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A summary of important health news from the past week

Recovered coronavirus patients are testing positive again. Can you get reinfected?

By: Paula Hancocks, Yoonjung Seo and Julia Hollingsworth

A small percentage of the population — in South Korea and China — who have recovered from COVID-19 have retested positive, raising the question of whether people can get reinfected with COVID-19. Some explanations as to why people are retesting positive include that the tests are picking up on the remains of the virus. Other reasons include that the tests are wrong and are displaying false positives or false negatives. In addition, other reasons could be that the virus has been reactivated or that the virus is mutating. However, the deputy director of the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that “there is no evidence so far of a person who has retested positive being infectious.”


How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted your life? Share to help Vox’s reporting.

By: Lauren Katz

The ongoing coronavirus outbreak continues to change at an alarming rate. For weeks now the new cycle has been dominated with new updates about the coronavirus. Vox is asking community members to share their own experience related to the ongoing health crisis. They’ve created a google form with coronavirus related questions such as out-of-pocket costs and social distancing practices. Whether you’re a healthcare worker on the front lines or know someone who has contracted the disease, Vox wants to hear about your experience.


10 years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, oil pollution found in thousands of fish, study says

By: Ashley Strickland

Ten years ago, BP caused an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in 10 million gallons of oil entering the water over the course of 87 days. Since then, researchers have tested thousands of fish from almost a hundred species, finding oil contamination in all of them. Oil was found in fish not thought to be at risk, including those that are do not live on the sea floor and those that are fast swimming, like yellowfin tuna. While researchers say these fish are still healthy to eat because they remain below dangerous contamination levels, this kind of contamination is harmful to the fish themselves, especially their livers.