Anti-Parasite Drug Won’t Help Against Mild COVID-19: Study A drug called ivermectin that’s typically used to treat parasitic worms and has been viewed as a potential COVID-19 treatment does not shorten the recovery of patients with mild COVID-19, a new clinical trial shows. The study included more than 400 peopleContinue Reading

Emptier Roads, But Sharp Rise in U.S. Traffic Deaths in 2020 Even though Americans drove less last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp increase in road deaths, a new study shows. In 2020, there were 42,060 deaths in vehicle crashes — which was 8% higher thanContinue Reading

Texas, Mississippi Drop Mask Mandates Texas has lifted its mask mandate and all businesses can reopen next Wednesday with no seating limits, Gov. Gregg Abbott announced Tuesday. Abbott’s moves came as federal health officials have cautioned governors against easing restrictions because nationwide progress against the COVID-19 pandemic has plateaued inContinue Reading

California Students Could Be Back in Classrooms by April New legislation could have many California’s public school students returning to classrooms by April. The plan announced Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders provides $2 billion to pay school districts that return select groups of students into schools byContinue Reading

AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Easy to Update in Response to Variants A COVID-19 vaccine still awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval may prove to be a powerful weapon in fighting the pandemic, according to its developers. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was approved earlier this month by the World Health Organization toContinue Reading

Single Dose of Pfizer COVID Vaccine Highly Effective in Previously Infected People A single dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides strong protection against the new coronavirus in people who’ve already been infected, two new British studies say. The findings provide strong support to experts who say that people who’veContinue Reading

COVID-19 Vaccine Makers Planning for Variants Pfizer and BioNTech say they plan to update their original COVID-19 vaccine and also test a third booster shot in order to prepare for the possibility that new coronavirus variants may be more resistant to the vaccine. “We are taking multiple steps to actContinue Reading

New Coronavirus Variant Surging in California A coronavirus variant first identified in California is more contagious than previous forms of the virus and is spreading across the state, two new studies show. One of them found that compared to other variants, this variant produces twice as many viral particles insideContinue Reading