Tag: Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Pandemic Lockdowns Had Varied Effects on Wildlife

In the early months of the Covid pandemic, when every bit of news seemed bleak, there was one heartwarming narrative that took hold: With humans stuck in their homes, the world was safe again for wild animals, which could now wander freely through cities, parking lots or fields that once might have been crowded with […]

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What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later

Four years ago this month, schools nationwide began to shut down, igniting one of the most polarizing and partisan debates of the pandemic. Some schools, often in Republican-led states and rural areas, reopened by fall 2020. Others, typically in large cities and states led by Democrats, would not fully reopen for another year. A variety […]

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Trump’s Alternate Reality Pitch, Examined

Aside from falsely insisting that he did not lose the 2020 election, former President Donald J. Trump has peddled a related set of theories centered on one question: What would the world have looked like had he stayed in office? Mr. Trump, in rallies and interviews, has repeatedly asserted — more than a dozen times […]

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How To Recognize Health Misinformation on Social Media

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a case that involves the Biden administration’s efforts to communicate with social media sites about posts officials believed made false or misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines and the pandemic. While the case primarily focuses on a debate around free speech, it also spotlights the potential harms […]

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Child Care Is ‘Just a Huge Mess.’ Will Government Finally Fix It?

A few weeks ago, I got a panicked message from Jason Cohen, a dad in upstate New York. He told me that the day care where his twin toddlers had been happily ensconced for over a year, J.A.C.E. Daycare and Early Learning Center in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., was closing unexpectedly and had given parents less […]

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Marking The 4-Year Anniversary of the Covid Pandemic

Jessie Thompson, a 36-year-old mother of two in Chicago, is reminded of the Covid-19 pandemic every day. Sometimes it happens when she picks up her children from day care and then lets them romp around at a neighborhood park on the way home. Other times, it’s when she gets out the shower at 7 a.m. […]

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Four Years After Covid-19 Shutdown, Are Audiences Back?

It was four years ago — on March 12, 2020 — that the coronavirus brought the curtain down on Broadway for what was initially supposed to be a monthlong shutdown, but which wound up lasting a year and a half. The pandemic brought live events and big gatherings to a halt, silencing orchestras, shutting museums […]

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What Happened to Our Covid Social Safety Net?

It’s a riddle that economists have struggled to decipher. The U.S. economy seems robust on paper, yet Americans are dissatisfied with it. But hardly anyone seems to have paid much attention to the whirlwind experience we just lived through: We built a real social safety net in the United States and then abruptly ripped it […]

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The Fourth Anniversary of the Covid Pandemic

Four years ago today, society began to shut down. Shortly after noon Eastern on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid — or “the coronavirus,” then the more popular term — to be a global pandemic. Stocks plummeted in the afternoon. In the span of a single hour that night, President Donald Trump […]

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7 Covid Mysteries Scientists Are Starting to Unravel

When the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, nearly everything about the novel coronavirus was an open question: How was it spreading so quickly? How sick would it make people? Would a single bout buy you protection from future cases? In the four years since, scientists have unraveled some of […]

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Public Workers Joined Ring That Stole IDs of Homeless People, D.A. Says

Eighteen people, including nine public employees, engaged in a broad criminal conspiracy that included the manufacture of ghost guns, burglary and defrauding a state pandemic relief program, according to four indictments filed Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney. The defendants include five employees of New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, a letter carrier for […]

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Reminder: Trump’s Last Year in Office Was a National Nightmare

One of the amazing political achievements of Republicans in this election cycle has been their ability, at least so far, to send Donald Trump’s last year in office down the memory hole. Voters are supposed to remember the good economy of January 2020, with its combination of low unemployment and low inflation, while forgetting about […]

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What Is Your Earliest Pandemic Memory?

Remembering life in the earliest days of the pandemic shutdowns can feel like trying to conjure an apocalyptic dream: the empty streetscapes, the shrieking ambulances, the sudden scramble to find toilet paper and hand sanitizer. As the fourth anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic approaches, The Times wants to know: When did the pandemic hit home […]

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He Had 217 Covid Shots Without Side Effects, Study Finds

Two years ago, German doctors stumbled across news reports of a man being investigated for receiving scores of coronavirus vaccines with no medical explanation. Then followed a flurry of speculation about what he had been up to. As it turned out, prosecutors were looking into whether he had been receiving so many extra doses as […]

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Andrew Cuomo Faces House Subpoena Over Covid Deaths in Nursing Homes

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has been subpoenaed to appear before a House subcommittee to answer for his administration’s handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, reigniting a flashpoint that could further damage his chances at a political comeback. The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic accused Mr. Cuomo of […]

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China’s Big Political Show Is Back to Normal. Sort of.

Finally, it appeared, things were back to normal. As nearly 3,000 delegates filed into Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Tuesday for the opening of China’s annual legislative meeting, none wore face masks. Officials pressed together to shake hands and pose for photos. Around them, reporters and diplomats from around the world milled about […]

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China’s New Economic Agenda, a Lot Like the Old One: Takeaways

Beijing was abuzz with politics on Tuesday. China’s annual legislative meeting — the National People’s Congress, when Communist Party leaders promote their solutions for national ills — opened for business. The event is a chance for the leaders to signal the direction of the economy and outline how and where the government will spend money […]

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Paid Family Caregivers in Indiana Face Steep Cutbacks

Kacey Poynter doesn’t have to commute far to clock in for work. She’s a paid caregiver and simply rolls out of bed to tend to her charge: her 2-year-old son, who sleeps in a portable playpen right beside her. Sonny was born with a congenital malformation that impaired his brain development and needs near continuous […]

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American Office Workers Are Living Even Farther From Employers Now

In 2020, Virginia Martin lived two and a half miles from her office. Today, the distance between her work and home is 156. Ms. Martin, 37, used to live in Durham, N.C., and drove about 10 minutes to her job as a librarian at Duke. After the onset of remote work, Ms. Martin got her […]

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Tell Us About Your Pandemic Relationship Regrets

About two weeks ago, a woman who goes by the name Reesa Teesa created a 50-part series on TikTok to recount her whirlwind relationship saga with a man she began dating and quarantining with in March 2020. In the eight-hour epic, titled “Who TF Did I Marry?,” she referred to her ex-husband as a “pathological […]

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Teachers Are Missing More School, and There Are Too Few Substitutes

Schools across the country have faced no shortage of challenges since the pandemic. Students are behind academically. Cases of misbehavior are up. Students are absent far more frequently than before. But there is another problem that has left some school districts scrambling. Teachers are also missing more school. Teachers typically receive paid sick days and […]

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Trump Owns Dobbs and Everything That Comes With It

As president, Donald Trump appointed the three justices who proved pivotal to the outcome in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade. Trump has made it very clear that he is proud of this. He said so at the time. Dobbs, Trump pointed out in […]

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China’s Investors Are Losing Faith in Its Markets and Economy

Like many Chinese people, Jacky hoped that he could make enough money investing in China’s stock markets to help pay for an apartment in a big city. But in 2015 he lost $30,000, and in 2021 he lost $80,000. After that, he shut down his trading account and started investing in Chinese funds that track […]

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C.D.C. Considers Ending 5-Day Isolation Period for Covid

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering loosening its recommendations regarding how long people should isolate after testing positive for the coronavirus, another reflection of changing attitudes and norms as the pandemic recedes. Under the proposed guidelines, Americans would no longer be advised to isolate for five days before returning to work or […]

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NYC Revived Remote Schooling for a Day. It Was a Mess.

New York City public schools on Tuesday embarked on their first major experiment with remote learning since the coronavirus pandemic. More than 900,000 students were asked to join virtual classes during the winter storm. It didn’t go well. Many teachers, parents and students trying to log on found that they were locked out of their […]

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Covid Shots for Children

Much of the world has decided that most young children do not need to receive Covid booster shots. It’s true in Britain, France, Japan and Australia. Some countries, like India, have gone further. They say that otherwise healthy children do not need even an initial Covid vaccination. In Germany, public health experts don’t recommend vaccines […]

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New Research Raises Concerns About Long Covid in Kids

A large analysis published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics underscores the toll long Covid can take on children, in some cases leading to neurological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and behavioral symptoms in the months after an acute infection. “Long Covid in the U.S., in adults and in kids, is a serious problem,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief […]

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Alternating Arms for Vaccines May Boost Your Immunity, Study Says

If you’ve presented the same arm for every dose of a particular vaccine, you may want to reconsider. Alternating arms may produce a more powerful immune response, a new study suggests. The researchers studied responses to the first two doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Those who alternated arms showed a small increase in immunity over those […]

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How Nevada Is Pushing to Generate Jobs Beyond the Casinos

Before the pandemic brought everyday life to a halt, Joe Kiele supported himself through the industry that dominates Nevada’s economy. He waited tables at a steakhouse inside a casino in Reno. Four years later, Mr. Kiele, 49, remains in Reno, yet he now spends his workday inside a factory. In place of worrying about the […]

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California Aims $2 Billion to Help Students Catch Up From the Pandemic

In the fall of 2020, around the height of the debate over pandemic school closures, a lawsuit in California made a serious claim: The state had failed its constitutional obligation to provide an equal education to lower-income, Black and Hispanic students, who had less access to online learning. Now, in a settlement announced on Thursday, […]

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