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Tips on writing about COVID-19

Susan Johnston Taylor

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As readers cope with new realities in response to COVID-19, providing them with clear and accurate information is more important than ever. AP Stylebook held a Twitter chat on March 23 to share style tips on writing about the pandemic, and other experts like Mignon Fogarty of Grammar Girl and Roy Peter Clark of Poynter have shared their own tips. 

Savvy reporters use many of these strategies already, but it’s a worth a refresher, especially when they’re writing under tight deadlines or with little sleep. Here’s an overview of their advice with links to additional information. 

Use punctuation 

Many people feel overwhelmed right now, so the last thing they need is a series of long, complex sentences, especially when that information is crucial to public safety. “Think of the period as a stop sign,” writes Clark in his  recent article for Poynter  (worth a read in its entirety). “The more stop signs, the slower the pace, which is good if you are trying to make something clear.” 

Clark also suggests keeping the subject and verb together near the beginning of the sentence, as overly complex sentences can confuse readers. 

Avoid unfamiliar acronyms 

Readers may not know that  PPE stands for personal protective equipment  or that  WHO stands for the World Health Organization , so remember to write out the full name on first reference. The AP Stylebook says WHO or the WHO are both acceptable on second reference.  

Choose correct terms 

Coronavirus is technically a family of viruses, but in the current context, it clearly references a specific virus.  Coronavirus and COVID-19  are both correct, according to Fogarty and other sources (never use  geographic labels  when referencing the name of the virus). 

A pandemic is more serious than an epidemic, and the WHO has declared  COVID-19 a pandemic , so pandemic is correct. No need to say “global pandemic” as pandemic means the outbreak has spread to several countries or continents. 

Merriam-Webster defines some  terms recently added to the dictionary  such as socially distance. 

Know when to hyphenate

When you’re using to-go as an adjective (as in “we placed a to-go-order”), it should be hyphenated, according to Fogarty. However, AP Stylebook says  no hyphen  in telecommute or videoconference. Ditto on  N95 masks . Read  AP Stylebook’s coronavirus topical guide  for more guidance.  

UPDATE: The Canadian Association of Journalists published a list of tips and best practices including safety precautions and tools for working remotely.

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How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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John Tregoning is a reader in respiratory infections in the Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, UK. He runs a blog on academic life.

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There I was exactly one year ago, on 24 March 2020, in the gaps between home-schooling and ‘home baking’, wondering what on Earth I should do with my time while my laboratory was shut. In the absence of pipettes, the main thing available to me was writing. I’ve enjoyed writing since my undergraduate days, and I’d done a few pieces on scientific life here and there — but these had been a sideshow, not the main event. The change in my daily schedule led me to contact Jack Leeming, a careers editor at Nature, to find out whether he would let me produce a weekly column. These slowly morphed into the coronavirus diaries.

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What you write about COVID-19 in a headline matters

Plus, nursing home staff vaccination rates are low, us mask companies are going broke, why a delta peak may or may not occur soon, and more..

This is a study in how to report a story that is both accurate and true. Accurate means you get the facts right. True is when you get the right facts, too.

Look at the below headlines from yesterday. The TV stations focused on deaths after vaccinations while the newspaper websites put the figures in context. The Boston Herald was especially thoughtful.

(Screenshots/Google)

The below headline jumps out, but the real news, unfortunately, is a few paragraphs below it. The headline from Modern Healthcare says :

(Screenshot/Modern Healthcare)

It is factual and real. I give them that. But the real news, the context that matters comes after you have consumed the alarming headline and opening paragraph, is this:

Look, friends, we are in a pandemic. People are scared and doubtful. This is not the time to play games with SEO and headlines.

Nursing home infections are low, but so is the vaccination rate among nursing home workers

Nursing homes, with their high rate of vaccination among residents, are so far faring fairly well in this new COVID-19 outbreak. But everyone is nervous. And for good reason.

During the pandemic, 133,000 nursing home residents died of COVID-19 .  They accounted for nearly one-third of the nation’s pandemic fatalities. Seniors now have the highest vaccination rate of any demographic in America, with more than 80% of nursing home residents fully vaccinated, but the newest data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows a big gap between patients and staff vaccinations:

• National percent of vaccinated residents: 81.8%
• National percent of vaccinated staff: 59.3%

You can get local easily using the government’s vaccination tracker for nursing homes. Here are instructions from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website:

Search for a nursing home map: Click the map below to search for a nursing home and view data for the individual nursing home, including recent resident and staff vaccination rates.

(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)

Listing of vaccination rates for individual nursing homes: Click to see a list of every nursing home with recent resident and staff vaccination rates . There’s also a separate tab for nursing homes with a staff vaccination rate of 75% or more.

I want to walk you through a few charts that tell some interesting stories about nursing home patients and staff. First, the good news: New infections among patients is low and not moving much:

Now, the less encouraging news: The people taking care of the nursing home patients are getting infected because, as I told you, a large percentage of them is not vaccinated. The increase in new cases is not as bad as we see in the general population … yet. Keep your eye on this.

The next two charts will help you to get local and ask questions. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Florida, a nursing home capital, has one of the lowest percentages of vaccinated nursing home residents. Other lower-vaccinated states on the chart reflect the overall vaccination rate, I suppose.

Again, it is odd that states that have large nursing home populations would have such low vaccination rates among employees. You wonder when or if states will require more of these workers to get vaccinated and how many workers would refuse and quit, which nursing homes cannot afford.

You can also see the positive test rate for every nursing home in America here .

The New York Times did a deep dive into this topic recently, which is worth a look.

Why US mask-making companies are going broke

Used protective masks are prepared for disinfecting at the Battelle N95 decontamination site in Somerville, Mass., on April 11, 2020. Although it will take years for researchers to understand why the pandemic was disproportionately worse in the U.S., early studies that compare different countries’ responses are finding that U.S. shortages of masks, gloves, gowns, shields, testing kits and other medical supplies indeed cost lives. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

American mask-making companies say they can’t make a go of it, even with demand for masks rising again, because Chinese-made masks cost so much less. The Hill reports :

“With the virus getting worse, and we’re not even into the cold months, we’re really worried that this industry won’t be here to help when it’s needed most,” said Brent Dillie, managing partner at Premium-PPE and chairman of the recently formed American Mask Manufacturer’s Association (AMMA). Premium-PPE, like many companies in the small U.S. mask industry, began manufacturing face coverings at the onset of the pandemic as the nation faced a mask shortage driven by China’s export restrictions. The Virginia Beach, Va., firm steadily ramped up its production to 1 million masks per day earlier this year, but it has since laid off most of its employees. “The industry is in a situation where we are needed, there are shortages of masks, but we’re all laying off our employees and sitting on huge inventories of products that we can’t sell,” said Luis Arguello Jr., vice president of DemeTech. DemeTech was the largest surgical mask manufacturer last year before governments stopped buying American masks. The Miami company has since laid off 1,500 workers in its mask division and built up a stockpile of nearly 200 million masks.

This is an interesting story considering how we made such a big deal a year ago about how our essential supplies were all imported and how we needed to get more American manufacturers producing the things we need in an emergency. You can read more from the mask industry itself here .

Can we expect a peak in delta variant virus cases soon? Maybe.

This is by no means certain, but we could see a peak of this latest COVID-19 surge within weeks. There are several reasons why … and some reasons why not.

The United Kingdom saw a rapid surge of COVID-19 delta variant cases followed by a steep and fast decline in cases after a peak.

There is no shortage of experts who say the U.S. and the U.K. are different enough that the data may not apply. Close to 90% of the U.K.’s population has at least one dose of the vaccine. And so many Brits have been exposed to the virus that there may be a high percentage of people who have developed a level of immunity in addition to the vaccines. So when they got infected recently, they recovered faster.

Look at these projections from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation:

Data from Aug. 9, 2021. (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation)

The group, which has been a clarion for what’s ahead in the pandemic, says we could be in for a sharp and horrific increase or a decline, depending on whether we wear masks and keep getting vaccinated.

The Hill reports :

Justin Lessler, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, said so far, the contagious variant has increased faster than any of their models, calling it “a little bit scary.” “Given the rate is going up, it’s either going to peak earlier than we anticipated or peak much, much higher than we anticipated,” Lessler said. “I think probably both are going to be true.” Many Americans have quit wearing masks, and travel is at a peak since the pandemic took grip of the country in March 2020.

Charging unvaccinated college students for testing and supplies

The Associated Press reports, “West Virginia Wesleyan College says it will charge a $750 fee to students who aren’t vaccinated for COVID-19 for the fall semester.” The school says unvaccinated students who come down with the virus will be charged $250 for quarantine space if they do not have a place off campus. The $750 pay for the testing and resources that the school says will be needed to keep the place safe. Unvaccinated students will also have to take weekly tests. We will see if this catches on.

Will you earn less if you work from home?

Reuters has an interesting piece about how some companies are toying with the notion of a stratified pay rate according to where you work. The story includes this passage:

Screenshots of Google’s internal salary calculator seen by Reuters show that an employee living in Stamford, Connecticut — an hour from New York City by train — would be paid 15% less if she worked from home, while a colleague from the same office living in New York City would see no cut from working from home. Screenshots showed 5% and 10% differences in the Seattle, Boston and San Francisco areas. A Google spokesperson said the company will not change an employee’s salary based on them going from office work to being fully remote in the city where the office is located. Employees working in the New York City office will be paid the same as those working remotely from another New York City location, for example, according to the spokesperson.

It seems to me it would make sense if people who worked from home were paid more, not less. Think of the money the company would save in office space costs. Heck, even water and electricity use add up if you spread it across a bunch of employees. And I don’t know about you, but I do not use a company printer or office supplies when working at home. I just buy my own.

We’ll be back tomorrow with a new edition of Covering COVID-19. Are you subscribed? Sign up here  to get it delivered right to your inbox.

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Editorial: coronavirus disease (covid-19): the impact and role of mass media during the pandemic.

• 1 Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon, CIS-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2 Department of Psychology and Social Work, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden
• 3 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Editorial on the Research Topic Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): The Impact and Role of Mass Media During the Pandemic

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that had a deep impact on the way we perceive our world and our everyday lives. Not only has the rate of contagion and patterns of transmission threatened our sense of agency, but the safety measures to contain the spread of the virus also required social and physical distancing, preventing us from finding solace in the company of others. Within this context, we launched our Research Topic on March 27th, 2020, and invited researchers to address the Impact and Role of Mass Media During the Pandemic on our lives at individual and social levels.

Despite all the hardships, disruption, and uncertainty brought by the pandemic, we received diverse and insightful manuscript proposals. Frontiers in Psychology published 15 articles, involving 61 authors from 8 countries, which were included in distinct specialized sections, including Health Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology, Emotion Science, and Organizational Psychology. Despite the diversity of this collective endeavor, the contributions fall into four areas of research: (1) the use of media in public health communication; (2) the diffusion of false information; (3) the compliance with the health recommendations; and (4) how media use relates to mental health and well-being.

A first line of research includes contributions examining the use of media in public health communication. Drawing on media messages used in previous health crises, such as Ebola and Zika, Hauer and Sood describe how health organizations use media. They offer a set of recommendations for COVID-19 related media messages, including the importance of message framing, interactive public forums with up-to-date information, and an honest communication about what is known and unknown about the pandemic and the virus. Following a content analysis approach, Parvin et al. studied the representations of COVID-19 in the opinion section of five Asian e-newspapers. The authors identified eight main issues (health and drugs, preparedness and awareness, social welfare and humanity, governance and institutions, the environment and wildlife, politics, innovation and technology, and the economy) and examined how e-newspapers from these countries attributed different weights to these issues and how this relates to the countries' cultural specificity. Raccanello et al. show how the internet can be a platform to disseminate a public campaign devised to inform adults about coping strategies that could help children and teenagers deal with the challenges of the pandemic. The authors examined the dissemination of the program through the analysis of website traffic, showing that in the 40 days following publication, the website reached 6,090 visits.

A second related line of research that drew the concern of researchers was the diffusion of false information about COVID-19 through the media. Lobato et al. examined the role of distinct individual differences (political orientation, social dominance orientation, traditionalism, conspiracy ideation, attitudes about science) on the willingness to share misinformation about COVID-19 over social media. The misinformation topics varied between the severity and spread of COVID-19, treatment and prevention, conspiracy theories, and miscellaneous unverifiable claims. Their results from 296 adult participants (Mage = 36.23; 117 women) suggest two different profiles. One indicating that those reporting more liberal positions and lower social dominance were less willing to share conspiracy misinformation. The other profile indicated that participants scoring high on social dominance and low in traditionalism were more willing to share both conspiracy and other miscellaneous claims, but less willing to share misinformation about the severity and spread of COVID-19. Their findings can have relevant contributions for the identification of specific individual profiles related to the widespread of distinct types of misinformation. Dhanani and Franz examined a sample of 1,141 adults (Mage = 44.66; 46.9% female, 74.7% White ethnic identity) living in the United States in March 2020. The authors examined how media consumption and information source were related to knowledge about COVID-19, the endorsement of misinformation about COVID-19, and prejudice toward Asian Americans. Higher levels of trust in informational sources such as public health organizations (e.g., Center for Disease Control) was associated with greater knowledge, lower endorsement of misinformation, and less prejudice toward Asian Americans. Media source was associated with distinct levels of knowledge, willingness to endorsement misinformation and prejudice toward American Asians, with social media use (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) being related with a lower knowledge about COVID-19, higher endorsement of misinformation, and stronger prejudice toward Asian Americans.

A third line of research addressed the factors that could contribute to compliance with the health recommendations to avoid the spread of the disease. Vai et al. studied early pre-lockdown risk perceptions about COVID-19 and the trust in media sources among 2,223 Italians (Mage = 36.4, 69.2% female). They found that the perceived usefulness of the containment measures (e.g., social distancing) was related to threat perception and efficacy beliefs. Lower threat perception was associated with less perception of utility of the containment measures. Although most participants considered themselves and others capable of taking preventive measures, they saw the measures as generally ineffective. Participants acknowledged using the internet as their main source of information and considered health organizations' websites as the most trustworthy source. Albeit frequently used, social media was in general considered an unreliable source of information. Tomczyk et al. studied knowledge about preventive behaviors, risk perception, stigmatizing attitudes (support for discrimination and blame), and sociodemographic data (e.g., age, gender, country of origin, education level, region, persons per household) as predictors of compliance with the behavioral recommendations among 157 Germans, (age range: 18–77 years, 80% female). Low compliance was associated with male gender, younger age, and lower public stigma. Regarding stigmatizing attitudes, the authors only found a relation between support for discrimination (i.e., support for compulsory measures) and higher intention to comply with recommendations. Mahmood et al. studied the relation between social media use, risk perception, preventive behaviors, and self-efficacy in a sample of 310 Pakistani adults (54.2% female). The authors found social media use to be positively related to self-efficacy and perceived threat, which were both positively related to preventive behaviors (e.g., hand hygiene, social distancing). Information credibility was also related to compliance with health recommendations. Lep et al. examined the relationship between information source perceived credibility and trust, and participants' levels of self-protective behavior among 1,718 Slovenians (age range: 18–81 years, 81.7% female). The authors found that scientists, general practitioners (family doctors), and the National Institute of Public Health were perceived as the more credible source of information, while social media and government officials received the lowest ratings. Perceived information credibility was found to be associated with lower levels of negative emotional responses (e.g., nervousness, helplessness) and a higher level of observance of self-protective measures (e.g., hand washing). Siebenhaar et al. also studied the link between compliance, distress by information, and information avoidance. They examined the online survey responses of 1,059 adults living in Germany (Mage = 39.53, 79.4% female). Their results suggested that distress by information could lead to higher compliance with preventive measures. Distress by information was also associated with higher information avoidance, which in turn is related to less compliance. Gantiva et al. studied the effectiveness of different messages regarding the intentions toward self-care behaviors, perceived efficacy to motivate self-care behaviors in others, perceived risk, and perceived message strength, in a sample of 319 Colombians (age range: 18–60 years, 69.9% female). Their experiment included the manipulation of message framing (gain vs. loss) and message content (economy vs. health). Participants judged gain-frame health related messages to be stronger and more effective in changing self-behavior, whereas loss-framed health messages resulted in increased perceived risk. Rahn et al. offer a comparative view of compliance and risk perception, examining three hazard types: COVID-19 pandemic, violent acts, and severe weather. With a sample of 403 Germans (age range: 18–89 years, 72% female), they studied how age, gender, previous hazard experience and different components of risk appraisal (perceived severity, anticipated negative emotions, anticipatory worry, and risk perception) were related to the intention to comply with behavioral recommendations. They found that higher age predicted compliance with health recommendations to prevent COVID-19, anticipatory worry predicted compliance with warning messages regarding violent acts, and women complied more often with severe weather recommendations than men.

A fourth line of research examined media use, mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gabbiadini et al. addressed the use of digital technology (e.g., voice/video calls, online games, watching movies in party mode) to stay connected with others during lockdown. Participants, 465 Italians (age range: 18–73 years, 348 female), reported more perceived social support associated with the use of these digital technologies, which in turn was associated with fewer feelings of loneliness, boredom, anger, and higher sense of belongingness. Muñiz-Velázquez et al. compared the media habits of 249 Spanish adults (Mage = 42.06, 53.8% female) before and during confinement. They compared the type of media consumed (e.g., watching TV series, listening to radio, watching news) and found the increased consumption of TV and social networking sites during confinement to be negatively associated with reported level of happiness. People who reported higher levels of well-being also reported watching less TV and less use of social networking sites. Majeed et al. , on the other hand, examined the relation between problematic social media use, fear of COVID-19, depression, and mindfulness. Their study, involving 267 Pakistani adults (90 female), suggested trait mindfulness had a buffer effect, reducing the impact of problematic media use and fear of COVID-19 on depression.

Taken together, these findings highlight how using different frames for mass media gives a more expansive view of its positive and negative roles, but also showcase the major concerns in the context of a pandemic crisis. As limitations we highlight the use of cross-sectional designs in most studies, not allowing to establish true inferences of causal relationships. The outcome of some studies may also be limited by the unbalanced number of female and male participants, by the non-probability sampling method used, and by the restricted time frame in which the research occurred. Nevertheless, we are confident that all the selected studies in our Research Topic bring important and enduring contributions to the understanding of how media, individual differences, and social factors intertwine to shape our lives, which can also be useful to guide public policies during these challenging times.

Author Contributions

PA: conceptualization, writing the original draft, funding acquisition, writing—review, and editing. FE: conceptualization, writing—review, and editing. MP: writing—review and editing. NP: conceptualization, writing the original draft, writing—review, and editing. All authors approved the submitted version.

PA and NP received partial support to work on this Research Topic through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) with reference to the project PTDC/CCI-INF/29234/2017. MP contribution was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, PA847/22-1 and PA847/25-1). The authors are independent of the funders.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to all the authors who proposed their work, all the researchers who reviewed the submissions to this Research Topic, and to Rob Richards for proofreading the Editorial manuscript.

Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus disease, mass media, health communication, prevention, intervention, social behavioral changes

Citation: Arriaga P, Esteves F, Pavlova MA and Piçarra N (2021) Editorial: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): The Impact and Role of Mass Media During the Pandemic. Front. Psychol. 12:729238. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729238

Received: 22 June 2021; Accepted: 30 July 2021; Published: 23 August 2021.

Edited and reviewed by: Eduard Brandstätter , Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria

Copyright © 2021 Arriaga, Esteves, Pavlova and Piçarra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Patrícia Arriaga, patricia.arriaga@iscte-iul.pt

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Feature Article: Here’s What We’ve Learned About COVID-19

Flu season is here and with the coronavirus pandemic still plaguing much of the world, it’s more important than ever to be health conscious. Countless scientists all over the world are striving to better understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and bringing the most relevant research findings together in one place is key to a coordinated effort.

The Master Question List  (MQL) does just that. The MQL organizes our collective knowledge. This consolidation of recent, trustworthy COVID-19 information is updated every week with the latest results and data relevant to weathering the pandemic. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate  (S&T) started publishing the MQL this past Spring as part of its COVID-19 response .

According to Dr. Lloyd Hough, director of S&T’s Hazard Awareness and Characterization Technology Center, “We go out and conduct searches of a variety of different publications and sources—some of them are traditional scientific sources like the National Library of Medicine, but there are also journal websites and news sources. We go through a lot of these sources and look for vetted information from reliable sources.”

“The MQL is important for us because it identifies what we don’t know,” continued Dr. Hough. “And with finite lab resources, it ensures we don’t duplicate something that is already being studied elsewhere. It’s really a matter of identifying the highest priority gaps—the things that are most impactful for better understanding the disease and helping us to respond to it.”

The list of what we don’t know is still long, but thanks to the dedication of numerous researchers, such as those at S&T’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center  (NBACC), many important questions have been answered.

How does it spread from one host to another? How easily is it spread?

COVID-19 is highly contagious, and you can catch it by simply inhaling. It was clear early on that COVID-19 was easily spread through close contact, whether that was person-to-person or by touching contaminated surfaces. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) has now acknowledged that airborne transmission is possible under certain circumstances, meaning the virus can spread through particles in the air and not just the larger droplets that can be spread short distances.

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How long does the virus live in the environment?

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According to research collected in the MQL, on average, symptoms develop five days after exposure to the virus and individuals are most infectious before they start showing symptoms. Early iterations of the MQL noted that, “Identifying the contribution of asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission is important for implementing control measures” and this has turned out to be quite true. We now know that pre-symptomatic transmission causes around 40 percent of infections . Also, patients who don’t show any symptoms during the course of their infection can definitely spread the virus. It turns out asymptomatic individuals can transmit the disease as soon as two days after they become infected and at least 12 percent   (PDF, 15 pgs., 444 KB) of all cases are estimated to be due to asymptomatic transmission. The CDC recommends that anyone, including those without symptoms, who has been in close contact with a positive COVID-19 case should be tested.

What are the signs and symptoms of an infected person?

Can individuals become re-infected after recovery?

Studies show that re-infection is possible , but rare . Neutralizing antibodies develop in most patients , but the duration of any protection is unknown.

What personal protective equipment (PPE) is effective, and who should be using it?

Face masks are effective at reducing transmission of COVID-19 and almost everyone should be using them. Numerous studies have supported this finding, including research published by the American Society for Microbiology ,  (PDF, 5 pgs., 1.64MB)  the Journal of the American Medical Association , and Nature Research .

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About COVID-19

What is covid-19.

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a disease caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2. It can be very contagious and spreads quickly. Over one million people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

COVID-19 most often causes respiratory symptoms that can feel much like a cold, the flu, or pneumonia. COVID-19 may attack more than your lungs and respiratory system. Other parts of your body may also be affected by the disease. Most people with COVID-19 have mild symptoms, but some people become severely ill.

Some people including those with minor or no symptoms will develop Post-COVID Conditions – also called “Long COVID.”

How does COVID-19 spread?

COVID-19 spreads when an infected person breathes out droplets and very small particles that contain the virus. Other people can breathe in these droplets and particles, or these droplets and particles can land on their eyes, nose, or mouth. In some circumstances, these droplets may contaminate surfaces they touch.

Anyone infected with COVID-19 can spread it, even if they do NOT have symptoms.

The risk of animals spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 to people is low. The virus can spread from people to animals during close contact. People with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should avoid contact with animals.

What are antibodies and how do they help protect me?

Antibodies are proteins your immune system makes to help fight infection and protect you from getting sick in the future. A positive antibody test  result can help identify someone who has had COVID-19 in the past or has been vaccinated against COVID-19. Studies show that people who have antibodies from an infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 can improve their level of protection by getting vaccinated.

Who is at risk of severe illness from COVID-19?

Some people are more likely than others to get very sick if they get COVID-19. This includes people who are older , are immunocompromised  (have a weakened immune system), have certain disabilities , or have  underlying health conditions . Understanding your COVID-19 risk and the risks that might affect others can help you make decisions to protect yourself and others .

What are ways to prevent COVID-19?

There are many actions you can take to help protect you, your household, and your community from COVID-19. CDC’s Respiratory Virus Guidance provides actions you can take to help protect yourself and others from health risks caused by respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. These actions include steps you can take to lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission (catching and spreading COVID-19) and lower the risk of severe illness if you get sick.

CDC recommends that you

• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
• Practice good hygiene  (practices that improve cleanliness)
• Take steps for cleaner air
• Stay home when sick
• Seek health care promptly for testing and treatment when you are sick if you have risk factors for severe illness . Treatment  may help lower your risk of severe illness.

Masks , physical distancing , and tests  can provide additional layers of protection.

What are variants of COVID-19?

Viruses are constantly changing, including the virus that causes COVID-19. These changes occur over time and can lead to new strains of the virus or variants of COVID-19 . Slowing the spread of the virus, by protecting yourself and others , can help slow new variants from developing. CDC is working with state and local public health officials to monitor the spread of all variants, including Omicron.

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Article on COVID-19

COVID-19 or Coronavirus is a term the world has been uttering for almost two years now. The coronavirus disease is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Since the birth of the pandemic, the world has shifted to a new normal where masks are the new accessory and sanitisers are used like sunscreens. There is a lot of information out there about the pandemic, but when you are asked to write an article on COVID-19, do not just pick information at random; instead, try to gather details that would explain the dawn of the virus, the harmful effects and the precautionary measures to be taken to keep one safe and secure.

To know more about the virus and for sample articles, go through the topics given below:

• Article On COVID-19 – Symptoms And Precautions
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• FAQs On COVID-19

Article on COVID-19 – Symptoms and Precautions

The effects of the virus are different from person to person. For most people, it starts with a common cold and fever that develops into serious respiratory problems, fatigue, soreness and loss of taste and smell. The virus has developed into a lot of variants, and each one becomes even more severe with the onset of a new variant.

The spread of the virus takes place when an individual comes into contact with an infected person. It spreads from the person’s nose or mouth when they sneeze, yawn, cough, breathe, speak or sing. We have been taught respiratory etiquette, covering our mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing and isolating ourselves when we are unwell. These are the same rules that apply to keep ourselves and others from being infected by the virus.

People affected by coronavirus show a range of symptoms from mild to severe conditions. The symptoms include cold, cough, fever, soreness, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, loss of taste and smell. These symptoms start appearing from 2-14 days after the individual has been exposed to the virus. Make sure that you get yourself tested the moment you witness any of these symptoms to prevent it from getting any worse.

Precautions

To keep yourself from being affected by coronavirus, see to that you

• Wear your masks covering your nose and mouth every time you step out of your house
• Wash your hands thoroughly
• Sanitise yourself
• Avoid eating or drinking anything cold
• Eat nutritious food to build immunity
• Maintain a physical distance when you are in contact with a group of people
• Avoid all sorts of direct physical contact

Taking care of yourself means taking care of others too. If each one is conscious about the complications this disease can bring into their lives, it would be a lot easier to curb the spread of the virus. Be cautious. Create awareness. Stay safe.

Short Article on COVID-19

Research has shown that the outbreak of COVID-19 was in December 2019, and from then, there have been more than 600 million people who were infected with the virus and around 6.5 million deaths all around the world, according to WHO reports, as of September 30, 2022. The daily reports of people being infected and people dying have been going up, and down and the numbers vary from country to country.

Every country has been following different procedures and doing all that is possible to stop the spread of COVID-19. It is, however, dependent on the individuals. It is in our best interest that the authorities are laying out rules and regulations, and it is our responsibility to follow them and keep ourselves hygienic, which in turn will keep everyone around us safe too.

Researchers and medical practitioners have worked really hard to develop vaccines for COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccines, like any other vaccine, have side effects like fever, soreness and weakness. Many people have already been vaccinated. However, it is good to remember that being vaccinated is not the license to roam around without wearing masks and making close contact with people you meet. New variants of the virus have been evolving every now and then, and the seriousness of the disease is becoming worse with every variant. Only with collective efforts can we stop the spread of the disease.

FAQs on COVID-19

What is covid-19.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. The symptoms of the disease vary from individual to individual ranging from mild symptoms like cold and fever to severe symptoms including shortness of breath, chest pain, loss of speech or mobility and even death.

What are the organs most affected by coronavirus?

According to researchers, the organs that are most affected by the virus are the lungs.

What are the possible complications post COVID-19?

People seem to continue experiencing difficulty in breathing, soreness, fatigue, etc., even after recovering from COVID-19.

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COVID or Covid? The comfort of pedantry at a time of national crisis

Working from home, the readers’ office team is unexpectedly cheered by questions of spelling and grammar

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T he readers’ editor’s office is beginning its sixth week of working from home. During this time, contact from readers has increased by about a fifth, so that we are now receiving more than 700 fresh enquiries – comments, queries, praise and complaints – each week.

Our small team, based hundreds of miles apart, approaches its task in much the same way as before: aiming to deal promptly with those corrections that are easily fixed, taking time to investigate complex complaints, and sharing feedback as appropriate with writers and desks. The chief difference is that we liaise with one another, and with the relevant journalists, through instant messaging, phone and video meetings.

Last Friday, I had cause to call one of the few editors still working in the London headquarters at Kings Place. I asked him what it was like (it’s hard to imagine the newsroom without hundreds of people beavering away at their desks) and he told me that he could see “a hamlet where once there was a city”.

Yet from this hamlet, now connected to satellite offices that are bedrooms, living rooms and sheds around the country and the globe, the Guardian and Observer continue to serve national and international audiences with news, analysis and commentary around the clock.

Response to this coverage comes through any number of the touchpoints: below the line, on social media, via the letters desk, directly to journalists and to the readers’ editor, to mention a few. The vast majority of emails my office currently receives are unsurprisingly related to coronavirus. They may be from hospitals, businesses, scientists and families of those affected by the outbreak; or anyone with a deep interest in the precision of articles.

More than 7,000 items of editorial content with a connection to the coronavirus outbreak have been published by the Guardian and Observer since January. Where significant errors are identified, for example those involving statistics, medical provision or national measures, we have moved as quickly as possible to remedy. We gauge that less than half a percent of articles have resulted in corrections on such key matters, although many more claims of inaccuracy will be investigated and mistakes rectified where necessary.

The task feels vast at times but also as if it could never be more important. Correspondence on urgent matters sometimes runs late into the night. We prioritise as we go, because the flow of emails rarely abates (it’s always breakfast time somewhere), but we wouldn’t be human if we weren’t occasionally distracted by a minor point of intrigue nicely put.

I fell into happy correspondence the weekend before last with a medical specialist who wanted to know why the media was “incorrectly” spelling COVID-19 as Covid-19 . I explained that, like most British newspapers, the Guardian’s style is to use uppercase for abbreviations that are written and spoken as a collection of letters, such as BBC, IMF and NHS, whereas acronyms pronounced as words go upper and lower, eg Nasa, Unicef and, now, Covid-19. The reader was remarkably understanding given that her query turned out to be more than passing curiosity: she was busily correcting scientific articles by authors who’d adopted the media’s style. We each apologised for having caused the other work and moved on better informed about our respective fields.

Those unfamiliar with the job of this office are often surprised that readers would get in touch about typos and grammar “at a time like this”. We might have felt the same at first, mindful also of the strains under which journalists are working. But credibility never goes out of style and being told about a lay/lie error (twice last week) can be a heartening reminder of the normal. Emails that start by recognising how it’s “important to preserve pedantry at a time of national crisis” are always going to raise a smile. And it has made us think that “grammar corner”, the lesser known cousin of “homophone corner” and last seen in 2017, may provide a similarly welcome diversion for readers of the corrections and clarifications column . Watch this space, or rather that one.

Some of the most affecting emails come from readers responding to coverage – or perhaps a seeming absence of it – with their own experience of lockdown. A widow who had just started to get out in the world again when isolation hit; a reader with disabilities who hoped the widespread move to remote-working would show how valuable an employee can be without having to travel to an office; the partner of someone working on the NHS frontline. These stories are not strictly for the readers’ editor, although we feel privileged to read them. For those who would like their stories of Covid-19 to reach a wider audience, the Guardian’s community team is providing a dedicated space for sharing them – because the record of this time is told not only from journalists’ front rooms but from yours too.

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Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening?

All vaccines have at least occasional side effects. But people who say they were injured by Covid vaccines believe their cases have been ignored.

Shaun Barcavage, 54, a nurse practitioner in New York City, said that ever since his first Covid shot, standing up has sent his heart racing. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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By Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli spent more than a year talking to dozens of experts in vaccine science, policymakers and people who said they had experienced serious side effects after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.

• Published May 3, 2024 Updated May 4, 2024

Within minutes of getting the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, Michelle Zimmerman felt pain racing from her left arm up to her ear and down to her fingertips. Within days, she was unbearably sensitive to light and struggled to remember simple facts.

She was 37, with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and until then could ride her bicycle 20 miles, teach a dance class and give a lecture on artificial intelligence, all in the same day. Now, more than three years later, she lives with her parents. Eventually diagnosed with brain damage, she cannot work, drive or even stand for long periods of time.

“When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much I’ve lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend,” said Dr. Zimmerman, who believes her injury is due to a contaminated vaccine batch .

The Covid vaccines, a triumph of science and public health, are estimated to have prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths . Yet even the best vaccines produce rare but serious side effects . And the Covid vaccines have been given to more than 270 million people in the United States, in nearly 677 million doses .

Dr. Zimmerman’s account is among the more harrowing, but thousands of Americans believe they suffered serious side effects following Covid vaccination. As of April, just over 13,000 vaccine-injury compensation claims have been filed with the federal government — but to little avail. Only 19 percent have been reviewed. Only 47 of those were deemed eligible for compensation, and only 12 have been paid out, at an average of about $3,600 .

Some scientists fear that patients with real injuries are being denied help and believe that more needs to be done to clarify the possible risks.

“At least long Covid has been somewhat recognized,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and vaccine expert at Yale University. But people who say they have post-vaccination injuries are “just completely ignored and dismissed and gaslighted,” she added.

In interviews and email exchanges conducted over several months, federal health officials insisted that serious side effects were extremely rare and that their surveillance efforts were more than sufficient to detect patterns of adverse events.

“Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have safely received Covid vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history,” Jeff Nesbit, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement.

But in a recent interview, Dr. Janet Woodcock, a longtime leader of the Food and Drug Administration, who retired in February, said she believed that some recipients had experienced uncommon but “serious” and “life-changing” reactions beyond those described by federal agencies.

“I feel bad for those people,” said Dr. Woodcock, who became the F.D.A.’s acting commissioner in January 2021 as the vaccines were rolling out. “I believe their suffering should be acknowledged, that they have real problems, and they should be taken seriously.”

“I’m disappointed in myself,” she added. “I did a lot of things I feel very good about, but this is one of the few things I feel I just didn’t bring it home.”

Federal officials and independent scientists face a number of challenges in identifying potential vaccine side effects.

The nation’s fragmented health care system complicates detection of very rare side effects, a process that depends on an analysis of huge amounts of data. That’s a difficult task when a patient may be tested for Covid at Walgreens, get vaccinated at CVS, go to a local clinic for minor ailments and seek care at a hospital for serious conditions. Each place may rely on different health record systems.

There is no central repository of vaccine recipients, nor of medical records, and no easy to way to pool these data. Reports to the largest federal database of so-called adverse events can be made by anyone, about anything. It’s not even clear what officials should be looking for.

“I mean, you’re not going to find ‘brain fog’ in the medical record or claims data, and so then you’re not going to find” a signal that it may be linked to vaccination, Dr. Woodcock said. If such a side effect is not acknowledged by federal officials, “it’s because it doesn’t have a good research definition,” she added. “It isn’t, like, malevolence on their part.”

The government’s understaffed compensation fund has paid so little because it officially recognizes few side effects for Covid vaccines. And vaccine supporters, including federal officials, worry that even a whisper of possible side effects feeds into misinformation spread by a vitriolic anti-vaccine movement.

‘I’m Not Real’

Patients who believe they experienced serious side effects say they have received little support or acknowledgment.

Shaun Barcavage, 54, a nurse practitioner in New York City who has worked on clinical trials for H.I.V. and Covid, said that ever since his first Covid shot, merely standing up sent his heart racing — a symptom suggestive of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome , a neurological disorder that some studies have linked to both Covid and, much less often, vaccination .

He also experienced stinging pain in his eyes, mouth and genitals, which has abated, and tinnitus, which has not.

“I can’t get the government to help me,” Mr. Barcavage said of his fruitless pleas to federal agencies and elected representatives. “I am told I’m not real. I’m told I’m rare. I’m told I’m coincidence.”

Renee France, 49, a physical therapist in Seattle, developed Bell’s palsy — a form of facial paralysis, usually temporary — and a dramatic rash that neatly bisected her face. Bell’s palsy is a known side effect of other vaccines, and it has been linked to Covid vaccination in some studies.

But Dr. France said doctors were dismissive of any connection to the Covid vaccines. The rash, a bout of shingles, debilitated her for three weeks, so Dr. France reported it to federal databases twice.

“I thought for sure someone would reach out, but no one ever did,” she said.

Similar sentiments were echoed in interviews, conducted over more than a year, with 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid shots. They described a variety of symptoms following vaccination, some neurological, some autoimmune, some cardiovascular.

All said they had been turned away by physicians, told their symptoms were psychosomatic, or labeled anti-vaccine by family and friends — despite the fact that they supported vaccines.

Even leading experts in vaccine science have run up against disbelief and ambivalence.

Dr. Gregory Poland, 68, editor in chief of the journal Vaccine, said that a loud whooshing sound in his ears had accompanied every moment since his first shot, but that his entreaties to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explore the phenomenon, tinnitus, had led nowhere.

He received polite responses to his many emails, but “I just don’t get any sense of movement,” he said.

“If they have done studies, those studies should be published,” Dr. Poland added. In despair that he might “never hear silence again,” he has sought solace in meditation and his religious faith.

Dr. Buddy Creech, 50, who led several Covid vaccine trials at Vanderbilt University, said his tinnitus and racing heart lasted about a week after each shot. “It’s very similar to what I experienced during acute Covid, back in March of 2020,” Dr. Creech said.

Research may ultimately find that most reported side effects are unrelated to the vaccine, he acknowledged. Many can be caused by Covid itself.

“Regardless, when our patients experience a side effect that may or may not be related to the vaccine, we owe it to them to investigate that as completely as we can,” Dr. Creech said.

Federal health officials say they do not believe that the Covid vaccines caused the illnesses described by patients like Mr. Barcavage, Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. France. The vaccines may cause transient reactions, such as swelling, fatigue and fever, according to the C.D.C., but the agency has documented only four serious but rare side effects .

Two are associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is no longer available in the United States: Guillain-Barré syndrome , a known side effect of other vaccines , including the flu shot; and a blood-clotting disorder.

The C.D.C. also links mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to heart inflammation, or myocarditis, especially in boys and young men. And the agency warns of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, which can occur after any vaccination.

Listening for Signals

Agency scientists are monitoring large databases containing medical information on millions of Americans for patterns that might suggest a hitherto unknown side effect of vaccination, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the C.D.C.’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

“We toe the line by reporting the signals that we think are real signals and reporting them as soon as we identify them as signals,” he said. The agency’s systems for monitoring vaccine safety are “pretty close” to ideal, he said.

Those national surveillance efforts include the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). It is the largest database, but also the least reliable: Reports of side effects can be submitted by anyone and are not vetted, so they may be subject to bias or manipulation.

The system contains roughly one million reports regarding Covid vaccination, the vast majority for mild events, according to the C.D.C.

Federal researchers also comb through databases that combine electronic health records and insurance claims on tens of millions of Americans. The scientists monitor the data for 23 conditions that may occur following Covid vaccination. Officials remain alert to others that may pop up, Dr. Daskalakis said.

But there are gaps, some experts noted. The Covid shots administered at mass vaccination sites were not recorded in insurance claims databases, for example, and medical records in the United States are not centralized.

“It’s harder to see signals when you have so many people, and things are happening in different parts of the country, and they’re not all collected in the same system,” said Rebecca Chandler, a vaccine safety expert at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

An expert panel convened by the National Academies concluded in April that for the vast majority of side effects, there was not enough data to accept or reject a link.

Asked at a recent congressional hearing whether the nation’s vaccine-safety surveillance was sufficient, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said, “I do believe we could do better.”

In some countries with centralized health care systems, officials have actively sought out reports of serious side effects of Covid vaccines and reached conclusions that U.S. health authorities have not.

In Hong Kong, the government analyzed centralized medical records of patients after vaccination and paid people to come forward with problems. The strategy identified “a lot of mild cases that other countries would not otherwise pick up,” said Ian Wong, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong who led the nation’s vaccine safety efforts.

That included the finding that in rare instances — about seven per million doses — the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine triggered a bout of shingles serious enough to require hospitalization.

The European Medicines Agency has linked the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to facial paralysis, tingling sensations and numbness. The E.M.A. also counts tinnitus as a side effect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, although the American health agencies do not. There are more than 17,000 reports of tinnitus following Covid vaccination in VAERS.

Are the two linked? It’s not clear. As many as one in four adults has some form of tinnitus. Stress, anxiety, grief and aging can lead to the condition, as can infections like Covid itself and the flu.

There is no test or scan for tinnitus, and scientists cannot easily study it because the inner ear is tiny, delicate and encased in bone, said Dr. Konstantina Stankovic, an otolaryngologist at Stanford University.

Still, an analysis of health records from nearly 2.6 million people in the United States found that about 0.04 percent , or about 1,000, were diagnosed with tinnitus within three weeks of their first mRNA shot. In March, researchers in Australia published a study linking tinnitus and vertigo to the vaccines .

The F.D.A. is monitoring reports of tinnitus, but “at this time, the available evidence does not suggest a causal association with the Covid-19 vaccines,” the agency said in a statement.

Despite surveillance efforts, U.S. officials were not the first to identify a significant Covid vaccine side effect: myocarditis in young people receiving mRNA vaccines. It was Israeli authorities who first raised the alarm in April 2021. Officials in the United States said at the time that they had not seen a link.

On May 22, 2021, news broke that the C.D.C. was investigating a “relatively few” cases of myocarditis. By June 23, the number of myocarditis reports in VAERS had risen to more than 1,200 — a hint that it is important to tell doctors and patients what to look for.

Later analyses showed that the risk for myocarditis and pericarditis, a related condition, is highest after a second dose of an mRNA Covid vaccine in adolescent males aged 12 to 17 years.

In many people, vaccine-related myocarditis is transient. But some patients continue to experience pain, breathlessness and depression, and some show persistent changes on heart scans . The C.D.C. has said there were no confirmed deaths related to myocarditis, but in fact there have been several accounts of deaths reported post-vaccination .

Pervasive Misinformation

The rise of the anti-vaccine movement has made it difficult for scientists, in and out of government, to candidly address potential side effects, some experts said. Much of the narrative on the purported dangers of Covid vaccines is patently false, or at least exaggerated, cooked up by savvy anti-vaccine campaigns.

Questions about Covid vaccine safety are core to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Citing debunked theories about altered DNA, Florida’s surgeon general has called for a halt to Covid vaccination in the state.

“The sheer nature of misinformation, the scale of misinformation, is staggering, and anything will be twisted to make it seem like it’s not just a devastating side effect but proof of a massive cover-up,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins University.

Among the hundreds of millions of Americans who were immunized for Covid, some number would have had heart attacks or strokes anyway. Some women would have miscarried. How to distinguish those caused by the vaccine from those that are coincidences? The only way to resolve the question is intense research .

But the National Institutes of Health is conducting virtually no studies on Covid vaccine safety, several experts noted. William Murphy, a cancer researcher who worked at the N.I.H. for 12 years, has been prodding federal health officials to initiate these studies since 2021.

The officials each responded with “that very tired mantra: ‘But the virus is worse,’” Dr. Murphy recalled. “Yes, the virus is worse, but that doesn’t obviate doing research to make sure that there may be other options.”

A deeper understanding of possible side effects, and who is at risk for them, could have implications for the design of future vaccines, or may indicate that for some young and healthy people, the benefit of Covid shots may no longer outweigh the risks — as some European countries have determined.

Thorough research might also speed assistance to thousands of Americans who say they were injured.

The federal government has long run the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program , designed to compensate people who suffer injuries after vaccination. Established more than three decades ago, the program sets no limit on the amounts awarded to people found to have been harmed.

But Covid vaccines are not covered by that fund because Congress has not made them subject to the excise tax that pays for it. Some lawmakers have introduced bills to make the change.

Instead, claims regarding Covid vaccines go to the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program . Intended for public health emergencies, this program has narrow criteria to pay out and sets a limit of $50,000, with stringent standards of proof.

It requires applicants to prove within a year of the injury that it was “the direct result” of getting the Covid vaccine, based on “compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence.”

The program had only four staff members at the beginning of the pandemic, and now has 35 people evaluating claims. Still, it has reviewed only a fraction of the 13,000 claims filed, and has paid out only a dozen.

Dr. Ilka Warshawsky, a 58-year-old pathologist, said she lost all hearing in her right ear after a Covid booster shot. But hearing loss is not a recognized side effect of Covid vaccination.

The compensation program for Covid vaccines sets a high bar for proof, she said, yet offers little information on how to meet it: “These adverse events can be debilitating and life-altering, and so it’s very upsetting that they’re not acknowledged or addressed.”

Dr. Zimmerman, the neuroscientist, submitted her application in October 2021 and provided dozens of supporting medical documents. She received a claim number only in January 2023.

In adjudicating her claim for workers’ compensation, Washington State officials accepted that Covid vaccination caused her injury, but she has yet to get a decision from the federal program.

One of her therapists recently told her she might never be able to live independently again.

“That felt like a devastating blow,” Dr. Zimmerman said. “But I’m trying not to lose hope there will someday be a treatment and a way to cover it.”

Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter focused on science and global health. She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic. More about Apoorva Mandavilli

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Why some people receiving federal benefits don’t consider themselves poor − even though poverty rates have increased since the COVID-19  pandemic

Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Wake Forest University

Disclosure statement

Sherri Lawson Clark has received funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (1999), The Center for Rural Pennsylvania (2005), The Center for Housing Policy (2008), the Strong@Home Partnership (NC) (2016-19). She is affiliated with Financial Pathways of the Piedmont (NC).

Wake Forest University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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For the past 25 years, my research as a cultural anthropologist has taken me into the homes and neighborhoods of people living in poverty in cities and rural communities throughout the U.S.

To better understand their day-to-day lives, I also have spent time in grocery stores, churches, nightclubs, parks and health clinics.

I’ve asked countless questions, ranging from how many times they had moved to the types of social services they received.

But of all the answers, none has perplexed me more than the one I receive when I ask, “Are you poor?”

Not one has ever answered yes.

One mother was almost indignant. “My kids have food in their bellies, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their backs, so, no, I’m not poor,” she told me.

A decent standard of living

Who, then, decides who is poor in America?

The answer is the federal government, which has spent nearly the past 60 years trying to define and measure poverty and, ultimately, allocate money to provide families with a financial safety net.

Though many of the people I’ve interviewed over the years did not consider themselves poor, their incomes made them eligible to receive government subsidies such as cash assistance, Medicaid or public housing, thus placing them in categories the government considers poor.

Poverty in the U.S. is based on a person’s ability to purchase the things they need to achieve a certain standard of living. According to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau data – the most recent available – poverty for a family of four was an annual income of at or below US$29,960. For a single person, the poverty threshold was $14,891.

To put those numbers in perspective, the median U.S. household income in 2022 was $74,580 – more than two times the poverty threshold. About 38 million Americans – nearly 12% – live at or below the poverty line. And 16.1 of children under the age of 6 live in poverty.

Measuring US poverty

In the early 1960s, Mollie Orshansky , a government statistician, developed the official poverty measure that is still in use today.

In her earlier statistical work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orshansky had calculated that people spend roughly a third of their incomes on food. Known as the bread basket method, the income level used to define poverty was calculated based on the cost of feeding a family.

Since the 1960s, the rate of people living in poverty has held steady between 11% and 15%.

But the measurement has a few shortcomings.

Take the regional differences in costs for the same products. In early 2024, for instance, a loaf of bread in Los Angeles, California, was $4.73, while in Louisville, Kentucky, the same loaf was $2.46.

Another flaw is the definition of what constitutes a family of four members.

The costs of feeding a family of four can be vastly different for a single mother with three school-age children than a married couple with two infant children.

The politics of poverty

Starting in 2011, the second metric that the Census Bureau officials use is the supplemental poverty rate .

Unlike the official poverty rate, the supplemental rate takes into account various types of government aid such as food, housing and energy assistance, as well as tax credits and stimulus payments. The measurement also calculates regional differences in the cost of living, medical care and housing.

Though distinct, these two measurements are often used by politicians to score points over their political rivals.

Such was the case in September 2023 when the Census Bureau found that the supplemental rate had spiked from 7.8% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022, the largest increase since 2010.

The same measurement for the share of children living in poverty also hit 12.4%, more than doubling from 5.2% in 2021.

When the numbers were released by the Census Bureau in September 2023, former President Donald Trump immediately attacked President Joe Biden and compared the decline in poverty during his presidency with an increase in poverty during Biden’s term.

But Trump left out key facts.

The supplemental rates did decline from 14% in 2016, before Trump took office in 2017, to 9.2% in his last full year as president in 2020 . But the drop was due in large part to coronavirus relief payments that were made available to qualifying people and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The relief payments also helped lower the number of people in poverty under the Biden administration.

But those COVID-19 era payments expired in 2021. Without that same aid – and help from Biden’s American Rescue Plan – the share of people considered poor went up in 2022 under Biden. The sharp increase that year came on the heels of the previous year when the percentage of people in poverty was at its lowest level on record.

Temporary relief?

Starting after the Great Depression, U.S. presidents have made reducing poverty a priority in their administrations. Most notably, Franklin D. Roosevelt had the New Deal and Lyndon Johnson had the Great Society .

But thus far during the 2024 presidential campaign, the issue of reducing poverty has been overshadowed by Trump’s legal troubles and Biden’s inability to force an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

In the world’s richest nation, more than 23 million people – a little more than 1 in 10 adults – live in households where there was not enough food to eat, according to the Census Bureau’s March 2024 Household Pulse Survey . And many of these people have jobs.

Despite trillions of U.S. dollars spent on lifting people out of poverty – $1.9 trillion in 2022 alone – it appears the federal government’s ability to provide a safety net for all those in need has fallen short.

As economist Bob Pfeiffer once said: “Our welfare system is designed to make lives more comfortable, not to solve poverty.”

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The dramatically rising toll of alcohol abuse.

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The toll of alcohol abuse is rising dramatically.

In the United States, the leading preventable cause of death is tobacco and second is poor diet and physical inactivity. Care to guess what comes in third? You can’t be faulted if you guessed opioids such as illicit fentanyl, given all the media attention it gets. But no, it’s something much more accessible, advertised directly to the consumer and having a negative impact across all socioeconomic groups: Alcohol, and specifically the problem of alcohol abuse which is dramatically worsening recently.

From 1999 to 2017, the number of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. doubled, to more than 70,000 a year. These numbers got much worse at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol-related deaths soared , reaching 178,000 in 2020 and 2021. Comprehensive federal datasets have yet to be released for 2022 and 2023.

In a study published in 2020 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers showed that significant increases in mortality started emerging in the mid 2010s across all racial and ethnic groups. But the steepest rate of acceleration of alcohol-induced deaths occurred among younger, white individuals, especially women. Authors noted that the large increases among younger age groups presaged “substantial future increases in alcohol-related disease.” In light of more recent figures which suggest an intensifying problem, it appears that the researchers’ warning provided more than four years ago was prescient.

What could be compounding the problem of youth drinking are the ways in which advertisers depict alcohol consumption. They emphasize its social acceptability—even its supposed link to social success—and this especially applies when commercials direct their messages at a comparatively young demographic.

The data demonstrate that the marketing works. Researchers publishing in the Journal of Public Health Research found a strong association between the youth-appeal of marketing content of televised alcohol advertisements and the brand-specific consumption of both underage youth and adults.

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Critics of certain commercials that are aimed at a younger demographic, like a beer ad which aired in 2019 promoting “Coors Light. The Official Beer of Saturday Morning,” suggest the companies that sponsor the advertising are going too far.

The negative health effects of alcohol are usually because of excessive drinking over long periods of time. Here, the leading causes of alcohol-attributable deaths are liver and cardiovascular diseases, seven types of cancer—including liver, throat, mouth, esophagus and stomach—as well as alcohol use disorder. NIAAA defines the latter as a “medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences.” This can encompass alcohol abuse, dependence, addiction and the colloquial term, alcoholism.

But consuming a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time can also be deadly, as it may lead to alcohol poisoning or other dangers like motor vehicle accidents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 17% of U.S. adults binge drink. Moreover, in 2021 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 13,384 (roughly a third) of all motor vehicular deaths. And 40% of violent crimes such as assault, homicide and domestic abuse, were committed by people who had high blood alcohol content at the time of their arrest.

The rise in alcohol abuse certainly isn’t limited to the U.S. In the United Kingdom, for instance, The Guardian reported last month that heavier drinking during the Covid-19 pandemic led to 2,500 more deaths from alcohol in 2022 than in 2019, a 33% jump.

While alcohol can be a toxic, carcinogenic drug, it’s also enjoyed by many people in moderation and often as an accompaniment—a lubricant of sorts—in a variety of social settings. Research psychologists have found that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol in a group setting “boosts people’s emotions and enhances social bonding.”

In addition, there may be physical gains associated with consumption of small amounts of alcohol. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and others, like WebMD, still tout certain cardiovascular health benefits related to moderate intake of alcohol.

Nevertheless, other health entities, such as the Mayo Clinic, appear to be taking a different stance lately. The hospital group now says that “drinking alcohol in any amount carries a health risk,” though it qualifies the statement by suggesting that “while the risk is low for moderate intake, the risk increases as the amount you drink goes up.”

And a STAT News article published this month indicates that “alcohol isn’t healthy after all.” The publication asks whether the new dietary guidelines, set by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services and scheduled to be released in 2025, will be shaped more by health or (alcohol) industry interests? It’s suggested that changes in guidance are likely if the experts who draft the recommendations take into account the evidence of alcohol-related harms, including “heightened risks of certain cancers, chronic diseases, and injuries.”

While prevention is important, treatment is equally vital. Research published by The Lancet shows that early, preventive strategies in primary care can be effective, and a variety of interventions are available to treat alcohol dependence.

However, access to quality care for alcohol misuse and alcohol-associated diseases is often lacking. Additionally, there may be a stigma attached to seeking help for something as socially acceptable and easily accessible as alcohol.

Public health specialists have therefore asserted that it’s time for a national dialogue about substance misuse of all drugs, legal and illegal, and that this discussion should include alcohol. In this context, experts suggest that efforts need to be centered around research on alcoholism, addiction and abuse, as well as ways to improve access to therapy for alcohol use disorders, possible curbs on advertising and targeted awareness and education campaigns.

However, alcohol abuse and misuse is not (yet) considered a public health emergency. Without declaring it as such, sufficient funding for a concerted nationwide policy is not forthcoming, which means the federal government hasn’t prioritized an alcohol policy in the same way it has done for illicit drugs, or prescription opioids for that matter. Perhaps the latest alarming figures on the rising toll of alcohol abuse will help trigger more urgency.

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AstraZeneca withdraws COVID-19 vaccine citing a decline in demand

AstraZeneca has initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic.

"As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines," the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company said.

The surplus had led to a decline in demand for its vaccine, known as Vaxzevria since 2021, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied, the company said.

The company said it would also proceed to withdraw the vaccine's marketing authorisations within Europe.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been available in Australia since March 21, 2023.

It was linked to a rare but serious side effect, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TSS), according to the Department of Health and Aged Care .

In TSS, a person develops blood clots (thrombosis), which can appear in different parts of the body, combined with a low blood platelet count.

Other COVID-19 vaccines are not associated with TSS.

After AstraZeneca-linked TSS cases were reported in March 2021 , the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation updated its advice to recommend a different vaccine for people under 50 due to their slightly higher risk of developing the condition.

From June 2021, an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine was recommended to people under 60.

The Department of Health estimated the rate of TSS from Vaxzevria to be about two in every 100,000 in people over 60, and about two to three in 100,000 in people under 60.

Cases were reported in all ages, some mild and others fatal .

Some 13 million AstraZeneca doses were administered in Australia, with 173 "probable" or "confirmed" cases of TSS reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), a Department of Health spokesperson said.

The TGA reported 14 deaths linked to a COVID-19 vaccination, eight of which were associated with a case of TSS, the spokesperson said. No new deaths were identified since 2022.

AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine caused side-effects such as blood clotting in court documents relating to a UK class action, The Telegraph reported .

The application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on May 7, the newspaper wrote .

AstraZeneca began moving into respiratory syncytial virus vaccines and obesity drugs through several deals last year after a slowdown in growth as COVID-19 medicine sales declined.

The latest advice by the Department of Health recommends one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as a primary course for most Australians, or two doses for those at risk of severe illness.

A COVID-19 booster dose is recommended for people aged 65 years and over every 12 months.

Reuters/ABC

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Controversy follows Gov. Kristi Noem as she is banned by two more South Dakota tribes

FILE - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, Feb. 23, 2024, in Oxon Hill, Md. Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels.

The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come on the heels of the backlash Noem faced for writing about killing a hunting dog that misbehaved in her latest book. It is not clear how these controversies will affect her chances to become Donald Trump’s running mate because it is hard to predict what the former president will do.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe voted Friday to ban Noem from their land in southeastern South Dakota just a few days after the Sisseton-Wahpeton Ovate tribe took the same action . The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken action to keep her off their reservations. Three other tribes haven’t yet banned her.

Noem reinforced the divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when she said publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.

“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at a forum. “But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, ’Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared.’ ”

Noem’s spokesman didn’t respond Saturday to email questions about the bans. But previously she has said she believes many people who live on the reservations still support her even though she is clearly not getting along with tribal leaders.

Noem addressed the issue in a post on X on Thursday along with posting a link to a YouTube channel about law enforcement’s video about drugs on the reservations.

“Tribals leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” Noem said. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job.”

The tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including over the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out unnecessary visitors. She was temporarily banned from the Oglala Sioux reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.

And there is a long history of rocky relations between Native Americans in the state and the government dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at the Wounded Knee massacre as part of a campaign to stop a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance.

Political observer Cal Jillson, who is based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal dispute feels a little different because Noem seems to be “stoking it actively, which suggests that she sees a political benefit.”

“I’m sure that Gov. Noem doesn’t mind a focus on tensions with the Native Americans in South Dakota because if we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about her shooting the dog,” Jillson said.

Noem appears to be getting tired of answering questions about her decision to kill Cricket after the dog attacked a family’s chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor. Noem also drew criticism for including an anecdote she has since asked her publisher to pull from the book that described “staring down” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a private meeting that experts said was implausible.

After those controversies, she canceled several interviews that were planned as part of the book tour. With all the questions about “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” no one is even asking anymore about Noem’s decision to appear in an infomercial-style video lavishing praise on a team of cosmetic dentists in Texas who gave her veneers.

Jillson said it all probably hurts her chances with Trump, who has been auditioning a long list of potential vice-president candidates.

“I think that the chaos that Trump revels in is the chaos he creates. Chaos created by somebody else simply detracts attention from himself,” Jillson said.

University of South Dakota political science professor Michael Card said that if it isn’t the vice-president slot, it’s not clear what is in Noem’s political future because she is prevented from running for another term as governor. Noem is in her second term as governor.

She could go after U.S. Senator Mike Rounds’ seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.