Health News

Lynn Gardner , Morehouse School of Medicine Few things are more challenging than trying to vaccinate a terrified and uncooperative child. I have seen children wedge themselves into a corner and refuse to budge. I have seen them thrash and yell. And I have seen them sit perfectly still, but cry the entire time. I’m an associate professor of pediatrics and have been a primary care pediatrician for more than 25 years. I’ve encountered these situations thousands of times in my c

Deborah Fuller , University of Washington The two most successful coronavirus vaccines developed in the U.S. – the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – are both mRNA vaccines. The idea of using genetic material to produce an immune response has opened up a world of research and potential medical uses far out of reach of traditional vaccines. Deborah Fuller is a microbiologist at the University of Washington who has been studying genetic vaccines for more than 20 years. We spoke to

Janelle R. Goodwill , University of Chicago Frederick Douglass is regarded as one of the most prominent abolitionists the world has ever seen. Alongside his extraordinary contributions as an influential speaker , writer and human rights advocate, Douglass – who was born into slavery and gained freedom in September 1838 – also wrote openly about his struggles with suicidal thoughts. Douglass’ writings are both revolutionary and transformative, particularly when considering t

Kat Kennedy , University of Arizona and Sara Nowakowski , Baylor College of Medicine The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Menstruating women who sleep less than six hours a night tend to suffer heavier and irregular periods. That is the conclusion from our new study, which was recently published in the Journal of Sleep Research . We found that those who got less than six hours of sleep on average nightly were 44% more likely to ha

Yolonda Wilson , Howard University Several years ago, MapQuest directed me on a 10-hour drive to visit my father in a Florida hospital. Complications from diabetes, including blindness, kidney failure, congestive heart failure, and a below-the-knee amputation, had taken their toll. This time my father, 69, was hospitalized for an infection of unknown origin that physicians could not name, despite their many attempts to grow cultures. I did not know it at the time, but my fath

Sharona Hoffman , Case Western Reserve University Artificial intelligence holds great promise for improving human health by helping doctors make accurate diagnoses and treatment decisions. It can also lead to discrimination that can harm minorities, women and economically disadvantaged people. The question is, when health care algorithms discriminate, what recourse do people have? A prominent example of this kind of discrimination is an algorithm used to refer chronically ill

April Thames , USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Negative social attitudes, such as racism and discrimination, damage the health of those who are targeted by triggering a cascade of aberrant biological responses, including abnormal gene activity. It is not surprising that reports documenting lifespan and causes of mortality have demonstrated a clear pattern: African Americans die sooner and bear a heavier burden of many diseases, including hypertension, hear