On Sept. 11, the Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency use authorization for updated COVID-19 vaccines. The next day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a statement that recommended updated vaccines for people 6 months and older. As these new vaccines become available, it is critical that we improve access to save lives, wrote Sara Becker, PhD, Rinad S. Beidas, PhD and Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH, in an article in the Chicago Tribune. The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines has added effective tools to our public health tool kit. However, new vaccines that sit in freezers will serve little purpose to our community. We cannot afford to wait until the next wave of COVID-19 cases incapacitates our health system or the next public health crisis emerges. Implementation scientists require a seat at the table to help shape decisions to save lives and improve public health.

Stress can take a toll on anyone. But if you have depression, you might not bounce back from stress easily. The death of a loved one, a job loss, or a divorce could trigger symptoms such as guilt and hopelessness. But there are stpes you can take to get better. You might have a lot tied up in your work. For starters, a job loss can take you away from an entire network of people. Try to gain some control of the situation, says Tim Pearman, PhD, a professor of medical social sciences and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Pearman suggests you update your resume but stay flexible. “There may be a whole bunch of job opportunities available to you that you might not even think about outside of your field,” he says. “Maybe it’s time to break the mold of how you self-identify in terms of your career path and consider other options.” Casting a wider net in your job search may help you feel more in control and less hamstrung by the recent job loss. In terms of losing a loved one pay attention to your symptoms. If you can’t focus on your work or get out of bed, or you’ve been depressed for more than a few months, “at that point, it’s probably time to seek professional help,” Pearman says.

Coffee can be many things: a morning ritual, a cultural tradition, a productivity hack and even a health drink. Studies suggest, for instance, that coffee drinkers live longer and have lower risks of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular conditions and some cancers. But between your breakfast brew, lunchtime latte and afternoon espresso, is it possible to have too much? And if so, how can you tell? Coffee contains thousands of chemical compounds, many of which may influence health, said Marilyn Cornelis, PhD, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. But coffee is also the largest source of caffeine for people in the United States, and that’s where most of the risks associated with coffee consumption come from, she said. But “most people are kind of well tuned with their response to caffeine,” Dr. Cornelis said, and when they begin to experience even mild symptoms of having too much, they cut back. That said, if you’re prone to abnormal heart rhythms, or if you notice palpitations after having caffeine, you may be more sensitive to its effects and should not consume more than you’re used to, or ingest large doses from concentrated sources.

Many Americans have become accustomed to swabbing their noses when taking COVID-19 tests both at home and in doctors’ offices. Now, test makers are banking on influenza as a new frontier in at-home testing. At-home rapid antigen COVID-19 tests that were popular during the height of the pandemic had a reputation for being less accurate. The FDA says that at-home COVID antigen tests are less precise than molecular tests (i.e., the PCR tests that needed to be done in a hospital or clinic), and false negatives may be more likely to happen, especially if the test is taken shortly after infection, leading the FDA to recommending doing a repeat test after a negative result. Looking ahead, Ramon Lorenzo Redondo, PhD, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said that having “pipelines” in place for the development of new at-home test systems could be beneficial if a new virus — or another pandemic — emerges. “With this plus many other tools that we are developing, I think we could at least handle it better if [there is]another pandemic,” Redondo says. “Imagine a new virus appears that creates another problem, then you have all these pipelines and tools that now can be developed sooner. So I think, in general, this is good to have and to improve handling of epidemics or pandemics.”