The strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza circulating in the U.S., the first since 2016, doesn’t appear to pose a threat to humans, but is highly contagious among birds and often fatal.

There were more than 12 million new weekly cases and just under 33,000 deaths, a 23% decline in mortality, according to the U.N. health agency’s report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday.

It’s difficult to conclude how many parents of school-age children have been unable to resume working outside the home because of gaps in available care. But surveys point to a cycle of parents, mostly mothers, staying home for their children because they are unable to find after-school programming, which then causes staffing shortages at such programs that rely heavily on women to run them.

In a press release, the company said its request for approval for all adults was made “to provide flexibility” to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical providers to determine the “appropriate use” of a second booster dose of the mRNA vaccine, “including for those at higher risk of COVID-19 due to age or comorbidities.”

The National Institutes of Health released the data on Thursday to help researchers start unraveling how people’s genes, environments and lifestyles interact to drive their health. And half the study’s participants are from racial and ethnic groups historically left out of medical research.

In the U.N. health agency’s weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, WHO said there were more than 11 million new COVID-19 infections last week — about an 8% rise — and 43,000 new deaths. The number of COVID-19 deaths globally has been dropping for the past three weeks.

According to a November study, researchers estimate that anywhere from 700,000 to 1.6 million people in the U.S., are currently experiencing chronic smell loss or distortion because of COVID-19. For several Chicago-area residents, the loss persists. 

For decades, plaintiff Ann Brash commuted into the city each day for work. Blind since birth, she’s experienced at getting around using a cane. But Chicago’s noisy downtown poses a challenge, and in 2017 she had a near miss.

The move would add a fourth dose to the COVID vaccine regimen, which currently consists of a primary series of two shots, followed months later by a booster dose, in an effort to provide maximum protection to the over-65 population that has been hit hardest by the pandemic.

It is the second time in six months that alderpeople have called an emergency meeting of the City Council to publicly push back against Lightfoot’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The alderpeople demanded the session one day after the deadline for Chicago Police Department members to get at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Employees who are not vaccinated will not be paid and may face additional “disciplinary action, up to and including termination,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office said in a statement Friday evening. 

Dr. Ngozi Ezike’s last day as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health is March 14. In a one-one-one interview, she spoke about her plans for the future and reflected on the last two years of COVID-19 response efforts. 

More than two million people have left Ukraine since the start of Russia’s attack, finding refuge in nearby countries. Nations have opened their borders and hearts to Ukrainians, happily taking them in. It’s a stark difference from 2015, when Europe faced another refugee crisis.

The decision by the Texas Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by Republicans, spelled the coming end to a federal lawsuit that abortion clinics filed even before the restrictions took effect in September, but were then rejected at nearly every turn afterward.

March 11, 2020 the U.S. had 38 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 1,300 cases nationwide, but reality was starting to sink in: stocks tanked, classrooms started closing and people began donning masks. 

The Southwest Side is a mostly residential community with many restaurants and some small businesses. It was hard hit by COVID-19, but today it’s among the areas with high vaccination rates. And it’s home to the now-indicted former house speaker Michael Madigan.