The death toll and economic damage associated with flu highlight its role as one of the most harmful viruses in history.

Avian influenza is devastating poultry operations, spreading in dairy cattle and infecting farm workers. Why isn’t the United ...

Emily Kwong and Berly McCoy of NPR's Short Wave talk about why swearing might improve physical performance, how birds' bills changed during the pandemic and why scientists are sampling whale breath.

A mask lies on a sidewalk. It’s hard to believe it's been five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the disease has killed more than 1.2 million Americans—more than in any other ...

As COVID completes its sixth year, official statistics obscure the scale of harm, while Long COVID and excess deaths reveal ...

With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a ...

For ecologists, the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a remarkable natural experiment in what can happen to wild animals when humans stay home.

As we mark five years on from the start of the coronavirus pandemic this month, life has changed for many people, in ways both mundane and profound. Dr. Kurt Papenfus is someone NPR interviewed in ...

Five years after COVID-19 prompted widespread shutdowns across the world, most Americans say that while that pandemic is over, a new deadly health crisis is brewing, according to a new poll. The ...

Not long ago, Mark Chiverton, a 33-year-old in the U.K., noticed he was making a lot of silly mistakes. He’d mix up words when writing emails, or blank on a basic term while talking to his wife. None ...

Has your COVID-era mask been a constant companion or is it collecting dust? Americans’ relationship with masking has been fraught (and politicized) since the beginning of the pandemic, a time when ...