Coronavirus

A collection of 97 posts

Moderna: Updated COVID Jabs Effective Against New Subvariant

Pharmaceutical company Moderna on Wednesday announced that its updated COVID vaccine should be effective against the highly-mutated BA.2.86 subvariant....

Coronavirus

Report: GOP Seeks Answers From Garland on COVID Fraud

House Republicans, according to NBC News, have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to release documents and information detailing the extent of COVID relief funds lost to fraud "by international or overseas actors and criminal organizations.”

Coronavirus

US Study: 2M Excess Deaths in China After 'Zero-COVID' End

A study from Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center suggests that the sudden end of China's stringent zero-COVID policies may have led to nearly 2M excess deaths, in research published Thursday in JAMA Network Open.

Coronavirus

New COVID Variant EG.5 Spreading in the US

According to the latest estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), EG.5, a new coronavirus variant, now accounts for the largest proportion of new COVID infections in the country.

Coronavirus

UK: 25% Chance of 'Catastrophic' Pandemic Within 5 Years

On Thursday, the UK's National Security Risk Assessment was declassified revealing that there's a one-in-four chance the European nation could face a "catastrophic" pandemic within the next five years.

Health

Study Links COVID to Youth Diabetes

According to a study published in JAMA Network Open Journal on Friday, more children and adolescents were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during COVID compared with before the pandemic.

Health

US: 'No Direct Evidence' Lab Leak Behind COVID, But Not Ruled Out

On Friday, the US Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) declassified a 10-page report stating that intelligence agencies have found no direct proof that the COVID pandemic stemmed from an incident at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIH).

Coronavirus

Study: "Supershedders" Minority Spreads Most COVID

A new study published in Lancet Microbe has provided a wide range of information on the viral transmission of COVID, notably showing that a relatively small group of “supershedders” spews far more pathogens into the air, spreading the disease, than others.

Coronavirus

FDA: New COVID Jabs Should Target XBB Variants

On Monday, in documents released ahead of an upcoming meeting, staff reviewers from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that COVID vaccines developed and manufactured for 2023-24 should target the currently dominant XBB variants.

Health

Poll: Quarter of UK Population Believe COVID was a Hoax

According to a poll conducted by Savanta for King's College London (KCL) and the BBC in April, almost a quarter of 2,274 adults interviewed believed COVID was probably or definitely a hoax.

Coronavirus

UK COVID Inquiry Begins

Headed by former appeal court judge Lady Heather Hallett, the UK's inquiry into its handling of the COVID pandemic began Tuesday.

Coronavirus

Report: UK Govt's Secret Unit Stifled COVID Policy Dissent

According to data released by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), the UK government's Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) collected posts from Telegram about Professor Carl Heneghan, an Oxford epidemiologist who was critical of lockdown measures.

Coronavirus

UK COVID Inquiry: Johnson Hands Over WhatsApp Messages

On Friday, former British PM Boris Johnson said he had shared his unredacted WhatsApp messages directly with the COVID inquiry — chaired by Heather Hallett — bypassing the Cabinet Office, which is pursuing legal action to challenge the process.

Coronavirus

COVID: Top Chinese Scientist Doesn't Rule Out Lab Leak

In a BBC interview, George Gao, the former director of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the theory that COVID originated from a lab leak shouldn't yet be excluded due to a lack of evidence.

Coronavirus

China: New Covid Strain May Cause 65M Weekly Cases

Roughly six months after ending its stringent COVID restrictions, China has warned that the latest Omicron variant, dubbed XBB, could infect over 65M people weekly before it peaks at the end of June.

Coronavirus

White House to End Most COVID Vaccine Mandates

The Biden admin. announced Monday that it will end most vaccine requirements for federal workers, international travelers, contractors, Head Start employees, and healthcare workers at many hospitals on May 11.

Coronavirus

UNICEF: Drop in Childhood Vaccinations Amid COVID Disruption

According to the UN children agency's (UNICEF) annual State of the World's Children report, some 67M children globally either partially or completely missed routine vaccinations from 2019 to 2021 due to COVID lockdowns and the subsequent disruption of healthcare.

Health

US Govt Report: China Began Working on COVID Vaccine Before Official Outbreak

A US Senate report on the origin of COVID has found that the pandemic was most likely the result of a "research-related incident" in Wuhan, China, adding that Chinese researchers may have begun developing vaccines in November 2019.

Coronavirus

Robert F. Kennedy Jr to Challenge Biden for Democratic Nomination

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of assassinated Pres. John F. Kennedy, has announced that he will be running for the Democratic nomination for US president in 2024....

Money

US Pres. Biden to Sign GOP Bill Ending COVID Emergency

On Thursday, a US White House official confirmed that Pres. Joe Biden won't veto a bill that passed the Senate to end the COVID emergency despite having conveyed opposition to it earlier this year.

Coronavirus

Biden Orders COVID & Wuhan Lab Intel Release

US Pres. Joe Biden signed off on legislation on Monday requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information on any possible links between a Chinese lab and the origins of COVID.

Coronavirus

Report: Data Ties COVID Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market

Virus researchers say they have found genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, allegedly linking the COVID virus with the sale of raccoon dogs in that location, adding to evidence that the pandemic could have been started by an infected animal sold through the illegal wildlife trade....

China

FDA Advisers Back Full Approval of Paxlovid

Independent advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday voted 16-1 in support of full approval of Paxlovid — Pfizer’s oral treatment for COVID — for high-risk adults....

Diseases & conditions

FBI Chief: China Lab Leak 'Most Likely' Behind COVID

In the agency's first public confirmation of its classified judgment regarding the emergence of COVID, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the bureau believes that the pandemic's 'most likely' origin was a 'Chinese government-controlled lab.'...

China

China to Fully Reopen Borders with Hong Kong and Macau

On this coming Monday, travel will fully resume between China and its special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Reopening travel is expected to revive and reinvigorate these regions' suffering economies following an extended COVID lockdown.

Coronavirus