A man in the Democratic Republic of Congo who got Ebola despite getting vaccinated and then recovered, suffered a relapse months later that led to 91 new cases, a report from the New England Journal of Medicine released this week found.
Why it matters: "Relapses like this one from the 2018-2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are thought to be rare. This is the first one clearly shown to have spawned a large cluster of new cases," AP writes.
A Baltimore plant run by Emergent BioSolutions that produces coronavirus vaccines ruined a batch of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, according to a statement released by Johnson & Johnson Wednesday.
Why it matters: The plant, which was projected to produce and ship tens of millions of Johnson & Johnson doses next month, must now cease producing the one-dose vaccine while the Food and Drug Administration investigates the error, the New York Times first reported. Axios confirmed the report is accurate.
France is requiring schools nationwide to close for three weeks and is imposing a domestic travel ban to help control the "accelerating" coronavirus pandemic, President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday.
Driving the news: It's the third lockdown for the country since the pandemic began, and a departure from the recent regional approach. The move comes as Europe battles a third wave of the coronavirus, driven in part by more transmissible variants.
In the wake of the pandemic, more companies will begin "going digital first," prioritizing their digital infrastructures over physical office spaces, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said Wednesday during an Axios virtual event.
Why it matters: The pandemic has accelerated pre-existing trends towards digitalization and prompted some companies to undergo digital transformations that otherwise may have taken them much longer, Butterfield said.
COVID-19 was an underlying cause associated with approximately 345,000 deaths during 2020, making it the third-leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer, two new CDC reports on preliminary mortality data show.
Why it matters: The estimated death rate increased by nearly 16% from 2019, with mortality highest among older people, men or people from disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority groups.
Wisconsin's Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers' (D) statewide mask mandate on Wednesday by ruling against multiple emergency declarations made during the pandemic, AP reports.
State of play: The court ruled that the governor overstepped his powers by issuing multiple emergency declarations for the pandemic, lasting longer than 60 days, without approval from the state legislature. The ruling invalidates the current mask mandate in the state, which was set to expire next Monday.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced Wednesday that their coronavirus vaccine was found to be 100% effective at protecting against COVID-19 in a trial of more than 2,200 children between the ages of 12 and 15.
The big picture: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the companies plan to submit clinical trial data to the FDA for emergency use authorization in the coming weeks, with the hope of vaccinations for adolescents beginning before the start of the next school year.
Some experts say the world may only have a year or less to stave off a new round of COVID-19 variants that could evade the existing vaccines, according to survey conducted by advocates trying to speed up vaccinations in developing nations.
Why it matters: Variants emerge when viruses spread widely, so quickly vaccinating the entire world is the best way to curb new variants. But some experts are afraid we won't get there fast enough.
Some states are expanding vaccine eligibility partially because of a troubling reason: Not enough people want to get vaccinated.
What we're watching: Vaccine supplies are still limited, but they're already outpacing demand in some parts of the country, especially rural areas. And that could be a bad sign for the future.
Despite some progress, it will take women in North America approximately 61.5 years to have economic parity with men according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report for 2021.
Why it matters: Women in the U.S. have made strides in political representation, but they still lag behind menin job market participation and income, according to the report.
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the joint WHO-China report on the origins of the coronavirus on Tuesday, but he noted that scientists had difficulty "accessing raw data" from China and called for further investigation of the lab leak theory.
Why it matters: The comments come in the wake of an inconclusive report that has prompted concerns about transparency and the influence of the Chinese government over the investigation.
The number of Americans who have already been vaccinated or want to receive their shots as soon as possible continues to rise, although enthusiasm still varies significantly by demographic group, according to the latest KFF vaccine tracking poll.
Between the lines: Republicans, white evangelical Christians and rural residents remain most likely to say that they won't get the vaccine, while older Americans, Democrats and college graduates are most enthusiastic.
A Nobel Prize-winning economist says he not only endorses President Biden's expected $4 trillion infrastructure spending plan, but expects that it could break the U.S. out of the low-growth, low-inflation environment that has existed for the past 20 years.
Why it matters: The combination of Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan and the expected Build Back Better program, mean the U.S. "may be in a very good position to get back into a more normal economy," Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz told Axios in an exclusive interview.
A growing chorus of advocates wants to weaken some of the intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines, which they say will quickly expand global supplies. But critics say the move wouldn't work, and would set a bad precedent.
Where it stands: The Biden administration is evaluating the idea, including whether it would work as intended.
Texas joined five other states on Monday in rolling out COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to anyone over the age of 16, "regardless of health conditions," per the New York Times.
Why it matters: Texas is the biggest state to expand this eligibility for coronavirus inoculations. Some 22 million Texans can now get vaccinated against the virus, and health officials told NYT people were lining up for a dose Monday.
Former President Trump and former first lady Melania Trump announced Monday a new website designed to help supporters stay in touch with them and request personalized greetings or their participation at events.
Former President Trump unleashed on his former White House coronavirus task force members Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx Monday, a day after they opened up to CNN on the pressures of working in his administration.
What he's saying: In a lengthy statement, Trump made a series baseless claims against the respected career scientists — accusing them of being "self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned."
