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Latest COVID-19 and Pandemic News
Florida ramps up mosquito control efforts due to 4 cases of locally contracted malaria
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando The Florida Department of Health has issued a statewide mosquito-borne illness advisory after four locally contracted cases of malaria were reported along the Gulf Coast south of Tampa.On Monday, a health alert issued by the Centers for...
The Great Grift: More than $200 billion in COVID-19 aid may have been stolen, federal watchdog says
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs that helped small businesses survive the worst public...
UK was ill-prepared for pandemic because resources were diverted to Brexit, ex-health chief says
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando Britain was ill-prepared for a pandemic partly because government resources had been diverted away from pandemic planning to brace for a possibly chaotic exit from the European Union without a deal, the U.K.'s former health secretary...
Malaria cases in Texas and Florida are the first US spread since 2003, CDC says
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando The United States has seen five cases of malaria spread by mosquitos in the last two months — the first time there’s been local spread in in 20 years.There were four cases detected in Florida and one in Texas, according to a health alert...
US intelligence report on COVID-19 origins rejects some points raised by lab leak theory proponents
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando U.S. officials released an intelligence report Friday that rejected some points raised by those who argue COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, instead reiterating that American spy agencies remain divided over how the pandemic began. The...
Federal judge strikes down Florida’s ban on Medicaid funding for transgender treatment
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando A federal judge on Wednesday struck down Florida rules championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis restricting Medicaid coverage for gender dysphoria treatments for potentially thousands of transgender people.“Gender identity is real” and the state...
Ex-PM Cameron says the UK focused too much on flu rather than other potential pandemics before COVID
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando Britain made a mistake in focusing too much on preparations for a flu pandemic rather than considering other types of pandemic in the years before the COVID-19 outbreak, former Prime Minister David Cameron told a public inquiry Monday....
More than 1 million dropped from Medicaid as states start post-pandemic purge of rolls
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Most got dropped for not filling out...
Next round of COVID-19 shots in fall will target latest omicron strain
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando The next round of COVID-19 vaccines will target one of the latest versions of the coronavirus, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.FDA's decision came one day after an agency panel of outside advisers supported the recipe...
FDA advisers consider changing COVID vaccine to target latest omicron strain
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando The COVID-19 vaccines are on track for a big recipe change this fall.Today’s vaccines still contain the original coronavirus strain, the one that started the pandemic — even though that was long ago supplanted by mutated versions as the...
Suicides and homicides among young Americans jumped early in pandemic, study says
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando The homicide rate for older U.S. teenagers rose to its highest point in nearly 25 years during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the suicide rate for adults in their early 20s was the worst in more than 50 years, government researchers said...
COVID-19 inquiry in UK asks whether ‘terrible consequences’ could have been avoided
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando A mammoth three-year public inquiry into the U.K. government's handling of the response to COVID-19 opened Tuesday by asking whether suffering and death could have been avoided with better planning.Lawyer Hugo Keith, who is counsel to...