Health & Safety

Coronavirus Outbreak In Iran Has Tehran Residents Doubting Government Response

4:23pm February 27, 2020

by Peter Kenyon

On the street in Tehran, people are wondering if their country has the capacity to deal with the coronavirus outbreak — and whether news of it was suppressed.

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Your brain uses the left side to make sense of lyrics and the right side for a song's melody.

How The Brain Teases Apart A Song's Words And Music

4:19pm February 27, 2020

by Jon Hamilton

Brain scans show that when people listen to songs, an area in the left hemisphere decodes speech-like sounds while one on the right processes musical information.

Traders work during the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Wall Street stocks opened sharply lower amid fears the coronavirus will grow into a significant international health crisis.

Dow Falls Nearly 1,200 Points; Stocks Now In Correction Territory

4:16pm February 27, 2020

by Scott Horsley

Stocks continued their downward slide on Thursday, with major indexes falling 10% below their recent peaks. Investors worry about the economic toll of a widening coronavirus epidemic.

Nashville teacher Riki Rattner uses expandable balls to help students visualize their breathing.

Schools Are Embracing Mindfulness, But Practice Doesn't Always Make Perfect

3:55pm February 27, 2020

One in 5 American children struggles with anxiety. To help students cope, more and more schools are turning to mindfulness — but the explosion of interest has some researchers advising caution.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Congress Nears Bipartisan Funding Plan To Address Growing Coronavirus Threat

2:58pm February 27, 2020

by Claudia Grisales

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he expects senators to take up the plan in the next two weeks.

Health officials have identified what could be the first U.S. case of the novel coronavirus spreading within the general population. But a hospital says the diagnosis was delayed for days. Here, a passenger wears a face mask on a train in San Francisco on

Diagnosis Of Coronavirus Patient In California Was Delayed For Days

2:49pm February 27, 2020

by Bill Chappell

The first suspected U.S. case of novel coronavirus infection through "community spread" was left undiagnosed for days, hospital officials said, because the case didn't fit the CDC's criteria.

Scottish Parliament member Monica Lennon (right) joins supporters of the Period Products bill she sponsored, at a rally outside Parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday. The legislation would make Scotland the first country in the world to make products like pa

Scotland Poised To Become 1st Country To Make Period Products Free

2:23pm February 27, 2020

by Laurel Wamsley

In a few short years, Scotland has turned periods from a stigmatized subject to a selling point. The bill takes aim at "period poverty": when girls and women struggle to access menstrual products.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Atlanta, announced on Wednesday a new case of the COVID-19 disease in California, a diagnosis that was delayed because testing wasn't done immediately.

Health & Safety

CDC Has Fixed Issue Delaying Coronavirus Testing In U.S., Health Officials Say

12:27pm February 27, 2020

by Rob Stein

A problem with one ingredient in test kits that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distributed to labs around the U.S. had created a frustrating bottleneck.

The new coronavirus has yet to sicken American health workers, as it has in China. But deaths of hospital workers in Asia have heightened scrutiny of the U.S. health care system's ability to protect people on the front line.

Health & Safety

As U.S. Preps For Coronavirus, Health Workers Question Safety Measures

11:44am February 27, 2020

by Yuki Noguchi

The plight of Chinese health care workers contracting the coronavirus has prompted front-line medical staff in the U.S. to wonder if they're protected. Hospitals say they're taking steps to prepare.

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Most efforts to develop a universal flu vaccine have focused on the lollipop-shaped hemagglutinin protein (pink in this illustration of a flu virus).

Health & Safety

Researchers Step Up Efforts To Develop A 'Universal' Flu Vaccine

8:51am February 27, 2020

by Shahla Farzan

Scientists are pushing hard to find a more effective way to prevent nearly all seasonal flu strains with one shot. For starters, they're paying volunteers to spend a 10-day stint in "Hotel Influenza."