Economists at UC Santa Cruz used rainy weather as a natural experiment to understand how communities across the U.S. that started some form of social distancing slightly earlier may have experienced significant economic benefits.

Individuals from sexual minority populations, including members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer communities, are more likely than heterosexual individuals to engage in behaviors to reduce medication costs such as using alternative therapies, skipping medication doses or delaying prescription refills, according to study published in JAMA.

Zoom fatigue may be a real condition, but for some people, the “constant mirror” effect of seeing their own faces didn’t appear to make virtual meetings more unpleasant, a Washington State University study has found. The study surveyed two groups who attended regular virtual meetings as a result of the pandemic: employees and college students. The participants’ attitudes toward the self-view feature depended on an individual trait—public self-consciousness. Those low in this trait tended to have more positive attitudes toward their virtual meetings the more often their own faces were visible to them.

Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found marked decreases in orphanhood particularly double orphanhood, among adolescents in Rakai, Uganda, corresponding with the availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) beginning in 2004 and of male medical circumcision in 2007. Until now, little had been known about the contribution of HIV combination prevention including ART and male circumcision to recent trends in orphanhood.

Certain factors reflecting lower socioeconomic status (SES) are linked to increased risks of cleft lip and/or cleft palate, reports a study in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).