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Fresh ripe peaches in a bowl on a wooden table, top view (iStock.com)

Summer fruit peachy keen

July 12, 2022, 6:00am Food

Typically in season from July to September, peaches are a staple of summertime salads, meals and desserts. They’re also a popular choice for nutritionists, who say their sweet taste makes it easier for people to add them to their diet. Read story

A new COVID-19 foe, a really transmissible one, is emerging

July 11, 2022, 9:10am Health

If you’ve recently been infected with COVID-19 or know someone infected, and you probably do, you can probably blame BA.5, one of five subvariants of omicron and possibly the most transmissible yet. Read story

FILE- A nurse prepares to administer vaccine for COVID-19 at a private vaccination center in Gauhati, India, April 10, 2022. The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that's worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States. Scientists say the variant, which is called BA.2.75, may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection.

New coronavirus mutant raises concerns in India and beyond

July 11, 2022, 9:07am Health

The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that’s worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States. Read story

FILE - A one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills is displayed in Sacramento, Calif., Aug. 26, 2016. A drug company is seeking U.S. approval for the first-ever birth control pill that women could buy without a prescription. The request from a French drugmaker sets up a high-stakes decision for the Food and Drug Administration amid the political fallout from the Supreme Court's recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Over-the-counter birth control? Drugmaker seeks FDA approval

July 11, 2022, 8:05am Health

For the first time, a pharmaceutical company has asked for permission to sell a birth control pill over the counter in the U.S. Read story

FILE - Melinda Gates poses for photographers as she arrives at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, Saturday, April 30, 2022. The WTA women's professional tennis tour and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are partnering to raise awareness about -- and money for -- women's health and nutrition around the world. They also plan to work together to promote gender equality and female leadership.

Gates Foundation, women’s tennis partnering on health issues

July 11, 2022, 5:56am Business

All sorts of requests reach the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, via all sorts of methods, but rarely does a meaningful entreaty come via LinkedIn message. That, though, is how Micky Lawler, the president of the WTA women’s professional tennis tour, first reached out to the group about a partnership… Read story

Pandemic relief funds may mask budget crises at rural Washington hospitals

Paul Fuller is a critical care nurse at Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee. Many of his colleagues have left the hospital during the pandemic for other more lucrative opportunities like travel nursing.

July 10, 2022, 6:05am Health

At the beginning of the pandemic, administrators at tiny Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma, Grays Harbor County, thought they had a good plan to manage COVID-19 patients. They would send patients about 30 minutes east to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia in exchange for taking non-COVID-19 admissions. Read story

Biomedical grantmakers’ diversity push gains new momentum

This photo provided by UMBC, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Professor Weihong Lin, second from left, works with students in her biological sciences lab.

July 10, 2022, 6:03am Business

One and a half billion dollars is a big mea culpa, but that is what one philanthropy is throwing on the table to address what it admits is a longstanding problem: the failure to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in health research. Read story

How Pfizer won the pandemic, reaping outsize profit and influence

FILE - In this March 2021 photo provided by Pfizer, vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared for packaging at the company's facility in Puurs, Belgium. According to a study published Thursday. June 23, 2022 in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if global targets had been reached.

July 10, 2022, 6:00am Business

The grinding two-plus years of the pandemic have yielded outsize benefits for one company — Pfizer — making it both highly influential and hugely profitable as COVID-19 continues to infect tens of thousands of people and kill hundreds each day. Read story