COVID-19

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How Pandemic Face Masks Are Polluting Land and Water
All Those COVID Masks
Are Leaching Chemicals
NEW STUDY
Sep 9, 2025 6:22 AM CDT

All Those COVID Masks Are Leaching Chemicals

Microplastics and hormone disruptors included, research finds

(Newser) - Millions of discarded face masks from the COVID-19 pandemic are now breaking down, creating an environmental hazard that could linger for generations, a study warns. Researchers from Coventry University found that the billions of plastic-based masks used globally, which were meant to protect people from the virus, are now...

RFK Jr.: Trump Deserves Nobel for COVID Shots

Health secretary has been a critic of the vaccines

(Newser) - Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy fielded a tricky question on Thursday from Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor: Does President Trump deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for Operation Warp Speed, the US campaign to roll out vaccines during the pandemic? "Absolutely," responded Kennedy, reports the Washington Post ...

Allergy Nasal Spray May Help Ward Off COVID
Allergy Nasal Spray
May Help Ward Off COVID
new study
Sep 2, 2025 2:38 PM CDT

Allergy Nasal Spray May Help Ward Off COVID

Small study finds lower infection rates with azelastine

(Newser) - A widely available nasal spray used for allergies may offer unexpected protection against COVID, a new study suggests. Researchers at Saarland University Hospital in Germany tested the antihistamine azelastine, an over-the-counter product, on 450 adults, most in their early 30s. Half the group used the spray three times daily,...

COVID Vaccine Season Just Got More Complex

Not as many people can automatically go to pharmacies to get their shots anymore

(Newser) - Will you get a COVID-19 vaccine? That's become a complicated question for many people, with the answer depending on one's age, insurance coverage, health, and finding a health care professional to give the shot. A once-straightforward seasonal vaccine process has become muddled this year due to new federal...

FDA Introduces New Restrictions for Fall COVID Shots

Approval doesn't cover younger, healthy adults

(Newser) - The FDA has given the green light to updated COVID vaccines for this fall, but not for everybody. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday that the agency's latest approval only covers adults 65 and up, plus anyone—child or adult—with at least...

AAP Splits With CDC on COVID Vaccine Guidance for Kids

American Academy of Pediatrics still strongly recommends COVID shots for those up to 2 years

(Newser) - ]For the first time in 30 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics is substantially diverging from US government vaccine recommendations, the AP reports. The group's new COVID-19 recommendations—released Tuesday—come amid a tumultuous year for public health, as vaccine skeptics have come into power in the new Trump...

It's Summertime, and the Sneezing Is Easy
COVID Isn't Taking
the Summer Off
Aug 14, 2025 6:15 PM CDT

COVID Isn't Taking the Summer Off

Here's what to know about summer colds and the COVID-19 variant called stratus

(Newser) - Summer heat, outdoor fun ... and cold and flu symptoms? The three may not go together in many people's minds: partly owing to common myths about germs and partly because many viruses really do have lower activity levels in the summer. But it is possible to get the sniffles—or...

Bondi Ends COVID Case Against Utah Doctor

Michael Kirk Moore was accused of destroying coronavirus vaccines

(Newser) - The federal government has dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID vaccines and instead giving children saline shots, per the AP . US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Saturday that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction. Moore and...

Star Wars Actor Dies From COVID
Star Wars Actor
Dies From COVID
Jul 7, 2025 2:00 AM CDT

Star Wars Actor Dies From COVID

Kenneth Colley also worked with members of Monty Python

(Newser) - Kenneth Colley, a veteran British actor who appeared in two Star Wars films, died last Monday at his home in England, surrounded by friends, after contracting COVID while hospitalized for an arm injury he suffered in a fall. Colley, 87, then developed pneumonia, his agent said in a statement praising...

North Korea's COVID Negligence Was 'Abominable'
North Korea's COVID
Negligence Was 'Abominable'
NEW REPORT
Jun 17, 2025 10:20 AM CDT

North Korea's COVID Negligence Was 'Abominable'

US institutes conclude death and suffering were 'widespread' despite government claims

(Newser) - North Korea claimed it was blessed with a COVID-19 "miracle," losing only 74 lives during the pandemic without vaccines. But as might be expected in a country with highly controlled media, the truth wasn't so cheery, per the New York Times . Deaths and suffering were "widespread"...

Vaccine Official Quits After RFK Jr. 'Blindsides' CDC

He bypassed normal procedure on COVID vaccine recommendations

(Newser) - A top official at the CDC resigned this week after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bypassed normal procedures with an order on the agency's COVID-19 vaccine guidance. Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who helped oversee CDC vaccine recommendations, announced her resignation to the COVID-19 vaccine work group early Tuesday, according to...

Moderna Wins FDA Approval, With Limits, for COVID Vaccine

Next-generation product requires a smaller dose

(Newser) - Moderna's next COVID-19 vaccine has received Food and Drug Administration approval, albeit with restrictions not placed on the company's current shot. The new vaccine, called mNEXSPIKE, can be given to adults 65 and older and those 12 to 64 years old who have an underlying condition putting them...

FDA Makes a Big Shift on COVID Vaccine Policy

Booster won't be routinely approved for healthy people under 65

(Newser) - The Food and Drug Administration announced a major shift Tuesday on how COVID-19 vaccines will be approved—and it could mean that not everybody who wants a COVID shot this fall will be able to get one. In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine , top FDA...

Cancer Report Has 'Reassuring' News
Cancer Report Is
'Very Reassuring'
Apr 22, 2025 7:24 AM CDT

Cancer Report Is 'Very Reassuring'

Advanced cancers returned to prepandemic levels, report shows

(Newser) - Many Americans were forced to postpone cancer screenings—colonoscopies, mammograms, and lung scans—for several months in 2020 as COVID-19 overwhelmed doctors and hospitals. But that delay in screening isn't making a huge impact on cancer statistics, at least none that can be seen yet by experts who track...

Administration Pulls Page With COVID Information

Users are redirected to White House site blaming China, Democrats

(Newser) - Until Friday, Americans going to the federal government's online COVID-19 portal could find information about masking, free testing, and treatment for infections of the disease that has killed more than 1 million people in the US. Now anyone going to Covid.gov and Covidtests.gov is redirected to a...

Soldiers Discharged Over Vaccine Mandate Are Reenlisted

Trump ordered the move early in his 2nd term

(Newser) - The US Army has reenlisted more than 23 soldiers who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine after the Pentagon mandated the vaccine in 2021. The action follows an order by President Trump to rehire affected troops and provide back pay; the vaccine mandate was dropped in 2023 and...

Family Suing Over Teen's Unwanted Vaccination

North Carolina family says teen was given first dose of COVID vaccine without consent

(Newser) - A North Carolina mother's lawsuit regarding a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine that she says was given to her son without consent is moving forward. The state supreme court ruled Friday that the lawsuit against a public school board could proceed, the Washington Post reports. Emily Happel says the...

Two Men Illustrate Maddening Plight of Long COVID
Two Men Illustrate Maddening
Plight of Long COVID
longform
Mar 23, 2025 5:00 PM CDT

Two Men Illustrate Maddening Plight of Long COVID

Men's Health looks at the ailment through their quests to recover

(Newser) - To understand what it's like to have long COVID these days, a good place to start might be an in-depth story at Men's Health that focuses on the frustrating plights of two men. One is 35-year-old Levi Henry, who used to crush CrossFit workouts before contracting COVID in...

Germany's Spies: COVID Likely Started in a Lab

Nation's spy agency says the virus almost certainly came from a leak out of China

(Newser) - Germany's spy agency is in sync with the CIA in regard to the origins of COVID: Both think it likely originated in a lab in China. After its own analysis, Germany's BND foreign intelligence service thinks there's an 80% to 90% chance that the virus accidentally leaked...

CIA Shifts Toward Lab Leak Theory on COVID

New assessment calls Wuhan laboratory the 'more likely' source

(Newser) - Agreeing with the FBI and the Energy Department, the CIA announced Saturday that it's decided the COVID outbreak probably began with a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China. "CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based...

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