Global Health

An illustration of the variant found in the United Kingdom. To infect a cell, the virus's spike protein (red) has to bind to a receptor on the cell's surface (blue). Mutations help the virus bind more tightly.

Health & Safety

Extraordinary Patient Offers Surprising Clues To Origins Of Coronavirus Variants

8:00am February 06, 2021

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Scientists are looking at a possible link between the mutations in the U.K. and South Africa — and those in a patient in Boston who had living, growing virus in his body for five months.

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Sanitation worker Ramesh Solanki cleans the streets outside Palghar railway station. "I get up every morning at 5:30, and I see news about the vaccines on TV," he says. "I don't know about any controversies. I just know I'm proud to be part of this."

Health & Safety

PHOTOS: The World's Biggest Vaccine Campaign Has Begun In India

7:54am February 06, 2021

by Lauren Frayer

They've got to reach urban dwellers as well as the two-thirds of Indians living in rural areas — and deal with vaccine hesitancy. Here's an early progress report.

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A Moroccan nurse holds a syringe containing a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 29. Morocco is one of the many countries that will receive COVID-19 doses as part of the COVAX initiative.

Global Initiative To Start Shipping Vaccines To Africa, Where Supplies Are Low

6:58pm February 05, 2021

Dr. Katherine O'Brien of the World Health Organization says poor countries are able to get their populations vaccinated — they just need the doses.

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Health & Safety

Coronavirus FAQ: I'm Afraid Of Needles. Does The COVID-19 Vaccine Hurt?

6:03pm February 05, 2021

by Sheila Mulrooney Eldred

There are those among us who are needle-phobic. So what's the verdict on the vaccine? And are there any techniques for easing any potential pain?

Africa's Hit Science Show For Kids Is Coming To The U.S.

10:48am February 05, 2021

by Amy Fallon

African TV execs say it's unlike any show for kids that's been produced and broadcast on the continent — especially with its focus on women presenters and scientists.

Dr. Eugene Richardson in a helicopter during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, where he worked as a clinical lead for Partner in Health's response to the outbreak. He is the author of the new book Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public

A Doc Was Mad That People Die From Preventable Diseases. So He Wrote A Book About It

2:02pm February 04, 2021

by Joanne Lu

Harvard professor Dr. Eugene Richardson explores colonialism's impact on global health in Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health.

People wear face masks on a shopping street in Gaza City in January.

In Gaza, Pandemic Forces Tough Choices And Health Care System Hangs By A Thread

1:48pm February 04, 2021

Vaccines have yet to arrive. Residents, fearing loss of income, continue to work while infected. And medical professionals including one of Gaza's few remaining heart surgeons have died from COVID-19.

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Worshippers pray in the streets of Lima. A government lockdown has shutdown churches as well as businesses to try to stop the spread of the virus.

Health & Safety

In Vaccine Race, Middle Income Nations Are At A Disadvantage. Just Ask Peru.

1:39pm February 04, 2021

by Jason Beaubien

As wealthier countries horde doses, the Latin American nation is struggling to obtain an ample supply for its population while dealing with a daunting caseload.

Above: N., a sex worker at a bar in Pattaya, Thailand. The sex trade has offered good-paying jobs for many people from rural areas who were facing a life of tending rice paddies and digging up cassava roots.

Health & Safety

How The Pandemic Has Upended The Lives Of Thailand's Sex Workers

12:56pm February 03, 2021

Many of them left rural areas to earn their living in the sex trade and send money home to help their families. COVID-19 restrictions have changed all that.

Chinese workers wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine jab at a mass vaccination center in Beijing on Jan. 5. Even with at least 5 homegrown vaccines nearing approval, China is setting a modest initial goal: 50 million people vaccinated by mid-February — ab

Health & Safety

China's Vaccine Campaign Hits A Few Bumps

10:44am February 03, 2021

by Emily Feng

Their vaccine rollout in this nation of 1.4 billion citizens is happening more slowly than anticipated. Why the delays?