Public Health

A lot has happened in one year, yet as the holiday season approaches, Americans are still facing similar challenges amid the ongoing pandemic. 

Health officials say two factors might signal a severe flu season is in store for the U.S.: outbreaks at college campuses and a dominant strain associated with particularly bad flu seasons, NBC News reported Nov. 19. 

Mental health crisis lines experienced a 35 percent surge in calls relating to fears and loneliness early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, a study analyzing over 8 million calls published Nov. 7 in Nature found.

Michigan is currently seeing the highest average rate of daily COVID-19 cases per capita in the nation, with higher rates than all other states as well as every major U.S. region, according to state and local health agency data cited…

The first known person to contract COVID-19 was likely a vendor at an animal market in Wuhan, China — not an accountant who lived about 18 miles from the market, as a World Health Organization team previously suggested — a…

The trajectory of COVID-19 over the next few months depends on three unknowns: immunity, new variants and our behavior, Sarah Zhang wrote Nov. 18 for The Atlantic. 

Mask wearing cuts the risk of new COVID-19 infections by 53 percent, new research published Nov. 18 in BMJ found.

An increasing number of fully vaccinated adults are seeking emergency care or being hospitalized for COVID-19 as cases rise nationwide, two top health officials said this week, according to NBC News.

Amid a rise in COVID-19 cases across the U.S., hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people are also increasing, raising questions about waning vaccine immunity and whether booster doses will eventually be required to be considered fully vaccinated. 

U.S. hospitalizations for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia doubled in May 2020 — about two months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency, a study published Nov. 16 in JAMA Network Open found.