Health & Fitness

New research warns that the United States could experience a severe influenza outbreak after public health measures like face masks and social distancing are lifted. These measures have protected people from COVID-19 and influenza—incidence of influenza declined 60 percent during the first ten weeks following the implementation of the measures—but is also leading to greater numbers of Americans susceptible to the flu as immunity to the virus wanes.

The pandemic may eventually subside but health reporters will be writing about the impacts of COVID-19 well into the future, aided by researchers who are already gathering a bevy of data points to cite in those stories.

Johnson & Johnson asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to allow extra shots of its COVID-19 vaccine as the U.S. government moves toward expanding its booster campaign to millions more vaccinated Americans.

The COVID-19 patient's health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor's diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn't think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.

Beginning in May, Liberia saw a troubling spike in cases of COVID-19, but lacking the sophisticated equipment and technical ability to test samples, scientists at the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) were unsure whether or not the crisis could be attributed to an emerging strain of the virus.