pandemic

A person in the stands wears a mask before Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch, at a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees, on Aug. 9 in Seattle. Fauci is President Biden's chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Joe Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over. This is what the data tells us

11:19pm September 19, 2022

by Ayana Archie

While cases have decreased dramatically, there are still thousands of cases being reported across the world, and hundreds of people are still dying from it every day in the United States.

A women holds a child in the alley of a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries; nearly 40% of the population survive on less than a dollar a day.

Health & Safety

The clock is ticking for U.N. goals to end poverty — and it doesn't look promising

1:51pm September 19, 2022

by Nurith Aizenman

Can we end poverty, provide food for all and otherwise make Earth a better place by 2030? By all accounts, the answer is no. So then what's the point of the Sustainable Development Goals?

Travel rules and regulations — and national lockdowns — have varied wildly, which gave SARS-CoV-2 lots of opportunities to spread. Above: A young traveler's temperature is checked at Taipei Songshan Airport in July 2020.

Health & Safety

4 ways the world messed up its pandemic response — and 3 fixes to do better next time

6:30pm September 14, 2022

by Ari Daniel

A new report from the Lancet Commission sums up the many mistakes that have been made and offers proposals for a more effective global strategy if and when another pandemic should strike.

Do some people have built-in protection against a COVID infection?

So you haven't caught COVID yet. Does that mean you're a superdodger?

10:52am September 12, 2022

by Michaeleen Doucleff

A new study suggests that. yes, there are superdodgers. But explaining why they've been able to avoid the virus is a bit complicated.

Twin sisters Tripti and Pari, who lost both their parents to COVID-19, play at a relative's home in Bhopal, India on May 11, 2021. A new study estimates that 8 million kids lost a parent or primary caregiver to a pandemic-related cause.

Health & Safety

Nearly 8 million kids lost a parent or primary caregiver to the pandemic

4:09pm September 06, 2022

by Rhitu Chatterjee

A new study finds numbers far higher than previously thought. India has the greatest number of kids affected. The U.S. has 250,000 kids in this category but lags behind in aid for bereaved families.

Education

Guilford County Schools see testing gains, still short from pre-pandemic levels

3:53pm September 02, 2022

by Amy Diaz

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released student test performance results for the 2021-2022 school year on Sept. 1.

Joel Joseph in the clothing shop where he worked with a friend during the pandemic.

Whatever happened to the teens who endured the world's longest COVID school closure?

1:41pm September 01, 2022

Ugandan schools were shut for nearly 2 years due to the pandemic. High schoolers were glad to see the shutdown end early this year. But for many, school fees stand in the way of a return to class.

The Corbevax vaccine was invented at the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and intended for countries that couldn't get access to more expensive COVID vaccines. India has inoculated millions of teens with Corbevax (above, a vacci

Whatever happened to the new no-patent COVID vaccine touted as a global game changer?

6:04pm August 31, 2022

by Joe Palca

The inventors of Corbevax said it was cheap, easy to make, effective and safe. They hoped it could bring vaccine equity to countries that can't access costlier shots. Has it lived up to its promise?

Fiona ten Have and Patrick Phiri pose for a wedding portrait in front of the same hedge where NPR photographed them during his first visit to the Netherlands (see photo, below).

Health & Safety

Whatever happened to ... the pandemic-delayed wedding dreams of Patrick and Fiona?

7:54am August 28, 2022

by Nick Schonfeld

They finally came true! He's Malawian. She's Dutch. They fell in love and hoped to wed but the pandemic got in the way. Here's the story of the happy day — and the latest challenge in their lives.

A screenshot of a map showing case counts of COVID-19 reported in different animal species, part of an interactive COVID data tracking dashboard rendered by Complexity Science Hub Vienna. The drawings represent the type of animal, including both domestic

Health & Safety

How many animal species have caught COVID? First global tracker has (partial) answers

10:45am August 05, 2022

by Max Barnhart

Just as human counts are incomplete, so are animal counts. But the first worldwide compilation of animal cases is a start at understanding the extent of human-to-animal transmission, scientists say.