Tag - covid-19

 
 

COVID 19

A health care worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a child in Rio de Janeiro in January 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023
How we got COVID’s risk right but the response wrong
It was not the initial consensus on the fatality rate that drove the response but rather the way the risks of COVID-19 were balanced with the costs.
Medical staff administer a COVID-19 vaccination in Tokyo's Minato Ward in October last year.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 27, 2023
Tokyo promotes awareness of children's COVID-19 aftereffects
The leaflet shows a wide range of aftereffects seen among elementary and junior and senior high school students.
A fledgling film director (Mayu Matsuoka, center) returns home to make a film about her dysfunctional family in “Masked Hearts.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2023
‘Masked Hearts’: Catharsis comes out of familial discord
Yuya Ishii returns to his indie roots with a comedy-drama that comes from a personal and painfully real place.
Troy Sutton, a virologist at Pennsylvania State University, on July 25, 2023. Sutton says that health officials referred to the public controversy over the lab leak theory in advising him to pursue different experiments.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 18, 2023
Lab leak fight casts chill over virology research
While some believe practices such as gain-of-function research could fend off the next pandemic, others worry that they are more likely to start one.
When COVID-19 first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2023
Life after COVID turns rocky for reshaped health care businesses
When the coronavirus first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
Medics tend to COVID-19 patients at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2023
Japan-led team identifies how severe COVID-19 cases develop
The research results are expected to facilitate the development of drugs to prevent serious COVID-19 complications.
Employees monitor the production of Covishield, the local name for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, at the Serum Institute of India in Pune, Maharashtra, India.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023
Top vaccine maker seeks growth by selling shots to globetrotters
Serum Institute of India plans to start production of yellow fever and dengue shots for travelers to countries where those diseases are endemic.
A new study defines some critical differences in certain biomarkers of people with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023
Long COVID is real. Now the evidence is piling up.
In what the researchers believe is a first, they did a detailed study of the differences between people with long COVID and those who are healthy.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023
Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance
Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
A screen at the Karolinska Institute shows this year's laureates Katalin Kariko of Hungary (left) and Drew Weissman of the U.S. during the announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2023
Pair win medicine Nobel for work related to COVID-19 vaccines
Their findings "fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system," the Nobel committee said.
Chinese tourists watch the North Korean border on the Yalu river in the Chinese border town of Dandong, in China's northeastern Liaoning province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 2, 2023
China's gateway to North Korea waits in vain for border opening
The bustling northeastern city of Dandong offers a window into isolated North Korea.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks to members of the media earlier this year in Wellington.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023
New Zealand PM tests positive for COVID-19 amid election campaign
Chris Hipkins has cold and flu symptoms, according to a statement from his office, and will be isolating for five days or until he tests negative.
People visit the area near Sensoji Temple, a popular tourist destination, in Tokyo's Asakusa district on Sept. 7.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023
Japan's schools face double whammy of the flu and COVID-19
In the period between Sept. 11 and 17, the average national influenza case count rose to over 7.03 per medical institution from just 4.48 the week prior.
A nurse pushes a bed at the COVID-19 ward at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2023
Long COVID linked to multiple organ changes, research suggests
A third of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have "abnormalities" in multiple organs months after getting infected, the study said.
An All Nippon Airways employee (left) escorts a group of Chinese tourists and a tour conductor (right) at the arrival lobby of Haneda Airport in Tokyo in August.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 20, 2023
Chinese visitors help Japan edge toward pre-pandemic tourism levels
Inbound tourism, counted as an export of services, has been a bright spot in Japan’s economic recovery.
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. Japan will roll out an updated version targeting the XBB variant on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Sep 19, 2023
Japan to begin COVID vaccine drive targeting XBB subvariant
The free shots will be offered until March next year to prepare residents for an expected uptick in infections during the winter.
A visitor looks at portraits of former United Nations Secretaries-General at U.N. headquarters ahead of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2023
World disappointed by the U.N. now looks elsewhere for answers
If the body's strongest members keep resisting reform, the Global South may have no choice but to seek new options, including those offered by China.
Buildings in downtown Bozeman, Montana. Tech-savvy Californians who work from home are fleeing to cheaper states, while retirees and nature lovers are flocking to places like Montana.
WORLD / Society
Sep 12, 2023
Pandemic population boom in rural hotspots sparks resentment
In some places, the influx of new residents is deepening political divides in an already polarized country.
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination  at Aoyama University in Tokyo in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 9, 2023
Japan to end free COVID-19 vaccinations in March
From fiscal 2024, the country will provide a COVID-19 shot once a year between to people aged 65 or over who are at high risk of severe symptoms.
Preliminary data suggests that updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to a previous variant known as XBB, could still offer protection against the new edition.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2023
New Pirola COVID-19 variant shows value of booster shots
Data suggests the updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to the XBB variant, could still offer decent protection against the new edition.

Longform

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?