COVID-19

The COVID-19 vaccines are on track for a big recipe change this fall. Today’s vaccines still contain the original coronavirus strain, the one that started the pandemic — even though that was long ago supplanted by mutated versions as the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Three years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health emergency declared to combat it will come to an end on Thursday, May 11. Though public health officials say SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remains... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday simplified its recommended COVID-19 vaccination schedule, announcing that a single dose of the bivalent vaccine specific to the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of the omicron variant is enough to protect most... Read More

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Joe Biden’s order that federal employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 has been blocked by a federal appeals court. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, in a decision Thursday, rejected arguments that Biden, as... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Deaths of pregnant women in the U.S. fell in 2022, dropping significantly from a six-decade high during the pandemic, new data suggests. More than 1,200 U.S. women died in 2021 during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials want to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like the annual flu shot. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach for future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is making $350 million available to increase COVID-19 vaccinations at Health Resources and Services Administration-supported health facilities. The funding will support health centers administering updated COVID-19 vaccines through mobile, drive-up, walk-up or community-based vaccination events,... Read More

The U.S. on Wednesday authorized updated COVID-19 boosters for children as young as 5, seeking to expand protection ahead of an expected winter wave. Tweaked boosters rolled out for Americans 12 and older last month, doses modified to target today’s most common... Read More

(AP) -- Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to expand use of its updated COVID-19 booster shot to children ages 5 to 11. Elementary school-aged children already received kid-sized doses of Pfizer’s original vaccine, a third of the dose given to everyone... Read More

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Children aged 6 months and up are able to receive a vaccine just in time for the first day of school. "We strongly encourage everyone to make sure their child is up to date with their COVID-19... Read More

LONDON (AP) — British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine that includes protection against the omicron variant, which the government said would be offered to people aged 50... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden abruptly canceled a trip to Pennsylvania, where he had planned to propose a steep funding increase for police on Thursday, after testing positive for COVID-19. The Democratic president was set to ask Congress to spend roughly $37... Read More

ATLANTA — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Tuesday which examines how COVID-19 impacted the progress of combating antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when changes in bacteria cause drug treatments to become less effective.  ... Read More

The U.S. government failed to take basic steps at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent fraud in a federal aid program intended to help small businesses, depleting the funds and making Americans more vulnerable to identity theft, the head of... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will appeal for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19 as he convenes a second virtual summit on the pandemic and marks “a tragic milestone" as the U.S. approaches 1 million deaths. “As a nation, we... Read More

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A majority of Americans continue to support a mask requirement for people traveling on airplanes and other shared transportation, a new poll finds. A ruling by a federal judge has put the government’s transportation mask mandate on hold. The... Read More

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge's decision to strike down a national mask mandate was met with cheers on some airplanes but also concern about whether it's really time to end one of the most visible vestiges of... Read More

The Senate recently approved a resolution to repeal the COVID-19 health care worker vaccine mandate that a Supreme Court ruling on Jan. 13 allowed to proceed. The White House issued a statement that the decision by the Senate would put unvaccinated health care workers... Read More

The CDC updated COVID-19 guidance on Feb. 28 to no longer require universal case investigation and contact tracing, except in high-risk settings like long-term care facilities and jails. Now, many states have announced their contact tracing programs will soon end.  Changes to... Read More

GENEVA (AP) — An expert group convened by the World Health Organization said Tuesday it “strongly supports urgent and broad access” to booster doses, in a reversal of the U.N. agency’s previous insistence that boosters weren’t necessary and contributed to... Read More

New findings from researchers at the University of Bristol show that those infected with COVID could have different variants hidden in different parts of the body, as if the virus is playing an ultimate game of ‘hide and seek’ with... Read More

A new preprint study from New York State Department of Health shows that the Pfizer vaccine did not prevent infection and hospitalizations in kids up to age 11 as effectively as it did for older age ranges, including those aged... Read More

Earlier this year, the Biden administration stepped up prevention efforts by promising to provide 500 million COVID-19 tests to Americans, with up to four free tests per household.  Data collected through the start of this month shows that more than... Read More

Omicron is fading away, and so are Americans' worries about COVID-19. As coronavirus pandemic case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths continue to plummet, fewer people now than in January say they are concerned that they will be infected after the rise and fall... Read More

A new study released this week in JAMA Internal Medicine finds ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, has failed to treat individuals with COVID-19.   To conduct the open-label study, researchers enrolled high-risk patients with COVID-19 from 20 public hospitals and COVID-19 quarantine centers in... Read More

On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance on vaccine dosing intervals for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to be spaced out at least eight weeks apart between the first and second doses.  The decision to update the... Read More

Although the surge in omicron infections has been declining over the past few weeks, leaders at the World Health Organization have issued new warnings regarding another new variant of concern, known as BA.2.  Although still classified as omicron, the BA.2 strain differs... Read More

On Wednesday two companies, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, said they plan to submit a new COVID-19 vaccine for U.S. and European regulatory approval. This followed Phase 3 efficacy trials that showed promise of protection both as a primary series and a... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to the nation’s capital as it prepares for trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California became the first state to formally shift to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus with Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement Thursday of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and... Read More