People who are pregnant are now eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine in more than 40 states — typically ahead of their lower-risk peers. And more than 60,000 of them have already rolled up their sleeves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the Covid-19 vaccines authorized in the US were not studied in pregnancy, early data is now starting to emerge suggesting — as researchers expected — that the vaccines are likely safe during pregnancy and confer protection not only to the recipient but also, potentially, the baby. “It’s all very positive,” says Stephanie Gaw, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the University of California San Francisco…

The rapid spread of new variants of the coronavirus, some of which seem to be more contagious than older versions, has experts in the US calling for stricter social distancing and better masking to avoid yet another big surge of new Covid-19 cases and deaths. Health advocates and epidemiologists are particularly concerned about what will happen once the new variants find their way into prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities. Across the US, at least one in five incarcerated individuals has already been infected with Covid-19, and a disproportionate number of them have died. One study found that the 2.3 million Americans living behind bars have twice the risk of…

THE TWO SIDES beaten in the 2021 All-Ireland series by the eventual champions Tyrone, met in Tralee on Saturday night. Kerry and Mayo both entered the game unbeaten in the league to date, and while the spoils went to the home team, both remain in the top two spots in Division 1. Part of the current leading football group, what can either take from the mid-March meeting on a night of torrential rain? ******* Kerry dig deep for victory There were clear parallels that could be drawn between Kerry’s Round 5 tie on Saturday and their Round 1 game in late January in Newbridge. They were in front 1-10 to…

It’s been nearly a year since Julie Horowitz-Jackson’s mother, Arlene, died of Covid-19 in a nursing facility in Philadelphia. “What hit me recently is that the world is opening back up, and my mom’s still dead,” Horowitz-Jackson says. At this point in the Covid-19 pandemic, as vaccines get rolled out in the United States and around the globe, there is a glimmer of hope that life will safely start shifting back to “normal” in the coming months. But so many people, like Horowitz-Jackson, are still working through their grief, and it won’t just disappear when the virus does. Horowitz-Jackson, 51, says she was coping well with the loss of her…

July 4 this year could also be America’s Independence Day from Covid-19. At current rates, America is administering nearly 2.8 million Covid-19 vaccine doses a day — roughly enough to vaccinate every adult (18 and older) in the country by July 4. That would mean 80 percent of the population would be able to get a vaccine. We don’t know for certain if that’s enough for herd immunity, when enough of the population is immune to the disease, through vaccines or natural infection, that the virus can no longer sustain its spread. But it’s in the range that experts typically mention. Since a vaccine isn’t yet approved for children younger…

THERE’S A STRONG Galway contingent in this year’s Hurling Team of the Year selection, awarded after the recent Fitzgibbon Cup and Ryan Cup finals. Six Galway players are included, the same number as champions UL. Beaten finalists NUIG have four players included, with beaten Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finalists GMIT and IT Carlow having two representatives each. Advertisement Kerry’s Fionán Mackessy is included, from the Ryan Cup winning MTU Kerry side. Limerick star Cian Lynch, Waterford goalscoring hero Mikey Kiely and Tipperary’s brilliant defender Bryan O’Mara are some of the main names in the selection. Galway, Laois, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford and Clare are the counties with players honoured. The equivalent…

Over the past few days, Covid-19 cases have taken an upward turn — a trend that led Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky to say she has a sense of “impending doom.” The increase might seem small; the US is still better off than it was in January. And news about America’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout keeps getting better and better. But there’s a reason Walensky and other public health officials and experts are still so worried about the uptick in cases: exponential spread. With Covid-19, as well as other infectious pathogens, the start of new waves of disease comes slowly. But as more people get infected with…

With the news Wednesday from Pfizer/BioNTech that preliminary data suggests their vaccine is effective and safe in youth ages 12 to 15, Covid-19 shots for those under 16 seem like they might finally be on the horizon. But the big question of whether most kids will be able to get vaccinated before they head back to school in the fall remains. Children were left out of the earliest vaccine trials as pharmaceutical companies prioritized adults at higher risk of hospitalization and death. Which made sense: The disease has killed approximately 270 children in the US, compared with more than 424,000 people age 65 and older. But many kids have caught…

Last year, as then-President Donald Trump railed against Covid-19 lockdowns and called on states to reopen their economies, he claimed the shutdowns would lead to a spike in suicides: “You’re going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression. You’re going to lose people. You’re going to have suicides by the thousands.” But new data suggests that the number of suicides actually decreased in the US last year. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, suicides totaled fewer than 45,000 in 2020, down from about 47,500 in 2019 and more than 48,000 in 2018. So far, this seems to be true globally. England…

About 2 percent of new cars on US roads right now run on electricity. The auto industry expects that by 2030, half of new car sales will be electric. And President Joe Biden is stepping on the gas pedal to make that happen. Among the many provisions of the White House’s $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan released last week is $174 billion to support electric vehicles, the single largest item in the proposal’s transportation section. That money will help pay for 500,000 electric vehicle chargers over the next decade, an idea from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. It also covers modifying factories to build electric vehicles (EVs), grants and…