From left: Alexis Jones (Cornell University), Mei Lamison (New York University), Anaka Srinivas (Northwestern University). Alexis Jones; Mei Lamison; Anaka Srinivas hide caption
pandemic pandemic
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pandemic
A child receives a measles vaccination at a clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe, where a 2022 outbreak saw some 700 children die from the highly infectious childhood disease. Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP hide caption
Don't just sneeze without a tissue! That's the message of this early pandemic era graffiti in Dakar, Senegal. The World Health Organization has just issued an updated report on the way SARS-CoV-2 spreads. Take our quiz to see if you're up on your COVID terminology. Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
An EMT wearing personal protective equipment prepares to unload COVID-19 transfer patients in the early days of the pandemic. The Biden Administration has just announced a new program aimed at preventing the next pandemic. John Moore/Getty Images hide caption
Oregon schools are struggling to recover academic learning losses, according to a recent study from researchers at Harvard and Stanford. Brian A Jackson/Getty Images hide caption
When Australia's black flying foxes are well-fed, they tend to be healthy. A lack of food stresses the bats — and stress causes them to shed, or release, viruses into the environment. Ko Konno/Getty Images/iStockphoto hide caption
How do we halt the next pandemic? Be kind to critters like bats, says a new paper
Rahima Banu had the last recorded case of naturally occurring variola major smallpox, a deadly strain of the virus, in 1975. At left: Banu in her mother's arms as a small child. At right: Banu today, close to 50 years old, lives in a small village in Bangladesh with her husband, Rafiqul Islam, and their children. Michael Schwartz/CDC, Céline Gounder/KFF Health News hide caption
Millions of people are affected by long COVID, a disease that encompasses a range of symptoms — everything from brain fog to chronic fatigue — and that manifests differently across patients. The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption
What we know about long COVID — from brain fog to physical fatigue
In this Jan. 11, 2008 file photo, a bottle of Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac is pictured at a company facility in Plainfield, Ind. Darron Cummings/AP hide caption
The world may be out of the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, but humans still share the globe with countless pathogens. Here are some of the ways viruses shaped 2023. Olivia Taussig-Rees for NPR hide caption
A worker inspects disposable gloves at a factory in Malaysia, a country that has been the top supplier of medical gloves to the U. S. and which is facing increasing competition from China. MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
More medical gloves are coming from China, as U.S. makers of protective gear struggle
Long-time collaborators Pardis Sabeti (right) of the Broad Institute and Christian Happi of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Nigeria, are developing an early-warning system that could flag an emerging pandemic . Jodi Hilton for NPR hide caption
My grandpa Yeye and grandma Nainai. After they both caught COVID last December when China abruptly lifted its restrictions, my grandparents have felt significantly weaker. Their morning walks now consist of more resting than walking. To my grandparents, the virus should've been a death sentence. However, they were still kicking and cooking on my screen on a video call last week. Laura Gao for NPR hide caption
A COVID booster is administered in Jakarta, Indonesia. Eko Siswono Toyudho/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images hide caption
Protesters march outside the White House to call attention to those who have long COVID and those who have the disabling disease Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images hide caption
Ambassador-at-Large John Nkengasong, who will lead the State Department's Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, speaks to the press about the new agency. He told NPR that the pandemic "taught us three key lessons. We are collectively more connected than we thought. We are more vulnerable than we thought. And we have [vast] inequities" when it comes to disease threats. Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images hide caption
A new U.S. agency is a response to the fact that nobody was ready for the pandemic
A new study finds a gap in excess deaths opened between Republicans and Democrats in 2021, after vaccine access was widened to all adults. Here, a Walgreens worker prepares vaccine shots for school staff in Dayton, Ohio, in February 2021. Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A gull picks up a discarded protective face mask from the shoreline in the marina on August 11, 2020 in Dover, England. Leon Neal/Getty Images hide caption
Lord Norman Foster sits for a portrait on the 42nd floor of JPMorgan's current headquarters. Lord Foster is the architect for a new 60-story building the bank is building. He describes the new structure as a "a breathing building" because of the increased focus on air circulation. José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR hide caption