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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A return to normal life in America might happen sooner than many expect, one of the nation's leading vaccine experts told HD Live! this week.As the new coronavirus rages across the country, President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of one million doses of vaccine delivered every day once he takes office. If that ambitious target is realized, everyday conditions in the United States might return to normal as soon as the summer, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia."I think if we can do that, if we can get a million people vaccinated a day, I think then that by summer or late summer we should be able to have enough people vaccinated that we are able to have a normal life again,"...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Telemedicine rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic as people turned to their phones and computers rather than leave their homes for health care.But some groups of people were left behind in the telemedicine boom, a new study reports.Middle-aged and older folks are much less likely to complete their scheduled telemedicine visits, as well as Medicaid recipients and those whose first language is not English, the researchers said.Many groups are also unable to take part in video visits, including middle-aged folks and seniors, women, Black and Hispanic people, and those with a lower household income, according to the study authors.The pandemic has revealed a "digital divide" in telemedicine care, with some people unable to take full...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- It may be no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing some Americans significant psychological distress. That mental trauma hit people hard, even early in the pandemic, new research shows.A new RAND Corporation study reports that more than 10% of Americans surveyed said they experienced psychological distress during April and May of 2020 -- the same number as in all of 2019."Elevated psychological distress has been observed during prior disasters, but it has never before been seen as a persistent and complex stressor affecting the entire U.S. population," said lead author Joshua Breslau, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Policymakers should consider targeting services to population groups at high...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say a new study may offer hope for future patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. It's the brain tumor that killed Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy.Investigators from the University of Toronto discovered that the healing process after a brain injury could spur tumor growth if new cells meant to replace those lost in the injury were derailed by mutations.The findings could lead to new therapies for glioblastoma patients, according to the researchers. Glioblastoma patients currently have limited treatment options and typically survive only 15 months after diagnosis, on average."Our data suggest that the right mutational change in particular cells in the brain could be modified by injury to give rise to a tumor,"...