pandemic

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?

Why are scientists so concerned about some of the new coronavirus variants? We take a look at how some of the mutations give SARS CoV-2 an advantage in infecting us.

Health & Safety

What's Going On With All These Coronavirus Variants? An Illustrated Guide

2:17pm February 02, 2021

One day you're worrying about the regular old coronavirus. Then — seemingly out of the blue — there are variants. Worrisome variants! How did they come to be? And why are they likely more contagious?

A mural in New Delhi is part of public health messaging in India. The country has seen a dramatic decline in new cases since the fall, but researchers aren't sure why.

Health & Safety

The Mystery Of India's Plummeting COVID-19 Cases

9:04pm February 01, 2021

by Lauren Frayer

From 100,000 cases a day in September, India is now down to about 10,000 a day. Is it climate? Demographics? Mask mandates? Scientists are looking for answers.

Queue Listen Now

With the sun setting off the coast of northern Honduras, Ella Guity watches her daughters, Jirian and Eleny, swim in the warm Caribbean waters of the village of Rio Esteban, home to a group with African and indigenous roots known as the Garifuna. Ella had

Health & Safety

PHOTOS: The Pandemic Sends A Single Mom In The Big City To A Simpler, Happier Life

7:44am January 30, 2021

by Tomas Ayuso

Ella Guity lived in the capital of Honduras with her daughters and mother. COVID-19 was surging. She sent them all to the fishing village where she grew up. Could she — should she — go too?

The Sinovac vaccine is produced at this newly built factory in China. Sinovac is one of 11 Chinese companies carrying out clinical trials of potential COVID-19 vaccines.

China And Russia Want To Be Vaccine Leaders. How's That Going?

11:44am January 28, 2021

by Joe Palca

The two countries are vying for a role in ending the pandemic by offering their vaccines to countries that can't afford or obtain other vaccines. But vaccine experts have a few concerns.

Indigenous health care workers treat patients last week at a campaign hospital set up in the Parque das Tribos neighborhood of Manaus, Brazil. Oxygen shortages at hospitals in Brazil's Amazon prompted authorities to airlift patients to other states.

Why Scientists Are Very Worried About The Variant From Brazil

5:16pm January 27, 2021

by Michaeleen Doucleff

They don't yet understand why the coronavirus variant called P.1 has spread so explosively there. Its set of mutations seem especially dangerous. And this week P.1 was confirmed in the U.S.

Physician Ifeanyi Nsofor writes: "I was elated when the first COVID-19 vaccine was shown to be effective. ... However, my joy was cut short when richer Western nations began buying up the vaccine doses."

Opinion: Why I'm An Invisible Man In The Global Vaccine Campaign

4:55pm January 26, 2021

by Ifeanyi Nsofor

Nigerian physician Ifeanyi Nsofor writes: "I was elated when the first COVID-19 vaccine was shown to be effective. ...My joy was cut short when richer Western nations began buying up the vaccine doses."

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was one of many global health leaders who spoke bluntly about the coronavirus pandemic at annual meetings that conclude on Tuesday. Discussing the lack of priority given to vaccines for

'Everything Broke': Global Health Leaders On What Went Wrong In The Pandemic

7:29pm January 25, 2021

by Nurith Aizenman

Six takeaways from discussions at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization's Executive Board.