The WHO says people who are fully immunized should hold off on getting a third shot while so many people in the world are still waiting for their first. More than 80% of all COVID vaccines given so far have been administered in upper-income nations.
Throughout the pandemic, scientists have been learning more about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. But there are still big questions, like how long the virus can survive in your body.
In May it seemed as if the pandemic were being beaten back. But in the past two weeks, COVID-19 cases have increased 171%. The death rate is up 19% over the week before. Breakthrough infections are making the news, hitting sports teams and politicians.
Companies are beginning to bring employees back to the office after more than a year of remote work. But as COVID-19 vaccination rates slow and the Delta variant spreads, a return to work may mean adjusting to a new normal.
The kids are safe. They always have been. It may sound strange, given a year of panic over school closures and reopenings, a year of masking toddlers and closing playgrounds and huddling in pandemic pods, that among children the mortality risk from COVID-19 is actually lower than from the flu. The risk of severe disease or hospitalization is about the same. This is true for the much-worried-over Delta variant.
Many things are getting back to normal this summer. But so far, foreign tourists are not being allowed into the U.S., and that's hurting communities and businesses dependent on them.