Early in the pandemic, shortages of N95 respirators and other medical gear prompted panic across the world. A year later, the masks still aren't widely available to U.S. consumers.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting the success of his policy providing COVID-19 vaccines to everyone 65 years and older in the state. But critics say the vaccine distribution favors some groups over others.
South Dakota has administered roughly 80,000 of the 106,000 doses it has received so far, or 75%. Dr. Shankar Kurra in Rapid City says a centralized system helped for coordination.
State health officials are breathing a sigh of relief. But they are also cautious: More than 40 million Californians live in counties where COVID-19 risk is deemed "widespread."
Merck, which previously made an Ebola vaccine, had been seen as a serious contender in the worldwide race to come up with an answer to the coronavirus.
As COVID-19 vaccines roll out, doctors say it's long past time to address the exclusion of pregnant women from research on drugs and vaccines. They say better study design is the answer.
With the virus still raging in the U.S., public health experts say we can't afford to just wait around for the vaccine. They share advice for what communities can do now to slow the death toll.
A South Los Angeles hospital has long provided for an underserved community where private insurance is scarce and chronic illnesses can flourish. And then came a devastating coronavirus surge.
Historian Janice P. Nimura tells the story of America's first and third certified women doctors and the role these sisters played in building medical institutions.
Lou Gehrig's disease can take months to diagnose, then rapidly incapacitate patients, leaving many families bankrupt before disability payments and Medicare kick in. A recent law aims to change that.
Although vaccination has begun, this winter has been the deadliest season of the pandemic. The U.S. death toll jumped from 300,000 to 400,000 in just five weeks.
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in America to earn her medical degree. Her sister Emily followed in her footsteps. Janice Nimura tells the story of the "complicated, prickly" trailblazers.
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins about the ongoing pandemic, delays in the mass vaccination campaign and the impending political transition.
The annual street survey of homeless people is being delayed or put off completely in some parts of the U.S. during the pandemic, even as the country's unsheltered population appears to be growing.
When schools closed last spring, children with severe mental illnesses were cut off from the services they'd come to rely on. Many have since spiraled into emergency rooms and even police custody.
As states suddenly expand the categories of people eligible for the first scarce shipments of vaccine, who will be watching to make sure those hit hardest by the pandemic aren't left behind?
President-Elect Joe Biden shares details of how his administration hopes to tackle the country's public health crisis. It's an aggressive plan that he needs Congress to fund.
Lydia Mobley has experienced the pandemic's deadliest days from the inside of a Michigan hospital. "You see people not wearing masks. And then you go to work and you watch people die," the nurse says.
The change means that doctors will no longer need a special federal waiver in order to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication to treat opioid use disorder.
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Lydia Mobley, an intensive care unit nurse with Fastaff Travel Nursing, about what it's like to treat COVID-19 patients as the coronavirus continues to surge in the U.S.
A federal appeals court ruled the effort by nonprofit Safehouse to open a "supervised injection site" to prevent overdose deaths is laudable but illegal under the so-called federal crack house law.
Trump administration officials on Tuesday announced several changes to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, including a call for states to open up eligibility to everyone age 65 and older.
It takes time after vaccination for immunity to the virus to build up, and no vaccine is 100% effective. Plus, scientists don't yet know if the vaccine stops viral spread. Here's what's known so far.
