After the White House announced that Vice President Harris tested positive for COVID-19, her spokesperson Kirsten Allen revealed that Harris would be taking Paxlovid, Pfizer's antiviral pill.
The big picture: Paxlovid is authorized to treat those who are at high risk of developing severe COVID, including cases that lead to hospitalization or death. Harris is 57, and the CDC says that adults aged 50 and older are more likely to get severely ill with the virus.
Biden's chief medical adviser and NIAID director Anthony Fauci said this week that the U.S. is now out of the "full-blown explosive pandemic phase" — more than two years after COVID-19 was first identified in the U.S.
The big picture: Fauci, an ever-present government representative on cable news over the last two-plus years, has regularly given his predictions, expectations and analysis on the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's a timeline of his remarks, consolidated for brevity's sake.
Beijing is bracing for a potential lockdown in the face of a new COVID outbreak. Residents are stocking up on supplies, and authorities have ordered 20 million people to take three mandatory tests this week.
Why it matters: Sticking with President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID strategy effectively means leaving the entire country indefinitely on the edge of lockdown.
After we wrote about how we're trying transcendental meditation, more than a thousand readers wrote in with their own stories and advice about mindfulness.
Why it matters: Our Axios Finish Line readership is the most engaged audience we have seen in our journalism careers. Below you'll find distilled lessons — and buckets of benefits — from our readers for all kinds of meditative practice.
Why it matters: If approved, it would be the first booster accessible to children of this age group, who have been hit hard in recent months. Infections rose most sharply among children and adolescents during the Omicron surge, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Around 190 unexplained cases of severe hepatitis have been reported in children in at least a dozen countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control announced on Tuesday.
Driving the news: Last week, the CDC reported that there were nine cases of hepatitis in children between the ages of 1 and 6.
A majority of Americans, including 3 in 4 children, have had COVID-19 as a result of the Omicron variant surge this past winter, according to data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Driving the news: The overall U.S. seroprevalence, or the prevalence of a disease in a population, went from 33.5% to 57.7% from December 2021 to February 2022, according to the report.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19, according to her office.
The big picture: Harris, who is fully vaccinated and has received twobooster shots, has no symptoms, the White House said. She is the highest-ranking administration official to contract the virus.
Wimbledon said Tuesday that it won't have a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for this year's tournament, clearing the way for Novak Djokovic to defend his title in London.
Driving the news: Djokovic wasn't allowed to play in the Australian Open in January because he wasn't vaccinated for COVID-19 and received a three-year visa ban from Australia.
The Biden administration is attempting to address its latest COVID problem: There are plenty of oral treatments, but only a fraction of the available federal supply is reaching patients.
Why it matters: A large part of the justification for dropping pandemic precautions is that we now have effective COVID treatments available for people at risk of severe illness. The question is how easily patients can get them.
Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, told ABC News Monday that then-President Trump's suggestion at a 2020 news conference that disinfectants might be used to treat COVID-19 was a "tragedy on many levels."
Driving the news: Trump insisted later he was speaking "sarcastically" when he said, "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute ... is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?"
