Health News [UP]

A new individual bio-containment unit designed to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 blocks 99.99% of the airborne respiratory droplets that spread the virus, a study in Annals of Emergency Medicine found....Read More

Vitamin D deficiency increases a person’s risk for catching COVID-19 by 77% compared to those with sufficient levels of the nutrient, a study published Thursday by JAMA Network Open found....Read More

People with confirmed COVID-19 should be retested four weeks after symptoms first appear to minimize their risk for spreading the virus, according to the authors of a study published Wednesday by BMJ Open....Read More

Drinking more than two standard-sized servings of alcohol per day raises the risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome in some people by more than 30%, according to a study presented Wednesday....Read More

The corticosteroid dexamethasone reduces the need for ventilator support in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a study published Wednesday by JAMA....Read More

Passengers on buses are at significant risk for catching COVID-19 if a fellow traveler is infected and face coverings and social distancing measures aren’t being used....Read More

FDA data shows that Black Americans are recruited for drug trials at substantially lower rates than White Americans — 75% of cardiovascular drug trials from 2015-2019 had major racial discrepencies, researchers say....Read More

Cloth or surgical masks are more effective than clear plastic face shields or masks with exhalation valves in preventing COVID-19 spread, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the journal Physics of Fluid....Read More

Multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced it has started Phase III clinical trials in the United States of its COVID-19 candidate vaccine....Read More

Up to 6% of the staff caring for COVID-19 at 13 hospitals across the country tested positive for the virus, but nearly 30% of them were asymptomatic and could have spread it, according to a CDC...