We’d all like some answers. But uncertainty over how we count COVID cases is complicating the picture. Here’s what to expect in the days and weeks ahead.
A positive COVID-19 test is the first step in the process.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Vaccines and medical treatments can only go so far in an unequal society. Facing the ongoing history of racial discrimination and bias in the US would help end the pandemic.
Last May, churches in low income communities across New York offered COVID-19 testing to residents in conjunction with Northwell Health and New York State, where COVID-19 hit residents the hardest.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
How two Canadian teams of economists and epidemiologists studied COVID-19 from a social science perspective to show that higher national income inequality is associated with worse COVID outcomes.
Understanding how much protection a vaccine offers is not as simple as it sounds.
Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images
Machine learning algorithms can help public health officials identify areas of high vaccine hesitancy by ZIP code to better target messaging and outreach and counter misinformation.
Washing your hands is an easy and effective way to reduce the spread of illness.
Krisanapong Detraphiphat/Moment via Getty Images
The risk of getting the coronavirus from a surface is low. But the frequent hand-washing from early in the pandemic is a good thing since most people weren’t washing their hands enough to begin with.
Nearly 100 scholars and health care professionals are urging women to limit their use of acetaminophen during pregnancy.
Oscar Wong/Moment via Getty Images
Tylenol has long been considered a go-to medication for low to moderate pain and for fever reduction, even during pregnancy. But mounting evidence suggests that it is unsafe for fetal development.
September 11, 2021 marks the 18 month anniversary of the WHO declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
summerphotos/Stock via Getty Images Plus
Katelyn Jetelina, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
A lot has happened since the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. A portrait in data highlights trends in everything from case counts, to research publications, to variant spread.
Chlorpyrifos is widely used on crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, corn and soybeans.
AP Photo/John Raoux
Gina Solomon, University of California, San Francisco
What kind of evidence does it require to get a widely used chemical banned? A professor of medicine and former state regulator explains how the case for chlorpyrifos as a threat to public health developed.
Not vaccinating children means living with the knowledge we haven’t done everything possible to ensure they don’t transmit COVID to more vulnerable people.
Masks are an important tool for slowing the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
Malte Mueller via Getty Images
If we open up the international borders before enough of the population is vaccinated, hospitals could become overwhelmed and deaths would be unacceptably high.
The k number tells us whether the spread of a disease is steady or comes in big bursts, with a small proportion of people infecting many others. The latter is know as superspreading.
COVID-19 cases in Indonesia are rising and are expected to keep doing so for another two weeks until the effects of restrictions and mask mandates are seen.
Professor of Epidemiology, Population Interventions Unit, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne