With vaccination rates slowing (or never really getting momentum) in some parts of the country, U.S. public health officials have begun to worry about unused COVID-19 vaccines going to waste as their expiration dates come up this summer. Authorities estimate there are enough doses at risk to vaccinate more than 13 million people.

A Pox On Monkeys

Health officials have been monitoring roughly 200 people in 27 states after they came in contact with a U.S. resident who had contracted monkeypox during a visit to Nigeria. Rarely seen in people, monkeypox is caused by a virus related to smallpox, the only human virus that has been eradicated. Monkeypox causes a less severe illness, but can be deadly, with a fatality rate of 10%.

No additional cases have been identified.

Body of Knowledge

A woman's brain becomes smaller and more efficient during pregnancy, according to published research. The shrinkage in specific regions helps focus functions vital to motherhood, such as emotional attachment and threat detection.

Get Me That, Stat!

In a survey of adolescents and their parents, conversations about puberty, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and birth control were generally deemed important, but less than one-third of adolescents said they had spoken to their pediatricians about anything beyond puberty.

Counts

17: Estimated number, in millions, of routine childhood vaccinations disrupted globally by the pandemic

83: Percentage of sequenced COVID-19 cases that are now identified as the Delta variant

Source: The Lancet; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Stories For the Waiting Room

A large, new study of hospitalized patients found that female physicians tended to have lower rates of patient mortality than their male colleagues. The Canadian study of 171,000 patients between 2010 and 2017 found that the mortality rate among female doctors was 4.8% compared with 5.2% for male doctors.

Doc Talk

Aphthous stomatitis: benign, noncontagious mouth (canker) sores

Phobia of the Week

Lalophobia: fear of speaking

Never Say 'Diet'

The Major League Eating record for Maine lobster is 44 (11.3 pounds of meat) in 12 minutes, held by Sonya Thomas. Her competitors were shell-shocked by Thomas' feat, not to mention the lobsters.

Best Medicine

A man drives to the hospital and attempts to park his car in a lot.

An attendant stops him. "I'm sorry, this is for badge holders only."

The man nods: "Yes, I have a bad shoulder."

Observation

"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol." — Comedian Steven Wright

Medical History

This week in 1846, dentist William T.G. Morton used an experimental anesthetic, ether, for the first time on one of his patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to remove a tooth.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases such as "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "The Tie retraction syndrome."

Basically, the authors looked at the distance between the end of a necktie and the belt buckle, which increases with girth and weight — a syndrome that they suggested represents a widespread but undiagnosed condition.

Medical Myths

There is no empirical evidence to suggest sugar is a) addictive, b) makes children hyperactive or c) directly causes diabetes or cancer. Of course, too much sugar in the diet can lead to obesity, a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, and overconsumption is associated with multiple negative health effects, including kidney damage, hip fractures and cellular aging.

Med School

Q: When a sperm fertilizes an egg, what is the result called?

a) a fetus

b) a neonate

c) a gamete

d) a zygote

A: d) a zygote. Egg and sperm are known as gametes. When they join together to form a single cell, they are called a zygote. An embryo describes early development, based on gestational age; fetus describes later development. A neonate is an infant less than four weeks old.

Curtain Calls

The first known fatality from a powered airplane crash was 1st Lt. Thomas Selfridge (1882-1908), who was riding as a passenger on a demonstration flight of a plane being considered by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The combined weight of Selfridge and the pilot proved too much, and the plane failed mid-flight, crashing at Fort Myer in Virginia. The pilot was Orville Wright, who survived but suffered serious injuries.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.