COVID

Vaccines could have prevented nearly 3,000 COVID-related deaths in Iowa between January 2021 and last month, according to a new analysis by Brown University's School of Public Health.

The big picture: The analysis suggests that roughly half of the more than 641,000 deaths nationwide since 2021 could have been prevented, Axios' Tina Reed reports.

Des Moines may reinstate a mask policy if cases continue to escalate, Mayor Frank Cownie warned during a council work session Tuesday.

Driving the news: Iowa averaged around 505 new COVID cases per day in the last week, according to The New York Times tracker. That's more than double the average two weeks ago.

Leaders of several large U.S. meatpacking companies pushed the narrative that meat was in short supply in the country back in April 2020, despite sitting on ample supply, according to a U.S. House committee report released Thursday.

Why it matters: That was one of the narratives used by industry leaders to pass an executive order that protected meatpackers from shutdowns and stricter oversight by local health departments, despite mass COVID-19 infections within factories.

More than two dozen World Food Prize recipients are calling for more action on three problems they say threaten to reverse progress in the fight against world hunger: COVID-19, climate change and conflict.

Why it matters: 45 million people are living on the edge of famine, according to the World Food Programme.

Isolation housing for homeless people with COVID-19 will end this week, Eric Kool, director of Polk County Community, Family and Youth Services, announced in a letter to providers Friday.

• Few people used the service in recent weeks, Kool said.

MercyOne Iowa Heart Center has opened a Des Moines clinic to treat the long-term effects of COVID-19 as concerns grow that a wave of early onset chronic illnesses looms for those who've contracted the virus.

Why it matters: Scientists don't yet fully understand COVID's impact on quality of life for the hundreds of millions of people who've been infected around the world.

Iowa school districts no longer require masks, but they're still facing leftover legal battles from their COVID mitigation strategies back in 2020.

Driving the news: New court filings from a parent's lawsuit against the Ankeny school district show the unprecedented legal challenges schools faced as they navigated their response to the pandemic.

Polk County's COVID testing drive-thru permanently closed Thursday due to low community transmission rates and the availability of at-home tests.

State of play: The River Place site launched in January when the Omicron surge was in full force.