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News Articles: Public Health

A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test in Los Angeles, Calif. Increased testing could help in efforts to detect and track new variants like omicron.

As U.S. races to detect and track omicron, patchwork surveillance makes that tough

What's the U.S. doing to watch out for the omicron variant? Here's the work underway and the challenges that experts say may slow down the country's efforts.

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By:
  • Rob Stein and
  • Carmel Wroth
Native tribes have responded to the pandemic with creative ways to stay connected. Veronica Concho and Raymond Concho Jr. grew traditional Pueblo foods and Navajo crops with their grandchildren Kaleb and Kateri Allison-Burbank in Waterflow, N.M.

Hit hard by COVID, Native Americans come together to protect families and elders

Indigenous Americans suffer disproportionate effects of COVID, including the mental health impact. But a collective mindset has helped them find creative solutions to buffering the stress.

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By:
  • Rhitu Chatterjee
Digital generated image of cut out male head multilayered with covid-19 cells inside on blue background.

Why people with mental illness are at higher risk of COVID

Federal health officials have been urging adults with psychiatric conditions to get a booster shot to increase their COVID protection. It turns out being mentally ill puts you at higher risk.

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By:
  • Rhitu Chatterjee
Safeway pharmacist Shahrzad Khoobyari administers a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot into the arm of Norman Solomon in San Rafael, Calif., in October.

CDC backs expansion of COVID boosters for all adults

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky gave the green light to boosters just hours after a panel of vaccine advisors voted unanimously to recommend boosters for anyone 18 and older.

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By:
  • Scott Hensley
After declining most of the fall, COVID-19 cases are rising again in many parts of the U.S.

U.S. COVID cases start to rise again as the holidays approach

After declining most of the fall, new infections are up again in more than half of U.S. states, worrying experts about what the holiday season may bring.

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By:
  • Will Stone
After two student suicides over one October weekend, UNC students created a makeshift memorial on the Chapel Hill campus. To reduce the risk of suicide contagion, any memorial sites or activities should be limited, experts say, and should not glorify, vilify or stigmatize the deceased student or their death.

Colleges are turning to science to limit suicide contagion and help heal campuses

The new strategy is called "postvention." It means having a plan built on truth, compassion and counseling that quickly addresses the mental health needs of friends and classmates after a suicide.

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By:
  • Aneri Pattani
University of Kansas undergraduate Marc Veloz speaks at an environmental rally outside Lawrence city hall. He says his interest in activism was driven by concern over the disproportionate effect climate change had on communities of color in his hometown of Dallas.

As climate worsens, environmentalists also grapple with the mental toll of activism

After her son's death, a mother in the Midwest promotes mental health for environmentalists. It's part of a larger push to address the burnout and psychological stress that can affect activists.

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By:
  • Alex Smith

WATCH: Harvard-NPR panel on the fight to tame COVID

Watch an expert panel discuss the latest developments and challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic livestreamed at noon ET on Friday.

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By:
  • Scott Hensley
Safeway pharmacist Shahrzad Khoobyari administers a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot to Chen Knifsend at a vaccination clinic in San Rafael, Calif., in October. The companies are seeking regulatory authorization to expand boosters to everyone 18 and older.

Pfizer and BioNTech ask FDA to authorize COVID vaccine booster for people 18+

The companies say a study of more than 10,000 volunteers showed a vaccine efficacy of 95% or greater for people receiving the booster.

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By:
  • Joe Palca
Left to right: Filipino American health care workers Karen Cantor, Karen Shoker, and John Paul Atienza were among many who cared for COVID patients in the early days of the pandemic.

Filipino American health workers reflect on trauma and healing on COVID's frontlines

They have shouldered an outsize share of COVID-19's burden, statistics show. Many lost family members; others got sick themselves, recovered and carried on. Meet the caregivers.

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By:
  • Rosem Morton
Hattie Pierce, 75, receives a Pfizer covid-19 vaccine booster shot from Dr. Tiffany Taliaferro at the Safeway on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Monday, October 4, 2021.

There's more demand for boosters than first shots of the COVID vaccine

Some experts worry "boostermania" is distracting from the goal of getting tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans their first shots.

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By:
  • Rob Stein
A long-running decline in COVID-19 cases nationally masks some trouble spots emerging in the upper half of the United States. The disease is hitting states in the Mountain West such as Colorado, Utah and Wyoming especially hard, but even parts of the Northeast have dealt with a worrying surge in cases and hospitalizations.

COVID is still crushing parts of the U.S. as the holiday season approaches

The U.S. is entering an uneasy stretch of the pandemic. Despite progress, the delta surge is dragging on in certain regions. Can vaccines ward off a big surge over the holidays?

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By:
  • Will Stone
Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for young children is a lower-dose formulation of the companies' adult vaccine. It was found to be safe and nearly 91% effective at preventing COVID-19.

CDC recommends Pfizer's COVID vaccine for children ages 5 through 11

Kids ages 5 to 11 will soon be able to get Pfizer's low-dose COVID vaccine. CDC director Rochelle Walensky agreed with a unanimous decision of a team of advisers that the benefits outweigh the risks.

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By:
  • Joe Neel,
  • Carmel Wroth,
  • and 1 more
Mai Yang, a communicable disease specialist, searches for Angelica, a 27 year-old pregnant woman who tested positive for syphilis, in order to get her treated before she delivers her baby.

Syphilis is resurging in the U.S., a sign of public health's funding crisis

The country nearly eradicated this treatable sexually transmitted disease twice, only to see it come roaring back. The failure shows the weakness of a cash-strapped public health system.

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By:
  • Caroline Chen
A health care worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a child at a pediatrician's office in Bingham Farms, Michigan. Federal agencies are considering whether to start giving the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 in the near future.

When can kids 12 and under get their shots? Here's the timeline

There are a couple of big steps to get through before U.S. kids under 12 might be able to get the vaccine. Here's how the process works and when the shots could arrive.

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By:
  • Selena Simmons-Duffin and
  • Alyson Hurt