I drink a lot of unsweetened seltzer. Does that have the same health benefits as drinking regular water? There’s still water and then there’s what my 4-year-old calls “spicy water,” better known as seltzer or sparkling water. Crisp, bubbly and effervescent, carbonated water has become a daily ritual for many and a growing segment of […]

Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, can be effective for the treatment of major depression and is just as safe as antidepressant drugs combined with psychotherapy, a large new study concludes. The procedure, once referred to as electroshock therapy, has a controversial and largely unfavorable history. This was partly due to inaccurate portrayals in popular books and […]

Daily Covid Briefing Sept. 12, 2021Updated  Sept. 13, 2021, 11:40 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2021, 11:40 p.m. ET A classroom at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 that a teacher is preparing for the start of the school year in New York City.Credit…Michael Loccisano/Getty Images As New York City’s public schools prepare to welcome roughly one […]

None of the data on coronavirus vaccines so far provides credible evidence in support of boosters for the general population, according to a review published on Monday by an international group of scientists, including some at the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization. The 18 authors include Dr. Philip Krause and Dr. […]

Experts in public health law agree that Mr. Biden is on solid legal footing, because his actions are grounded in federal workplace safety laws. They say Republican governors who insist that vaccine mandates are an intrusion on personal liberty need a refresher on their own state policies. “That is pure hypocrisy,” Lawrence O. Gostin, a […]

“It’s terrible timing that this would happen, when right now we’re faced with a situation where humanitarian needs are escalating,” said Dr. Richard Brennan, the regional emergency director for the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean region. Cesarean sections, immunizations for polio, tuberculosis, tetanus and measles, diagnoses and treatment of TB, malaria, H.I.V., childhood nutrition, surgeries […]

Among the stunning assertions that the pop star Britney Spears made to a Los Angeles probate judge this week, as she sought to end her protracted conservatorship, was one that shook experts in guardianship law and reproductive rights deeply. She said a team led by her father, who is her conservator, prevented her from having […]

Researchers have found evidence that a coronavirus epidemic swept East Asia some 20,000 years ago and was devastating enough to leave an evolutionary imprint on the DNA of people alive today. The new study suggests that an ancient coronavirus plagued the region for many years, researchers say. The finding could have dire implications for the […]

The coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna may have caused heart problems in more than 1,200 Americans, including about 500 who were younger than age 30, according to data reported on Wednesday by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, the benefits of immunization greatly outweighed the risks, and advisers to […]

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet on Wednesday to address reports of rare heart problems in young people immunized with the coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The reports involve conditions called myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle; and pericarditis, inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart. […]