Tag: Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Boris Johnson to Face Tough Questions at U.K. Covid Inquiry

Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister whose tenure was dominated and ultimately derailed by the coronavirus pandemic, apologized on Wednesday “for the pain and suffering and the loss” of those who died from the virus, as well as their families. Speaking before an official inquiry into his government’s handling of the crisis, Mr. Johnson […]

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Off Broadway, a Vital Part of New York Theater, Feels the Squeeze

New York’s nonprofit Signature Theater has three modern performance spaces designed by the starchitect Frank Gehry, a long history of cultivating and championing major playwrights like Edward Albee and Lynn Nottage, and a board chaired by the Hollywood star Edward Norton. What Signature doesn’t have this fall are plays. The company, a mainstay of the […]

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Can Boris Johnson Keep His Cool at U.K.’s Covid Inquiry?

Boris Johnson, the ousted prime minister who led Britain through the pandemic, will testify before an official inquiry on Wednesday, giving his first detailed public account of how he grappled with a rampaging virus that divided his government, laid the seeds for his political downfall and nearly killed him. Mr. Johnson, who left Parliament earlier […]

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New York’s Millionaire Class Is Growing. Other People Are Leaving.

At the height of the pandemic, the richest New Yorkers left in droves. The trend led to months of hand-wringing, with both Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul spurning proposals to raise taxes on the rich for fear of driving more of them to low-tax states. Now, a new report based on the latest […]

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California Reading Program Sees Positive Results, Study Finds

To try to make up for pandemic learning loss, educators and policymakers have searched for solutions that work and — just as important — are cost effective. Now a new study, released Monday, reports positive results from a reading program in California that emphasized training teachers in the principles of the science of reading, a […]

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‘Medical Freedom’ Activists Take Aim at New Target: Childhood Vaccine Mandates

For more than 40 years, Mississippi had one of the strictest school vaccination requirements in the nation, and its high childhood immunization rates have been a source of pride. But in July, the state began excusing children from vaccination if their parents cited religious objections, after a federal judge sided with a “medical freedom” group. […]

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China Respiratory Illness: U.S. Health Officials Say Cause is Known

A small group of Republican senators on Friday called on President Biden to ban travel from China to protect against an outbreak of respiratory illnesses in children there, even as scientists and global and American health officials said there were no signs of a threatening new pathogen. Instead, those experts said, the evidence so far […]

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More States Now Require Financial Literacy Classes in High Schools

A flurry of states now require financial literacy classes for high school students, covering topics like budgeting, saving and managing debt. Just seven states — Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia — earned an A grade, meaning they require students to take a semester-long personal finance course, or its equivalent, on a “report […]

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Why It Costs $6 to Clean This Shirt in New York City

There is an extravaganza of cleanliness to be found just behind an unmarked door in a corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This is the home of Kingbridge’s massive new cleaning facility, which opened in January 2020. It’s where a fastidious, highly labor-intensive process takes place, one Mr. Aviles believes is necessary for clothing to […]

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U.S. Life Expectancy Creeps Up as Covid Deaths Fall

Life expectancy in the United States has begun to climb again as the threat of Covid-19 has receded, increasing by more than a year between 2021 and 2022, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rise represents a slow and partial recovery for the country, which tallied more […]

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Portland Teachers’ Strike Ends After More Than Three Weeks

The News The union representing teachers, counselors and other school employees in Portland, Ore., reached a tentative deal with the city’s public school district on Sunday, ending a strike that has kept nearly 45,000 students out of classes for more than three weeks in Oregon’s largest district. Background: The fight was over pay, class sizes […]

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Portland Teachers’ Strike Ends After More Than Three Weeks

The News The union representing teachers, counselors and other school employees in Portland, Ore., reached a tentative deal with the city’s public school district on Sunday, ending a strike that has kept nearly 45,000 students out of classes for more than three weeks in Oregon’s largest district. Background: The fight was over pay, class sizes […]

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Unvaccinated and Vulnerable: Children Drive Surge in Deadly Outbreaks

Large outbreaks of diseases that primarily kill children are spreading around the world, a grim legacy of disruptions to health systems during the Covid-19 pandemic that have left more than 60 million children without a single dose of standard childhood vaccines. By midway through this year, 47 countries were reporting serious measles outbreaks, compared with […]

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Growing Numbers of Chinese Migrants Cross U.S. Southern Border

The surge of migrants entering the United States across the southern border increasingly includes people from a surprising place: China. Despite the distances involved and the difficulties of the journey, more than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been apprehended crossing into the United States from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the […]

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Illness Surge in China Is Not From a Novel Pathogen, Data Suggests

The World Health Organization said that China had shared data about a recent surge in respiratory illnesses in children, one day after the agency said it was seeking information about the possibility of undiagnosed pneumonia cases there. The Chinese data indicated “no detection of any unusual or novel pathogens,” according to a W.H.O. statement on […]

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W.H.O. Asks China for Details on Surge of Respiratory Illness in Children

The World Health Organization has formally requested that China share detailed information about a recent increase in respiratory illnesses, citing unconfirmed media reports of undiagnosed pneumonia in children. China has been reporting a jump in respiratory illnesses for months. Chinese media reports have described long lines at pediatric hospitals, and doctors have said that this […]

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How Viral Infections Cause Long-Term Health Problems

Every day, Davida Wynn sets herself one task: Take a bath. Or wash the dishes. Or make an elaborate meal. By the end of the chore, she is exhausted and has to sit or lie down, sometimes falling asleep wherever she happens to be. “Anything beyond that is truly excruciating,” Ms. Wynn, 42, said. Her […]

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Omicron, Now 2 Years Old, Is Not Done With Us Yet

By November 2021, nearly two years after the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan and spread across the world, the surprises seemed to be over. More than four billion people had been vaccinated against the virus, and five million had died. Two new variants, known as Alpha and Delta, had surged and then ebbed. As Thanksgiving approached, […]

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U.S. Offers Another Round of Free Covid Tests Through the Mail

Just in time for the holiday season, the Biden administration is offering Americans a fresh round of free at-home coronavirus tests through the Postal Service. The administration revived the dormant program in September, announcing then that households could order four free tests through a federal website, covidtests.gov. Beginning Monday, households may order an additional four […]

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Why We’re Still Breathing Dirty Indoor Air

In early 2020, the world scrubbed down surfaces, washed hands and sneezed into elbows, desperate to avoid infection with a new coronavirus. But the threat was not really lying on countertops and doorknobs. The virus was wafting through the air, set adrift in coughs and conversation, even in song. The pandemic raged for six months […]

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The Super Rich No Longer Try To Support Their Societies

Throughout much of the Western world’s history, the wealthiest have been viewed in their communities as a potentially unfavorable presence, and they have attempted to allay this sentiment by using their riches to support their societies in times of crises like plagues, famines or wars. This symbiotic relationship no longer exists. Today’s rich, their wealth […]

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The Startling Evidence on Learning Loss Is In

In the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, Congress sent $190 billion in aid to schools, stipulating that 20 percent of the funds had to be used for reversing learning setbacks. At the time, educators knew that the impact on how children learn would be significant, but the extent was not yet known. The evidence is […]

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Students Are Missing School at an Alarming Rate

The Findings: Post-pandemic absenteeism is widespread, but it is worse in high-poverty schools. Nearly 70 percent of the highest poverty schools experienced widespread, chronic absenteeism in the 2021-22 school year, compared with 25 percent before the pandemic, according to a new analysis released on Friday by Attendance Works, a nonprofit that aims to reduce chronic […]

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By the Numbers: How Schools Struggled During the Pandemic

One Big Challenge: Staff Shortages The survey shows that during the 2020-2021 school year, shortages of key school staff were common — a problem that has continued even after the height of the pandemic. In the 2020-2021 year, more than a quarter of schools employed uncertified teachers and 24 percent had no counselors. And of […]

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Here’s Why a New York City Lobster Roll (With Fries!) Costs $32

By Eliza Shapiro Photographs by Victoria Will for The New York Times New York City has not always been a lobster roll town. Fifteen years ago, Ms. Povich set out to change that. She first learned to love lobster in the backyard of her grandparents’ house in Maine, which had a kosher kitchen but an […]

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Sharp Drop in Airfares Cheers Inflation-Weary Travelers

Airfares to many popular destinations have recently fallen to their lowest levels in months, and even holiday travel is far cheaper than it was last year, providing some welcome relief to consumers who have been frustrated for months by high prices for all manner of goods and services. The glut of deals suggests that the […]

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An ‘Unsettling’ Drop in Life Expectancy for Men

Background: The life expectancy gap has substantially widened — and shrunk — before. At the turn of the 20th century, women had a life expectancy just two years higher than men, Dr. Yan said. But over the next 75 years, that gap began to widen, largely because more men smoked and developed cardiovascular disease or […]

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More Americans Say They’re in a Brain Fog. Long Covid Is a Factor.

There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems — with remembering, concentrating or making decisions — than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows. The increase started with the pandemic: The number of working-age adults reporting “serious difficulty” thinking has climbed by an estimated one […]

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NYC Office Cleaners Risked Their Lives at Work. Now They May Strike.

Danuta Klimas, an office cleaner, went back to work in Lower Manhattan days after the Sept. 11 attacks, as toxic dust from ground zero hung in the air. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer years later. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she was working in the same building, even after discovering that she […]

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Dr. Ruth Saved People’s Sex Lives. Now She Wants to Cure Loneliness.

“I still will talk about orgasms,” Dr. Ruth Westheimer said during a conversation over the summer. “I still will talk about sexual dysfunction. But I have done that.” She had recently turned 95, and after a long and spirited career as America’s most famous and least likely sex counselor, she was driven by a new […]

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