Scientists are exploring a theory suggesting that exposure to one respiratory virus helps the body fend off competing pathogens.
Tag Archives: Influenza
What Will Motivate More Parents to Vaccinate Their Kids?
They’re not necessarily misinformed. Some are just worried.
Justice Clarence Thomas Hospitalized With Flulike Symptoms, Court Says
Justice Thomas, who was hospitalized on Friday, was being treated with intravenous antibiotics and was expected to be released in a day or two, the court said on Sunday.
Shrugs Over Flu Signal Future Attitudes About Covid
The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t prompted most Americans to take influenza more seriously. Instead, more people are likely to think of Covid the way they think of flu, experts say.
Inside the High-Stakes Race to Test the Covid Tests
Researchers in Atlanta have helped the federal government evaluate dozens of Covid tests and pioneer a new model for developing novel diagnostics.
Flu Vaccine Was Not Very Effective This Season, the C.D.C. Says
The vaccine was only about 16 percent effective at reducing a person’s chance of getting a mild or moderate infection, the agency said. Experts said a good rate would be at least 50 percent.
An Undiscovered Coronavirus? The Mystery of the ‘Russian Flu’
Scientists are grasping for any example that could help anticipate the future of Covid, even a mysterious respiratory pandemic that spread in the late 19th century.
Exercise May Enhance the Effects of a Covid or Flu Shot
A 90-minute walk, jog or bike ride after getting vaccinated may boost your body’s immune response.
What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended
Overconfidence, indifference and weariness are perhaps the biggest dangers.
‘People Need to Be Reminded About Flu’
With Covid surging again and vaccine fatigue rising, vaccination rates for influenza are troublingly low, especially among older Americans.
Flu and Covid at the Same Time? Your ‘Flurona’ Questions, Answered
Yes, you can get “flurona.” But it’s probably not as bad as it sounds.
Can the Flu Contribute to Parkinson’s Disease?
There was a sharp increase in Parkinson’s cases following the 1918 influenza pandemic. A new study strengthens a link between the two.
C.D.C. Investigates Flu Outbreak at University of Michigan
There have been 528 cases of the flu on the university’s campus in Ann Arbor, a vast majority in students who have not had flu shots, school officials said.
CDC Investigates Flu Outbreak at University of Michigan
There have been 528 cases of the flu on the university’s campus in Ann Arbor, a vast majority in students who have not had flu shots, school officials said.
What You Should Know About the Flu
We’ve had two light years in a row, which some experts worry could mean we’ll be in for a rough few months.
What We Know About Covid-19, the Flu and the Air We Breathe
We have more power than we thought against the flu and other respiratory viruses.
What the Future May Hold for the Coronavirus and Us
Viral evolution is a long game. Here’s where scientists think we could be headed.
First, Impressive Vaccines for Covid. Next Up: The Flu.
Vaccine makers are betting that the mRNA technology powering two successful Covid vaccines will help curb the tragic global death toll from the flu.
It’s Time to Get a Flu Shot
Public health experts recommend an annual flu shot, and are worried a “twindemic” with Covid-19 could further burden health care facilities this year.
Is the Future Just a Spike Protein Stamping on a Human Face, Forever?
The Covid endgame continues to elude us.
Is It Safe to Send Kids Back to School With the Delta Variant?
As the Delta variant rages, parents remain confused about how their children can safely return to classrooms in the midst of a pandemic. Here are answers to common questions.
Why Everyone Has the Worst Summer Cold Ever
As pandemic restrictions begin to relax, common viruses that cause drippy noses, stuffy heads and other cold symptoms have roared back to taunt your immune system.
Should People With Immune Problems Get Third Vaccine Doses?
France is handing out third shots of the two-dose vaccines to cancer patients and others with immune system impairments. In the United States, patients like these are on their own.
New York Turns to Smart Thermometers for Disease Detection in Schools
The technology company Kinsa will distribute as many as 100,000 internet-connected thermometers through the city’s elementary schools.
Teens Are Rarely Hospitalized With Covid, but Cases Can Be Severe
Adolescents were hospitalized with Covid three times as often as with flu, researchers reported. Nearly one-third wound up in I.C.U.s.
After the Pandemic, Will More People Wear Masks for Colds and Flu?
The behavior is common in East Asia, but there’s no tidy scientific consensus on how much it limits the spread of respiratory illnesses. Now some wonder how the idea will go over in the U.S.
Is It Covid or the Flu? New Combo Tests Can Find Out.
New tests for respiratory illnesses can look for more than 20 pathogens at a time.
What Can You Do With Unvaccinated Kids?
There will be more than one reasonable way to approach the risks of family activities.
If Your Kids Haven’t Gotten the Covid Vaccine, What’s Safe?
There will be more than one reasonable way to approach the risks of family activities.
Can Covid Research Help Solve the Mysteries of Other Viruses?
The coronavirus may help scientists understand why some people with common viral infections develop severe complications, like heart damage or blood clots.
Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Coronavirus Vaccine
A new formulation entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.
Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Covid-19 Vaccine
A new formulation entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.
Virus Variants Threaten to Draw Out the Pandemic, Scientists Say
Declining infection rates over all masked a rise in more contagious forms of the coronavirus. Vaccines will stop the spread, if Americans postpone celebration just a bit longer.
The Pandemic and the Limits of Science
What have we learned from the year that lasted a century?
China’s Dr. Fauci Urges Restraint in Fighting Covid-19
Zhang Wenhong has drawn a huge public following with a human touch and candid advice that sometimes runs counter to the government’s authoritarian instincts.
Garden-variety germs may explode in COVID’s wake, study suggests
Enlarge / Young children go back to kindergarten following COVID-19 lockdown. (credit: Getty | TPG)
In our cushy COVID bubbles, our immune systems may be getting soft.
Physical distancing, lockdowns, masking, and spirited sanitizing all mean we are coming into contact with fewer garden-variety germs than normal. This year’s flu season was basically cancelled.
While that may seem like a welcome reprieve from seasonal ailments and pesky sniffles, experts fear that our immune systems may be losing their defensive edge in the lull. And with the usual microscopic suspects lying in wait for our return to some sense of normalcy, it could mean that nasty bursts of common colds and flu-like illnesses are in our post-COVID futures—ones that may not be avoidable even if we carry on with some of our COVID precautions.
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A Look at Past Vaccine Drives: Smallpox, Polio and the Swine Flu
As governments begin rolling out the biggest vaccine drives in history, a look at mass vaccination campaigns of the past offers insight into mistakes.
Emerging Coronavirus Variants May Pose Challenges to Vaccines
Laboratory studies of mutations circulating in South Africa suggest they may dodge some of the body’s immune responses.
Echoes of Another Pandemic: How The Times Covered the 1918 Flu
The influenza outbreak killed more than 20,000 New Yorkers and 675,000 Americans. It might have dominated the news, if not for World War I.
From a 1550s Pandemic, a Choral Work Still Casts Its Spell
We know remarkably little about John Sheppard and his “Media vita.” But it has become a cult favorite of early music.
Don’t Let the Pandemic Stop Your Shots
Even as older adults await the coronavirus vaccine, many are skipping the standard ones. That’s not wise, health experts say.
A Century After Phony Flu Ads, Companies Hype Dubious Covid Cures
Musical medicine? Corona-fighting herbs? “Human beings haven’t changed all that much,” a marketing professor says of the similarities between ads from 1918 and recent months.
What You Can Do Post-Vaccine, and When
Particularly in the early months of vaccination, many activities should wait, experts say — and plan to keep your masks.
The Coronavirus Is Mutating. What Does That Mean for Us?
Officials in Britain and South Africa claim new variants are more easily transmitted. There’s a lot more to the story, scientists say.
Fears of a ‘Twindemic’ Recede as Flu Lies Low
Despite early worries, flu patients are not competing with Covid-19 patients for ventilators, and the threat of dueling outbreaks may be waning.
Here’s Why Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear a Mask
The new vaccines will probably prevent you from getting sick with Covid. No one knows yet whether they will keep you from spreading the virus to others — but that information is coming.
Why Doesn’t the U.S. Give Flu Vaccines to Migrant Children?
Despite a readily available vaccine, it’s not being given to migrant children.
A Coronavirus Vaccine Game Plan, With Help From South Korea
Officials and scientists fought misinformation with data and clear communication — offering a game plan for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, experts say.
A Reality Check for Italy’s Vaccination Hopes: a Flu-Shot Logjam
A leading Italian virologist says he hasn’t been able to get a simple flu shot, raising questions about Italy’s ability to carry out a mass vaccination drive to combat Covid-19.
UnitedHealth Ships Flu Kits to Medicare Recipients
Under MedAdvantage plans, the major insurer is sending packages including Tamiflu and coronavirus tests to those considered especially vulnerable to Covid and the flu.