The US Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday that silver dental fillings, known as dental amalgam, may cause health problems for some high-risk groups. The updated FDA guidance said the filling material could lead to health issues for those with a hypersensitivity to mercury. Dental amalgam fillings are a mixture of silver, tin, copper and…

The median age of people diagnosed with coronavirus keeps getting lower. In May, the median age of confirmed cases was 46. By July, that number had dropped to 37. By August, 1 out of every 5 confirmed coronavirus cases is a person in their 20s, according to new data published Wednesday by the US Centers…

Virtual learning facilitator is a full-time job these days for Alicia Burgstahler. The Philadelphia woman, 39, is mother to two children, a 16-year-old son named Jaydon Scott and a 12-year-old daughter named Oliviah Scott. Both kids are sheltering in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both kids are in public school full time, online. Both…

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that even an effective Covid-19 vaccine won’t replace the need for other public health measures, such as wearing a mask, social distancing and washing hands. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the vaccine will not be 100% effective and taken by 100% of…

It’s more bad new for America’s growing waistline: Excess belly fat is associated with a higher risk of early death from any cause, regardless of how much overall body fat you have, a new study finds. In women, each 10-centimeter increase in belly fat raised the risk of death from any cause by 8%. For…

More than 200,000 Americans have lost their lives to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, and the country is now transitioning into a new season with worrisome trends. The devastating death toll comes ahead of what experts caution could be a complicated flu season. In the next three months, another 150,000 people could lose…

Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate begins Phase 3 trials in the United States today. Trials for the single-dose vaccine will include up to 60,000 adult participants at nearly 215 sites in the US and internationally. Phase 3 trials will begin immediately, with the first participants receiving doses on Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson Chief Scientific…

People who have had heart attacks can boost their chances of long-term survival by returning to normal levels of sexual activity, a new study shows. Many people stop having sex after a heart attack in the belief that it could trigger another episode, but research published Wednesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology says…

What happened today seemed impossible to many Americans six months ago. When Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted in March that Covid-19 could kill 200,000 people in the US, skeptics lambasted him and accused him of fearmongering. But Fauci was right. And the US reached that bleak milestone much earlier than some experts predicted. Since the first…

Black and Hispanic people are twice as likely to test positive for Covid-19 as White people even after adjusting for outside factors, says a new study. The disparity cannot be entirely explained by underlying health conditions, place of residence or place of care, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. Christopher…

With the US surpassing 200,000 deaths due to Covid-19, a group of pediatric infectious disease specialists is calling for vaccine trials for children. There are three large-scale vaccine trials for adults in the US, but none has begun for children, who are “stuck in neutral,” eight physicians said in a commentary published Friday in the…

Older racial and ethnic minority residents in nursing homes and assisted living communities in the United States and their caregivers have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research by the University of Rochester Medical Center. The findings, based on newly mandated weekly data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services…

If you’re trying to quit smoking, it could pay to acknowledge and accept your cravings rather than avoid them. And downloading a smartphone app that takes that approach could increase your odds of success, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. “The problem is that when you try to avoid what you’re…