Erin Prater

Stay informed with Erin Prater’s coverage and analysis.

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gives a press conference at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva on Dec. 14.

WHO head ‘very concerned’ about rising COVID deaths ahead of meeting to end—or extend—global public health emergency

U.S. President Joe Biden receives a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine targeting the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 25. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is seeking to simplify the COVID vaccine regimen, potentially moving to annual boosters similar to those given for the flu, the federal agency said in a Monday report.

The FDA is proposing a move to annual COVID shots. Some experts worry it’s too soon, and too simple of an approach

A worker stands in front of a seabird suspected to have died from H5N1 avian influenza on a beach in Lima, Peru, on Dec. 1. The H5N1 strain of avian flu responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of birds in the U.S. in recent months—and countless more worldwide—poses an existential threat to the poultry industry in the U.S.—and a potentially widespread human health threat, experts say.

An ‘unprecedented pandemic of avian flu’ is wreaking havoc on the U.S. poultry industry. Humans may be at risk too, experts warn

A computer illustration of Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria. A “super strain” of gonorrhea—against which many types of antibiotics are less effective or not effective at all—has been identified in the U.S. for the first time, health officials said Thursday, raising further concern that a post-antibiotic era is approaching.

A ‘super strain’ of gonorrhea circulating in the U.S. is so powerful that it can evade many antibiotics used to treat it, experts say

A Turkish woman who was taken to a hospital with a case of COVID when she was 7 months pregnant, and gave birth days later, meets with her baby for the first time after recovery, in Hatay, Turkey, on May 20, 2021. Women who get COVID during pregnancy are nearly eight times more likely to die, and face a significantly elevated risk of ICU admission and pneumonia, according to a study published this week in British Medical Journal Global Health.

COVID during pregnancy dramatically increases the risk of complications and maternal death, large new study finds

A student receives a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine at a school in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 16. So-called “hybrid immunity”—from vaccination and infection—offers better protection against severe disease and hospitalization from COVID than immunity from infection alone, according to a new study published in The Lancet. Myo Kyaw Soe—Xinhua/Getty Images

Recovering from COVID doesn’t give you bulletproof immunity—’hybrid’ immunity is way better, according to a new WHO study

A passenger wearing protective clothing amid the COVID-19 pandemic waits to board a domestic flight at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai on Jan. 3. Nearly 23% of the 565 passengers on four flights to airports in Rome and Milan from Dec. 26-29 were carrying the highly infectious disease, according to a study published Thursday in infectious disease journal Eurosurveillance.

Nearly a quarter of travelers flying out of China after ‘zero COVID’ lift were positive for the disease, new report reveals

A discarded protective mask on the ground next to confetti in Times Square following New Years Eve celebrations in New York, U.S., on Jan. 1, 2021. Are we—or are we not—still in a pandemic, three years in? There aren’t consensus definitions for the terms “pandemic” and “endemic,” which loosely refer to a disease outbreak affecting a large area.

COVID keeps surging, but life is returning to normal everywhere you look. When will the pandemic really be over?

A child wearing a mask looks out of the Holiday Nostalgia train under a New York Transit Museum sign on the final day of service on Dec. 18 in New York City.

Kraken is dominating U.S. COVID cases, the CDC predicts, as deaths jump 44% in one week

People wear masks as a precautionary measure from COVID at Sarojini Nagar Market on Dec. 22 in New Delhi, India. Of 85 patients with XBB COVID variants surveyed in Maharashtra, India, during the later half of 2022, most were symptomatic. But the majority were able to cope with infection at home, versus in a hospital. For most, the symptoms could have been much worse.

The ‘Gryphon’ family of COVID variants is spreading globally—but their bark may be a lot worse than their bite

U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden host a book reading of “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats while visiting Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 23, 2022. The U.S. government is preparing to drastically reduce its role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic even as an explosion of cases in China is raising fresh concern about the virus within the Biden administration. That said, the Biden administration renewed the COVID public health emergency on Wednesday for an additional 90 days.

Biden administration extends the COVID public health emergency as the highly transmissible Kraken variant drives U.S. cases upward

WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, looks on during a press conference at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 14. New Omicron variant XBB.1.5, dubbed “Kraken,” doesn’t differ enough from other Omicron strains to warrant its own Greek letter, Van Kerkhove said Wednesday.

The Kraken COVID variant isn’t different enough from other Omicrons to get a Greek letter, WHO official says

Critical care nurse Elyse Isopo at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York on Feb. 4, 2022. Elyse Isopo talks of how difficult it is to see people die of COVID-19 who would almost surely be alive if they had gotten vaccinated. (Photo by J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)

The ‘Kraken’ is powering New York COVID hospitalizations to their highest level in nearly a year. Is it a sign of what’s coming for the rest of the country?

A man walks past an advertisement showing McDonald’s burgers, fries and a drink, outside a McDonald’s store in Tokyo on Jan. 11, 2015. Fast food restaurants can battle climate change—even without reducing their paper and plastic consumption, according to a new study.

Fast food joints can help battle climate change, new study finds—even without reducing paper and plastic use

A woman wearing face mask in downtown Chicago, Ill., on Oct. 14.

The ‘Kraken’ COVID variant has competition at the top—‘Cerberus’ is running neck-and-neck in the U.S.