Health & Fitness

Imagine being completely blind but still being able to see. Does that sound impossible? Well, it happens. A few years ago, a man (let's call him Barry) suffered two strokes in quick succession. As a result, Barry was completely blind, and he walked with a stick.   One day, some psychologists placed Barry in a corridor full of obstacles like boxes and chairs. They took away his walking stick and told him to walk down the corridor. The result of this simple experiment would prove dramatic for our understanding of consciousness. Barry was able to navigate around the obstacles without tripping over a single one. Barry has blindsight, an extremely rare condition that is as paradoxical as it sounds. People with blindsight consistently deny awareness of items in front of them, but they are ...

© Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Michael Spatz, left, a volunteer with the Alexandria Medical Reserve Corps, helps AshaLetia Henderson through her first positive-case call as a coronavirus contact tracer in Alexandria in late June. Someone — let’s call her Person A — catches the coronavirus. It’s a Monday. She goes about life, unaware her body is incubating a killer. By perhaps Thursday, she’s contagious. Only that weekend does she come down with a fever and get tested. What happens next is critical. Public health workers have a small window of time to track down everyone Person A had close contact with over the past few days. Because by the coming Monday or Tuesday, some of those people — though they don’t yet have symptoms — could also be spreading the virus. Welco...

Welcome to the sprint known as contact tracing, the process of reaching potentially exposed people as fast as possible and persuading them to quarantine. The race is key to controlling the pandemic ahead of a vaccine, experts say. But most places across the United States aren’t making public how fast or well they’re running it, leaving Americans in the dark about how their governments are mitigating the risk. An exception is the District of Columbia, which recently added metrics on contact tracing to its online dashboard. A few weeks ago, the District was still too overwhelmed to try to ask all of those who tested positive about their contacts. Now, after building a staff of several hundred contact tracers, D.C. officials say they’re making that attempt within 24 hours of a positive tes...

New information released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows future prioritization for a potential coronavirus vaccine could be fraught with peril. As the discussion of priority groups entered the spotlight on Thursday, the coronavirus continues to present a challenge, as studies show pregnant women infected with the virus might be at greater risk for hospitalization than women who aren't pregnant. The study also cited racial disparities among COVID-positive pregnant women, with Hispanic women exhibiting the highest infection rate at 46 percent. PREGNANT WOMEN WITH CORONAVIRUS MORE LIKELY TO BE HOSPITALIZED, CDC WARNS While pregnant women are normally the last to receive a new vaccine due to an abundance of caution, re...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV ) — Even bound to a walker, and no car to get here there, Theresa Brown is determined to get her mother Mary Perkins out of the Trevecca Center for Rehabilitation and Healing. “If I get mad enough, I get to mine. That’s my momma. I’ll run to her,” Brown said. Brown said this week she learned her 87-year-old mother is once again COVID-19 positive, after being positive for the virus in early June. “She can’t keep on fighting off that disease. She’s 87. She doesn’t have that much to fight with her immune system,” Brown said. Brown now joins other children of residents, like Charles Horton, in questioning what’s being done to contain the virus. With 89 cases, the center has the second highest number of COVID-19 infections in nursing home...

The United States marked a subdued Fourth of July holiday with social distancing and restrictions on crowds preventing the typical gatherings and firework displays amid a surge in coronavirus infections in southern and western states.  Racial justice protests were also planned in the US capital on Saturday, where President Donald Trump is set to deliver a speech on the National Mall. Trump promised a "special evening" that could bring tens of thousands of spectators, despite warnings of the dangers of spreading the virus from Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is powerless over the event on federal land.  Saturday's commemoration of the declaration of US independence from Britain began on a grim note, with both Florida and Texas recording their highest daily new infections, 11,...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 after they failed to reduce mortality. The setback came as the WHO also reported more than 200,000 new cases globally of the disease for the first time in a single day. The United States accounted for 53,213 of the total 212,326 new cases recorded on Friday, the WHO said. “These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients when compared to standard of care. Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect,” the WHO said...

Many experts said the W.H.O. should embrace what some called a “precautionary principle” and others called “needs and values” — the idea that even without definitive evidence, the agency should assume the worst of the virus, apply common sense and recommend the best protection possible. “There is no incontrovertible proof that SARS-CoV-2 travels or is transmitted significantly by aerosols, but there is absolutely no evidence that it’s not,” said Dr. Trish Greenhalgh, a primary care doctor at the University of Oxford in Britain. “So at the moment we have to make a decision in the face of uncertainty, and my goodness, it’s going to be a disastrous decision if we get it wrong,” she said. “So why not just mask up for a few weeks, just in case?” After all, the W.H.O. seems willing to accept wi...

ATLANTA — A dog in Georgia is believed to have been the second canine in the US to test positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. The Georgia Department of Health said in a news release Wednesday that the 6-year-old mixed breed dog was tested after its owners contracted COVID-19 and the dog began suffering from a neurological illness. The dog was positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The dog was euthanized after the neurological illness progressed. Officials say the dog’s neurological illness was caused by a condition unrelated to the coronavirus. Experts do not believe that animals play a significant role in spreading the virus. Close Modal Suggest a Correction ...

LANSING, Mich. – Ingham County health officials announced Saturday multiple coronavirus (COVID-19) cases linked to a Lansing veterinary clinic, with even more people likely exposed. Officials say at least three people who visited Riverfront Animal Hospital between June 23-July 2 have tested positive for the virus. Anyone who went to the clinic between those dates should watch for COVID-19 symptoms, which may develop up to 14 days after exposure, officials said. “Riverfront Animal Hospital is now a known public exposure site to for COVID-19. Everyone who entered the vet clinic from June 23-July 2 should monitor themselves daily for symptoms,” said Ingham County Health Officer Linda S. Vail. “I strongly encourage everyone in our community to wear a mask and stay 6 feet away from others. W...