Vaccinations

A coalition of religious groups, conservative think tanks, and Republican attorneys general have chipped away at local and state authority, altering how the nation can respond during health crises.

NPR talks to Claire Hannan, who has helped navigate vaccine rollouts in all 50 states, about some of the challenges involved in quickly getting shots out to millions of young kids.

Lack of trust in the COVID vaccine is the main reason Hispanics in Texas have cited for not getting vaccinated, according to the study.

CDC advisers are recommending the use of two separate COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, paving the way for vaccine rollout as early as next week.

A committee of experts voted unanimously to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration authorize COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for children as young as 6-months-old.

Households in the U.S. will receive eight test kits via the U.S. Postal Service. The release comes as cases have risen over 60% in the U.S. over the past two weeks.

A large share of the nearly 1 million people who died of COVID in the U.S. may have lived if they'd gotten vaccinated. A new analysis shows how many lives could have been saved across the country.

Politics, religion, distrust and disinformation all play a role. "I've realized that there's no convincing somebody once they have their mind made up," says a social worker in Beaumont, Texas.

The company says this version targets both the original coronavirus and the beta variant, and appears to provide broader and longer-lasting protection against different strains, including omicron.

The state's top expert said nearly 99 percent of the population has developed some immune response to COVID-19. But other public health experts caution the virus can be unpredictable.