National

COVID-19 has killed millions and caused widespread disruptions to people's lives and global economies — but a major new study finds people are slightly happier than before the pandemic began.  

The big picture: The 11th annual World Happiness Report, published Monday to coincide with the International Day of Happiness, surveyed over 100,000 people and found that Finland was the happiest country for the sixth straight year. The U.S. was ranked the 15th happiest nation.

Afghanistan was the least happy, with the Taliban-controlled nation ranking last at No. 137.

Meanwhile, the report found global misery declined slightly during the pandemic.

Driving the news: The "undoubted pains" the world faced over the pandemic "were offset by increases in the extent to which respondents had been able to discover and share the capacity to care for each other in difficult times," according to the report.

Benevolence to others has risen roughly 25% since the pandemic began, John Helliwell, a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia and a co-editor of the report, told CNN.

"Even during these difficult years, positive emotions have remained twice as prevalent as negative ones, and feelings of positive social support twice as strong as those of loneliness," Helliwell said in a statement accompanying the report.

Of note: Co-author Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, noted in an accompanying statement that "well-being in Ukraine has taken a real hit" since Russian forces invaded the country last year.

However, De Neve said the decline in well-being was less than in 2014 "when Russia annexed Crimea." 

This was in part due to "the extraordinary rise in fellow feeling across Ukraine as picked up in data on helping strangers and donations," De Neve added.

Context: The United Nations set up the International Day of Happiness as "a way to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world," per a UN statement.

The report is published as part of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

How it works: The World Happiness Report research examines six key factors arising from self-reported levels of happiness across the world: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption — analysis the report states governments are increasingly using "to orient policies towards happiness."

WHR+23

Report: People happier during pandemic due to kindness

Happiness has risen slightly since the pandemic began amid acts of kindness, global report finds.

Ice hockey fans and revellers crowd the Kauppatori square in Helsinki on May 29.

Revellers in Helsinki last May celebrate Finland winning the 2022 Ice Hockey World Championship. Finland was ranked the world's happiest country for the sixth consecutive year following a World Happiness report survey. Photo: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP via Getty Images

World Happiness Report

Coronavirus

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the COVID-19 pandemic "most likely" resulted from a potential lab leak in Wuhan, China, as the debate continues over the coronavirus' origins.

The big picture: The new lab leak assessment could have broader implications for U.S.-China relations at a particularly sensitive time.

U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the virus, with none having reached a conclusion with a high degree of confidence.

The National Intelligence Council and four government agencies (that remain unidentified) still assess with "low confidence" that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal, per the Wall Street Journal.

Many scientists say COVID most likely originated naturally.

The Department of Energy, which was previously undecided on a cause, concluded in a "low confidence" assessment last week that COVID-19 most likely arose from a laboratory leak, per the WSJ.

What he's saying: "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News' Bret Baier.

Thought bubble via Axios' Adriel Bettelheim: Assessments like this underscore how contentious questions about the pandemic's origins are and the geopolitical stakes of raising them when U.S.-China relations are fraught.

Listen: The rekindled debate over the origins of COVID-19

The rekindled debate over the origins of COVID-19

FBI director: COVID "most likely" resulted from lab leak

Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence agencies and scientists say the virus originated naturally.

Christopher Wray on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2017, in Washington,DC. Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images

COVID-19

China's Foreign Ministry claimed on Tuesday that the country has been "open and transparent” about its efforts to trace the origins of COVID-19 and accused the U.S. of politicizing the issue.

Driving the news: News reports emerged over the weekend that U.S. Department of Energy concluded in a "low confidence" assessment that the pandemic most likely started from a laboratory leak.

China has repeatedly dismissed the lab leak theory and U.S. government agencies remain largely split on where the pandemic came from.

U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event on Monday that China needs to "be more honest about what happened three years ago in Wuhan with the origin of the COVID-19 crisis," Reuters reported.

Between the lines: The FBI previously concluded COVID emerged from a laboratory leak. But the National Intelligence Council and four government agencies believe with "low confidence" that the virus emerged from natural transmission.

"There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. government about exactly how COVID started," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a briefing on Monday.

State of play: Asked about the "low confidence" assessment at a press briefing Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that "certain parties should stop rehashing the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing origins-tracing."

Mao went further at a press briefing Tuesday, adding that China has been "open and transparent" on the issue of origin tracing and that it has "shared more data and research findings on SARS-CoV-2 origins study than any other country."

Go deeper: The rekindled debate over the origins of COVID-19

China insists it has been "open and transparent" on COVID origins

China said it has "shared more data and research findings" on COVID's origins "than any other country."

People queue up at a COVID-19 community testing station on January 19  in Hong Kong

China

The FDA on Friday authorized the first over-the-counter at-home test that can detect both the flu and COVID-19.

Driving the news: The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Test, a single-use test kit “that provides results from self-collected nasal swab samples in roughly 30 minutes.”

No prescription is needed for the test, which is performed using nasal swab samples self-collected by people ages 14 years and older or collected by adults for individuals 2 years of age and older.

Lucira Health, the company behind the test, declined to say when the tests will be available or how much they will cost, telling Axios that the information will be "disclosed at a later date."

What they’re saying: Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, called the authorization "a major milestone in bringing greater consumer access to diagnostic tests that can be performed entirely at home.”

Meanwhile, Lucira Health announced earlier this week that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and "intends to pursue a sale of its business."

In its bankruptcy announcement, the company said that the FDA approval process for the test "became protracted, resulting in high expenditures without new revenue from the combined test kit during the 2022-2023 flu season."

"We have and continue to be appreciative of the FDA’s efforts," Lucira Health CEO Erik Engelson told Axios in a statement Friday, noting the company was "excited" to receive the emergency use authorization.

Engelson said the company "filed a series of first day motions with the Court and upon approvals, fully intend to move forward in normal course operations, while concurrently pursuing a sale process."

Editor's note: This story was updated with additional information from Lucira Health.

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FDA authorizes first at-home COVID and flu test

The Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Test got "emergency use authorization" from the FDA on Friday.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Axios Pro Policy

Two House committees, and potentially several more, are getting involved in investigating the origins of COVID — setting them up for a lot of overlap, and even friction.

Why it matters: What comes out of these COVID origin investigations could have implications for federal funding of scientific research, vaccination campaigns and future pandemic responses — as long as the committees don't blunt the impact by stepping on each other.

There's also the potential for COVID misinformation to be spread, depending on how the hearings are focused and whether far-right members decide to push into those waters.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee kicked off the first COVID origins hearing early this month in its Oversight subcommittee, overseen by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.). Its jurisdiction: public health and research.

The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic claims jurisdiction of "pretty much everything related to COVID," as the subcommittee's chair, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), put it in an interview with Axios. That includes vaccines.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) will also be involved, as his committee is housing the select COVID subcommittee.

He and Wenstrup recently fired off letters to Anthony Fauci, top Biden administration officials and the head of the EcoHealth Alliance requesting information for the select subcommittee's investigation of COVID origins.

The inquiries are heating up after two recent federal watchdog reports criticized the National Institutes of Health for its oversight of risky research involving pandemic-causing pathogens.

Energy and Commerce spent part of its first oversight hearing airing unsubstantiated theories that taxpayer-backed research into pathogens triggered the pandemic — a claim that was strenuously denied by the acting head of NIH.

What they're saying: So far, key Republicans on those panels haven't cited a plan for how they'll steer the investigations apart — just that they're talking about how not to crash into each other.

"We're going to work together," Griffith told Axios. Asked how the committees are going to differentiate from each other, he said: "I'm going to let the staff figure that out."

Comer said Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise had staff working with everyone to ensure "there aren't any major dust-ups over jurisdiction."

"That communication with the other committees is going to be key. We don't want ourselves stepping all over each other," Wenstrup told Axios.

"In the last Congress, E&C Republicans worked cooperatively with the Select Committee, and we look forward to continuing that work with Dr. Wenstrup," House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said in a statement.

Yes, but: Two former House Republican senior leadership staffers told Axios that GOP leadership had set up the COVID select subcommittee specifically to head up investigations into the origins of COVID and that there is some annoyance that Energy and Commerce Oversight is still continuing to look into the matter.

One of the former aides added that the COVID subcommittee made its mark on COVID origins with a minority forum on the subject in 2021 and that Energy and Commerce oversight could extend into many areas beyond COVID origins.

The other side: "Congressional committees routinely have overlapping jurisdictions and committees in this majority will coordinate amongst themselves to deliver the accountability and oversight that the American people expect and deserve," Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for McCarthy, told Axios.

A version of this story was published first on Axios Pro. Get news like this by subscribing. Use code POLICY100 which gives you $100 off.

House GOP's overlapping COVID investigations

House Republicans overlapping COVID investigations

Illustration of magnifying glasses surrounding virus

Congress

Congress is venturing into unknown and potentially explosive territory with the first House GOP-led investigation into COVID-19 vaccines.

Why it matters: It’s expected to be a showdown across the spectrum of views on vaccine safety and efficacy, from attempting to undermine public faith in them to trying to bolster confidence.

The details: The Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has been given a broad writ to investigate a wide array of topics from the virus’ origins to federal COVID restrictions to the pandemic’s economic impact.

"The jurisdiction is pretty much everything related to COVID," Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the panel's chair, told Axios. 

That also includes vaccines, according to the rules of the 118th House: "The development of vaccines and treatments, and the development and implementation of vaccination policies for Federal employees and members of the armed forces."

It’s a sharp turn from the Democratic-led panel last year, which was directed to focus on “political interference” by the Trump administration into federal health agencies’ pandemic responses.

The state of play: In interviews with Axios, Republicans expressed a wide range of views on how they want to approach the investigations into vaccines.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she wants to hold hearings with people who experienced side effects and look at VAERS reports — a public database of unverified reports of post-vaccination health effects often seized on by anti-vaccine groups.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), by contrast, said the goal shouldn’t necessarily be to dent public trust. "We should see if there's any correlation between the vaccination and people dying," she told Axios, "And if there isn't ... we should disprove it."

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) said he is more interested in the overall COVID response: "This is not about vaccinations ... it's about everything, getting a comprehensive review of what we did and what we can do better."

What we’re watching: Greene, who is known for her ability to capture public attention, has already made clear how she wants to use the public perch the panel will afford her.

"It’s Time To Investigate the COVID Vaccines," reads the subject line of an email her campaign sent out on Jan. 25, the day the panel's members were announced, linking to a tweet raising unfounded speculation about a conservative influencer's death.

She also said in a press release of her appointment to the panel: "It’s time to reveal the truth on the origins of COVID, the authoritarian Democrat response, vaccines, and Fauci’s NIAID involvement in gain-of-function research."

She’s not alone. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), upon being appointed, tweeted: "Every LIE about the vaccine will be revealed."

What they're saying: "We want to look at the effectiveness of these vaccines," Wenstrup told Axios. 

"I would like to, as a physician, understand the longevity of [them]. And I want to get doctors back involved," he said, adding that he wants to study the vaccine's side effects as well.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), another physician, said in a statement that she expects the panel's hearings will "shed light on the FDA approval process, the potential for side effects, and ultimately the success rate and safety of the vaccine."

"I have met with constituents and others who believe that they were silenced when talking about adverse vaccine effects," said Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.).

The other side: Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the panel, told Axios, "There's no doubt that vaccines work," adding that "it would be interesting to look at the efficiency of developing a vaccine for a novel virus ... the equity in vaccine distribution, the lives saved and productivity gained by having vaccines."

The bottom line: The CDC, which could be a target of the panel's investigations, has published data from multiple studies that shows the COVID’s vaccine safety and effectiveness against severe illness, hospitalization and death.

“COVID-19 bivalent vaccines and flu vaccines are safe, they’re effective and they can lower the risk of infection in general, and especially lower the risk of severe illness and death,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said on a media call in December.

Go deeper ... Vaccines: A short course from Axios

House readies first GOP-led COVID vaccine probe

It’s a sharp turn from the Democratic-led panel last year.

Illustration of an elephant trunk holding a magnifying glass. 

COVID vaccine boosters

Australian scientists announced Friday they've discovered a protein in the lung that sticks to the COVID-19 virus like Velcro and forms a natural protective barrier in a person's body to block infection.

Why it matters: The study, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Friday, "opens up an entirely new area of immunology research" around this receptor protein, LRRC15, and "offers a promising pathway to develop new drugs to prevent viral infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19 or deal with fibrosis in the lungs," per a statement from the University of Sydney announcing their findings.

Left: A healthy control lung. Right: Immunofluorescent staining showing the newly discovered SARS-CoV-2 spike-receptor LRRC15 in green in post-mortem lung tissue of a person who died of COVID-19.

Left: A healthy control lung. Right: Immunofluorescent staining showing the newly discovered SARS-CoV-2 spike-receptor LRRC15 in green in post-mortem lung tissue of a person who died of COVID-19. Photo: Loo and Waller et al via the University of Sydney

It could also help explain why some people who contract COVID experience serious illness, while others never get sick. 

The study builds on earlier research into the LRRC15 receptor. The new research shows that this naturally occurring protein can bind to the spike of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, and protect neighboring cells from infection, per an emailed statement from study lead author Greg Neely.

What they did: Neely, a professor of functional genomics at the University of Sydney, and his team screened human cells for genes and investigated the lungs of COVID patients using CRISPR technology.

What they found: The researchers discovered that LRRC15 binds to the virus. 

Lipin Loo, a postdoctoral researcher who worked on the study with Neely, and  Ph.D student Matthew Waller, noted in a statement that "it acts a bit like Velcro, molecular Velcro, in that it sticks to the spike of the virus and then pulls it away from the target cell types."

LRRC15 can stick to the virus and immobilize it, preventing other vulnerable cells from becoming infected in the process.

Waller said in a statement that the researchers "found that this receptor also controls antiviral responses, as well as fibrosis, and could link COVID-19 infection with lung fibrosis that occurs during long COVID." 

The intrigue: "We think this newly identified protein could be part of our body's natural response to combating the infection creating a barrier that physically separates the virus from our lung cells most sensitive to COVID-19," Neely said in a statement issued by the University of Sydney.

What they're saying: "The LRRC15 protein appears to effectively mop up extracellular virus floating around in infected lungs," said Cassandra Berry, an immunology professor at Murdoch University in Western Australia, who was not involved in the study, in an emailed statement.

"This discovery allows us to better understand innate immunity that helps to protect us during virus invasion and offers new ways for development of antivirals."

The bottom line: "For me, as an immunologist, the fact that there's this natural immune receptor that we didn't know about, that's lining our lungs and blocks and controls virus, that's crazy interesting," Neely said.

"Since this receptor can block COVID-19 infection, and at the same time activate our body's anti-virus response, and suppress our body’s fibrosis response, this is a really important new gene."

Australian researchers find protein in lung that blocks COVID infection

Researchers find protein in lungs that sticks to COVID virus like Velcro and forms a natural protective barrier against infection.

Radiologists observe CT scans of covid-19 patients' lungs.

Radiologists in Cremona, Italy, observe CT scans of COVID-19 patients' lungs. Photo: Nicola Marfisi/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

More than two-thirds of health care providers are still using pandemic waivers and flexibilities that are due to expire when the COVID public health emergency ends in May, according to an analysis by the group purchasing organization Premier.

Why it matters: The health care system will undergo a major shift as hospitals, health systems and other providers lose special allowances on reporting requirements, patients' rights, virtual care and a host of other areas.

What they found: 69% of providers Premier canvased are currently leveraging waivers or flexibilities granted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the public health emergency.

80% said they already have a plan in place to unwind the waivers.

But slightly more than half said they need more time to revert back to pre-COVID operations.

Between the lines: Providers identified several expiring telehealth waivers as particularly important, including ones allowing hospitals to provide services outside their walls through virtual care, and an allowance for practitioners to prescribe controlled substances for opioid use disorders and other conditions without having to interact in person with patients.

Providers also want a continuation of a waiver on a Medicare requirement that beneficiaries have a three-day hospitalization to be eligible for skilled nursing facility services, which is credited with shortening inpatient stays when a patient can safely be discharged to a lower-cost setting.

And respondents also want to keep flexibilities on "scope of practice" rules that, for example, waived a requirement that a registered nurse anesthetist be under the supervision of a physician.

What we're watching: If Congress responds in the coming weeks with targeted measures to keep the status quo or if the federal health department uses its own authority to extend some flexibilities.

69% of health providers still using pandemic waivers, survey finds

Pandemic

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced Monday that he is lifting the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for current and prospective city workers starting Friday.

The big picture: Other states and companies have moved away from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and the White House said last month that the Biden administration plans to end the COVID-19 public health emergency by the spring. 

The Pentagon last month also dropped its vaccination mandate. 

Driving the news: "The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city workers has helped keep New Yorkers safe and New York City operations running throughout the pandemic," per a statement from Adams' office. 

Adams said that more than 96% of New York City workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

"With the vast majority of city workers and New Yorkers vaccinated, and more tools readily available to protect people from serious illness, the vaccine requirement for the primary series of shots has served its purpose, driving rates of vaccination up among the city's workforce during a critical period in the pandemic," the statement said. 

Go deeper... How COVID-19 costs will change when national health emergencies end

New York City drops COVID-19 vaccine requirement for city workers

"The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city workers has helped keep New Yorkers safe and New York City operations running."

People wear mask after New York City's health officials have issued an advisory, strongly urging New Yorkers to use masks as COVID-19, flu, and RSV cases rise, on December 12, 2022 in New York

Some people wear masks after New York City's health officials issued an advisory on Dec. 12, 2022, in New York. Photo: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Some Americans will be required to start paying for coronavirus tests and treatments when the federal government's COVID-19 public health emergency declarations expire this spring.

State of play: The White House announced Monday that after three years, it will end the COVID-19 public health emergency and national health emergency designations on May 11, bringing about policy changes, new health care costs and existential questions about the nation's pandemic response.

What they're saying: "People will have to start paying some money for things they didn’t have to pay for during the emergency," Jen Kates, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation said, per CNN. "That’s the main thing people will start to notice."

Vaccines: COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, will remain free to virtually all those with public and private insurance in most cases, per the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

Access to free vaccines will be limited for uninsured adults.

Treatments: Currently, individuals on Medicare do not pay for some COVID-19 treatments, but once the public health emergencies end, some will be required to pay a portion of costs out of pocket.  

There is no federal law specifically addressing how COVID-19 treatment should be covered by private insurance, so there would be no change with the end of the emergency order, per KFF.

But as the supply of treatments purchased by the government is depleted, private insurers will take on more of the cost of medications to treat the virus, which could increase premiums. So patients receiving COVID-19 therapeutics may have to pay some of the costs.

All drugs for the treatment or prevention of COVID–19 have out-of-pocket costs for full-benefit Medicaid enrollees through June 2024. After that, treatments that have FDA approval will be covered but some patients may have to pay.

Treatments for uninsured individuals will be free as long as government-purchased supplies remain available. When that supply is depleted, uninsured people will have to pay the full cost of the medications.

Tests: Previously, those with private health insurance or Medicare were eligible for eight free coronavirus tests per month.

When the emergency declaration ends, Medicare beneficiaries will face the full cost of at-home tests. But, they'll continue to get free clinical diagnostic testing for COVID-19.

State Medicaid programs will continue covering COVID-19 testing, including at-home tests for full-benefit enrollees through a mandated coverage period. After that time, tests ordered by a physician may be free. 

Those who have private insurance could be charged for lab tests, even when ordered by a provider. 

When the federal supply of tests is depleted, uninsured individuals will generally have to pay the full cost of COVID-19 tests.

Of note:  Hospitals will no longer receive higher Medicare payment rates for treating patients with COVID-19.

How COVID-19 costs will change when national health emergencies end

Costs for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments will be affected.

Illustration of a vintage cash register with covid cells on the display.

A market in Wuhan, China, was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the virus emerged from activities connected with the live animal trade, according to research published in Science on Tuesday.

Why it matters: The case-mapping and genetic studies offer some of the strongest evidence yet that the coronavirus jumped from an animal host to humans — a type of zoonotic spillover seen in other outbreaks like SARS, from 2002 to 2004.

What they found: There were two lineages of the virus introduced in humans as early as November 2019.

The variants over time spread into the neighborhoods surrounding the market and beyond, challenging the idea the market was the source of a single superspreader event.

Early cases linked to the part of the market where wildlife sales took place resemble cross-species transmissions later observed on mink farms and from infected hamsters to humans in the pet trade.

What they’re saying: University of Glasgow virologist David Robertson told BBC News he hoped the studies would "correct the false record that the virus came from a lab."

"In a city covering more than 3,000 square miles, the area with the highest probability of containing the home of someone who had one of the earliest COVID-19 cases in the world was an area of a few city blocks, with the Huanan market smack dab inside it," per University of Arizona biologist Michael Worobey.

The intrigue: While early patient data showed few of those hospitalized had a direct link to the market, Robertson said, “it's exactly what we would expect, because many people only get very mildly ill, so they would be out in the community transmitting the virus to others and the severe cases would be hard to link to each other.”

A map of samples collected from market stalls showed most that tested positive for the virus were on the southwestern side, where animals like Raccoon dogs and hedgehogs were sold.

Flashback: An unclassified intelligence report into COVID’s origin released last year was inconclusive, stating the two dominant theories — that it came from a lab leak or was naturally transmitted from an animal — remain plausible.

A World Health Organization-backed team of scientists said in June that available data suggests SARS-CoV-2 had a zoonotic origin and that the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory needs “further investigations,” per the Washington Post.

The bottom line: Accurately determining the causes of COVID-19 will go a long way toward informing what can and should be done to prevent the next pandemic.

Wuhan market pinpointed as pandemic's Ground Zero

The case-mapping and genetic studies offer some of the strongest evidence yet that the coronavirus jumped from an animal host to humans.

Vitals

Axios Vitals

Data: CDC; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals 

The COVID-19 vaccine strategy for the fall remains beset with unanswered questions after an FDA expert panel on Tuesday spent hours debating how and whether to update the shots.

Why it matters: Time is running short to develop a game plan with existing vaccines losing effectiveness against new variants and more than half of Americans still without a booster dose. 

Driving the news: The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 19-2 to recommend an Omicron-specific update to COVID-19 booster vaccines expected to be rolled out within the next few months.

Coronavirus

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