Category: NPR

Las Vegas is on shaky footing as it reopens with one of the nation’s highest infection rates. An NPR analysis shows the city could run into trouble with hospital capacity if cases keep climbing.

California’s public health director has resigned after revelations of an extensive backlog of untested coronavirus test kits. More than a quarter-million tests there are still awaiting processing.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with public health officials in California and Texas about the challenges their contact tracers have faced, as they try to control coronavirus spread in their communities.

In Harris County, Texas, about 25% of people are “absolutely unwilling to share anything,” says a local health department epidemiologist. Misinformation is one reason for the mistrust, officials say.

The National Virtual Medical Orchestra brings together health care workers and gives them a creative outlet during the pandemic.

Labor advocates say the lack of enforceable federal standards to ward off the coronavirus allows farmers to prioritize the harvest over worker safety.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with Dr. Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, about the foundation’s efforts to implement a national coronavirus testing and tracing plan.

As pharmaceutical companies face a tsunami of lawsuits and criminal probes stemming from the opioid epidemic, they are accused of using the coronavirus crisis to rehabilitate their image.

NPR surveyed all 50 states about their contact tracing work. The workforce has barely grown since mid-June while cases have skyrocketed.

Missouri is the second state to expand the health care program via ballot measure during the pandemic. Nearly a quarter million people could get health insurance thanks to the measure.