COVID

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week informed state and community health departments, as well as a host of international health organizations, that they won’t be receiving approximately $11.4 billion in funding previously allocated to their... Read More

WASHINGTON — A new brief from the NewDEAL Forum outlines the steps its members believe state and local leaders can take to help struggling students get back on track after pandemic-era disruptions. According to the most recent National Assessment of... Read More

WASHINGTON — With its days in office dwindling to a precious few, the Biden administration issued a report on Tuesday aimed at establishing a "roadmap" for maintaining government defenses against infectious diseases, based on its response to the worst public... Read More

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci testified Monday to a congressional panel reviewing the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in a hearing that quickly devolved into partisan politics. Fauci, formerly the nation's top infectious disease expert, won praise from Democrats... Read More

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an “urgent” alert to health care providers to notify them of the current low rate of vaccinations against the flu, COVID-19 and the respiratory syncytial virus, also known as... Read More

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia area residents who have received Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Tests from the city health department are being asked to check the lot numbers on those tests, and to discard any marked with lot numbers COV2110012. Officials with... Read More

ATLANTA — Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have risen 12.5% across the country in the past week, but the latest data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that what some are calling a “surge” in cases is... Read More

WASHINGTON — Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who helped guide the nation’s response during the coronavirus pandemic, is stepping down from her position as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walensky’s departure was confirmed on Friday in a statement... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday ignored shouted questions from reporters about whether he’ll sign legislation that unanimously passed Congress last week calling for declassification of information on the origins of COVID-19. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has amended its emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Bivalent vaccine, authorizing its use as a single booster dose for children 6 months through 4 years who’ve completed their primary vaccinations with... Read More

WASHINGTON — The United States supports an international effort to reach an accord based on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, but will resist an agreement that in any way undermines U.S. sovereignty or national security, the State Department said... Read More

WASHINGTON — Suspicions shifted sharply Wednesday at a congressional hearing toward a lab leak as the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bigger question confronted by the House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee was what can be done to stop the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Dept. of Veterans Affairs is relaxing COVID-era masking rules at its medical facilities in an attempt, it says, to better accommodate individual preferences. Moving forward, the department said it will base its masking guidelines on the Veterans... Read More

NEW YORK — More than 7,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center walked off the job this morning after talks to avert a strike fell apart overnight. The nurses are seeking better wages and working conditions.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service is developing new tests and tools to identify and track the coronavirus and its variants in wild and domestic animals. The initiative, part of a $300 million provision in the... Read More

The incidence rate of infective endocarditis — a rare but often fatal inflammation of the heart valves — among patients with cocaine use disorder or opioid use disorder increased from 2011 to 2022, with the steepest increase occurring from 2021... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday amended its emergency use authorizations for the updated (bivalent) Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, saying the shots are safe to administer to children as young as 6 months old. “More children... Read More

WASHINGTON - When an 11-year-old girl recently went to an emergency room in Connecticut, she was asked if she had been thinking about killing herself as part of a suicide screening. To her mother's shock, since they were there about... Read More