Health

EMS-FORSTER-PRODUCTIONS/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — More than 70% of Americans should be able to remove their masks indoors, including inside schools, under new metrics outlined Friday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that represent a seismic shift in how the public health agency plans to measure COVID risk. Under the new metrics, more than […]

EMS-FORSTER-PRODUCTIONS/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Some 70% of Americans will be able to remove their masks indoors, including inside schools, under new guidance to be released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News. Under the new metrics in the updated guidance, more than half […]

Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has closely followed what the United Kingdom had done to combat the virus from its early response to its vaccination rollout. Outbreaks in Great Britain have been harbingers of what’s to come in the U.S., and its policies have […]

ELISA WELLS/PLAN C/AFP via Getty Images (NEW YORK) — For the first time, medication abortion now makes up the majority of abortions in the United States, according to data released Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization. According to the institute’s survey of known abortion providers in the U.S., 54% of abortions in […]

Stella/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — As the United States faces a growing mental health crisis among young people, spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic, a nonprofit organization focused on mental health in schools is increasing its efforts thanks to a $15 million donation from Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Scott, who has […]

skaman306/Getty Images (ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID-19 vaccine guidance on Tuesday to recommend that some Americans over the age of 12 who have received a first mRNA vaccine dose, wait up to eight weeks before getting their second dose, instead of the previously recommended three to four. Several […]

JGI/Jamie Grill (ATLANTA) — Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. rose during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial disparities that existed before the pandemic were perpetuated, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report looked at data from the CDC’s National Centers for […]

Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Drugmakers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced Wednesday they are planning to ask regulators to authorize their new COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The companies said data shows the shot works either as a primary vaccine, with 100% effectiveness against severe disease and hospitalization, or as a booster shot to raise […]

Courtesy Kristi Engelbrecht (BURLINGTON, N.C.) — A North Carolina couple became first-time parents on “Twosday.” Aberli and Hank Spear welcomed their first child — a girl they’ve named Judah Grace Spear — on Feb. 22, 2022, at 2:22 a.m. at Cone Health Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, North Carolina. “Everyone in the room, all […]

Courtesy Amber Higgins (NEW YORK) — A New Mexico infant is happy, healthy and thriving after beating the odds. Jari Lopez was just 9 inches and weighed only 11.5 ounces, lighter than an average loaf of bread, when he was born at 24 weeks on Feb. 22, 2021. The micro preemie now has the honor […]