President Joe Biden is replacing a top science adviser who resigned under a cloud with two individuals who will split his positions on an interim basis.

New COVID infections are surging across the country.

The first full year of the biggest vaccination drive in American history has saved many lives but has left many behind.

To protect yourself against the omicron variant, experts say to do what you would against any other variant.

The World Health Organization has urged countries not to impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new omicron variant.

Cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders.

Hundreds of demonstrators have marched in the streets of Australia’s second-largest city to protest mandatory coronavirus vaccine rules in the construction industry.

The National Institutes of Health director says a U_S_ government advisory panel’s decision to limit Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots to Americans 65 and older as well as those at high risk of severe disease is a preliminary step and predicts broader approval for most Americans “in the next few weeks.”.

As the debate over COVID vaccine boosters continues, we could learn this week who is eligible to get the third shot.

South Korea has reported more than 2,000 new cases of the coronavirus, nearing a one-day record set last month, continuing an alarming surge as the nation enters its biggest holiday of the year.

Just as school doors are reopening across the U.S., children are filling hospital beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, sick with COVID-19.

After struggling for months to persuade Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, U.S. health officials could soon face a fresh challenge: talking vaccinated people into getting booster shots.

New Zealand has detected its first community transmission of the coronavirus in months, triggering urgent meetings among top lawmakers.

Warning of tough days ahead with surging COVID-19 infections, the director of the National Institutes of Health says the U.S. could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to more Americans this fall.

The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says he's hopeful that the Food and Drug Administration will give full approval to the coronavirus vaccine by month’s end.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert is warning that more “pain and suffering” is ahead as COVID-19 cases climb again and officials plead with unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated.

Federal prosecutors in Maryland say a man has been arrested and charged with sending emails that threatened to harm and kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, and their families.

While reports of athletes, lawmakers and others occasionally getting the coronavirus despite vaccination may sound alarming, top health experts point to overwhelming evidence that the shots dramatically reduce severe disease and death.

The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on Thursday on the dangers of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab is now receiving scrutiny under a new U.S. investigation.

Renowned conservationist Jane Goodall has been named as this year’s winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize, honoring individuals whose life’s work embodies a fusion of science and spirituality.

A top White House aide is making his pitch for young people to get vaccinated personal by sharing the struggles his own son has dealt with since contracting COVID-19 last fall.

One year ago, no treatments had proved safe and effective for COVID-19, but that's not the case today.

Patricia Hailes Fears, pastor of the Fellowship Baptist Church in Washington, is administered with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine during a gathering of a group of interfaith clergy members, community leaders and officials at the Washington National Cathedral, to encourage faith communities to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Washington. AdFollowing a moment of prayer for COVID-19 victims, the socially distanced attendees applauded when the Rev. Ad“We often get asked, can you get COVID-19 from the vaccine? It is impossible to get COVID-19 from the vaccine," Fauci said, sporting a gray face mask with drawings of laboratory beakers. In Washington, Black residents account for a little under half the population but nearly three-fourths of COVID-19 deaths.

The FDA said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against what matters most: serious illness, hospitalizations and death. The J&J vaccine also is easier to handle, lasting three months in the refrigerator compared to the Pfizer and Moderna options, which must be frozen. Like other COVID-19 vaccines, the main side effects of the J&J shot are pain at the injection site and flu-like fever, fatigue and headache. All COVID-19 vaccines train the body to recognize the new coronavirus, usually by spotting the spikey protein that coats it. It’s the same technology the company used in making an Ebola vaccine, and similar to COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca and China’s CanSino Biologics.

President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. – President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will have enough supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans. He toured the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory that created the COVID-19 vaccine now manufactured by Moderna and being rolled out in the U.S. and other countries. The U.S. is on pace to exceed Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, with more than 26 million shots delivered in his first three weeks. On the tour, Biden was shown the lab bench where researchers sequenced the virus and developed the precursor of the Moderna vaccine.

President-elect Joe Biden, right, listens as his nomineefor the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser on science Eric Lander speaks during an event at The Queen theater, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. Biden also named two prominent female scientists to co-chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Biden picked Alondra Nelson of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, a social scientist who studies science, technology and social inequality, as deputy science policy chief. The president-elect noted the team's diversity and repeated his promise that his administration's science policy and investments would target historically disadvantaged and underserved communities. The job as director of science and technology policy requires Senate confirmation.

President-elect Joe Biden picked a pioneering geneticist to be his science advisor and elevated the job to his Cabinet. Saying “science will always be at the forefront of my administration,” Biden said he is boosting the science advisor post to Cabinet level, a first in White House history. The job as director of science and technology policy requires Senate confirmation. Science organizations were also quick to praise Lander and the promotion of the science post. Biden chose Alondra Nelson of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, a social scientist who studies science, technology and social inequality, as deputy science policy chief.

FDA’s decision could help pave the way for other countries that are considering the Moderna vaccine, the first-ever regulatory clearance for the small Cambridge, Massachusetts, company. Britain, Canada and a few other countries already have cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, with a European Union decision due Monday. The FDA’s main messages:--Both the new Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech shot require two doses several weeks apart. --In a study of 30,000 volunteers, the Moderna vaccine was more than 94% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in people 18 and older. Like with the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, expect sore arms, fever, fatigue and muscle aches, which are signs the immune system is revving up.

“I feel like healing is coming.”With a countdown of “3-2-1,” workers at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center gave initial injections to applause. High-risk health care workers were first in line. It just represents a moral failing,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins. And later this week, the FDA will decide whether to greenlight the world’s second rigorously studied COVID-19 vaccine, made by Moderna Inc. “We’re also in the middle of a surge, and it’s the holidays, and our health care workers have been working at an extraordinary pace,” said Sue Mashni, chief pharmacy officer at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

Moderna Inc. and competitor Pfizer Inc. recently announced preliminary results showing their vaccines appear more than 90% effective, at least for short-term protection against COVID-19. Instead, the vaccines are made with a brand-new technology that injects a piece of genetic code for the spike protein. TROJAN HORSE VACCINESA different way to target the spike protein: Use another, harmless virus to carry the spike gene into the body. Once again, the body produces some spike protein and primes the immune system. But inactivated vaccines give the body a sneak peek at the germ itself rather than just that single spike protein.

French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer A. Doudna have won the Nobel Prize 2020 in chemistry for developing a method of genome editing likened to 'molecular scissors' that offer the promise of one day curing genetic diseases. “There is enormous power in this genetic tool,” said Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. In 1911, Marie Curie was the sole recipient of the chemistry award, as was Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in 1964. ___Read more stories about Nobel Prizes past and present by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/NobelPrizes___This story was first published Oct. 7, 2020. It was updated on Oct. 8, 2020, to correct the aim of clinical trials that are underway with the gene-editing tool CRISPR.

Several drugs have proved useful and doctors know more about how to care for the sickest patients in hospitals, he said. People who have died from COVID-19, especially ones who took part in studies, have helped reveal what drugs do or do not help. Two anti-inflammatory drugs, one used in combination with remdesivir — the drug Wang helped test — also have been reported to help although results of those studies have not yet been published. In hospitals, doctors know more now about ways to avoid using breathing machines, such as keeping patients on their bellies. “Prevention is the most important step right now as we’re waiting for a vaccine and we’re improving treatment,” Goodman said.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn pledged that career scientists, not politicians, will decide whether any coronavirus vaccine meets clearly stated standards that it works and is safe. In one of the largest studies yet, Johnson & Johnson aims to enroll 60,000 volunteers to test its single-dose approach in the U.S., South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. J&J’s vaccine is made with slightly different technology than others in late-stage testing, modeled on an Ebola vaccine the company created. Yet Redfield struggled to defend against criticism that CDC bowed to political pressure with guidelines that discouraged testing of people without COVID-19 symptoms. Going forward, “we need uniformity throughout the country.”In a testy exchange, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky insisted public health officials were wrong that a lockdown could change the course of the pandemic.

– In front of baskets of tomatoes and peppers, near a sizzling burrito grill, the “promotoras” stop masked shoppers at a busy Latino farmers market: Want to test a COVID-19 vaccine? Many thousands of volunteers from minority groups are needed for huge clinical trials underway or about to begin. Scientists say a diverse group of test subjects is vital to determining whether a vaccine is safe and effective for everyone and instilling broad public confidence in the shots once they become available. Together they make up nearly 40% of the U.S. population, and an equitable vaccine study would match those demographics, though health officials would like to see even greater numbers. —-The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.

But public fears that a vaccine is unsafe or ineffective could be disastrous, derailing the effort to vaccinate millions of Americans. DOING THE MATHThe FDA already has told manufacturers it won't consider any vaccine that's less than 50% effective. On the other hand, if equal numbers from the vaccine and placebo groups got infected, the DSMB might declare a vaccine futile, he told The Associated Press. These panels also can calculate infections even before that 150 threshold is met, at set time points in each study. Several vaccine candidates made by Chinese companies are in late stages of testing in various countries, but with smaller numbers of volunteers.

AstraZeneca announced Monday its vaccine candidate has entered the final testing stage in the U.S. Final testing, experts stress, must be in large numbers of people to know if theyre safe enough for mass vaccinations. Instead, theyre made with the genetic code for the aptly named spike protein that coats the surface of the coronavirus. Chinas government authorized emergency use of CanSino Biologics adenovirus shots in the military ahead of any final testing. Competitor SinoPharm has announced plans for final testing in some other countries.

Who gets to be first in line for a COVID-19 vaccine? Huge studies this summer aim to prove which of several experimental COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. But a COVID-19 vaccine decision is so tricky that this time around, ethicists and vaccine experts from the National Academy of Medicine, chartered by Congress to advise the government, are being asked to weigh in, too. Indeed, the risks for health workers today are far different than in the pandemics early days. Now, health workers in COVID-19 treatment units often are the best protected; others may be more at risk, committee members noted.

We all heard the notion that heat would help slow or stop the spread of COVID-19. In April, President Donald Trump said his coronavirus task force had research that indicated heat and humidity may kill or slow the spread of COVID-19, saying the findings may indicate that the disease could be less contagious in summer months. RELATED: Trust Index: Can we count on summer heat to beat the COVID-19 pandemic? According to experts, we can only blame ourselves for the alarming increase in COVID-19 cases. More stores are requiring face coverings to be worn and more and more city and state officials are implementing mask mandates.

A few months ago, when the virus had just hit the state, health experts speculated that summer heat may slow the spread of the virus. As Florida finds itself further into the summer months, cases of COVID-19 continue to skyrocket. These numbers seem to indicate that despite hot weather, the COVID-19 pandemic continues with force. Although there are many illnesses that destruct with heat and humidity, this usually occurs in ideal situations. The medical community needs much more research and data to definitively determine the effects of heat and humidity on the virus.