KFF Health News’ Céline Gounder explains the “five-day rule” on covid safety, how guidelines and testing have evolved, and how best to protect yourself and others.
Facts don’t support claims by a likely Republican Senate candidate that a federal research laboratory in Montana infected bats with a coronavirus from China before the covid-19 outbreak.
Injectable penicillin is the go-to treatment for syphilis and the only treatment considered safe for pregnant people with the disease. But as rates of syphilis increase across the U.S., a shortage of the injectable has prompted some public health agencies to ration it.
Opposition to vaccines and other public health measures backed by science has become politically charged. That makes dangerous misinformation much harder to fight.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering fuzzy guidelines on infection control in hospitals, critics say, leaving employers free to cut corners on N95 masks and other protective measures.
Candidates see former President Donald Trump’s embrace of his administration’s covid-19 vaccine policies as an opportunity to gain ground. So far, their efforts haven’t found traction.
Supply problems, a high price tag, and bureaucratic obstacles are slowing the distribution of a therapy that can protect infants from the respiratory syncytial virus. That will leave them unnecessarily at risk of hospitalization this winter, pediatricians fear.
The CDC’s RSV vaccination recommendations beg the question: How much should an immunization that will possibly be given to millions of Americans cost to be truly valuable?
A rise in cases of Vibrio vulnificus and its spread northward have heightened concern about the bacterium, which can cause human tissue to rot and skin to decay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to make more doctors aware of the dangerous pathogen.