Erin Prater

Stay informed with Erin Prater’s coverage and analysis for Fortune.

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  • Coronavirus on BlackWell

    ‘Kraken,’ the ‘most transmissible’ COVID variant yet, could spawn even more immune-evasive variants, new study says

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  • New strains of Omicron are becoming increasingly more transmissible and evasive, with the ability to dodge immunity from prior vaccination and infection. Using the term “Omicron” to describe them just isn’t cutting it anymore, Dr. Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, recently told Fortune. He recently named rising COVID variant XBB.1.5 “Kraken.”Well

    Meet the biology professor who named the surging ‘Kraken’ COVID variant. He has more to help make sense of Omicron’s ‘alphabet soup’

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  • XBB.1.5 is “the most transmissible subvariant detected yet, according to the World Health Organization.Health

    Meet the ‘Kraken’ COVID variant—the dominant new Omicron ‘escape strain’ experts say is the most transmissible yet

    By Eleanor Pringle and Erin Prater
  • People wear face masks walk along Fulton Street in New York, on Dec. 7. Omicron strain XBB.1.5 is spreading so rapidly that the World Health Organization is scrambling to study its risks. It’s asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do so also, given the new variant’s prevalence in the U.S., especially in the Northeast.Well

    New COVID variant ‘Kraken’ XBB.1.5 is on track to become dominant in the U.S., and experts are worried

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  • Given that the world has seen just shy of 650 million officially recorded COVID cases—and that about 10% of the world’s population is age 65 or older—aging and long COVID are bound to intersect in a big way. This is especially true given that the aging process, for many, becomes noticeable in early middle age.Well

    Is this long COVID or am I just getting older?

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  • COVID can cause reservoirs of some viruses you’ve previously battled to reactivate, potentially leading to symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome—a condition that resembles long COVID, a recent study found.Well

    COVID isn’t just infecting you—it could be reactivating viruses that have been dormant in your body for years

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  • People wearing face masks walk in a subway station in Beijing during rush hour on Dec. 20, amid a rise in COVID-19 infections. China could see as many as 1 million COVID deaths through the end of 2023—and many more if a “tripledemic” like the U.S. is experiencing slams the country, according to a major public health research organization.Health

    The public health organization that forecast 1 million COVID deaths in China says a ‘tripledemic’ could push the death toll even higher: ‘They never had a Plan B’

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  • Depressed woman in Santa hat drinking wine alone.Health

    It’s not just you. Everyone really is sick this holiday season as the U.S. battles a ‘worst in a decade’ flu and rising COVID cases

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  • People walk past a mural related to the Day of the Dead (in Spanish: Día de Muertos) on the wall surrounding the municipal cemetery of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on Nov. 1, 2021. A recent study by researchers in Japan that has yet to be peer reviewed found that infectious virus was present in “large amounts” in cadavers of COVID victims up to 13 days after death.Health

    Zombie COVID: Corpses can still spread the virus for weeks after death, study finds

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  • A little girl in a hospital bed.Well

    The WHO just released a stark new warning about strep cases afflicting children around the world and warns countries to ‘be vigilant’

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  • CHONGQING, CHINA – DECEMBER 08: People enjoy a fairground ride in an amusement park as the city eases COVID-19 control measures on December 8, 2022 in Chongqing, China. (Photo by Chen Chao/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)Health

    China has a new strategy for keeping official COVID numbers down during its reopening: Stop counting many new infections

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  • World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference on December 20, 2021 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. – The World Health Organization chief called for the world to pull together and make the difficult decisions needed to end the Covid-19 pandemic within the next year. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)Health

    COVID-19 global health emergency will hopefully end next year, WHO chief says. But ‘the burden of post-COVID condition is only likely to increase’

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  • Lilly DownsWell

    The CDC finally put a number on how many lives long COVID has claimed: ‘It’s probably an undercount’

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  • Motorist being aided by a paramedicHealth

    People who skipped their COVID vaccine are at higher risk of traffic accidents, according to a new study

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  • A young child receives a COVID vaccination in BrooklynWell

    Most U.S. kids still haven’t received a flu or COVID vaccine. It’s helping fuel a tripledemic that’s slamming hospitals nationwide

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