With pandemic aid expiring and most funds already spent, schools across Illinois face a financial cliff

School systems across the country are facing a financial cliff, whereby COVID-19 pandemic funds must be committed by September 2024 and spent by January 2025, raising questions on the sustainability and impact of new, federally funded investments.

How the anti-vaccine movement is gaining power in statehouses

Tennessee lawmakers dropped all vaccine requirements for home-schooled children. Iowa Republicans passed a bill eliminating the requirement that schools educate students about the HPV vaccine. And the Florida legislature passed a law preemptively barring school districts from requiring coronavirus vaccines

New coronavirus variant JN.1 is spreading fast. Here’s what to know.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday declared coronavirus subvariant JN.1 a variant of interest “due to its rapidly increasing spread.”

COVID-19 surge prompts return of scanners, calls for masks in Asian cities

Governments across Southeast Asia are bringing back measures to limit a rapid resurgence of respiratory infections such as COVID-19, including installing temperature scanners at airports and encouraging people to wear masks again.

Pfizer’s bleak forecast dims hope for rebound after 2023 rout

The 2023 decline has erased about $140 billion in market value amid skepticism that the company will be successful in its transition out of the pandemic as demand for shots and treatments for Covid-19 wanes.

COVID and flu rising ahead of holidays, increasing ER visits

Respiratory viruses are rebounding in the United States on the precipice of the end-of-year holidays, with emergency room visits for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus collectively reaching their highest levels since February.

COVID-19 vaccines sporadically available at US bases overseas, months after stateside release

The U.S. military hasn’t been in a rush to offer updated COVID-19 vaccines to service members and their families overseas, nearly three months after the shots became available stateside.

After COVID disruption, sick season seems to be setting into its normal pattern

Last week, local labs and medical providers in San Diego County reported 942 coronavirus, 425 flu and 297 respiratory syncytial virus cases to the public health department. Last year, the numbers were eye-poppingly higher: 3,441 coronavirus, 2,386 flu, 401 RSV, during the same week.

New COVID-19 vaccine available at some US bases in Japan, still on order at others

The latest COVID-19 vaccine is now available at a handful of American bases in Japan but still in transit or on order for several others, according to military officials.

How CDC’s new director is trying to regain trust shattered by COVID

Mandy Cohen is tasked with restoring credibility to the once-vaunted agency at a time of extreme political divisions and fading trust in government — and science.