The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world as the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant showed no signs of slowing. The previous record was 1.03 million cases on Jan....
With Sexually Transmitted Infections off the Charts, California Pushes at-Home Tests
California has become the first state to require health insurance plans to cover at-home tests for sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, chlamydia and syphilis — which could help quell the STI epidemic that has raged nearly unchecked as public health departments have focused on COVID-19. Even before COVID,...
Short-Staffed and COVID-Battered, U.S. Hospitals Are Hiring More Foreign Nurses
Scores of hospitals across the U.S. are looking abroad to ease a shortage of nurses worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. The national demand is so great that it has created a backlog of health care professionals awaiting clearance to work in the U.S. More than 5,000 international nurses are...
Partying Plane Passengers Who Flouted COVID Rules Could Be Stranded in Mexico
A group of passengers who filmed themselves partying without masks onboard a chartered flight from Montreal to Mexico face being stranded after three airlines refused to fly them home to Canada. Sunwing Airlines canceled the return charter flight from Cancún that had been scheduled for Wednesday and Air Transat and...
With Omicron, Let’s Not Fight the Last War
U.S. health officials are noting the growing evidence that illness from the COVID-19 omicron variant is often less severe than delta. That means we are in a fundamentally different situation than we were in March 2020, when the coronavirus was sweeping around the world, says Fareed Zakaria. We do not need...
Elon Musk’s Succinct Explanation for Why Excessively Taxing Billionaires Doesn’t Make Any Sense
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, at a Wall Street Journal forum last month, shared his view on why “it does not make sense” to excessively tax billionaires. “It does not make sense to take the job of capital allocation away from people who have demonstrated great skill in capital...
Moderna CEO Warns People May Need Fourth COVID Shot
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on Thursday said the efficacy of boosters against COVID-19 will likely decline over time, and people may need a fourth shot later this year to increase their protection. Bancel said people who received their boosters last fall will likely have enough protection to get them...
Things Seem Grim Now. But America’s COVID Situation Could Get Better in 6-8 Weeks
The U.S. is only a few days into the third calendar year of the pandemic and nearly 500,000 new COVID-19 cases are being counted daily. So if it's hard to find a glimmer of hope, you're not alone. But Dr. Bob Wachter has a bit of hope to share....
Study: Pandemic May Affect Infants’ Brain Development
Coronavirus infection during pregnancy does not appear to affect infants' brain function, but the pandemic itself may be having an impact, a study published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics suggests. Researchers in New York City tracked 255 full-term infants born during the pandemic, including 114 whose mothers had COVID-19 during...
Mayo Clinic Fires 700 Workers For Refusing To Get COVID-19 Vaccine
More than 700 Mayo Clinic employees throughout the U.S. are out of a job after failing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as a condition of employment, the nonprofit health organization said Wednesday. All Mayo Clinic employees were instructed to receive at least one dose of a vaccine by Monday, and not be...