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People who have had a stroke appear to regain more hand and arm function if intensive rehabilitation starts two to three months after the injury to their brain.

A study of 72 stroke patients suggests this is a "critical period," when the brain has the greatest capacity to rewire, a team reports this week in the journal PNAS.

The finding challenges the current practice of beginning rehabilitation as soon as possible after a stroke.

COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000.

The U.S. population a century ago was just one-third of what it is today, meaning the flu cut a much bigger, more lethal swath through the country. But the COVID-19 crisis is by any measure a colossal tragedy in its own right, especially given the incredible advances in scientific knowledge since then and the failure to take maximum advantage of the vaccines available this time.