Health and Medicine

As the coronavirus pandemic forces the nation to disconnect from usual routines, communities of faith tried all the harder to hold on to each other and offer solace. Many turned to worship online, some as a regular part of the program, others for the first time, using meeting programs such as Zoom.

Illinois State University continues to work to retrieve students studying abroad. At the start of the semester spokesperson Eric Jome says that number was about 116 students in other countries.

Concerns about the coronavirus prompted the two election authorities in McLean County to move several polling sites less than one week before the Illinois primary election.

The state schools superintendent is telling school districts to prepare for digital learning days if the coronavirus prompts extended school closings.

Health care workers in Central Illinois say they are better prepared to respond to the coronavirus than previous pandemics because of digital technology.

The coronavirus is affecting businesses in central Illinois even before the first actual case comes to the region.

Parents should be prepared for their child’s school to close for at least a week if a student or staff member there becomes potentially infected or confirmed to have the coronavirus, the regional superintendent for Central Illinois said Monday.

The chair of the McLean County Republican Party is urging her members to lobby against a bill that would require incoming sixth-graders to get the HPV vaccine that protects against certain cancers.

Democratic congressional candidate Stefanie Smith says anything short of Medicare For All is not enough to fix America’s health care system.

Longtime McLean County Board member George Gordon said he remains interested and engaged with public policy. He said he is running for another term to see certain projects through, such as the county's creation of several behavioral health initiatives.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has picked up a key endorsement: Rachel Lapp Whitt and Thomas Whitt of Bloomington.

McLean County's new community health improvement plan (CHIP) aims to get to the underlying causes of mental health and substance abuse problems.

Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan said there are a lot of things Congress can do to improve the U.S. health care system that stop well short of implementing a single-payer Medicare For All model.

For Katie Bertsche, her own fight with breast cancer has inspired her to raise awareness about metastatic breast cancer.

Thursday's announcement that Carle health system plans to acquire Advocate BroMenn Medical Center and Advocate Eureka Hospital is big news for Central Illinois.