coronavirus pandemic

WASHINGTON — In the first year of the pandemic, more than $222 billion was spent on infectious and parasitic diseases, a growth of $83.3 billion from 2019, according to estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  The nearly 60%... Read More

Looking back now, it all seems so guardedly optimistic. With the coronavirus pandemic rapidly spreading across the United States during the winter of 2020, recording artists, concert venues, festival organizers and just about everybody else involved with the industry hoped... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Overdose deaths, most of them attributable to opioid abuse, surged in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported Wednesday. In the latest edition of its annual Drug Overdose... Read More

The coronavirus pandemic reversed three years of dramatic growth in clean energy jobs in the Midwest, but the sector is now rebounding faster than the overall regional workforce, a new report says. According to Clean Jobs Midwest, released by the... Read More

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The eruption of COVID-19 last year caused the proportion of people working from home in the U.S. to nearly double, with the shift most pronounced among college graduates and workers in such fields as finance and... Read More

BEIJING (AP) — As the World Health Organization draws up plans for the next phase of its probe of how the coronavirus pandemic started, an increasing number of scientists say the U.N. agency it isn't up to the task and... Read More

Nathan Moose, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, developed permanent lung damage equivalent to that of a heavy smoker, despite never having smoked a day in his life.   Moose was an employee of a casino for 11 years that... Read More

WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. death toll reached 564,000 from COVID-19, the nation’s top disease experts said Thursday normal life will return for Americans only when enough of them get vaccinated. But with more than 70,000 new infections daily, they... Read More

ATLANTA - Parents adapting to prolonged bouts of remote learning were more likely to report emotional stress and concerns for their children, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Thursday.  The survey was conducted nationwide by... Read More

AMERICUS, Ga. (AP) — At first, many schools announced it would last only a couple weeks. A year later, the unplanned experiment with distance learning continues for thousands of students who have yet to set foot back in classrooms.   Comfortable... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — At first, it was expected to be brief. At least that was the hope.  Instead, a once-in-a-century pandemic has ground on for a year, throwing millions out of work and upending wide swathes of the American economy.... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden wants America to know that he's from the government and he's here to help. That sentiment became a well-worn punchline under Ronald Reagan and shaped the politics of both parties for four decades. Democrat... Read More

Although 2020 was an economically woeful year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a joint report by BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy indicates renewable energy sources made record contributions to the country’s power grid.  The annual report, called... Read More

WASHINGTON — According to experts convened by the political advocacy group The Concord Coalition, the nation’s long standing fiscal, monetary, and economic challenges were made more difficult by the pandemic, but they are not insurmountable.  Leaders from the Congressional Budget... Read More

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — In the first week of December, Portugal’s prime minister gave his pandemic-weary people an early Christmas gift: restrictions on gatherings and travel due to COVID-19 would be lifted from Dec. 23-26 so they could spend the... Read More

LONDON (AP) — Despite growing vaccine access, January is looking grim around the globe as the coronavirus resurges and reshapes itself from Britain to Japan to California, filling hospitals and threatening livelihoods anew as governments lock down businesses and race... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lamar Alexander's farewell speech to the chamber in which he's served for 18 years — and was a staffer decades earlier — was a reminder to colleagues of why the retiring Tennessee Republican was such a popular and effective public figure. Alexander's... Read More

As a social service provider, Colleen Zavodny knows how important it is to take care of her mental health, but the coronavirus pandemic has tested her like nothing else. "I've had a couple nasty, ugly cries where I wonder how am I... Read More

At AMC Town Center in the Kansas City suburb of Leawood, Kan., the 20-screen complex has a few recent offerings: There's a new comedy starring Robert DeNiro and Rob Riggle, Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" and a thriller with Russell Crowe. But it's the oldies that tell the story of how the coronavirus... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Congress discussed proposals Wednesday to switch the United States to 100% clean energy as Western governors confronting out-of-control wildfires demand action on global warming. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is trying to figure out a way to... Read More