Arizona. And Florida looks to be in the worst shape, and Georgia is heating up as well, and that's concerning." Forty states have reported a surge in confirmed coronavirus cases as they began to lift restr...

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This story has been updated with information from the Shelby County Health Department clarifying the age of those required to wear a mask. It has also been updated to add information about the evolving legal basis for the mask directive.  Masks are now mandatory in all of Shelby County, the county health department said Friday. The health directive that made masks mandatory took effect at 6 p.m. Friday.  The decision from the health department follows a mask mandate implemented in Memphis a week ago. The mandate applies to everyone 2 and over, according to Health Director Alisa Haushalter. At a press conference Friday, Haushalter originally said the mandate applied to those 12 and younger — a statement she since clarified. The directive does not mention any penalties for people violatin...

BOSTON (AP) — The eastern equine encephalitis virus has been discovered in mosquitoes for the first time this year in Massachusetts, health officials said. EEE was confirmed by the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory in a mosquito sample collected July 1 in the town of Orange in Franklin County, officials said Friday. No human or animal cases of EEE have been detected so far this year, officials said. The mosquito-borne disease is a rare but a potentially deadly disease. There were 12 human cases in Massachusetts in 2019 with six deaths. There were also nine cases in domestic animals. Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel said the state has been preparing for a resurgence of EEE. Surveillance will help health officials determine how quickly the virus might emerge this...

Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, predicted there is a likelihood that a coronavirus vaccine will be available in early 2021, but cautioned that it may not be 100 percent effective. Jha told "Fox News Sunday" that he was encouraged by developments in vaccine creation in the U.S., Europe, and China, and but said even if a vaccine is made available, it may not completely immunize people from COVID-19. WHO'S FIRST IN LINE FOR A CORONAVIRUS VACCINE? NEW INFO SHOWS PRIORITIZATION FARUGHT WITH PERIL "Vaccines, I am very optimistic we’re going to have one in early 2021. The challenge here,” Jha said, “is that there are seven-plus billion people in the world. And there is going to be a race to vaccinate everybody, we’re going to need billions of doses." He cont...

Brain-eating amoeba case reported in Florida The Florida Department of Health confirmed that one person in Hillsborough County has been infected with a water-borne microscopic single-celled amoeba that attacks the brain. A person in Florida has been infected with a rare and usually deadly brain-eating amoeba, according to health officials. The Florida Department of Health announced Friday that one patient in Hillsborough County has been infected with Naegleria fowleri, a water-borne,microscopic single-celled amoeba that attacks the brain. "Infections can happen when contaminated water enters the body through the nose," the health department said. BRAIN-EATING AMOEBA: WHAT IS IT, AND HOW DO YOU PREVENT CONTRACTING IT? The amoeba can cause a rare infection of the brain called prim...