16 million people of working age in the U.S. are suffering with long COVID - with 2 to 4 million people unemployed in June and July - and lack of a social safety net for many together with a labor market beginning to turn in favor of employers could create wider economic problems. Read more»

The U.S. Senate advanced a catchall spending package - after an energy bill from Sen. Joe Manchin was removed - that would help communities recover from natural disasters, provide billions to aid Ukraine’s war effort, and keep the government funded through mid-December. Read more»

President Joe Biden’s declaration that “the pandemic is over” raised eyebrows and the hackles of some experts who think such messaging could be premature and counterproductive - but to many Americans, the remark may ring true. Read more»

Phoenix residents and business owners are suing the city over what they claim is a public health crisis in their neighborhood - seeking a declaration that homeless encampments on city property in a downtown area near shelters are a public nuisance. Read more»

As Americans plan their summer vacations, states around the country are struggling with a persistent challenge: how to attract more Black residents and other visitors of color to their parks. Read more»

They are among the more than 520 vaccine-related bills introduced in statehouses nationwide since Jan. 1 - with 66 specifically relate to childhood vaccine requirements in 25 states - as the anti-vaccine movement gained momentum amid the pandemic. Read more»

A federal judge in Louisiana said Monday he will block the Biden administration from lifting a public health order that keeps immigrants seeking asylum out of the United States. Read more»

Chiricahua Community Health Clinics in Douglas started a binational infectious disease monitoring program - just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold - and coordinate with hospitals in Sonora to track and treat infectious diseases on both sides of the border. Read more»

President Joe Biden sent a new $5.8 trillion budget request to Congress on Monday that calls on lawmakers to institute a minimum tax on billionaires and boost spending on national security and public health. Read more»

President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address is set to focus significantly on the economy, with the former member of the U.S. Senate calling on Congress to pass much of the agenda stalled in the so-called Build Back Better bill. Read more»

Medicaid enrollees continue to get vaccinated against COVID at far lower rates than the general population despite vigorous outreach efforts by government officials and private organizations to get low-income people inoculated, according to data from several states. Read more»

As a shortage of frontline workers has vexed states and cities throughout the pandemic, workers who have a lot of contact with the public—such as police officers, nurses, school bus drivers and retail store workers—retired and left the workforce in high numbers last year. Read more»

Despite the new COVID-19 variant that has quickly spread across the globe, there is little appetite in either red or blue states for reimposing lockdowns or mask mandates - a recognition of the public’s exhaustion after 21 months of the coronavirus pandemic. Read more»

Una nueva variante de coronavirus surgió durante el fin de semana de Acción de Gracias; por ahora, esto es lo que sabemos y no sabemos sobre Omicron y otras variantes de coronavirus. Read more»

Americans, already weary of a pandemic nearly two years long, were dealt a new blow during the Thanksgiving weekend: a new coronavirus variant had emerged - for now, here’s what we know, and don’t know, about Omicron and other coronavirus variants. Read more»