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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- About 900,000 U.S. children aged 5 to 11 received their initial dose of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine during the first week of eligibility for that age group, the Biden administration said Wednesday.Not only that, nearly 700,000 more are scheduled in the coming days, health officials added.The low-dose Pfizer vaccine for younger children was approved on Nov. 2 and the first doses were administered in some locations the next day, according to the Associated Press.Nearly 20,000 pharmacies, clinics and doctors' offices are giving the shots to children aged 5 to 11. About 28 million youngsters in that age group are eligible for the vaccine. Kids who get their first of two shots by the end of next week will be fully vaccinated by Christmas.The...

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to know whether it should follow through on its proposed menthol cigarette ban, it need only look to Canada for an answer.A new study finds that Canada's ban on menthol cigarettes seemed to drive more smokers to quit, with overall cigarette sales dipping after the law took hold.Researchers found that after menthol ban went into effect, sales of those cigarettes took an unsurprising plunge. But there was also a reduction in overall cigarette sales, of just under 5%.The findings suggest that the ban is having its intended effect, said lead researcher Michael Chaiton, of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit and the University of Toronto.In the United States, where menthol cigarettes are far more...

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- While deaths from sepsis have dropped in the United States since 2000, older Americans remain particularly susceptible to the life-threatening bacterial infection, new government data shows.Sepsis strikes roughly 2 million people each year and is the cause of one in three hospital deaths in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."Sepsis is typically a complication of another condition or infection, and can occur at any age, but older adults are at high risk for serious complications and death," said report author Ellen Kramarow, from the division of analysis and epidemiology at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), in Hyattsville, Md.Nearly 87% of sepsis infections start outside...

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Illustrating the power of the mind to heal itself, new research suggests that the placebo effect could help drive antidepressants' effects against anxiety disorders.The placebo effect refers to an increase in the success of a treatment when a patient expects a benefit.In the new study, patients with social anxieties who were assured that antidepressants would help them were much more likely to feel better than those who didn't receive such assurances, despite receiving exactly the same treatment."Almost four times as many patients responded to the treatment when correct information about the drug was given," said study author Olof Hjorth, of Uppsala University in Sweden. "This is consistent with previous research showing that expectations...