Medicago will be shutting down its COVID-19 vaccine project in Quebec after its sole shareholder decided to no longer invest in the company, the company announced Thursday. With the Japan-based Mitsubishi Chemical Group deciding to “proceed with an orderly wind-up of its business operations in Canada and the United States,” Medicago announced the group would … Read more
Autism is on the rise among young children, according to a new study. The study, published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics, found that autism rates tripled over the last 16 years. Researchers at Rutgers University looked at more than 4,000 8-year-olds in the New York and New Jersey areas. They said the sharp rise in … Read more
Americans who got their COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine are not fully protected against getting sick, according to a new report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that said the updated boosters were just 48% effective at preventing symptomatic infection from the XBB variant of the disease. The World Health Organization has … Read more
An illustration of varicella zoster virus, the cause of chickenpox and shingles.illustration: Shutterstock (Shutterstock) Common viral infections may be having far-reaching effects on our brain health, new research suggests. The study found a link between dozens of different viral exposures and a later increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders. More research will … Read more
The patient, Hector Campos, came into the emergency department with shortness of breath, erratic fever, and swollen, itchy ears. His wife explained that Campos had tested negative for COVID-19. “What do you think this might be?” Campos asked the chief of emergency medicine, Ethan Choi, who was similarly befuddled by the man’s symptoms. Scary, right? … Read more
You take the good with the bad — or neither. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge found that common antidepressants cause “emotional blunting” — numbing not just the hard times but all sentiments — in nearly half of users. Most of these medications are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that target … Read more
The following is an excerpt from Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature’s Secrets to Longevity by Nicklas Brendborg. Available for sale January 17, 2023 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobleand Bookshop.org. When the United States began vaccinating against the measles virus in the 1960s, children fortunately stopped getting measles. But that wasn’t the only thing; suddenly, American children … Read more
Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock) For the first time ever, experts with the American Academy of Pediatrics are recommending proactive medical intervention against childhood obesity. The organization’s new guidelines will no longer ask doctors to simply observe or delay treatment in children with obesity, defined as a body mass index over 30. They instead now emphasize a … Read more
When we were teenagers, my brother and I received kidney transplants six days apart. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. He, two years older, was scheduled to receive my dad’s kidney in April of 1998. Twenty-four hours before the surgery, the transplant team performed its final blood panel and discovered a tissue incompatibility that … Read more
Immune therapies have rewritten the game when it comes to cancer treatment, earning the “fifth pillar” label next to more tried and true treatments like radiation therapy, surgery, and chemotherapy. And no immunotherapy has garnered quite the same excitement as CAR T-cell therapy, first approved in 2017 by the Food and Drug Administration to treat … Read more