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SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage sourceGetty ImagesPeople are twice as likely to need hospital care if they are sick with the Delta Covid variant, rather than the Alpha variant that was once prevalent in the UK, data from England suggests. Experts say the big study, published in The Lancet, reinforces why it is important that people get fully jabbed. Vaccination cuts the risk of serious illness from either variant, although Delta is the current threat.Delta accounts for almost all UK cases currently.A further 32,406 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the UK on Saturday, alongside another 133 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.What are the Covid variants?The study, led by Public Health England (PHE) and the Medical Research Council, looked at 43,338 Covid cases that occurred between March and May – when both Alpha, also known as Kent, variant, and Delta were circulating in the UK.The bulk of these infections were in people who had not yet been vaccinated. Most did not need hospital care, but a small proportion – 196 (2.3%) of the people infected with Delta and 764 (2.2%) of those with Alpha – did. Risk of hospital admission was twice as high for individuals diagnosed with the Delta variant, compared to those with Alpha, after adjusting for differences such as age, sex and ethnicity.Experts say being vaccinated should bring down this risk. Both doses are needed for maximum protection.A recent analysis by PHE suggests that effectiveness against hospitalisation after two doses is: 96% for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine92% for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccineOther research suggests that while protection against symptomatic infections may wane somewhat over time, both vaccines still offer good protection against hospitalisations and deaths caused by Delta. More than 47.9 million people, or about 88% of people aged 16 and over in the UK, have now received a first dose of a vaccine.Some 42 million people, or about 78% of people aged 16 and over, have had a second.It takes a couple of weeks from receiving your second dose to get the fullest protection against Covid.Dr Gavin Dabrera, from PHE, said: “We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta and, as this variant accounts for over 99% of Covid cases in the UK, it is vital that those who have not received two doses of vaccine do so as soon as possible. “It is still important that if you have Covid symptoms, stay home and get a PCR test as soon as possible.”The Lancet study findings are consistent with data recently reported from Scotland comparing Alpha and Delta risks.

A County Londonderry fishing group is supporting men with their mental health, and helping those with addiction.The Fishing in Support of Hope (F.I.S.H) group was set up by Thomas Campbell to give men in the area a safe place to open about their issues. Mr Campbell, who suffered with alcohol addiction, decided to start the group after coming out of a rehabilitation centre during Covid-19. The group offers fishing lessons to beginners, as well as organising events and competitions across the north west. Mr Campbell said fishing has helped him battle his own addiction and believes others like him can benefit from the sport.”Fishing helped me just get away from everything else that was going on in my life,” Mr Campbell said. “The worries I had seemed to, I know it sounds clichéd, but they seemed to drift away whenever you’re out standing on the water.”Video Journalist: Mike McBride

A detailed study in California found that the variant easily spread from an unvaccinated teacher to children and, in a few cases, their families.An unvaccinated elementary schoolteacher infected with the highly contagious Delta variant spread the virus to half of the students in a classroom, seeding an outbreak that eventually infected 26 people, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The unusually detailed study, which comes as school districts across the country reopen, seems certain to intensify the debate over vaccine mandates in schools. A handful of school districts, including New York City, have already announced vaccine requirements for teachers and staff.Others may follow suit now that the Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.“The most important thing we can do to protect schoolchildren, particularly those too young to be vaccinated, is to make sure the adults in their lives, including teachers and school staff, are vaccinated,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved in the report.The study was one of three new C.D.C. reports that focused on schools or children. In another study, researchers found more evidence that schools can be low-risk environments when they combine several precautionary measures. But that research was conducted before the Delta variant began spreading.A third report focused on vaccination rates for teenagers. Half of all 12- to 17-year-olds have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the White House announced on Friday. But the new study revealed that vaccination rates for this age group remained highly uneven across the country.Together, the studies highlight both how much scientists have learned about how to protect children in schools — and how much remains uncertain now that the Delta variant has arrived.The classroom outbreak occurred in Marin County, Calif., in May. Neither the school nor the staff members and students involved were identified.The teacher first showed symptoms on May 19, but worked for two days before getting tested. During this time, the teacher read aloud, unmasked, to a class of 24 students, despite rules requiring both teachers and students to wear masks indoors.All the students were too young for vaccination, which has been authorized only for people ages 12 and older.On May 23, the teacher reported testing positive for infection with the coronavirus. Over the next several days, 12 of the students also tested positive.“I thought I respected its contagiousness,” Dr. Lisa Santora, deputy health officer at the Marin Health and Human Services and an author of the report, said of the Delta variant. But its efficiency in overtaking the classroom “surprised and humbled” her.In the classroom, rates of infection roughly corresponded to the seating chart. Everyone in the front row tested positive, tapering to 80 percent in the first two rows.In the back three rows, only 28 percent of students tested positive. “If teacher has no mask, move to the back of the class,” Edward Traver, an infectious disease fellow at the University of Maryland Medical Center, said in a Twitter message.Six students in another grade at the school also tested positive for the virus. The cases spread outward from the school into the community: At least eight parents and siblings of the infected students, three of whom were fully vaccinated, also were infected.State health researchers sequenced specimens of the virus from many of the positive cases and found that all had been infected with the Delta variant. Samples from at least 10 students in two grades were genetically indistinguishable. The results suggested that the cases in both grades came from the same outbreak.The outbreak was likely fueled both by Delta’s high level of infectiousness and by the fact that the teacher did not follow recommended safety precautions, the researchers said.“We have to make sure both schools and individuals are working together to make sure we are safe,” said Tracy Lam-Hine, an epidemiologist at Marin County Health and Human Services and an author on the new report. “It can’t be just one or the other.”In other areas of the country, the toll on the community might have been even higher. Marin County has the highest vaccination rate in California. The report noted that 72 percent of eligible people in the surrounding community were fully vaccinated, and suggested that high rates may have prevented further transmission.In another new study, researchers focused on case rates in Los Angeles County, where some students and teachers attended school in person last year, while others did so remotely.Schools that opened for in-person learning were required to take a variety of precautions, including symptom screening, masking, physical distancing and contact tracing. During most of the period between September and March — and especially during the winter surge — case rates were lower in the schools, for both teachers and students, than they were in the county at large..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}The findings are consistent with previous studies that have found that when schools layer together several protective measures, case rates are often lower in schools than they are in the surrounding community.“School is a safer place in many ways for youth to be, because it’s so structured and supervised,” said Dr. Santora, who has a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old returning to school in-person this fall.But the studies on school mitigation measures, including the report from Los Angeles, were conducted before the Delta variant began spreading. The variant is roughly twice as transmissible as the original version of the virus, and now accounts for nearly all infections in the United States.Whether the same kinds of precautions will keep the variant in check in schools this year remains uncertain, and many schools have opened without the safety measures that public health experts recommend.Siobhan Flynn, who teaches first grade at a public charter school in the Washington area, is worried about classes starting on Monday. The school at which Ms. Flynn works is using a layered protection approach that includes a mask mandate, socially distanced desks and randomized testing for students.“Kids need to be in school, but I just wish more money and planning had gone into safely opening schools,” Ms. Flynn said. “A lot of people would feel a lot safer if all the staff was vaccinated.”Vaccination rates have been increasing in recent weeks as Delta continues to drive a surge of cases, hospitalizations and deaths nationwide. But parents have been anxious about sending young children back to school when they cannot yet be vaccinated.The F.D.A. first authorized the vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds in May, and by July 31, more than one-third of them had gotten at least one shot, according to a third C.D.C. report. More than half of 16- to 17-year-olds, who were eligible for the vaccine months earlier, had received at least one dose.But vaccination rates vary greatly across the country. In Mississippi, just 11 percent of adolescents have been fully vaccinated, compared with 60 percent in Vermont, the researchers found.Dr. Westyn Branch-Elliman, an infectious disease researcher at Harvard Medical School, said in an email that she hoped to see schools “become more involved in promoting vaccine uptake for everyone who is eligible in the school community through things like vaccination clinics set up in schools to improve access and alleviate barriers.”Clinical trials of the vaccines in young children are underway. Pfizer has said that results should be available in September.

A commonly-used pesticide could be partially responsible for the global obesity epidemic, says a study led by McMaster University scientists.
Researchers discovered that chlorpyrifos, which is banned for use on foods in Canada but widely sprayed on fruits and vegetables in many other parts of the world, slows down the burning of calories in the brown adipose tissue of mice. Reducing this burning of calories, a process known as diet-induced thermogenesis, causes the body to store these extra calories, promoting obesity.
Scientists made the discovery after studying 34 commonly used pesticides and herbicides in brown fat cells and testing the effects of chlorpyrifos in mice fed high calorie diets. Their findings were published in Nature Communications and could have important implications for public health.
“Brown fat is the metabolic furnace in our body, burning calories, unlike normal fat that is used to store them. This generates heat and prevents calories from being deposited on our bodies as normal white fat. We know brown fat is activated during cold and when we eat,” said senior author Gregory Steinberg, professor of medicine and co-director of the Centre for Metabolism, Obesity, and Diabetes Research at McMaster.
“Lifestyle changes around diet and exercise rarely lead to sustained weight loss. We think part of the problem may be this intrinsic dialling back of the metabolic furnace by chlorpyrifos.”
Steinberg said chlorpyrifos would only need to inhibit energy use in brown fat by 40 calories every day to trigger obesity in adults, which would translate to an extra five lbs of weight gain per year.
He said that while several environmental toxins including chlorpyrifos have been linked to rising obesity rates in both humans and animals, most of these studies have attributed weight gain to increases in food intake and not the burning of calories.
While the use of chlorpyrifos on foods is banned in Canada, imported produce may still be treated with it.
“Although the findings have yet to be confirmed in humans, an important consideration, is that whenever possible consume fruits and vegetables from local Canadian sources and if consuming imported produce, make sure it is thoroughly washed,” said Steinberg.
External funding for the study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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Materials provided by McMaster University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

People who are infected with the highly contagious Delta variant are twice as likely to be hospitalized as those who are infected with the Alpha variant, according to a large new British study.The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Friday, is an analysis of more than 40,000 coronavirus infections in England. It adds to evidence suggesting that Delta may cause more severe illness than other variants do.Fewer than 2 percent of the infections occurred in fully vaccinated people, and there was not enough data to draw firm conclusions about hospitalization risks in that group specifically, the researchers said.“The main takeaway is that if you have an unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated population, then an outbreak of Delta can lead to a higher burden on hospitals, on health care, than an Alpha outbreak would,” said Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the University of Cambridge and one of the study’s lead authors.The Delta variant, which was first detected in India, is roughly twice as infectious as the original virus and as much as 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was first identified in Britain.In the new study, researchers analyzed the health data of people who tested positive for the virus in England between March 29 and May 23, as Delta was spreading through the country. Seventy-four percent of people were unvaccinated, 24.2 percent were partially vaccinated and 1.8 percent were fully vaccinated.Genetic sequencing confirmed that 80 percent of the study participants had been infected with the Alpha variant, while 20 percent had been infected with Delta.For both groups, the risk of hospitalization was small, the researchers found. Just 2.2 percent of people with Alpha and 2.3 percent of those with Delta were admitted to the hospital within two weeks of testing positive for the virus.But people infected the Delta variant with were younger, on average. When the researchers adjusted for age and other factors that are known to affect disease severity, they found that when Delta caused the infection, the overall risk of being hospitalized was more than two times as high.When the researchers broke down the data by vaccination status, they confirmed that Delta doubled the risk of hospitalization for those who were unvaccinated or had received their first dose less than three weeks prior. The fully vaccinated group was too small to be rigorously analyzed on its own, the researchers said.“We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta, and as this variant accounts for over 98 percent of Covid-19 cases in the U.K., it is vital that those who have not received two doses of vaccine do so as soon as possible,” Dr. Gavin Dabrera, a lead author of the paper and an epidemiologist at Public Health England, said in a statement.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage sourceGetty ImagesThe US intelligence community has been unable to determine the origins of Covid-19, and is split on whether it leaked from a lab or developed in nature, according to a new report. The report issued by the office that oversees the nation’s 18 spy agencies did conclusively determine that it was not developed as a biological weapon. Experts warn that time is running out to gather evidence of its beginnings.China’s foreign minister has dismissed the report as “anti-science”.The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the intelligence community remains divided on Covid’s most likely origin.”All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.”According to the report, several unnamed spy agencies thought Covid emerged from “natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus”. But they only had “low confidence” in this conclusion. One intelligence agency developed “moderate confidence” that the first human infection was likely due a “laboratory-associated incident” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has studied coronaviruses in bats for more than a decade.President Biden issued a statement after the report’s publication, criticising China for not co-operating with the investigation. “Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People’s Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” Mr Biden said.”The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them, “he added.The pandemic, which has claimed nearly 4.5 million lives around the world, began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.Why the lab-leak theory is being taken seriously The US base behind China’s latest Covid conspiracyA World Health Organization (WHO) team, which visited Wuhan, concluded earlier this year that the disease most likely spilled over from an animal sold at a market.This conclusion has been rejected by some scientists.In May, Mr Biden asked US intelligence agencies to assess the data and produce a report that “could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion” on the origins of the virus.China meanwhile has been stoking baseless claims that virus originated from Fort Detrick, a military installation in the US. Earlier this week, the WHO panel warned that it would soon be “biologically impossible” to gather evidence dating back to the virus’ origin.”The window of opportunity for conducting this crucial inquiry is closing fast,” they warned, calling on researchers and governments to expedite studies.

Declassified portions of a report presented to President Biden revealed divisions among federal agencies over whether the virus came from a lab leak or natural processes.WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have not been able to determine if the coronavirus pandemic was the result of an accidental leak from a lab or if it emerged more naturally, according to declassified portions of a report to the White House released on Friday.The nation’s spy agencies, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, are unlikely to reach a conclusion without more cooperation from China or a new source of information.As debates about the origins of the pandemic intensified, Mr. Biden ordered the nation’s intelligence agencies three months ago to draft a report on the source of the virus.After the review, the National Intelligence Council and four other intelligence community elements reported that they believe the virus that causes Covid was most likely created by “natural exposure to an infected animal through an animal infected with it, or close progenitor virus.”Before the review was conducted only two agencies favored the natural exposure theory. But the new report said the intelligence council and other agencies favoring the natural theory only had only low confidence in their conclusions — a sign that the intelligence behind the assessment was not strong and that conclusions could change.On the other side of the debate, one agency, with moderate confidence, said it had concluded that the pandemic was the result of “a laboratory-associated incident.” According to the declassified report, analysts at that agency gave weight to the risky nature of work on coronaviruses. The agency also said the accident likely involved “experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”There were two labs in Wuhan doing work on the coronavirus before the pandemic, but intelligence agencies have mostly focused on the work done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.The announcement from the director of national intelligence did not identify the agency that favored the laboratory-leak theory. But current and former officials said the F.B.I. believed that the virus was created within the lab. One former official said the bureau believed the virus likely escaped into the public from lab technicians.The intelligence agencies all agree that the virus was unlikely to be created as any kind of biological weapon, the same stance the U.S. government has maintained for more than a year. The agencies also agree that the initial exposures that caused the outbreak occurred “no later than November 2019,” according to the declassified conclusions.Critical to the debate over the virus origins, American intelligence officials do not believe the Chinese officials knew about it at the time of the outbreak, the report said.“The IC assesses China’s officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of Covid-19 emerged,” the declassified report said, using the initials for the intelligence community.The three-month review ordered by Mr. Biden was done to bring more scientific expertise into the examination of the origins of the pandemic. Intelligence agencies used the three months to examine a trove of data that had not been fully combed through.That data, taken from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, did not provide any additional information that persuaded any additional agencies that a lab leak was possible.

The largest published study to date of certain post-vaccine side effects found that people were at slightly higher than normal risk of blood clots after receiving an AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shot. But the same clotting conditions were substantially more likely to occur — and over longer periods — among people infected with the coronavirus, the study found.Coupled with another study this week from Israel, the data, published on Thursday night in The British Medical Journal, added to the growing evidence that though the coronavirus vaccines are associated with certain rare side effects, those risks are dwarfed by the risks from Covid-19.The study was based on the electronic health records of more than 29 million people in England. It went beyond previous analyses in finding a link not only between very rare clotting conditions and the AstraZeneca vaccine, but also between those conditions and the Pfizer vaccine. Earlier studies had detected increased clotting risks after the AstraZeneca vaccine, but not after the Pfizer shot.In interviews, the new paper’s co-authors said that the numbers of those cases they detected — involving clots blocking a vein that drains blood from the brain — were small enough that further studies were needed. Even the increased risk of those clots was far outweighed by people’s chances of developing them after contracting the virus itself, the study said.“Although there are some risks, clearly the risks of these events are very rare,” said Aziz Sheikh, a co-author of the study and a professor of primary care research at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “And the biggest point is that the risks associated with Covid-19 are orders of magnitude higher, really.”The study examined the electronic health records of people given a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine during the first five months of England’s inoculation campaign. Of those 29 million people, nearly 1.8 million people also tested positive for the coronavirus before or after being vaccinated. The study compared the risk of blood clots shortly after vaccination to the risk during other periods, as well as to the weeks after someone developed Covid-19.After a first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine, people were at slightly increased risk of certain blood clots, as well as a condition characterized by a low level of platelets that can leave them prone to abnormal bleeding. A first shot of the Pfizer vaccine appeared to put people at slightly elevated risk of strokes caused by blockages within a blood vessel.And both vaccines were linked, though at low numbers, to the very rare clots that prevent blood from draining out of the brain.Even so, those risks were far smaller than those linked to developing Covid-19. For example, the authors said, for every 10 million people given a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, about 66 more people than normal would develop clots starting in a vein. But among the same number infected with the virus itself, 12,614 more people than normal would develop those clots.In the United States, 300,000 to 600,000 people a year develop blood clots in their lungs or in leg veins or other parts of the body, according to the C.D.C. With nearly a million people a day now getting vaccinated, some of those clots will occur in those receiving the shots just by coincidence, unrelated to the vaccine..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Some countries restricted use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a small number of people in Europe who had received a shot were seriously sickened or killed by a very rare condition characterized by both clotting and abnormal bleeding.Carol Coupland, a co-author on the latest study and a professor of medical statistics affiliated with both the University of Oxford and the University of Nottingham, said that the study could not evaluate that precise condition because the researchers did not have detailed enough readings of patients’ platelet counts.The finding of a slightly elevated clotting risk after the Pfizer vaccine conflicted with other analyses, including the article from Israel published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week. The study from England included far more people, allowing it to home in on rarer categories of clots. It was also designed differently: It studied the same people over time, whereas the Israeli study compared risks in vaccinated and unvaccinated people over the same period.Ben Reis, a co-author of the Israeli study and the director of the predictive medicine group at the Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program, said that both studies were a testament to the way electronic health records allowed researchers to rapidly pick up on even very rare safety signals and compare the risks to those following a coronavirus infection.“The vaccination decision shouldn’t be made in a vacuum,” he said. “The alternative outcome is the very real risk of being exposed to the virus without vaccination. Those are the two scenarios that should be compared.”

In the largest study performed to date to understand the relationship between habitual physical activity and physical fitness, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that higher amount of time spent performing exercise (moderate-vigorous physical activity) and low-moderate level activity (steps) and less time spent sedentary, translated to greater physical fitness.
“By establishing the relationship between different forms of habitual physical activity and detailed fitness measures, we hope that our study will provide important information that can ultimately be used to improve physical fitness and overall health across the life course,” explained corresponding author Matthew Nayor, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at BUSM.
He and his team studied approximately 2,000 participants from the community-based Framingham Heart Study who underwent comprehensive cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET) for the “gold standard” measurement of physical fitness. Physical fitness measurements were associated with physical activity data obtained through accelerometers (device that measures frequency and intensity of human movement) that were worn for one week around the time of CPET and approximately eight years earlier.
They found dedicated exercise (moderate-vigorous physical activity) was the most efficient at improving fitness. Specifically, exercise was three times more efficient than walking alone and more than 14 times more efficient than reducing the time spent sedentary. Additionally, they found that the greater time spent exercising and higher steps/day could partially offset the negative effects of being sedentary in terms of physical fitness.
According to the researchers, while the study was focused on the relationship of physical activity and fitness specifically (rather than any health-related outcomes), fitness has a powerful influence on health and is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and premature death. “Therefore, improved understanding of methods to improve fitness would be expected to have broad implications for improved health,” said Nayor, a cardiologist at Boston Medical Center.
These findings appear online in the European Heart Journal.
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Materials provided by Boston University School of Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Everyone is familiar with the roe deer, either from crossword puzzles or from real-life encounters during a jog or a hike in the forest: majestic creatures with elegant big black eyes.
As common as roe deer may seem in Swiss forests, one of their characteristics is unique among deer species. After mating and fertilisation of the egg in midsummer, the pinhead-sized embryo does not implant in the uterus, but enters into a period of dormancy, called embryonic diapause. This period lasts for over four months until December. Only then does the embryo continue its development at normal pace and implants in the uterus. In May, after four and a half months of “real” gestation, the doe gives birth to one to three fawns.
Although the phenomenon has been known for more than 150 years, it still puzzles. Various forms of embryonic diapause are known to occur in over 130 mammalian species. However, they rarely last as long as observed in the roe deer. And, most importantly, almost no other species shows such a pronounced, continuous deceleration instead of a complete halt. In mice, scientists can artificially induce diapause. However, in roe deer it is still unclear which factors control diapause while keeping the embryo alive.
The research group led by Susanne Ulbrich, Professor of Animal Physiology at ETH Zurich, has been investigating the mystery of roe deer diapause for some time. In a new study, the researchers show which molecular processes take place in the embryo while it is dormant: embryonic cells continue to divide during diapause, albeit very slowly. The number of cells, including embryonic stem cells, doubles only every two to three weeks. The study, which has just been published in the journal PNAS, involved not only the ETH group, but also researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Bern, as well as German and French research institutions.
Gene transcripts and signalling molecules studied
To answer the question of what prevents the embryonic cells from dividing at a normal pace, the researchers first examined the molecular composition of the uterine fluid. Next, they took a closer look at the transcriptome, i.e., the sum of all messenger RNA molecules, of the embryos and the uterine epithelial cells.