#herd-immunity

#herd-immunity

Twenty-two million deaths later, it's over.On Friday, the World Health Organization declared the end of the Covid-19 global health emergency.In the United States, the public health emergency will officially be withdrawn next week.For years now, Americans despairing at the death and disruption of the pandemic have found themselves asking, when will it end?

Measles has killed at least 16 children in the densely packed Indian city of Mumbai since the start of an outbreak in October.The disease is characterized by a high fever and a distinctive red rash.It can be contagious for days before the rash emerges and is often particularly dangerous for children under 5. Experts have blamed a reduction in vaccination rates during the COVID-19 pandemic for the outbreaks, which have also been seen to a lesser degree in other cities across India.

When Boris Johnson first announced a public inquiry into Covid, many observers saw it as an attempt to kick difficult questions into the long grass.Two years on, in a twist that may well amuse the former prime minister, that long grass is littered with political bear traps for Rishi Sunak.Such are the complexities of this week's developments, it can be easy to overlook the sheer strangeness of what is actually going on: a government going to the high court to try to limit the scope of an official inquiry it set up in the first place.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who began his career at the National Institutes of Health during Lyndon Johnson's administration, has stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.To put it in perspective, after more than five decades of distinguished and controversial government service, his legacy will be bittersweet - not quite the hero his supporters lionize or the villain his detractors portray.

In early March 2020, The New York Times sent its first edition of the Coronavirus Briefing newsletter.Nearly three years later, as the acute phase of the pandemic fades in the U.S., and as more of us are trying to pick up the pieces and move on, we're finally winding down the newsletter.It may appear again if the pandemic takes a drastic shift, but at the end of this month, we will pause the briefing.