In the News

As global temperatures have risen in recent decades, so have the number of outbreaks of infectious diseases. SARS, MERS, Zika, West Nile, COVID-19, and now clusters of monkeypox and polio have all recently threatened public health.
 

Scientists discovered a new virus in eastern China that may be able to jump from animals to humans. But health experts say it isn't cause for panic.
 

One manufacturer believes it has a solution to the gun violence plaguing the United States - a personalized smart gun that uses fingerprint technology to make firearms safer.
 

After a two-year hiatus, the flu may be back this season – and with a vengeance. Data from the Southern Hemisphere, which is in its flu season, show cases surpassing pre-pandemic levels, prompting health experts to worry about what’s in store for Americans this year.
 

U.S. health officials on Tuesday authorized a plan to stretch the nation’s limited supply of monkeypox vaccine by giving people just one-fifth the usual dose, citing research suggesting that the reduced amount is about as effective.
 

The attack at the Jefferson Avenue Tops left several Buffalo neighborhoods without a convenient source of fresh food. It made the city a national emblem for the plight of urban "food deserts." The term generally describes the nation's thousands of low-income census tracts where an estimated 53.6 million people live outside an easy walk or drive to a full-service supermarket.
 

Scientists and economists look at what learning loss and disruption could bring for a generation of students—and what can be done about it.
 

Officials have declared monkeypox a public health emergency, but school leaders shouldn't panic, experts say.
 

How many species have been affected? And how many cases have there been in the animal kingdom? Those are difficult questions to answer. Yet it's an important task, say researchers, because of the possibility that the virus could mutate into a perhaps more transmissible or virulent strain in animals and then pass back to humans.
 

Some experts think it might be worth getting a second booster now if you face a high risk of COVID-19 exposure or if your previous dose was ages ago. The rise of BA.5 has spooked many of them, despite evidence the virus causes less severe disease now than at any other point during the pandemic.
 

The designation will free up emergency funds and lift some bureaucratic hurdles, but many experts fear containment may no longer be possible.
 

While the BA.5 variant of COVID-19—the most transmissible version of the virus to date—spreads quickly around the country, many school and district leaders plan to start the 2022-23 school year with fewer pandemic precautions in place.