As the first coronavirus vaccines started to be rolled out at the end of a tumultuous 2020, UK officials unexpectedly endorsed stretching the gap between the first and second vaccine dose by up to three months – an approach also considered by other countries.

Psychological health can positively or negatively impact a person’s health and risk factors for heart disease and stroke, according to “Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection,” a new American Heart Association Scientific Statement, published today in the Association’s flagship journal Circulation. The statement evaluates the relationship between psychological health and heart health, summarizing ways to help improve psychological health for people with and at risk for heart disease.

The continued global burden of stroke and how it disproportionately affects women are highlighted in new science published online today in the February issue of Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association. Stroke editors selected nine manuscripts focused on stroke disparities in women in this collaboration with Go Red for Women, the Association’s global movement to end heart disease and stroke in women.

Australia’s medical regulator has formally approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, with the first doses expected to be administered in late February, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Monday.

A major clinical trial in Canada shows that an inexpensive anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine can significantly reduce the risk of complications and death from COVID-19, bringing “important hope” to sufferers, the lead researcher said Sunday.