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Proponents argue that this kind of data is crucial for understanding — and preventing — pandemics. But critics say that scientists should not run experiments that might make viruses better able to spread among people, given the small but real chance that these altered pathogens might infect lab workers and escape into the outside world.
 

Facing yet another COVID-19 variant, this one said to be faster and stealthier than those before it, health officials say the calculus has changed and are urging booster shots even more strongly to buck up the country’s armor.
Anna Durbin and David Dowdy are quoted. 

Experts broadly agree states shouldn’t order more doses than they think they’ll use. But they worry the low demand in states such as Alabama and Mississippi is a warning sign of the widening ambivalence among many parents about the benefits of vaccinating children against the virus and continuing politicization of health care.
 

While people have been relying on their vaccinations and antibodies from previous infections, experts say those factors offer limited protection against the BA.5 variant. President Biden’s administration is urging Americans to get boosted and take advantage of antiviral treatments. 
 

Omicron BA.5 symptoms remain similar to those of earlier Omicron subvariants. Some people reported having meningitis-like symptoms during the course of their COVID-19 illness, but there is no evidence that BA.5 is the cause.
 

Around the country, healthcare systems are under strain with COVID and influenza case numbers climbing. Experts review what’s happening in Australia and how it could help predict what’s to come in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the early days of the pandemic, reinfections were reported as a rare phenomenon. Now it’s clear they are an inevitable fact of pandemic life—especially with new, more transmissible, increasingly immune-evading variants evolving on the regular.
 

In one year, 45,000 died by gun in the U.S. Most of those lives were taken one by one in homicides or suicides. They didn't make national headlines but left huge holes in their communities.
 

Red flag laws allow police, district attorneys, and even regular citizens to file court orders that temporarily ban individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or owning a weapon in the state. But they only work if people take advantage of them. Without the proper resources—like public education campaigns and offices directly responsible for reviewing cases—the laws are woefully less effective at preventing tragedies, experts told VICE News.
 

It’s another frustrating turn in the long coronavirus pandemic, which experts say again calls for vigilance: wearing good-fitting, quality masks in higher-risk situations, distancing, seeking well-ventilated indoor spaces and obtaining every vaccine dose for which people are eligible.
 

Alex McCourt discusses how states are responding to the Supreme Court ruling that struck down New York State’s concealed-carry gun law.

Although the increase in cases doesn’t appear to approach the meteoric levels of previous waves, health experts say what's being recorded is likely an undercount because of underreported test results.