Health

Gado/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Moderna announced Thursday that it’s launched early-stage clinical trials of an HIV mRNA vaccine. The biotechnology company has teamed up with the nonprofit ​​International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to develop the shot, which uses the same technology as Moderna’s successful COVID-19 vaccine. The first participants in the Phase I trial were given […]

EFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A new bill in California would allow children to get vaccinated against diseases including COVID-19 without their parents’ consent. Currently, kids in the state between ages 12 and 17 must receive permission from a parent or a guardian to get a vaccine, unless it is to prevent […]

Boston Globe via Getty Images (BOSTON) — The family of a Boston man is speaking out after they say their 31-year-old son was struck from a waitlist for a heart transplant because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. DJ Ferguson, who was diagnosed with arrhythmia four years ago, was admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital […]

Win McNamee/Getty Images (GENEVA) — Even as the omicron COVID-19 variant continues to sweep the globe, scientists are now monitoring a new mutation of omicron, dubbed BA.2. The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a “variant of concern,” meaning there is no current evidence to suggest this new subvariant will worsen COVID-19 transmission, […]

Ginny Jones (OMAHA, Neb.) — Dani Donovan, a 30-year-old woman from Omaha, Nebraska, said she spent the better part of a decade going to different doctors to seek help for chronic pain. At each visit, according to Donovan, she would be told she needed to lose weight, a discouraging cycle that she said kept her […]

Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — A new study adds to the growing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for both pregnant people and people hoping to become pregnant. The study, which looked at more than 2,000 couples in the United States and Canada, found “no adverse association” between getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and fertility, […]

iStock/peterspiro (SEATTLE) — Seattle doctors say hospitals are reaching their breaking points as they deal with a crush of COVID-19 patients amid the latest surge fueled by the omicron variant. Between Jan. 13 and Jan. 19, there has been an average of 64 new hospitalizations per day with a total of 449 during the week, […]

STEFANI REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, said Sunday he is “as confident as you can be” about the prospect of most states reaching a peak of omicron cases by mid-February. “You never want to be overconfident when you’re dealing with this virus,” Fauci told […]

MoMo Productions/Getty Images (LOS ANGELES) — Students in Los Angeles public schools must wear a non-cloth mask with a nose wire at all times, including during sports, beginning Monday, the district announced in a letter to families this weekend. Schools will give surgical-style masks to students and employees who need them, Los Angeles Unified’s interim […]

Glow Images/Getty Images (HOUSTON) — Battle against omicron variant pushes hospitals, health care workers to the brink COVID-19 cases have soared to new records with nearly 800,000 new infections per day. A 55-year-old Minnesota man, who was transferred to a Texas hospital earlier this month, after a judge blocked a local hospital from taking him […]