Hundreds of Indian American volunteers converged on Georgia last month, knocking on doors, sending out hand-written postcards, phone-banking and driving voters to the polls to gain a narrow victory for Democrats in the Dec. 6 Senate runoff.

The long Covid-19 lockdowns and the threat of health risks outside kept people isolated, holed up in their houses, and glued to their TV screens, laptops, and mobile phones in India. This sedentary lifestyle didn’t spare the children either. Even young preschoolers have started to spend more screen time—using mobile phones at an alarmingly high number of daily hours. Screen-watching among Indian preschoolers and children is much higher than the prescribed screen-watching limit set by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Parents of teens and young adults, beware. Smoking, including vaping, continues to be the biggest health risk. A US-centric multi-authored study finds that in the age group of 18-24 years, nicotine and cannabis remain high-risk consumption items. Additionally, young adults in America are also consuming the deadly cocktail of alcohol and cigarettes. Globally, smoking and drug abuse continue to affect nearly 14% of the youth, and over 5.6% of the world population in the age group of 16-64 years is consuming drugs, say the study experts.

Clinical depression, a serious mood disorder that causes persistent feelings of sadness and detachment, is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States, affecting more than 11 million Americans a year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

More sleep at night, fewer or no sleep problems, and low levels of professional burnout were associated with a lower risk of developing COVID-19 among healthcare workers considered to be at high risk for exposure to patients with COVID-19, new evidence reveals.