Tag - covid-19

 
 

COVID 19

A sign of the World Health Organization displayed at their headquarters in Geneva on March 13
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2025
Pandemic treaty talks inch toward accord
Experts say an accord has become even more crucial with new health threats, ranging from H5N1 bird flu to measles, mpox and Ebola.
The member states of the World Health Organization reached "an agreement in principle" on Saturday on a text designed to better protect the world from future pandemics, after more than three years of discussions, the co-chair of the negotiating body said.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 13, 2025
Accord reached 'in principle' over tackling future pandemics
Delegates will meet on Tuesday to put the finishing touches to a landmark text on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Commuters in Tokyo. ARIs are infectious diseases with respiratory symptoms, such as COVID-19 and influenza.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 8, 2025
Japan begins monitoring acute respiratory infections
The number of patients with ARIs will be published to help the public protect themselves from infections.
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 3, 2025
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
NHK's new four-episode miniseries, “After the Quake,” probes the ripple effects of past major disasters across Japanese society.
The Japan Institute for Health Security will be responsible for information analysis, research and crisis response related to infectious diseases.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2025
Japanese version of U.S. CDC launched for future pandemics
The institute will be responsible for information analysis, research and crisis response related to infectious diseases.
People gather at the National Covid Memorial Wall on the COVID-19 Day of Reflection, marking 5 years since the start of the pandemic, in London on March 9.
WORLD / Society
Mar 18, 2025
Debt, job loss and eviction weigh on parents of children with long COVID
Five years after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, the families of over 111,000 children in the U.K. sick with long COVID feel invisible.
Qianmen street, Beijing, in March 2023. Though the immediate shock has passed, COVID-19's legacy continues to reshape global economies and markets.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025
Five years on, the economic impact of COVID-19 lingers
Though the immediate shock has passed, COVID-19's legacy continues to reshape global economies and markets.
Yarn shortages are a sign that hobbies like knitting and crochet are gaining in popularity.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 4, 2025
‘Granny hobbies’ are the new self-care
Pastimes long associated with Japanese grandparents are booming on social media as young people look for new (old) ways to relax.
Some 230 million people globally thought to be affected by long COVID. The effects range from mild to disabling, and there are no proven diagnostic tests or treatments.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 1, 2025
'Going mad': Lack of data plagues Asia's long COVID patients
Some 230 million people are thought to be affected by long COVID — defined as symptoms persisting for three months or more after the initial infection.
The weak yen is often cited as one reason why many Japanese don't go abroad.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 25, 2025
Only 17% of Japanese people own passports, Foreign Ministry says
Around 3.7 million passports were issued domestically in 2024, a 8.8% increase from the year before but down 15.2% from prepandemic numbers in 2019.
The drop in domestic shipments of paper and paperboard in 2024 came as newspaper publishers ended evening editions and the trend of reducing paper use in offices continued.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2025
Japan's domestic paper shipments hit 39-year low in 2024
The drop came as newspaper publishers ended evening editions and the trend of reducing paper use in offices continued.
The Trump administration has fired scores of the Centers for Disease Control's "disease detectives," the researchers are hired annually through a competitive process that each year whittles down hundreds of applicants — including doctors, nurses, scientists and more — to a class of a few dozen.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 15, 2025
Trump admin fires CDC 'disease detectives' as bird flu fears rise
Established in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service is a two-year post-doctoral training program whose officers have been on the front line of investigating outbreaks.
Too many people die from treatable diseases in places with little access to health care. To prevent this from happening, affordability, availability and acceptability considerations must be at the core of medical products' lifecycles, starting with R & D.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2025
To stop preventable deaths, start with the fundamentals
Treatable diseases like malaria are still causing too many deaths in places with poor health care. To prevent these, accessibility must be baked into medical development.
Domino's Pizza will close 172 unprofitable outlets out of about 1,000 stores in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025
Domino's pizza to close 172 outlets in Japan
The global delivery pizza chain will prioritize investments in areas that will help it improve earnings.
People who were onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship when the COVID-19 cluster infections in the ship broke out in February 2020 pray Monday in Yokohama for those who died of the disease.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2025
COVID-19 victims of Diamond Princess ship remembered five years on
Of a total of 3,711 passengers and crew members on the ship, 712 became infected with the novel coronavirus and 14 died from the disease.
Many attribute the far right’s recent global rise to “anti-incumbency” bias, but this overlooks how the COVID-19 crisis fostered division and distrust, turning voters against their governments. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
Confronting the pandemic’s toxic political legacy
Libertarian resentment over past restrictions and mandates is one thing; an abiding distrust of scientists is quite another.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown, Jr. salutes U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he arrives at the Pentagon in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 28, 2025
Trump takes aim at DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops
Some of Trump's plans have been heavily criticized by advocacy groups, which say his actions would be illegal.
H.I.S. CEO Motoshi Yada holds a news conference on Monday in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025
H.I.S. says it received COVID aid inappropriately
H.I.S. will return about ¥6.4 billion in subsidies, which were provided by the government to pandemic-hit companies to help them pay leave allowances to their workers.
The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in April 2020
WORLD
Jan 26, 2025
CIA now favors China lab leak theory to explain COVID’s origins
A new analysis that began under the Biden administration is released by the C.I.A.’s new director, John Ratcliffe, who wants the agency to get “off the sidelines” in the debate.
Institute of Science Tokyo Distinguished Professor Yoshinori Fujiyoshi (left) and Assistant Professor Shun Nakamura, who developed a peptide that can bind to the spike proteins of the novel coronavirus to prevent COVID-19 infections, at the Institute of Science Tokyo's Ookayama campus in Tokyo on Monday
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 23, 2025
Japanese researchers develop peptide preventing COVID-19 infections
The peptide, which is a short chain of amino acids, has shown effectiveness in experiments involving various coronavirus strains.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.