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THURSDAY, Oct. 7, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- One of the strictest coronavirus vaccine mandates in the United States has been approved in Los Angeles.The city council on Wednesday voted 11-2 in favor of a measure that requires proof of full vaccination for all customers and staff at bars, restaurants, nail salons, spas, gyms, sports arenas, museums, indoor city facilities and other locations, the Associated Press reported. Customers without proof of vaccination can still use outdoor facilities and can briefly enter a business to use a restroom or pick up a food order. People with religious or medical exemptions from vaccination will have to provide negative coronavirus tests within 72 hours of entry.The ordinance was signed Wednesday afternoon by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and takes...

THURSDAY, Oct. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies confirm that the immunity offered by two doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine drops off after about two months, although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death holds strong. The reports, from Israel and Qatar, add to evidence that suggests even fully vaccinated people need to continue to guard against COVID-19 infection.In one study, Israeli researchers found that antibody levels among 4,800 health care workers fell rapidly within months after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, "especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression."That study also found that that immunity lasts longer in people who are vaccinated after natural COVID-19 infection.In the other study...

THURSDAY, Oct. 7, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists in Japan have discovered yet another tick-borne virus that can make people sick.The Yezo virus is transmitted by tick bites, and triggers fever and a reduction in blood platelets and white blood cells."At least seven people have been infected with this new virus in Japan since 2014, but, so far, no deaths have been confirmed," said Keita Matsuno, a virologist at Hokkaido University International Institute for Zoonosis Control."It's very likely that the disease is found beyond Hokkaido, so we need to urgently investigate its spread," Matsuno said in a university news release.In 2019, a 41-year-old man was hospitalized with fever and leg pain after possibly being bitten by a tick while walking in a local forest in Hokkaido. He was...

THURSDAY, Oct. 7, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- You might think that wildfires in the western United States would only affect folks in places like Colorado, California or Oregon.But a new study estimates that three-quarters of smoke-related deaths and visits to the emergency room for asthma in the United States happen east of the Rocky Mountains."We don't often talk about smoke in the East," said Katelyn O'Dell, who led the study while at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. "I wonder if there's a lack of awareness because you think, 'Oh, that's a western problem.'"While smoke does, indeed, contribute to a larger percentage of health problems in the West, it affects greater numbers of people in the East, the study authors said.In the western United States, where the population density...