Video above: Six women share how #MeToo changed their lives

Women who have been sexually assaulted have a higher risk of developing a type of brain damage that has been linked to cognitive decline, dementia and stroke, a new study found.

"It could be either childhood sexual abuse or adult sexual assault," said study author Rebecca Thurston, a professor and director of the Women's Biobehavioral Health Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health.

"Based upon population data, most women have their sexual assaults when they are in early adolescence and early adulthood," she added, "so these are likely early experiences that we're seeing the marks of later in life."

Physical manifestations

The new study, presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society, adds to a growing body of research on the long-term impact of sexual assault on the body and the mind.

"We need to keep our attention on this issue of sexual violence against women and not let it fall off the radar screen of society, because it continues to be a major women's health issue," Thurston said.

Prior studies have found sexual trauma to be linked to higher levels of triglycerides and blood pressure in midlife, and a three-fold greater risk of developing carotid plaque, all key risk factors for heart disease.

In addition, a 2018 study Thurston conducted found women who reported prior sexual assault were three times more likely to experience depression and twice as likely to have elevated anxiety and insomnia than women without a history of sexual trauma.

Depression, anxiety and sleep disorders are all linked to poorer health outcomes, including heart disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC statistics also show more than 1 in 3 women in the U.S. (and 1 in 4 men) experience sexual assault at least once in their lifetimes. Considering the widespread impact, Thurston said physicians should be asking their patients about any prior sexual trauma, and then carefully monitoring the woman's cardiovascular risk as she ages.

Women who have been sexually traumatized should also feel empowered to speak up and tell their doctors, she added.

"Absolutely share this information with your health care providers," Thurston said. "This is not your fault, so please share what you are comfortable with disclosing. It's important information that has implications for your physical health and your emotional well-being."

Looking at the brain

The new study, which will publish soon in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior, looked for signs of white matter hyperintensities in the brain scans of 145 midlife women with no prior history of cardiovascular disease, stroke or dementia. However, 68% of participants had experienced trauma, and for 23% of the women, that trauma was sexual assault.

White matter hyperintensities, which show up as small spots of white on MRIs, are markers of disruptions in blood flow that have left damage in the brain.

"Using brain imaging, we found that women with a history of sexual assault have greater white matter hyperintensities in the brain, which is an indicator of small vessel disease that has been linked to stroke, dementia, cognitive decline and mortality," Thurston said.

The study controlled for other diseases and conditions that would affect the development of white matter hyperintensities, such as age, hypertension, smoking and diabetes. The study also controlled for emotional disorders, including depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

The increase in white matter hyperintensities "wasn't explained by these subjective symptoms of distress," Thurston said. "It's almost like your body has a memory that may not be fully manifesting through psychological symptoms. The sexual assault also leaves footprints of the trauma in our brains and our bodies."

A small device could one day be an alternative to gastric bypass surgery for people who are dangerously overweight.

Researchers at Texas A&M University created the device that is implanted into the patient's stomach. It makes you feel full by using light to stimulate the nerve endings that control hunger.

The device is controlled by a remote source, much like a pacemaker.

The lead researcher behind the device says it could be a safer option than a more invasive surgery.

“Gastric bypass surgery is the most popular approach to treat obesity. The thing is, it’s not a cost-effective solution, plus it involves side effects,” said Sung Il Park at Texas A&M University.

He says his team also gained a better understanding of how our body feels hungry.

Conventional wisdom is when the stomach expands, signals are sent to the brain that a person is full.

Park's team found it is possible to stimulate those nerves to make the body feel full, even when the stomach is empty.

“To be able to activate and manipulate individual neurons, we have to express light sensitive protein to the targeted region. So, such related research is ongoing,” said Park.

He says so far, they haven't found any technical problems with the device.

He says it could be a few years before it might be available for widespread use because they still have more research to do. And then it must go through the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process.

A new, no-needle approach to COVID-19 vaccines is being tested by researchers who are hoping it acts like a virus watchdog in the area where COVID-19 attacks.

“It could be a very, very innovative and new type of vaccine. So, we’re really hopeful of how this could help us with the pandemic,” said Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Dr. Paul Spearman.

Spearman is leading the research on a vaccine known as CVXGA1.

The vaccine is delivered in a nasal spray, like some influenza vaccines.

Researchers believe the vaccine delivered in the nose will help the protection build there and in the upper respiratory system where COVID-19 first attacks and it may do that even better than the mRNA vaccines.

“They do generate some antibodies in the mucosal track, but we think this one has a potential to generate a lot more,” Spearman said. “The difference is, it will generate immunity, not just throughout the systemic circulation in the body but also in the mucosal areas of the nose.”

Like other nasal vaccines, the virus in the COVID-19 nasal version is also live.

Researchers believe this virus is safe because, while it hasn’t been directly tested on people, many have had contact with it.

“The Pi5 virus itself parainfluenza virus type 5 is part of the kennel cough vaccine that’s given to dogs and people get exposed to that. We know they do because that’s been evaluated and as far as we know, they’ve never had symptoms,” Spearman said.

Enrollment begins within a week or so.

Researchers need 15-20 people ages 18 to 75.

The need people who have not had a vaccine and have not had COVID.

mRNA has been a game-changer for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. It has allowed researchers to more efficiently engineer a less intrusive vaccine as it instructs your body to produce certain proteins rather than have your immune adjust to small bits of the virus it is trying to combat.

The mRNA technology has been used, in theory, since the 1990s, but the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the first time the technology has been put into practice for human use.

“It’s really fun to be part of this development,” said Sven Even Borgos, a researcher with SINTEF, one of Northern Europe’s largest research institutes. “The basic principle of mRNA is that when you deliver this code, you actually instruct the body to make its own medicine and that’s partly why it’s so fascinating.”

With the COVID-19 vaccines, the mRNA that is injected into the body instructs it to produce small bits spike protein, the main way through which the coronavirus injects itself into our cells. This way, the body recognizes the spike protein and attacks any cells that have it, such as COVID-19.

Researchers say that same mRNA technology has been a game-changer for a slew of other viruses and disorder such as cancer, sports recovery, and preexisting conditions.

“There are certain things that we could never do before without being able to use DNA, or mRNA, to put new proteins into cells,” said Bruce Zetter, the head researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital and a professor of cancer biology at Harvard Medical School.

He says mRNA is not a silver bullet, but it is a monumental step in accelerating cancer research.

“Let’s say we had a cancer cell in someone’s body and we knew it made a particular protein that normal cells don’t make,” he said. “I’ll call [that particular protein] ‘Cancer Protein 1.’ So we have CP-1, and now, what I would do is I would get mRNA to specify CP1. I’d inject it into the muscle in the arm and those cells in the muscle would make CP1 and they’d stimulate my immune system to fight any cell that had that protein.”

Currently, many cancer treatments rely on radiation to kill cancer cells. Through mRNA, however, Zetter says we are training our immune systems to act as the primary fighter.

“It’s almost like you could treat virtually any disease with it because almost all diseases in your body have a connection to a protein of some kind,” said Borgos.

Researchers say mRNA could tell the body to produce proteins to make ligaments, helping patients recovering from a torn ACL.

It could also help autoimmune disorders like hemophilia, which can causes excessive bleeding, as it instructs the body to produce a protein that allows blood to clot properly.

Just a few weeks ago, researchers in Germany injected mice with mRNA, which reduced the activity of multiple sclerosis in those mice. Currently, there is no cure for the disease.

Researchers say we are still years from any type of vaccines for these diseases but say mRNA has sped up their development considerably.

“It’s really a revolution in vaccine technology,” said Borgos.

Related video above: Doctor answers COVID-19 vaccine questions

Health experts have said that data so far has shown that COVID-19 vaccines prevent symptoms of the virus — but a new study suggests that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines may also prevent infections.

A team at the Mayo Clinic health system looked at more than 31,000 people across four states who had received at least one dose of either vaccine — and found their vaccines were upwards of 80% effective in preventing infection 36 days after the first dose.

Vaccine efficacy was 75% 15 days after the first dose, and appeared 89% effective from 36 days after the second dose, according to the research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Despite a backlog in inoculations due to harsh winter weather that has gripped much of the U.S., officials have been pressing to vaccinate Americans before what appear to be more transmissible variants, which they fear could reverse the progress in terms of lowering cases and hospitalizations.

More than 59 million vaccine doses have so far been administered in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said Friday that the U.S. is unlikely to achieve herd immunity for the virus before the winter.

"We know COVID is really seasonal, so when the next winter rolls around, we need to have a much higher level of protection to stop COVID in its tracks than we are likely to achieve," he said.

Herd immunity doesn't take effect until 80% or more of the population has immunity, either through infection or vaccination. And the new variants may complicate the picture, Murray said. If people can be reinfected with the new variants, the pandemic may take off again.

Though officials hope to have vaccines widely distributed by the end of the summer, President Biden said Friday that issues like weather, mutating strains and manufacturing delays make it hard to nail down a timeline.

"I believe we're on the road, I promise you. I know we'll run into bumps. It's not going to be easy here to the end, but we're going to beat this. We're going to beat this," he said while visiting a Pfizer facility in Michigan.

Too risky to give single doses, Fauci says

One way to protect more people quickly, some experts suggest, is to prioritize administering first doses of the vaccine.

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, advocated Friday for U.S. officials to consider delaying the second dose.

"Would that really be a problem, because if we could do that, we could vaccinate a lot more high-risk people, quickly...Everybody needs a second dose, but I think we can do it in a way that's still safe and get a lot more people protected," Jha told CNN.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that a single-dose plan would be too risky.

Fauci said he worried that if large numbers of people got a single shot and had less than optimal immune responses, they could be exposed to the virus and start incubating viral mutations. In theory, new variants could arise, he said.

"We will stick with the scientifically documented efficacy and optimal response of a prime followed by a boost with the mRNA vaccines," Fauci told a White House briefing.

Jha, for his part, said he agreed that everybody needed a second dose, "I think the question is, right now we wait four weeks between first and second dose. What if we went six weeks or eight weeks or 10 weeks — not much longer than that."

School can reopen now matter the virus' spread, CDC director says

In the hopes of returning to some sense of normalcy, a priority to many families and officials has been allowing students to resume in-person learning.

And CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Friday that given the right precautions, schools may open no matter how much virus is spreading in the community.

As of Tuesday, CNN analysis indicated about 90% of children live in so-called red zones under the CDC's guidance — meaning there is a high level of community spread of the virus. But even in those conditions, schools can safely reopen if they take precautions, Walensky told a White House briefing.

The CDC has said schools can reopen if they make sure they are mitigating the risk of spread with universal mask use, measures to keep children and staff six feet apart, frequent cleaning and disinfection and testing and contact tracing.

The CDC director's assurances came as Fauci announced that the U.S. should have vaccine safety data for high school-age kids by the beginning of fall.

Companies are just starting tests of younger age groups but have been testing their vaccines on 12- to 17-year-olds, Fauci told a White House briefing. Safety data for younger children will likely not be available until early next year, he said.

Vaccine hesitancy not an excuse for inequities

Meanwhile, vaccine trials and distribution have shed light on inequities in the medical field.

People of color have been vastly underrepresented in U.S.-based vaccine trials for the last decade, according to a new study released Friday by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Harvard, Emory and other institutions.

The study found that white people made up the majority, or 78%, of participants in trials conducted between June 2011 and June 2020.

The study, published in the JAMA Network Open, comes as the nation grapples with a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted people of color. Health care leaders are working to combat vaccine distrust among Black and brown people, saying the shot is the key to preventing further devastating in their communities.

But that hesitancy should not be an excuse for officials to explain away racial disparities in vaccination, Fauci said.

"It's that we've got to really extend ourselves into the community to get the access to minority populations that they don't have," Fauci said in an interview with MSNBC.

We’re in this between time: where schools are setting policy for the upcoming year. Many are ditching mask mandates even though COVID-19 vaccines aren’t available for elementary school-aged kids.

For mom Terrysa Armstrong, being careful is top of mind. 

"My teenager is vaccinated but my children aren't, obviously. So, you know, what are they going to bring home to their grandparents or to me?" she said.

Both Pfizer and Moderna are wrapping late-phase clinical trials for their COVID-19 vaccine shots in kids ages 5 to 11 and plan to file for FDA emergency authorization by December. Johnson & Johnson says they have four pediatric studies planned this fall, too. But nothing will be ready for the start of the school year. 

"At the end of the day, children and staff and students need to feel safe," said Dr. Moira Inkelas, co-investigator with the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.  

Without vaccines, scientists are still trying to find how to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in schools. 

Inkelas is helping lead California’s research for the National Institutes of Health. But some of that work will only look back on this year once it’s done. Over the next two years, the NIH will spend $33 million comparing how different school districts’ plans of masking and testing drove infections.

"This is all a human endeavor. And so we're trying to interpret the science, trying to help school districts think about what steps they can put into place. And then, of course, the pandemic is also changing day-to-day," Inkelas said.

Congresswoman Kim Schrier was a pediatrician before turning to politics. She’s been pushing for mass testing after seeing how successful it was in her own district in Washington state but notes those programs come with a cost. 

"The test that we have now available over the counter cost twelve dollars each. And there is no way that is practical to do on a once or twice or three times a week basis. That is just not financially doable," she said.

But some schools are already ditching the masks despite the fact the CDC hasn’t updated its guidance. It still recommends schools have universal masking.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said kids shouldn’t have to wear masks or socially distance in schools this fall, because the state's virus positivity rates have dropped. 

So are students and teachers at risk? Dr. Frank Esper with the Cleveland Clinic says right now, that depends where you live, and your school district’s plan.

"There's still going to be some risk. Even if you went to school and had masks and social distancing and everything, it's still not zero. But it's very reassuring that children, especially the smallest children, do not seem to spread this virus as readily as adults do," he said.

And for parents like Armstrong, making up for what was lost in last year’s virtual or hybrid learning, is crucial.

"My daughter, she's going into middle school and she got great grades just last year, but I know that she is behind," she said.

This story was originally reported by Lindsey Theis on Newsy.com.

Amy Daeschel is a woman in long-term recovery.

"What that means to me is I haven’t found it necessary to use a drink or a drug since August 23, 2017,” Daeschel said.

Daeschel had a successful life until she had multiple foot surgeries at the age of 37. She was prescribed oxycontin for pain.

“Five of them, 30 milligrams a day, and this went on for a year and a half," Daeschel said. "And I had built a strong dependency upon this medication. It turned into an addiction when I started treating emotional trauma. My mother had committed suicide, I was going through a divorce, had domestic violence, I mean everything just hit me at once.”

Once the doctor found out about her addiction, she was cut off. So, she turned to the streets.

“That first $10 bag of heroin came and it was over. Within two months, I had lost everything."

She says it wasn’t until she hit rock bottom that she was able to turn her life around. A state-run addiction operation offered her treatment. She’s been sober since. Unfortunately, that hasn't the case for a lot of others across the country.

Julie Burns is the CEO of Rize Massachusetts Foundation – a statewide independent nonprofit focused on ending the opioid overdose crisis.

“In recent months, the opioid crisis has definitely taken a turn for the worse," Burns said. "COVID definitely caused an uptick in fatal overdoses, primarily caused by the isolation with stay-at-home orders and people couldn’t get access to treatment. They found themselves using alone or using in places where somebody wasn’t checking on them.”

Once somebody’s addicted, it is ridiculously challenging to stop.

“Addiction is a disease of the brain," Burns said. "Opioids change the receptor patterns in your brain and it’s a clinical diagnosis. It’s recognized by the DSM so it’s not debatable that it’s a disease, it’s definitely a disease, and it can be treated.”

Researchers are hard at work trying to find new ways to treat people, researchers like Dr. David Fisher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He's the chair of dermatology and the director of the melanoma program.

Knowing that UV radiation from the sun stimulates the production of both vitamin D and endorphins in our bodies, Dr. Fisher wanted to study if there is a relationship between vitamin D and opioid response. Opioids also trigger the release of endorphins.

“There’s something paradoxical about the idea that we would have evolved a response that leads us to seek the exposure to the most common carcinogen in our environment – which is ultraviolet radiation," Dr. Fisher said. "Why would that exist? And we predicted or we hypothesized that vitamin D could be a perfect explanation for this.”

His team took lab mice and made them vitamin D deficient. Then they measured their response to either UV radiation or opiates. Their hypothesis that a vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk for opiate addiction held true.

“The dependency was exaggerated; the withdrawal symptoms were exaggerated," Dr. Fisher said. "Even pain control – lower doses of morphine were producing fourfold the magnitude of benefits. Very, very large differences if there was vitamin D deficiency present. Whereas if we corrected the vitamin D level or had normal vitamin D levels, then the responses were much weaker to the opiates.”

Dr. Fisher says this research is still new and they need to validate their findings in a human clinical trial. If nothing changes, his research could help doctors be more aware as they’re prescribing opiates.

“Some of those patients have trouble getting off and ultimately become addicted," Dr. Fisher said. "Could it be that if we identify those patients if they’re vitamin D deficient and just correct the vitamin D deficiency, perhaps that would lower the risk of becoming addicted in the first place.”

In the meantime, Daeschel says she plans to continue her advocacy work to end the stigmas surrounding addiction.

"I’ve got massive scars on my arm," Daeschel said. "And people ask me all the time ‘what happened?’ I’ll look them straight in the face and I’ll go ‘heroin’ and their face, they’re just shocked and tell me ‘oh I could never see you doing that.’ And I’m like ‘but that’s the reality of it. Addiction is so close to home. Somebody’s mother, somebody’s brother, father, sister, uncle, whatever.’”

She wants people to know that recovery is possible and there are many different pathways to get there.

“You will find a freedom that you never knew existed,” Daeschel said.

A new study has found evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infects the cells in the mouth including the salivary glands — which may explain some COVID-19 symptoms such as loss of taste and dry mouth.

The findings of the study led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also “point to the possibility that the mouth plays a role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to the lungs or digestive system via saliva laden with the virus from infected oral cells,” according to a press release.

The study, published in Nature Medicine, focused on discovering where SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva comes from as it is well established that people diagnosed with COVID-19 contain high levels of the virus in their saliva.

People with COVID-19 who have respiratory symptoms may have the virus in their saliva from nasal drainage of sputum coughed up from the lungs, the release states, but the researchers said it may not explain how the virus gets into the saliva of people who lack those symptoms.

Blake Warner, lead study author and assistant clinical director and chief of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), said in the release that “based on the data from our laboratories, we suspected at least some of the virus in saliva could be coming from infected tissues in the mouth itself.”

To investigate this, scientists surveyed oral tissue collected from healthy people in order to identify mouth regions susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The vulnerable cells contained ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules that have instructions for making “entry proteins” or “doorways” that the virus needs to be able to get into the cells and infect it.

RNA for two key entry proteins known as the ACE2 receptor and the TMPRSS2 enzyme were found in cells of the salivary glands and in tissues lining the oral cavity, which indicated “increased vulnerability because the virus is thought to need both entry proteins to gain access to cells,” the release states.

Warner said that those factors are similar to the ones found in regions known to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, such as the lining of the nasal passage and upper airways.

The next step for the researchers after confirming that parts of the mouth are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 was to look for evidence of infection in oral tissue samples from people with COVID-19. In samples collected at the NIH from COVID-19 patients who had died, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was found in “just over half” of the salivary glands examined. Researchers also found the specific sequences of RNA that indicated cells were actively making new copies of the virus in a living person who had acute COVID-19.

The study further found that salivary gland tissue infected with SARS-CoV-2 could be the source of the virus in saliva. In people with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19, cells shed from the mouth into saliva were found to have the RNA entry proteins and SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

In order to determine whether virus found in saliva is infectious, researchers took saliva from eight people with asymptomatic COVID-19 and exposed it to healthy cells grown in a dish.

Saliva from two of the eight subjects led to infection of the healthy cells – raising the possibility that asymptomatic COVID-19 patients might transmit infectious SARS-CoV-2 to others through saliva, according to the study.

A final aspect of the study was to explore the relationship between oral symptoms of COVID-19 and virus in saliva. Researchers collected saliva from a group of 35 volunteers with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19. Of the 27 people who were experiencing oral symptoms, those with the virus in their saliva were more likely to report loss of taste and smell, suggesting that oral infection might underlie oral symptoms of COVID-19.

The study’s findings suggest that the mouth, via infected oral tissue cells, plays a bigger role in SARS-CoV-2 infections than previously thought.

“When infected saliva is swallowed or tiny particles of it are inhaled, we think it can potentially transmit SARS-CoV-2 further into our throats, our lungs, or even our lungs,” said Kevin Byrd, second author of the study and assistant professor in dentistry at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, in the release.

The researchers hope to confirm their findings in a larger group of people and to determine the exact nature of the part the mouth plays in SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission, according to the release.

"By revealing a potentially underappreciated role for the oral cavity in SARS-CoV-2 infection, our study could open up new investigative avenues leading to a better understanding of the course of infection and disease. Such information could also inform interventions to combat the virus and alleviate oral symptoms of COVID-19," Warner said.

While many people recover from COVID-19, others are finding symptoms that won’t go away. While researchers are working to find out what’s behind what some call "long COVID," some patients are eager to hear if hope lies in a vaccine.

Symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, gastrointestinal issues, and more, according to the NIH. The agency recently launched an initiative to study what it calls Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).

RELATED: Patients, medical community focus on long-term impacts of COVID-19

Amanda Finley says she fell ill with COVID-19 twice, first early on in the pandemic and unable to get tested, and again in October. Like others, she found her symptoms lingered. She founded an online discussion group for others with similar experiences.

“The big thing for me was tachycardia,” she said.

Almost a year to the date when she got sick, she got vaccinated. But what took her by surprise was what happened next.

“My tachycardia has subsided, my shortness of breath that I had related to that has subsided. The brain fog, the fatigue, has subsided. And we had been telling our members for months the vaccines are not designed to treat symptoms. They’re preventative, so I was just sort of just taken aback,” she said.

Now she’s curious whether the COVID-19 vaccine had any impact, recognizing it’s only anecdotal at this point.

“I realized there’s something to this we need to take note and get in touch with researchers so we can figure out what this key is,” she said.

It’s a question researchers are just starting to look at.

“That’s very important, and again, I would say really unclear situation,” said Dr. Christian Bréchot, a professor of medicine at USF Health and president of the Global Virus Network.

He says more comprehensive studies are needed.

“For example, would it be possible 'long COVID' would be due to some virus reservoirs, that means visual persistence in some hidden site in the body you see and that the vaccine would be efficient against these reservoirs. But this we have no evidence for this it’s just a hypothesis,” he said.

One small study, not peer-reviewed, looked at the vaccine’s safety for patients with "long COVID," concluding it wasn’t associated with a worsening of symptoms.

But there are not many studies yet, and as Dr. Bréchot points out, it can be difficult to interpret.

“Now in addition to this they have provided some I would say preliminary evidence for a beneficial effect of the vaccine. But again these were not randomized, controlled, clinical trials and so I would say that for the efficacy of the vaccine the evidence is still insufficient,” he said. “It is only a suggestion, it’s a possibility, it’s obviously very important to follow up on this but we do not have conclusive evidence so far.”

The NIAID said more research is needed to understand how the COVID-19 vaccination may affect people who don’t return to full health after the virus. It said two studies may help, stating in part:

“The IMPACC study is following participants for up to 12 months after hospitalization for COVID-19 to assess how well they recover and characterize their immune responses. Another study [clinicaltrials.gov] is enrolling people who recovered from COVID-19 and a control group who never had COVID-19 and will follow participants for three years. While these studies are not supplying vaccines, some participants are being vaccinated as part of the general U.S. vaccine effort. Study researchers are capturing information on participant vaccination and any effects on symptoms.”

The organization, Survivor Corps., surveyed just over 900 of its members on long-term COVID symptoms post-vaccine. It said 45% reported no change, 42% reported improvement and 13% said symptoms worsened.

The anecdotal reports, though, are giving some dealing with symptoms hope.

“I am hopeful. I’m not counting on it,” said Vitas Martinenas.

He’s waiting to get his second dose as he battles "long COVID."

“If it helps a certain amount of people hopefully I’ll be one of the lucky ones, it’s no fun living like this so I’m sort of grasping at straws here,” he said.

Meanwhile, Delainne Bond is working to educate others in an online support group she founded and let them know they’re not alone.

“It’s just a really big gap in what people know, what the doctors know, what the patients expect, we’re all looking for a cure,” she said.

Bond doesn’t think she’s in a situation where the vaccine is improving her symptoms, but for her, it’s about preventing another infection. She said her symptoms have been under control with interventions, including a strict low histamine diet after finding she was more sensitive to allergens after her COVID-19 illness.

“The message I see over and over again is people feel hopeless they feel like their lives have been taken from them they’re never going to get it back,” she said.

This story was originally published by Haley Bull at WFTS.

Bethany Wilcox has always wanted to have kids.

“Seeing my parents and how much satisfaction and fulfillment they seemed to have from raising my sister and me, I always wanted that," Wilcox said. "I always thought that was an amazing thing.”

It was something she pictured herself doing once she settled down with a partner. She’s in that stage of life right now, but the thought of having kids scares her. She says she's afraid climate change would take away her children’s ability to live their best life.

“I am not confident that that happy future can exist for anyone anymore.”

Wilcox is not alone in her feelings. Dr. Sabrina Helm, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, has studied the role climate change plays in reproductive decision-making.

“I am generally very interested in the mental health impacts that climate change has on people in general, particularly in the United States,” Dr. Helm said.

Dr. Helm says overconsumption, overpopulation, and an uncertain future were the three major concerns that emerged in her research.

“What is the earth going to look like? Dr. Helm said. "What is the environment going to look like? And if we expose children to this new world which we all assume may not be as pretty as the world we see today, what does that mean? And it is fair to bring children into a world that might be bleaker.”

Dr. Helm says these thoughts are taking a toll on the mental health of adults in the child-rearing stage of life. Wilcox says she’s often hesitant to share her feelings on the topic because people can be very judgmental.

“The anonymity of the internet makes people terrible sometimes,” Wilcox said.

There’s also societal pressure to have kids.

“In history, the vast majority of history, the main thing that women contributed to society was their ability to have children,” Wilcox said.

Dr. Helm says many of the people she interviewed in her research said they didn’t feel validated in their fears and concerns.

“The answer is always ‘you’ll change your mind’ or ‘you’re going to regret that later’ or ‘who’s going to take care of you when you’re older,’” Wilcox said.

Wilcox says it makes it that much more difficult every time she thinks about having kids.

“It’s definitely a sad thought to think that I wouldn’t be able to have kids,” Wilcox said.

However, the idea of having kids is still on the table.

“Even if we do decide that we don’t want to have a kid on our own, we’ve talked a lot about adopting because even if I am questioning about whether or not I want to bring a child into the world, I have no qualms about loving one that’s already here,” Wilcox said.

Dr. Helm says many people with these concerns do have hope that their children could be the change-makers. She also says there are ways to cope if you are feeling this way.

“Just talking with others about what’s going on in the environment and trying to find ways to help be it on a political level, a community level, a grassroots level, all those are ways to make a difference proactively and that usually helps with our mental state.”

TULSA, Okla. — Five more burials were found during an excavation Thursday in a mass grave at a Tulsa cemetery that officials say was created during the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

The findings on Thursday were just the latest burials discovered amid the excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, dating back to last year. They also come as the country commemorated the 100th anniversary of the deadly riots earlier this week.

According to Kary Stackelbeck, State Archaeologist of the State of Oklahoma, the additional burials bring the total number of people known to be buried in the mass grave to be 20. Twelve burials were discovered during the test excavation last year in October.

After searches for mass graves continued on June 1, the excavation team expanded their research area to try and find graves in the southeastern corner of the cemetery after evidence showed they were near a grave shaft. It was there they found additional burials.

The search for burials is a part of the 1921 Graves Investigation that the city of Tulsa is conducting to try and locate victims of the Tulsa race massacre.

After the excavation stage, the research team will document their findings and then send the remains to be tested for DNA to see if they can be linked to the Tulsa Race Massacre. More information about finding mass graves can be found on the City of Tulsa's website.

To keep up with the latest updates in the excavation process, follow the 1921 Graves' Facebook page.

This story was originally published by Emily Farris on Scripps station KJRH in Tulsa.