News & Stories for Oregonians
The thumbs of Oregon State Hospital (OSH) patients are turning green. Through a long-standing partnership with 13th Street Nursery, OSH patients learn what it takes to seed, nurture and deliver plants for sale in the community. This week, OSH staff delivered about 400 young plant starts to the Salem nursery where gardeners can select from […]
Available in Spanish One of the most curious symptoms of COVID-19 is loss of smell. It can occur during the illness and linger for weeks, months or years. It can also crop up after the infection goes away. This makes loss of smell a common symptom of long COVID-19. Long COVID can affect vaccinated or […]
Available in Spanish This week marks three years since the first case of COVID-19 in Oregon. For so many here and around the world, life will never be the same. A few months ago we asked Oregon Health News readers how the pandemic changed them. We wanted to understand how people were feeling. We got […]
Available in Spanish Cuteness alert!! A group of 8-week-old Labrador retrievers visited the Oregon State Hospital (OSH) last week, romping and wiggling as only puppies can do. The visit was part of the hospital’s partnership with Joys of Living Assistance Dogs (JLAD). The Salem-based nonprofit trains and places service dogs in the community, and since […]
Available in Spanish A lot of people want to know the answer to this question. For example, will federal health officials authorize a second dose of the bivalent booster? Will there be an entirely new vaccine formula available next fall? And if so, will it be a flu-COVID-19 combo shot? At this point we don’t […]
It just got easier to get antiviral medication for COVID-19. Effective Feb. 1, people no longer have to test positive for COVID-19 in order to receive the oral antiviral medication Paxlovid. In removing the testing requirement, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledges the limited accuracy of COVID-19 tests, allowing health care providers to […]
Available in Spanish The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that, until further notice, Evusheld is no longer authorized for emergency use because it is not expected to protect against the COVID-19 subvariants currently circulating in the United States. As a result, it cannot be used for new patients or for patients who have […]
Not too long ago, when a multifamily housing owner in Oregon wanted to test their building for radon levels, they were hard pressed to find easy-to-follow and affordable information on how to do it. It’s not required for private property owners, and most of the existing materials on the subject are overly technical and costly. […]
Available in Spanish We know how COVID-19 affects many parts of the body, such as the lungs and heart. But scientists are still trying to understand how COVID-19 affects the brain. COVID-19 can make you feel dizzy, give you a headache or make you less able to focus—all symptoms that involve the brain. But the […]
Available in Spanish You may have seen it in the news, on your social media feed, in your family group chat or in announcements from your kid’s school: this is a bad season for respiratory viruses. With COVID-19, RSV and influenza circulating, many people have found themselves under the weather. The surge of respiratory viruses, […]
