SUNDAY, Oct. 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Although the focus is on the COVID-19 vaccine, don't forget to also get your flu shot — it's important, an expert says."In the United States, it is recommended that everyone over the age of 6 months be vaccinated against the flu, and there are many vaccines available that will fit your need based on age and other important risk factors," said Dr. Pedro Piedra. He is a professor of molecular virology and microbiology and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.Last year's flu season was very mild, probably due to masking and social distancing to prevent COVID-19. But, now that these guidelines have been eased, this year's flu season could look quite different.According to Piedra:All flu vaccines this season contain four components...

FRIDAY, Oct. 1, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up the U.S. opioid crisis in ways bad and good, increasing the risk of use and overdose but also spurring innovative approaches to treatment.The pandemic has definitely been linked to an increase in opioid use and overdose deaths, Tufts University's Thomas Stopka said during a HealthDay Now video interview."We've been seeing increases in opioid overdose deaths over the past 15 to 20 years, but the increase from 2019 to 2020 was upwards of a 30% increase, from about 70,000 the previous year to 93,000 in 2020," said Stopka, an associate professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts School of Medicine in Boston.People have often turned to alcohol, opioids and other drugs to help them cope with the...

FRIDAY, Oct. 1, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- While high-profile cases like the 2020 killing of George Floyd have cast a harsh spotlight on police violence in the United States, researchers say deaths attributable to it have been underreported for at least 40 years. That's the key finding in a new study published Sept. 30 in The Lancet. For the study, a team from the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle, reviewed data on fatal police violence between 1980 and 2018. Those numbers — from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), which collects all death certificates nationwide — were then compared to three nongovernmental, open-source databases.The conclusion: The federal government data underreported deaths from police by 56%. And Black Americans were 3.5 times...