ArcaMax

Q: After being cooped up for months, my family would like to take a trip for spring break. Is it safe?

A: As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues, we get a glimmer of hope that the end of the pandemic may finally be within sight. Some families are wondering if it’s safe to travel this spring. At the same time, many popular vacation spots ...Read more

The Rev. Jose Luis Garayoa survived typhoid fever, malaria, a kidnapping and the Ebola crisis as a missionary in Sierra Leone, only to die of COVID-19 after tending to the people of his Texas church who were sick from the virus and the grieving family members of those who died.

Garayoa, 68, who served at El Paso’s Little Flower Catholic ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My father is having issues with his aortic valve. He is 53 years old and was told he needs to have a valve replacement. I was reading that there are different types of valves. Can you explain the differences and what option may be best?

ANSWER: There are four major valves in the heart, two on the left side of the heart (aortic...Read more

BALTIMORE – Rock concerts and COVID vaccine clinics aren’t all that different, if you ask Terry Sapp.

The man running the show at Baltimore County’s vaccine sites has spent decades training and coordinating emergency preparedness at the state and local levels. But he credits much of his skill to his years on tour with Twisted Sister ...Read more

Many COVID vaccination registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels violate disability rights laws, hindering the ability of blind people to sign up for a potentially lifesaving vaccine, a KHN investigation has found.

Across the country, people who use special software to make the web accessible have been unable ...Read more

As health care workers in the U.S. began lining up for their first coronavirus vaccines on Dec. 14, Esmeralda Campos-Loredo was already fighting for oxygen.

The 49-year-old nursing assistant and mother of two started having breathing problems just days earlier. By the time the first of her co-workers were getting shots, she was shivering in a ...Read more

A maple syrup glaze and sliced almonds give extra flavor and crunch to chicken breasts. Hot pepper jelly adds zing to sautéed corn and lima beans. It’s made in minutes in the microwave.

Helpful Hints:

— Walnuts, pistachios or pecans can be substituted for sliced almonds.

— Any type of hot pepper jelly can be used.

Countdown:

— ...Read more

COLUMBUS, Ohio – To Brandon Mulvany, the past 11 months have felt more like five or ten years. And though it's not over yet, he's finally feeling a sense of relief he hasn't felt since the summer.

Mulvany is an intensive care unit nurse at Mount Carmel Grove City Hospital, where he worked through the winter coronavirus surge of cases and ...Read more

On a Friday night in January, several dozen people gathered outside Karen Buckner's house.

Bundled against the freezing weather and wearing face masks, the group joined her on a half-mile walk to the football field parking lot at Glenbrook North High School. One week before, a memorial for her son Dylan Buckner stood at the site. Flowers, ...Read more

The day has finally come — two weeks have passed since you received your second dose of the vaccine, making you officially fully vaccinated. You’re ready to celebrate. And you’re dreaming of having your other vaccinated friends over to join. But is it a good idea?

It’s a question on many people’s minds, and one recently posed to ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA – Physician Steven Shapiro chairs the pediatrics department at Abington Hospital. He’s never been a therapist. Yet a big chunk of his medical practice these days is devoted to mental health issues, far more than ever before.

“Twenty percent of the calls I take now are to put kids on more medicine for panic attacks and anxiety...Read more

I just love the science of nutrition. It constantly changes as we learn more about how food and nutrients work in the body. And as we gather more information, experts tweak the recommendations for how we should eat.

Take the egg, for example. In 1968, the American Heart Association looked at the evidence that seemed to show that a high intake ...Read more

You’ve gone through the appointment rigmarole to get signed up for a COVID vaccine, got your first shot, waited the required three to four week period for your second. But when that booster dose comes, be warned that you might be experiencing symptoms a few hours later.

Emily Miller, an ICU nurse at OhioHealth Riverside, said she experienced ...Read more

As people across Maryland and the country seek their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Jean Armstrong got her third.

The Baltimore County public school administrator was one of the first people to get a pair of shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine last May as studies began to test its safety and efficacy. She returned this week to the University ...Read more

CHICAGO – Chicago emergency room doctor Meeta Shah wiped down her face shield and stethoscope as she rushed from one patient to the next, some of them very sick with COVID-19, some of them dying.

At home, she worried about how to keep her husband — also an ER doctor — and her two young children safe from the virus: Shower at work? Stop ...Read more

CHICAGO – Chicago emergency room doctor Meeta Shah wiped down her face shield and stethoscope as she rushed from one patient to the next, some of them very sick with COVID-19, some of them dying.

At home, she worried about how to keep her husband — also an ER doctor — and her two young children safe from the virus: Shower at work? Stop ...Read more