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A new preprint study on the preprint server medRxiv involving healthcare workers in Quebec shows that the risk of long COVID following any initial COVID-19 infection was similar among participants, cumulative risk increased with the number of infections, but reinfections were associated with a much lower risk of long COVID than a person's first infection. (Soucheray, 5/12)

A study of South Korean children suggests antibiotic use in girls in the first year of life may be linked to earlier onset of puberty, researchers reported last week at a joint meeting of the European Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and the European Society of Endocrinology. (Dall, 5/12)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Listen: Black Swimmers Make Waves Overcoming Fear And Old Perceptions

Generations of Black Americans have faced barriers to swimming. A history of systemic exclusion from pools is one factor that has led to higher drowning rates among Black children and adults than their white peers. More than a third of Black adults report they do not know how to swim, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Water safety advocates across the country are providing swim lessons to encourage Black people of all ages to overcome fears and build confidence. (Anthony, 5/13)

Robert B. Shapiro, a brash former law professor turned corporate executive who performed a marketing miracle by branding aspartame as the sugar substitute NutraSweet and making it a household name that consumers demanded in thousands of products, died on May 2 at his home in Chicago. He was 86. The cause was pancreatic cancer, his son James Shapiro said. Aspartame was invented by chemists at the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle in Illinois in 1965 and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in soft drinks in 1983, a year after Mr. Shapiro became chief executive and chairman of what the company was already calling its NutraSweet subsidiary. (Roberts, 5/12)