Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar at the White House on August 23, 2020 in Washington, DC. Pete Marovich | Getty Images Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is resigning on Jan 20, NBC News confirmed on Friday. In his resignation letter dated Jan. 12, Azar mentions the riot at the U.S. Capitol

President-elect Joe Biden plans to use FEMA and the National Guard to build coronavirus vaccine clinics across the United States, according to new details of his Covid-19 vaccination plan released by his transition team on Friday. The Biden administration will also “quickly jumpstart” efforts to make the vaccines available at local pharmacies across the U.S.,

Moderna plans to test a booster shot of its Covid-19 vaccine a year after the initial two-dose immunization as the duration of protection from the brand new vaccines is still unclear. The biotech company plans to start the trial in July, according to a corporate presentation this week. Its clinical trial sites have already started

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel Steven Ferdman | Getty Images The CEO of Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna warned Wednesday that the coronavirus that has brought world economies to a standstill and overwhelmed hospitals will be around “forever.” Public health officials and infectious disease experts have said there is a high likelihood that Covid-19 will become an

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sits ahead of a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. Graeme Jennings | Bloomberg | Getty Images A mutated and more infectious coronavirus strain first identified in South Africa is “disturbing” and

Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus vaccine illustration Dado Ruvic | Reuters LONDON — Health care systems around the world are struggling to cope with rising numbers of Covid-19 infections as they race against the clock to vaccinate the vulnerable.  The three vaccines currently approved for use by major Western economies all require two separate jabs and given

For the first time since the pandemic started, Israel now says more than a quarter of its most serious Covid-19 cases, where hospitalization is required, are in patients under the age of 60. The Israeli Ministry of Health is placing the blame squarely on a new strain first discovered in the United Kingdom last month.

A patient lies on a stretcher in a hallway near other patients in the overloaded Emergency Room at Providence St. Mary Medical Center amid a surge in COVID-19 patients in Southern California on January 5, 2021 in Apple Valley, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images Nearly 3,000 people in the U.S. are dying every day,

Healthcare workers prepare Pfizer coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccinations in Los Angeles, California, January 7, 2021. Lucy Nicholson | Reuters The White House coronavirus task force said there could be a new variant of the virus that evolved in the U.S. and is driving spread, according to a document obtained by NBC News. The new variant,

Medical staff examine a patient suffering from coronavirus in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at United Memorial Medical Center on November 16, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Go Nakamura | Getty Images Texas public health officials announced on Thursday that they have identified the state’s first case of a new, more contagious variant of the

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, August 23, 2020. Erin Scott | Reuters Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday urged states against “micromanaging” their allotted coronavirus vaccine doses, saying it’s better to

Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020 on the occasion of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine rollout. Georg Hochmuth | AFP | Getty Images The U.K.’s decision to delay giving people the second dose of a coronavirus vaccine is proving

New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at a news conference on September 08, 2020 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing a law to make it a crime to sell or administer coronavirus vaccine shots to people who are trying to skip ahead in line.

A worker of the New York City Fire Department Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (FDNY EMS) receives a COVID-19 Moderna vaccine, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., December 23, 2020. Carlo Allegri | Reuters The head of the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccine program said

A man receives a nasal swab COVID-19 test at Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) amid a coronavirus surge in Southern California on December 22, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images Three states across the U.S. have now identified cases of the new coronavirus strain in people

Decommissioned and suspended commercial aircrafts are seen stored in Pinal Airpark on May 16, 2020 in Marana, Arizona. Christian Petersen | Getty Images News | Getty Images The Covid-19 pandemic has been brutal for U.S. airlines and significant relief isn’t expected until the second half of 2021. U.S. carriers’ 2020 net losses likely topped $35

A pharmacist dilutes the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine while preparing it to administer to staff and residents at the Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads, a senior living community in Falls Church, Virginia, on December 30, 2020. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Dozens of people in West Virginia were mistakenly given Regeneron‘s Covid-19 antibody treatment instead

CDC headquarters in Atlanta Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg via Getty Images Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that a new strain of Covid-19 now circulating in the U.S. could further stress hospitals that are already overwhelmed with coronavirus patients. Colorado health officials announced Tuesday that they detected the first known

With only a few days to go, the United States will likely fall short of its goal to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the year’s end as the nation embarks on what will be a historic campaign to inoculate hundreds of millions of people against the coronavirus by the middle of next year. Two Covid-19

President-elect Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act after he takes office next month to boost production of Covid vaccines, a member of his Covid-19 advisory team said Monday. “You will see him invoking the Defense Production Act,” Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, said during an interview on

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at Rady Children’s Hospital before it’s placed back in the refrigerator in San Diego, California on December 15, 2020. Adriana Drehsler | AFP | Getty Images Doses of the coronavirus vaccine may have been wrongfully obtained and distributed throughout parts of New York, the state’s top doctor said Saturday. Dr.

A visitor tries a plant-based meat substitute product at the Restaurant & Bar and Gourmet Asia expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition centre in Hong Kong on November 11, 2020. Peter Parks | AFP | Getty Images SINGAPORE — Demand for meat alternatives has grown and will continue to rise, but the industry

A view of signage leading to one of the testing centers at Heathrow Airport on December 22, 2020 in London, England. Joseph Okpako | Getty Images News | Getty Images The United States will begin requiring people flying in from the U.K. to test negative for Covid-19 no more than 72 hours before departure, the

Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images President Donald Trump‘s opposition to a $900 billion coronavirus aid package overwhelmingly passed by U.S. lawmakers late Monday jeopardizes the first significant climate change legislation to win congressional approval in about a decade. Trump has threatened to veto the stimulus bill, which includes $600 direct checks for individuals and $35 billion

Dr. Atul Gawande, a coronavirus advisor to President-elect Joe Biden, told CNBC on Wednesday he participated in Moderna‘s Covid-19 vaccine trial. “My mother, at 84, said, ‘I want to give back,’ so she signed up for the trial. I said if my mom can do that, then I’ll sign up for a vaccine trial,” Gawande said

Medical staff member Christina Mathers attends to a patient, who is unconscious, as she holds the patient’s hand in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on December 21, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Go Nakamura | Getty Images The new coronavirus strain that was first detected in the United Kingdom

In a nearly 17-year career with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Officer Omar E. Palmer had encountered plenty of precarious situations, from suitcases filled with weapons and drugs to disorderly passengers in John F. Kennedy Airport’s international terminal.  “I would often get calls, when he would get off work in the middle of the night

Workers move boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine as they are prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 13, 2020. Morry Gash | AFP | Getty Images Officials with Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government program to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to Americans, had to slash