coronavirus

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North Korea's COVID Negligence Was 'Abominable'
North Korea's COVID
Negligence Was 'Abominable'
NEW REPORT
Jun 17, 2025 10:20 AM CDT

North Korea's COVID Negligence Was 'Abominable'

US institutes conclude death and suffering were 'widespread' despite government claims

(Newser) - North Korea claimed it was blessed with a COVID-19 "miracle," losing only 74 lives during the pandemic without vaccines. But as might be expected in a country with highly controlled media, the truth wasn't so cheery, per the New York Times . Deaths and suffering were "widespread"...

Coronavirus Likely Was Moved by Wildlife, Research Shows

Bats alone probably couldn't have transported it so far so fast in China, study says

(Newser) - Days after the US and China again took shots at each other over the origin of COVID-19, researchers have published a genetic study with new reasons to think it was distributed by wildlife. The team compared the development of the earlier SARS epidemic, which killed 774 people in 33 countries,...

Germany's Spies: COVID Likely Started in a Lab

Nation's spy agency says the virus almost certainly came from a leak out of China

(Newser) - Germany's spy agency is in sync with the CIA in regard to the origins of COVID: Both think it likely originated in a lab in China. After its own analysis, Germany's BND foreign intelligence service thinks there's an 80% to 90% chance that the virus accidentally leaked...

Pacino Recounts His Harrowing Experience With COVID

Actor says pulse couldn't be found at one point

(Newser) - Al Pacino contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic, before a vaccine was available, and in his upcoming memoir, the actor reveals that he nearly died. Speaking about Sonny Boy, out next week, with People , Pacino recalls of his experience fighting the coronavirus, "I thought I experienced death. I might not...

Government Is Sending Out Free COVID Tests Again

Each US household can sign up for up to 4 nasal swab tests, starting later this month

(Newser) - As we enter the cooler months, various autumn and winter illnesses hover—including COVID-19, which no longer has us immersed in a public health emergency but still has the potential to wreak havoc during flu and cold season. As a result, the US government is again making free coronavirus testing...

Zuckerberg: We Stifled COVID Info at White House's Request

Meta CEO alleges White House turned up heat on his teams to take down certain items on COVID

(Newser) - During the height of the pandemic, Meta scrubbed tens of millions of items on Facebook and Instagram that it said pushed misinformation on COVID-19, vaccinations, and the like, with warnings placed on nearly 200 million more pieces of content. Now, the company's CEO is saying that the Biden administration...

China Boots Scientist Who Shared COVID Data From Lab

Zhang Yongzhen later said he'd been allowed back in after sit-in

(Newser) - The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post early Wednesday that authorities had "tentatively agreed" to allow him and his...

Life Expectancy Is on the Rise Again, With Caveats

COVID and drug overdoses still pose an issue, per the CDC

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the United States is on the upswing once again, its first positive motion in two years. NPR reports on new CDC stats that show in 2022, the average came in at 77.5 years, an increase from the 76.4 years set in 2021. But both COVID...

The World Changed 4 Years Ago Today
4 Years Ago Today,
the World Changed
the rundown
Mar 11, 2024 9:55 AM CDT

4 Years Ago Today, the World Changed

WHO declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020

(Newser) - "It's pretty rare to be able to point to a single day that transformed the whole world," writes Sam Baker at Axios . But it's safe to say that March 11, 2020, qualifies. That's because, exactly four years ago on Monday, "society began to shut...

'Hypervaccinated' Man Floors Scientists
'Hypervaccinated' Man
Floors Scientists
in case you missed it
Mar 10, 2024 3:45 PM CDT

'Hypervaccinated' Man Floors Scientists

German patient was vaccinated 217 times against COVID, seemingly with no ill effects

(Newser) - Well, we know this guy definitely isn't afraid of needles. A German man has been found to have received 217 vaccinations for COVID-19, and he doesn't seem to be any worse for it. The BBC reports on the "bizarre" case of the 62-year-old out of Magdeburg, whose...

Better Get Your Order in for 4 More Free COVID Tests

After Friday, government will no longer accept orders for the latest round of free tests

(Newser) - If you haven't ordered your latest round of free COVID tests and you want them, do it today: The United States Postal Service will stop accepting orders for the at-home test kits after Friday, the Guardian reports. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a division of the US...

Report: CDC Plans to Cut COVID Isolation Guidelines

'Washington Post' reports that 5-day isolation period will be dropped

(Newser) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to loosen its COVID isolation guidelines for the first time since it cut the recommended isolation time from 10 days to five days in Dec. 2021, the Washington Post reports. The Post, citing "four agency officials and an expert familiar...

California's New COVID Policy Distances From CDC

State now allows those with COVID but no symptoms to go out in public

(Newser) - Just tested positive for COVID but don't have any symptoms? You're now free to move about in public as you please—at least if you're in California, where coronavirus policy has been "quietly" updated in a distancing from the CDC's own guidelines, reports NBC News...

New Development in Mystery Over Bolsonaro's Vax Status

Brazilian authorities say anti-vax former president's records showing he'd been vaxxed were falsified

(Newser) - Jair Bolsonaro has long minimized COVID-19, as well as health and safety measures taken against the virus, including vaccination. Yet confusingly, records show that the former Brazilian president received a COVID shot more than two years ago, apparently to help him circumvent travel restrictions and other rules that required he...

Documents Alter Our Understanding of Early COVID Timeline

'WSJ' reports China had largely sequenced the virus 2 weeks before it told the world it did

(Newser) - Just two weeks separated Jan. 11, 2020, and Dec. 28, 2019, but in the Wall Street Journal 's reporting, they were 14 meaningful days: ones in which China had sequenced the virus that causes COVID-19 but had not yet shared that information with the world. It reports that during...

Man Finds Out Not to Compare COVID Shots to Holocaust

German teacher is hit with $3.3K fine for 'trivialization' over COVID shots

(Newser) - A German man has been hit with a $3,300 fine after expressing some unconventional views on COVID-19 vaccines. Deutsche Welle reports that the unnamed vocational-college teacher, a 62-year-old from Berlin, heard his financial fate on Thursday from the Tiergarten Local Court, where a presiding judge slammed him for comparing...

Leftover PPE From Pandemic: 'What a Real Waste'

States are now dumping millions of masks, gowns, gloves, other protective gear due to excess supply

(Newser) - When the coronavirus pandemic took hold in an unprepared US, states scrambled for masks and other protective gear. Three years later, as the grips of the pandemic have loosened, many states are now trying to deal with an excess of that gear, ditching their supplies in droves. With expiration dates...

Boris Johnson at COVID Inquiry: 'I Should Have Twigged'

Former UK prime minister says his government 'got some things wrong' but did its best

(Newser) - Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his handling of COVID-19 on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the pandemic, saying his government "got some things wrong" but did its best. Johnson began two days of questioning under oath by lawyers for the judge-led inquiry about his initial reluctance...

US Life Expectancy Jumps, but There's Another 'Bleak' Stat

Life expectancy is now 77.5 years, but that boost hasn't recouped pandemic losses

(Newser) - Fresh stats out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer some good news and some bad news in terms of our collective longevity. "The good news is that life expectancy increased for the first time in two years," the CDC's Elizabeth Arias, a co-author on...

Experts: Numbers on Updated COVID Shots Are 'Abysmal'

Per CDC, only 7% of adults, 2% of children have received most recent coronavirus vaccine

(Newser) - A month after federal officials recommended new versions of COVID-19 vaccines, 7% of US adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot. One expert called the rates "abysmal," per the AP . The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the CDC, come from a national survey...

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