South Africa halted use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine on Sunday after evidence emerged that the vaccine did not protect clinical trial volunteers from mild or moderate illness caused by the more contagious virus variant that was first seen there. The findings were a devastating blow to the country’s efforts to combat the pandemic. Scientists…
The Chicago Teachers Union has reached a tentative agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot to reopen the city’s schools for in-person classes, the mayor announced on Sunday. If it is finalized, the agreement would avert a strike that had threatened to disrupt instruction for students in the nation’s third largest school district. Under the agreement, pre-kindergarten…
Though more contagious variants are spreading in the United States, top health officials sounded notes of optimism on Sunday that both the supply of vaccines and the rate of vaccination will steadily increase. “The demand clearly outstrips supply right now,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, said on the NBC program…
A more contagious variant of the coronavirus first found in Britain is spreading rapidly in the United States, doubling roughly every 10 days, according to a new study. Analyzing half a million coronavirus tests and hundreds of genomes, a team of researchers predicted that in a month this variant could become predominant in the United…
Some prioritization formulas also conflict with one another or impose such prescriptive rules that they hinder immunizations, public health experts say. Yet many Americans may not be aware of the layers of algorithms influencing their access to vaccines. Ellen P. Goodman, a professor at Rutgers Law School who studies how governments use automated decision-making systems,…
Dr. Emil Freireich, a relentless cancer doctor and researcher who helped devise treatments for childhood leukemia that dramatically transformed the lives of patients thought to have little hope of survival, died on Feb. 1 at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he had worked since 1965. He was 93. His…
The U.S. labor market is stalling and in a “deep hole” that could take years to escape if lawmakers do not quickly pass an aid package that gives workers a bridge to the end of the pandemic, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen warned on Sunday. By contrast, passing the $1.9 trillion package that President Biden…
Smallhold, which opened in a shipping container in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in 2017, has seen the sudden interest in fungi firsthand; in three years, the company has grown to 25 employees from two, and is still hiring. That’s likely linked, in part, to an expanding interest in eating mushroom varieties beyond the kind…
When you are heading out, start with a base layer made of merino wool, polypropylene or material that will wick away water and sweat. This includes glove liners, socks and hats, which can get wet with sweat and freeze. Next, add a slightly thicker layer made of fleece or light wool and top it off…
Good news parents, there’s a way to give kids a screen break without forgoing engrossing and educational content. Podcasts, and in particular musical ones, offer a dynamic, attention-grabbing learning opportunity that by their very nature, incite a theater in the minds of little listeners. Below are some hidden gems of musical podcasts that have the…