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WASHINGTON (AP) — Fall means it's time for just about everybody to get up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines – and a lot of older adults also need protection against another risky winter virus, RSV. Yes, you can get your flu and COVID-19 shots at the same time. Don't call them boosters — they're not just another dose of last year's protection. The coronavirus and influenza are escape artists that constantly mutate to evade your body's immune defenses, so both vaccines are reformulated annually to target newer strains. "Right now is th...
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, shots designed to more closely target recent virus strains -- and hopefully whatever variants cause trouble this winter, too. With the Food and Drug Administration's clearance, Pfizer and Moderna are set to begin shipping millions of doses. A third U.S. manufacturer, Novavax, expects its modified vaccine version to be available a little later. "We strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — New blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease faster and more accurately, researchers reported Sunday – but some appear to work far better than others. It's tricky to tell if memory problems are caused by Alzheimer's. That requires confirming one of the disease's hallmark signs — buildup of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid — with a hard-to-get brain scan or uncomfortable spinal tap. Many patients instead are diagnosed based on symptoms and cognitive exams. Labs have begun offering a variety of tests t...
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Wide-eyed piglets rushing to check out the visitors to their unusual barn just might represent the future of organ transplantation – and there's no rolling around in the mud here. The first gene-edited pig organs ever transplanted into people came from animals born on this special research farm in the Blue Ridge mountains – behind locked gates, where entry requires washing down your vehicle, swapping your clothes for medical scrubs and stepping into tubs of disinfectant to clean your boots between each air-c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert until leaving the government in 2022, faced heated questioning Monday from Republican lawmakers about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Republican-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation's response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started. Democrats opened the hearing saying the investigation so far has found no evidence that Fauci did anything wrong while missing an important o...
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jazmin Evans had been waiting for a new kidney for four years when her hospital revealed shocking news: She should have been put on the transplant list in 2015 instead of 2019 — and a racially biased organ test was to blame. As upsetting as that notification was, it also was part of an unprecedented move to mitigate the racial inequity. Evans is among more than 14,000 Black kidney transplant candidates so far given credit for lost waiting time, moving them up the priority list for their transplant. "I remember just rea...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alzheimer's quietly ravages the brain long before symptoms appear and now scientists have new clues about the dominolike sequence of those changes — a potential window to one day intervene. A large study in China tracked middle-aged and older adults for 20 years, using regular brain scans, spinal taps and other tests. Compared to those who remained cognitively healthy, people who eventually developed the mind-robbing disease had higher levels of an Alzheimer's-linked protein in their spinal fluid 18 years prior to dia...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Any parent who's ever called one of their children by the other's name — or even the family pet's name — likely could empathize when President Joe Biden mixed up the names of French leaders Macron and Mitterrand. The human brain has trouble pulling names out of stuffed memory banks on cue. But when are those and other verbal stumbles normal, and when might they be a sign of cognitive trouble? "When I see somebody make a flub on TV, I'm really not all that concerned," said well-known aging researcher S. Jay Olshansky of the U...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, when an out-of-whack immune system attacks their own bodies — and new research may finally explain why. It's all about how the body handles females' extra X chromosome, Stanford University researchers reported Thursday — a finding that could lead to better ways to detect a long list of diseases that are hard to diagnose and treat. "This transforms the way we think about this whole process of autoimmunity, especially the male-female bias," said University of Penns...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ancient DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have a higher risk of multiple sclerosis than other ancestries: It's a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago. The findings come from a huge project to compare modern DNA with that culled from ancient humans' teeth and bones — allowing scientists to trace both prehistoric migration and disease-linked genes that tagged along. When a Bronze Age people called the Yamnaya moved from the steppes of what are now Ukraine and...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have found a way to help Alzheimer's drugs seep inside the brain faster — by temporarily breaching its protective shield. The novel experiment was a first attempt in just three patients. But in spots in the brain where the new technology took aim, it enhanced removal of Alzheimer's trademark brain-clogging plaque, researchers reported Wednesday. "Our goal is to give patients a head start," by boosting some new Alzheimer's treatments that take a long time to work, said Dr. Ali Rezai of West Virginia University's Roc...
Drugs known as statins are the first-choice treatment for high cholesterol but millions of people who can't or won't take those pills because of side effects may have another option. In a major study, a different kind of cholesterol-lowering drug named Nexletol reduced the risk of heart attacks and some other cardiovascular problems in people who can't tolerate statins, researchers reported Saturday. Doctors already prescribe the drug, known chemically as bempedoic acid, to be used together with a statin to help certain high-risk patients...
New research shows vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall. The preliminary results buoy hope that after decades of failure and frustration, vaccines against RSV may finally be getting close. Pfizer announced Tuesday that a large international study found vaccinating moms-to-be was nearly 82% effective at preventing severe cases of RSV in their babies' most vulnerable first 90 days of life. At age 6 months, the vaccine...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Wednesday authorized its first update to COVID-19 vaccines, booster doses that target today's most common omicron strain. Shots could begin within days. The move by the Food and Drug Administration tweaks the recipe of shots made by Pfizer and rival Moderna that already have saved millions of lives. The hope is that the modified boosters will blunt yet another winter surge. "You'll see me at the front of the line," FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks told The Associated Press shortly before his agency cleared the n...
DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Researchers are seeking thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and Europe to test the first potential vaccine against Lyme disease in 20 years -- in hopes of better fighting the tick-borne threat. Lyme is a growing problem, with cases rising and warming weather helping ticks expand their habitat. While a vaccine for dogs has long been available, the only Lyme vaccine for humans was pulled off the U.S. market in 2002 from lack of demand, leaving people to rely on bug spray and tick checks. Now Pfizer and French biotech V...
More research suggests it's time to abandon the craze over vitamin D. Taking high doses of "the sunshine vitamin" doesn't reduce the risk of broken bones in generally healthy older Americans, researchers reported Wednesday. It's the latest in a string of disappointments about a nutrient once hoped to have wide-ranging protective effects. That same study of nearly 26,000 people already had found that popping lots of vitamin D pills didn't prevent heart disease, cancer or memory loss either. And while getting enough vitamin D is important for...
U.S. adults who haven't gotten any COVID-19 shots yet should consider a new option from Novavax -- a more traditional kind of vaccine, influential government advisers said Tuesday. Regulators authorized the nation's first so-called protein vaccine against COVID-19 last week, but Novavax shots cannot begin until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends how to use them. Most Americans have gotten at least their primary COVID-19 vaccinations by now, but CDC officials said between 26 million and 37 million adults haven't had a sing... Full story
New York researchers transplanted pig hearts into two brain-dead people over the last month, the latest in a string of developments in the long quest to one day save human lives with animal organs. The experiments announced Tuesday come after a historic but failed attempt earlier this year to use a pig's heart to save a dying Maryland man — sort of a rehearsal before scientists try again in the living. Among the lessons: Practice with the deceased is important. "We learned so much from the first one that the second one is much better," said D...
In a novel experiment, a woman with advanced pancreatic cancer saw her tumors dramatically shrink after researchers in Oregon turbocharged her own immune cells, highlighting a possible new way to someday treat a variety of cancers. Kathy Wilkes isn't cured but said what's left of her cancer has shown no sign of growth since the one-time treatment last June. "I knew that regular chemotherapy would not save my life and I was going for the save," said Wilkes, of Ormond Beach, Florida, who tracked down a scientist thousands of miles away and asked...
Kids ages 5 to 11 should get a booster dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, advisers to the U.S. government said Thursday. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention quickly adopted the panel's recommendation, opening a third COVID-19 shot to healthy elementary-age kids — just like what is already recommended for everybody 12 and older. The hope is that an extra shot will shore up protection for kids ages 5 to 11 as infections once again are on the rise. "Vaccination with a primary series among this age group has lagged behind other age g...
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Thursday strictly limited who can receive Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine due to a rare but serious risk of blood clots. The Food and Drug Administration said the shot should only be given to adults who cannot receive a different vaccine or specifically request J&J's vaccine. U.S. authorities for months have recommended that Americans starting their COVID-19 vaccinations use the Pfizer or Moderna shots instead. FDA officials said in a statement that they decided to restrict J&J's vaccine after taking an...
Moderna hopes to offer updated COVID-19 boosters in the fall that combine its original vaccine with protection against the omicron variant. On Tuesday, it reported a preliminary hint that such an approach might work. Today's COVID-19 vaccines all are based on the original version of the coronavirus. But the virus continues to mutate, with the super-contagious omicron variant — and its siblings — the latest threat. Before omicron came along, Moderna was studying a combination shot that added protection against an earlier variant named beta. Tue...
Americans 50 and older can get a second COVID-19 booster if it's been at least four months since their last vaccination, a chance at extra protection for the most vulnerable in case the coronavirus rebounds. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for that age group and for certain younger people with severely weakened immune systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later recommended the extra shot as an option but stopped short of urging that those eligible rush out...
Many Americans now can get a second COVID-19 booster, but it's hard to tell who really needs another shot right now and who could wait. The Food and Drug Administration authorized extra Pfizer or Moderna shots for anyone 50 or older and for some younger people with severely weakened immune systems. It's an effort to get ahead of a possible next coronavirus surge. With COVID-19 cases low in the U.S., it's easy to ignore calls for another dose — or for those who aren't yet vaccinated or boosted to get up to date, said Dr. Erica Johnson, an i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer on Tuesday asked the U.S. to authorize extra-low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5, potentially opening the way for the very youngest Americans to start receiving shots as early as March. In an extraordinary move, the Food and Drug Administration had urged Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to apply earlier than the companies had planned — and before it's settled if the youngsters will need two shots or three. The nation's 19 million children under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for vaccination aga...
