Author: Claudinne Miller
How Covid Quietly Rewires the Brain
Bloomberg Researchers keep discovering more about the long-term neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2. Doctors call it Ondine’s curse—a catastrophic failure of the brain stem in which breathing no longer happens automatically, especially during sleep. It’s extremely rare, typically seen only in infants with genetic mutations or adults after severe trauma, and for a long time it wasn’t […]
Feb 25, 2026
The Deaths Doctors Never Thought They’d See in the U.S.
The Atlantic For years, the worst outcomes of measles were all but unknown in America. Now they look inevitable. Of every 1,000 people the measles virus infects, it may kill as few as one to three. In a way, this can seem merciful. But the mathematics of measles is also unforgiving. The virus is estimated […]
Feb 25, 2026
Washington State: High School confirms active tuberculosis case, 130 people possibly exposed
KOMO News More than 100 people associated with Rainier Beach High School are being tested for Tuberculosis (TB) after one person was diagnosed and is now getting treatment for the serious, airborne disease. As a precaution, Public Health is recommending that about 130 people associated with the south Seattle school be evaluated, based on the amount of […]
Feb 25, 2026
Third, fourth cases of bird flu detected in Iowa
Iowa News Officials confirmed the third and fourth cases of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, in Iowa this year. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) announced Wednesday that cases of avian influenza were detected in multi-species backyard flocks in Van Buren and Keokuk Counties. These are the third and fourth […]
Feb 25, 2026
Poll: Americans trust vaccines, school mandates
Reuters A bipartisan majority of Americans believe vaccines are safe and that children should receive them to attend school, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, illustrating the challenges President Donald Trump’s administration faces to win broad support for upending decades of health policy. The six-day poll, which closed on Monday, comes as Health Secretary Robert […]
Feb 25, 2026
ChatGPT Health performance in a structured test of triage recommendations
Nature ChatGPT Health launched in January 2026 as OpenAI’s consumer health tool, reaching millions of users. Here, we conducted a structured stress test of triage recommendations using 60 clinician-authored vignettes across 21 clinical domains under 16 factorial conditions (960 total responses). Performance followed an inverted U-shaped pattern, with the most dangerous failures concentrated at clinical […]
Feb 25, 2026
Universal vaccine to treat colds, flu and COVID developed – and a new study suggests it just might work
The Conversation Vaccines have traditionally worked by teaching the immune system to recognise a specific virus or bacterium – in effect, showing it a wanted poster for a single suspect. But what if one vaccine could protect against dozens of different infections at once? Researchers have now developed a potential candidate for such a vaccine, […]
Feb 25, 2026
U.S. Newborn Hepatitis B Vaccination Rates Plunge, Reversing Years of Gains
MedPageToday Hepatitis B vaccination rates among U.S. newborns have fallen by more than 10 percentage points over the past 2 years, reversing 6 years of steady gains, according to an analysis of electronic health records. Among more than 12 million infants, birth-dose hepatitis B vaccination rates rose from 67.5% in January 2017 to a peak […]
Feb 25, 2026
As measles cases climb, these 9 diseases threaten comebacks
Washington Post When it comes to infectious diseases, measles is “the canary in the coal mine,” one expert said. There are more than 900 confirmed measles cases in the United States, as of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent weekly count. It’s less than two months into the year, “and we already have over […]
Feb 25, 2026
Hospitals Fighting Measles Confront a Challenge: Few Doctors Have Seen It Before
KFF At around 2 a.m., 7-year-old twin brothers arrived at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Both had a fever, a cough, a rash, pink eye, and cold symptoms. The boys sat in one waiting room and then another. Two hours and 20 minutes passed before the two were isolated, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services […]
Feb 25, 2026