There have been about 40 deaths worldwide among people who have recently been vaccinated against pandemic H1N1 influenza, but there is no evidence the deaths are related to the vaccine, officials from the World Health Organization said today. At least 65 million people have been vaccinated, and it is inevitable that there will be some deaths among such a large group, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director for the Initiative for Vaccine Research at the WHO. Although some investigations are stil... Read Full Story

The first U.S. trials of a spray-on anesthetic for the penis showed that it increased the time to ejaculation nearly five-fold, providing the first good solution for premature ejaculation, researchers reported today. The findings are very similar to those obtained in a European study released in April. Premature ejaculation is generally defined as ejaculation that occurs within a minute after insertion of the penis into the vagina, causing distress to both parties. The condition is tho... Read Full Story

Poor old U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. They're asked to assess the science on mammograms, they duly do so and come out with advice that's unpopular — suggesting that regular mammograms are not advisable for most women under 50 (not a new debate) and not advisable for women over 50 every year — and now everyone's beating up on them.  They even dared to suggest that breast self-exams are not helpful (also not a new debate). Department of Health and Human Services... Read Full Story

 The March of Dimes has just released its 2009 Premature Birth Report — and California continues to do badly. Its premature birth rate is 10.9%, up from 10.7% in 2008. It gets a C. The nation as a whole, which has a pre-term birth rate of 12.7%, got a D. Prematurity is the No. 1 cause of newborn death and is linked to complications such as learning, behavior and feeding problems, as well as a heightened risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Even late pre-term births (34 to 36 wee... Read Full Story

The reaction to this week's U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation against regular mammograms for women under 50 was swift, emotional and highly public. Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius weighed in, pointing out that, well, the task force is actually just an independent panel offering advice, not setting policy, so … just do what you've been doing. Seriously. "My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an imp... Read Full Story

Midnight shift workers often find it hard to get enough quality sleep on a consistent basis. Police officers are not exempt, often working late shifts and overtime as part of their job. A new study finds that their schedule may cause cops to develop metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms including high blood pressure, insulin resistance and high trigylcerides that advance development of such conditions such as stroke, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. The research, published in... Read Full Story

Here’s a clip from Oprah Winfrey’s on-air announcement that she’s putting the Oprah Winfrey Show out to pasture: “Why walk away, and make next season the last? Here is the real reason: [T]wenty-five years feels right in my bones.” Read Full Story

A National Security Agency director just bragged to a Senate subcommittee about his agency’s close “cooperation” with Microsoft to, err, “enhance” how Windows 7 guards a user’s privacy. Doesn’t that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy? The spooks at the NSA are, of course, notorious for their role monitoring internet activity, and for their use of warantless wiretaps to monitor U.S. phones, often illegally. So computer users could easily be worried ... Read Full Story

The heretofore anonymous founder of Regretsy, the blog that appropriately mocks your dumb arts-and-crafts projects, has been outed. Because she got a book deal! New blog-to-book trend: Saying right up front the book will be more paltry than the blog. Speakeasy reports that the Regretsy mastermind is April Winchell, well-known comedic human. Notably, her new book publishers admit: “We’re not going to use everything from the Web site,” said Jill Schwartzman, the purchasing edi... Read Full Story

It’s Obvious Day on Twitter: NBCer Chuck Todd wonders why Barack Obama can’t secure the political support of the man he defeated in the 2008 election, and the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz predicts that Oprah Winfrey may go to cable. Balloon Juice’s John Cole needs to stop reading Twitter—as do we all—because he finds things like this there: Now that’s a story. If Obama has lost the backing of the man who spent a full year and $346 million trying to... Read Full Story