Omicron BQ variants dominant, XBB circulating at low level

A person receives a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 22, 2021. Andrew Kelly | Reuters The omicron ...

Inflation boosts average household spending by $433 a month: Moody’s

People shop at a grocery store on June 10, 2022 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images The average American household is spending $433 more a month to buy the same goods and services it did a ...

Measles poses threat to kids as vaccinations declined due to Covid

A growing number of children around the world are vulnerable to measles as vaccination rates have declined to the lowest levels since 2008, global health leaders warned on Wednesday. The Covid-19 pand...

Abortion pill most common way to end pregnancy, CDC says

Boxes of the medication Mifepristone used to induce a medical abortion are prepared for patients at Planned Parenthood health center in Birmingham, Alabama, March 14, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters ...

How drought cost America’s cotton industry billions

Cotton farmers in Texas, where about 40% of the U.S. crop is produced, are facing a severe drought that is costing the industry billions. A lack of rain and extreme heat is forcing growers in the stat...

Mortgage demand rises as interest rates decline slightly

A home, available for sale, is shown on August 12, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images Mortgage applications rose 2.2% last week compared with the previous week, prompted by a slight d...

Fauci to cooperate with House Republican into Covid origins

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus during the White House press briefing on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. Tom Williams...

U.K. lags OECD average with pandemic GDP recovery

LONDON — U.K. growth has lagged the world’s biggest economies since the Covid-19 pandemic and is substantially below the OECD average, according to a new report from the influential Paris-based ...

Investor home purchases drop 30% as price gains slow

Housing under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty Images Home sales have dropped for nine straight months, driven by surging mortgage rates...

Anthony Fauci to give final White House briefing

NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, January 21, 2021. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters Dr. Ant...

How restaurants cope with inflation, from McDonald’s to mom and pops

Customers at a McDonald’s restaurant Scott Mlyn | CNBC As the restaurant industry battles inflation, the large size of chains and their access to cash gives them the upper hand, but independents...

Layoffs mount, and Main Street still can’t get anyone to take jobs

A “Now hiring” sign is displayed on the window of an IN-N-OUT fast food restaurant in Encinitas, California, May 9, 2022. Mike Blake | Reuters When it comes to salary, small business owner...

Collapse of Carvana, the ‘Amazon of Used Cars’, Continues

The sky is not clearing up for Carvana.  On the contrary, big clouds continue to gather over the company which was one of the big winners of the covid-19 pandemic, with a massive growth.  Since announ...

Flu variant that hits kids and seniors harder than other strains is dominant in U.S. right now

A sign advertising flu shots is displayed at a Walgreens pharmacy on January 22, 2018 in San Francisco, California. A strong strain of H3N2 influenza has claimed the lives of 74 Californians under the...

Pfizer says omicron booster is better against new subvariants like BQ.1.1

A staff member draws up a syringe with the Comirnaty vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer adapted to the Omicron-BA.1 variant at the Mainz vaccination center. Sebastian Christoph Gollnow | dpa | Picture A...

Biden asked to declare emergency over RSV, flu kids hospitalizations

Kazuma Seki | Istock | Getty Images Doctors are calling on the Biden administration to declare an emergency in response to an “alarming surge” of children hospitalized with respiratory syn...

Home Depot and Lowe’s are booming in a housing market bust

A home improvement contractor works on a house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Suzanne Kreiter | The Boston Globe | Getty Images As the U.S. housing market falls hard from its pandemic-driven highs, home...

Sharp drop in mortgage rates does little to boost demand

A home for sale in the Mission Hills area of Los Angeles Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022 in Mission Hills, CA. Brian Van Der Brug | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images Mortgage application volume rose 2.7% last w...

Several Kentucky supreme court justices sound skeptical of near-total abortion ban

Several Kentucky supreme court justices on Tuesday sounded skeptical of the state’s abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the U.S., during oral arguments in a case that will decide whethe...

FDA may approve over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray, autoinjectors

Naloxone, packaged with instructions, is one of the items given out by the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition outreach workers. Amy Davis | Baltimore Sun | Getty Images The Food and Drug Administratio...

As flu hospitalizations surge in the U.S., the Southeast is the hardest hit

Enbal Sabag, a Nurse Practitioner, prepares a flu vaccination for a patient at the CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic on September 03, 2020 in Key Biscayne, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Flu hospitali...

Here are the three big issues facing Ukraine as a tough winter approaches

Winter is on the way, and in war-torn Ukraine the fight against Russia appears far from over. Moscow continues to target Ukrainian power plants and stations. Grain shipments out of Ukraine have been i...

U.S. will keep Covid public health emergency in place at least until mid January

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra answers questions during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss reopening schools during the coronavirus dis...

U.S. extending Covid public health emergency through spring, administration official says

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra answers questions during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss reopening schools during the coronavirus dis...

Omicron BQ variants resistant to antibody treatments are becoming dominant in U.S.

Omicron subvariants resistant to key antibody treatments will soon make up a majority of new Covid infections in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Omicron subvaria...

Biden takes aim at Putin’s weaponization of energy, outlines new climate funding

U.S. President Joe Biden discusses the 2022 U.S. midterm election results during a news conference in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, November 9, 2022. Tom Brenner | Reuters U....

Healthy infants face considerable risk of RSV hospitalization: study

Even healthy infants face a considerable risk of hospitalization from respiratory syncytial virus, according to a large European study published Thursday. Dutch and British scientists, in a study publ...

Kentucky rejects anti-abortion constitutional amendment

Counter-protestors hold signs in front of a rally encouraging voters to vote yes on Amendment 2, which would add a permanent abortion ban to Kentuckys state constitution, on the steps of the Kentucky ...

Novavax (NVAX) Q3 earnings

In this photo illustration a silhouette of a man holding a medical syringe and a vial seen displayed in front of the Novavax logo on a screen. Cezary Kowalski | Lightrocket | Getty Images Novavax post...

From Teslas to BMWs, cars are piling up on land and sea at German port

Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Port of Bremerhaven, the main roll on/roll off port in Germany and one of the largest automobile hubs in the world, is experiencing gridlock. The combina...

How phone scammers tricked Americans out of tens of billions of dollars in 2022

Despite the rise of sophisticated crypto frauds and ransomware plots, phone scams continue to trick Americans out of tens of billions of dollars each year. “It’s very cheap to set up an au...

Why hearing aids are so expensive

An estimated 48 million Americans have some form of hearing difficulty, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America. But only about 20% of people who would benefit from a hearing aid use one....