The world is opening up again. But for many, the panic and grief of the pandemic have not turned into joy, but the “blahs.”

A substantial portion of the people who have suffered breakthrough COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in Massachusetts have been elderly or had underlying conditions. To one infectious disease...

Opioid-related overdose deaths increased by 5 percent in Massachusetts last year and rose dramatically among non-Hispanic Black men, as the pandemic erased the state’s recent progress in combating...

Vaccines to stop COVID-19 mean that families can safely visit their loved ones in nursing homes again, after many months of staying apart. But the joy of reunion is tempered by the health toll of...

A common tool made vaginal births after C-sections, or VBACs, appear more risky for women of color, Consumer Reports says. A widely used calculator pushed more Black and Hispanic women toward second...

We hear your reactions to Massachusetts first fully reopened weekend with Radio Boston's Jamie Bologna and Paris Alston, and then take your questions on viruses, vaccines, and variants on another...

There may be some hopeful signals emerging from places overseas that have seen Delta outbreaks earlier than in the US.

It's already a stressful time in many young people's lives, and now more 18 to 24-year-olds say they are struggling to navigate anxiety, depression and transitioning to adulthood during a pandemic.

Pfizer said Monday its COVID-19 vaccine works for children ages 5 to 11 and that it will seek U.S. authorization for this age group soon — a key step toward beginning vaccinations for youngsters. The...

We take listener questions with Dr. Benjamin Linas, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center, and Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, an infectious disease physician and associate hospital...

If the regulatory review for emergency use moves as swiftly as it did for the Pfizer shots in older children and adults, millions of elementary school students could be inoculated by Halloween.

After a year spent working shifts at COVID patients’ bedsides, you could forgive healthcare workers for being in no mood to dance. But when vaccines […]

Coronavirus has made medical waste more visible than ever, but the environmental footprint of healthcare goes much further – and reducing it could save lives.

Bishop John M. Borders III of Mattapan’s Morning Star Baptist Church partnered with Boston Medical Center and Mattapan Community Health Center to use his house […]

We turn to Dr. Davidson Hamer, infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center and a professor of infectious diseases and medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, for reaction. 

According to the CDC, people of color are three times more likely to contract COVID-19. Statistics like those have dismantled some neighborhoods of color, and for the kids who live there, the impact...

No patient should be held in any correctional setting, whether it’s a holding area in a county house of correction or a prison setting.

Program could address racial disparity in pregnancy care

Last week on Ask the Doctors, we took your calls about all-things-COVID, including masks, vaccines, and how to make sure your kids are safe as they head back to in-person learning.

Beyond the ecstatic, viral TikToks is the sober reality of vegetables as "luxury" items

As kids head back to school and everyone heads indoors more often, people are torn over whether we should be concerned about a possible COVID-19 surge this fall and winter. “I don’t think that’s...

High above the hospital, Boston Medical Center is getting the attention of the White House with its rooftop farm.

Massachusetts has the highest rate of prescriptions for stimulants among 26 representative states reviewed by a federal agency. The numbers, pulled from prescription drug monitoring programs, include...

Although we usually think about the brain when we think about mood, a lot of our feel-good chemicals (including a fair amount of serotonin) are produced in the gut — a phenomenon known as the...

An underground network of word-of-mouth gossip, resident-driven technology solutions, and social media whisperings has popped up alongside the rush to secure vaccine appointments, as residents seek...

New guidance around the rapidly-spreading Delta COVID-19 strain and mask wearing is getting mixed reviews and causing confusion. The World Health Organization is calling for masks again, despite the...

A key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel met Wednesday to discuss rare reports of heart inflammation in teens and young adults after receiving their second dose of COVID-19...

Public health experts remain divided on how best to inoculate as many Americans as quickly as possible, including whether to delay the second dose of the vaccines or, in the case of Moderna’s shot,...

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Pfizer and BioNTech‘s request to allow their Covid-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis, allowing states to get...

The CDC on Tuesday updated its mask guidance, telling vaccinated Americans in parts of the country with high COVID-19 caseloads that they, too, should wear masks indoors.

Health care systems are trying to answer the central question of how to care for patients when climate change threatens their ability to remain open.

In Massachusetts, the number of new COVID cases has been increasing since mid-July, raising questions about whether testing, still well below the January peak, should be ramped up again.

We take listener questions with Dr. Philip Landrigan, Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College, and Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, an assistant professor of...

Encouraging trends have emerged in Massachusetts coronavirus data, but with the winter approaching and models suggesting the virus will make a comeback, experts are saying it's no time to celebrate.

Black and Hispanic students have lost up to 12 months of learning, which could lead to lower incomes and shorter, sicker lives.

If you haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 yet, why now is the time.

Delivering virtual care to everyone requires adaptation, training and deep insights into issues that can hinder a connection.

BOSTON (AP) — After an initial surge in vaccinations against COVID-19, the number of people receiving the shots in Massachusetts has been declining for nine days.

The declining testing numbers means an increased chance that emerging outbreaks will go undetected, infected people will spread the virus, and the key metrics policy-makers rely on will be skewed,...

We take listener calls on all of it with our expert medical panel. We're joined by Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, assistant professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine and infectious...

We take listener calls with Dr. Cassandra Pierre, acting hospital epidemiologist and an infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center, and Dr. Shira Doron, infectious disease physician and...

The first confirmed case of coronavirus appeared in Massachusetts on Feb. 1, 2020. A year later, there's frustration, fatigue but also hope.

It’s expected—but is it something to worry about?

MEDICAL VISITS are rarely straightforward. Add factors such as poverty, chronic stress, complex medical issues, functional impairment, and barriers to

A pediatrician cares for a city’s children.

Doctors weigh in on whether mask type matters, how to get a good fit, and the way the Delta variant of COVID-19 has changed back-to-school safety precautions for kids.

Despite a number of external financing options for energy efficiency projects, healthcare providers have largely opted to pay for such undertakings using their own budgets for fear of raising debt or...

How is the pandemic likely to play out into the fall and winter? Here are the six factors that will drive the shape of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Without new mask mandate, Mass. event venues implement their own safety measures. Dr. Sabrina Assoumou says there's more work to be done on vaccines.

Government and tourism officials speak out against mandatory vaccinations for international travel — though for different reasons.

Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett is the Vice Chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and the Program Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center. Prior to BMC, Dr....

BU’s Kendi, CDC’s Walensky, Boston Mayor Janey highlight Center for Antiracist Research first major public event

In the state’s first release of overdose data collected during the coronavirus crisis, preliminary findings show a 2% increase in deaths for the first nine months of the year, compared to 2019.

Both the IRS and local community groups are warning that a significant number of families who most need the relief risk falling through the cracks because they are not known to the IRS.

Two effective vaccines provide hope that after the dark winter ahead, things will get better.

Systemic racism has compromised the ability of people within communities of color to access healthcare in the same ways as other patients.

Experts say the long-Covid crisis will mirror the pandemic itself, creating a “tsunami of disability” that will take a disproportionate toll on low-income people of color.

This is the first systematic literature review on the association of back pain and mortality.