Health

A large number of North Koreans including leader Kim Jong Un have attended a funeral for a top official despite outside worries about its COVID-19 outbreak. Photos showed leader Kim Jong Un carrying the coffin of the late official and throwing earth into his grave. The photos showed a crowd of soldiers and officials at the cemetery and state media said “a great many” people turned out along streets to express condolences. The photos show Kim bare-faced while most other people wore masks. North Korea also maintains that its outbreak is subsiding, though outside experts doubt its figures. The omicron variant of the coronavirus was thought to have been spread by mass public events in late April.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has been released from the hospital after a stay of more than a week following a stroke. The Democratic nominee in the state’s high-profile U.S. Senate contest said in a statement Sunday that he was headed home to Braddock. He says he is “feeling great" but plans to “continue to rest and recover." The 52-year-old Fetterman had been at Lancaster General Hospital since May 13. He won the Democratic nomination while in the hospital and will face either heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz or former hedge fund CEO David McCormick.

President Joe Biden says cases of monkeypox are “something that everybody should be concerned about.” The president made his first public comments on the disease after being asked about it during his visit to South Korea. He said there's work underway to identify an effective vaccine. And he added that if the disease were to spread "it would be consequential.” The disease is rarely identified outside of Africa, but there have been a number of recent cases in Europe and at least two in the United States. Most people recover from monkeypox without hospitalization, but it can be fatal.

The head of the World Health Organization has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is “most certainly not over” despite a decline in reported cases since the peak of the omicron wave. He told governments on Sunday that “we lower our guard at our peril.” The U.N. health agency’s director-general told officials gathered in Geneva for the opening of the WHO’s annual meeting that “declining testing and sequencing means we are blinding ourselves to the evolution of the virus.” The WHO leader noted that almost 1 billion people in lower-income countries still haven’t been vaccinated and said vaccine hesitancy around the world has been fueled by “disinformation.”

Psychotherapy is not one size fits all. From behavioral to gestalt therapies, which approach will work best for you depends on your needs and goals.

SUNDAY, May 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- If you have both asthma and seasonal allergies, there are ways to reduce the impacts of that double whammy, an expert says.

Herschel Walker boasts of his charity work helping members of the military who struggle with mental health. The football legend and leading Republican Senate candidate in Georgia says the outreach is done through a program he created, called Patriot Support. But court filings and company documents offer a more complicated picture. They show Walker did not found the program. It's also not a charity. It's an arm of a for-profit hospital chain. Court documents reveal the company has a checkered history treating veterans and reached a $122 million settlement after the Justice Department sued for improperly treating patients. The company denies the allegations. Walker's campaign criticized the media for writing a story about the program.

Proponents of intermittent fasting say the clock can help you win the battle of the bulge. But the science behind it is a little more complicated.

The U.S. Air Force Academy says three cadets who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine will not be commissioned as military officers but will graduate with bachelor’s degrees. Academy spokesman Dean Miller says a fourth cadet who only recently decided to be vaccinated will graduate and become an Air Force officer. Miller said in a statement Saturday that the three won't be commissioned as long as they remain unvaccinated. He says the Air Force secretary will decide whether the unvaccinated students will be required to pay their educational costs in lieu of service.

Arizona’s Republican governor has signed legislation preventing state health officials from ever adding a COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required school inoculations and barring mask mandates in government buildings. The bills Gov. Doug Ducey signed Friday permanently block disease mitigation measures that many health professionals say are critical to reining in the pandemic if case counts again surge or the virus mutates and becomes more deadly to children. GOP lawmakers say they are needed to stop government overreach and intrusion into personal choice. Minority Democrats were united in opposition.

U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol say after meeting that they will consider expanded joint military exercises to deter the nuclear threat from North Korea. The announcement Saturday during Biden's visit to Seoul reflects a shift in direction from former U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump had considered scrapping the exercises and had expressed affection for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The announcement may also put to rest concerns in Seoul that Washington would revert to the Obama administration's policy of “strategic patience” in which it largely looked the other way while North Korea expanded its nuclear arsenal.

Australia’s center-left opposition party has toppled the conservative government after almost a decade in power. Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese in his Saturday election victory speech promised sharper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while he faces an early foreign policy test. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he quickly conceded defeat despite millions of votes yet to be counted because an Australian leader must attend a Tokyo summit on Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders from Japan and India. Albanese has described himself as the only candidate with a “non-Anglo Celtic name” to run for prime minister in the 121 years that the office has existed. He referred to his own humble upbringing in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown.

The former director of the Ohio state prison system has emerged as a leading contender to run the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons. That's according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press. The people say Gary Mohr is among the top contenders to replace Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal. Carvajal submitted his resignation in January but said he would stay on until a successor was named. The people cautioned a final decision has not been made. Mohr said Saturday he was “shocked to see an article" describing him as a contender for the position and denied he had applied or been interviewed.

The White House is planning for what it calls “dire” contingencies that could include rationing supplies of vaccines and treatments this fall if Congress doesn’t approve more money for fighting COVID-19. Biden administration officials have been warning for weeks that the country has spent nearly all the money approved for COVID-19 response. The administration faces critical decisions about how to spend what's left. It's weighing whether to use it to secure the next generation of vaccines to protect the highest risk populations or to prioritize highly effective therapies to reduce the risks of severe illness and death. Rationing could expose even the most vulnerable to shortages.

SATURDAY, May 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- It's a good idea to get children outside every day, but especially on Kids to Parks Day, a national day of outdoor play on May 21.

Ukraine's ambassador to neighboring Poland says his country is grateful for the welcome that Poles have given to millions of Ukrainians, but hopes the European Union will soon release billions of euros to Poland so that helping those fleeing the war does not come “at the cost of the Polish people.” Ambassador Andrii Deshchytsia said that while there have been no real social tensions in the three months since Ukrainians began crossing into Poland seeking safety, he worries they could appear in the future given how much Poland has done. The government has extended free medical care, education and other social services to the Ukrainians, while more than 80% of them are being housed in private Polish homes.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli troops have shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian during a raid in the occupied West Bank. The shooting came at a time of intensified military activity in the northern West Bank town of Jenin over the past months. Local media reported that clashes erupted outside Jenin’s refugee camp when Israeli forces stormed the area. Israel has been conducting raids regularly in Jenin following a series of deadly attacks inside Israel. The army says its soldiers opened fire Saturday after gunmen opened fire and threw explosives toward the troops from a passing car.