More than two-thirds of the common side-effects people experience after a Covid jab can be attributed to a negative version of the placebo effect rather than the vaccine itself, researchers claim. Scientists in the US examined data from 12 clinical trials of Covid vaccines and found that the “nocebo effect” accounted for about 76% of all common adverse reactions after the first dose and nearly 52% after the second dose.

New coronavirus cases are falling in parts of the United States hardest hit by the fast-spreading Omicron variant, according to a Reuters analysis of public health data, offering an early indication the virus might once again be on retreat.

New York City and some north-eastern US states appear to be seeing rapid decreases in their numbers of Covid-19 cases in recent days, raising the possibility that the Omicron wave has now already peaked in some parts of America. In New York City the rolling seven-day average of new cases was less than 28,000 a day on 16 January, down from an average of more than 40,000 on 9 January.

Amazon's automated HR systems led to at least one worker being pestered with messages while he was off sick with COVID-19, NBC reports. Illinois Amazon warehouse worker Drew Duzinskas told NBC he tested positive for COVID-19 over the holidays. He said he notified Amazon, but that for days afterwards he received automated texts from the company telling him his balance of paid time off was going down because he was missing shifts.

Long before anyone had heard about Covid-19, Patrick Somerville was pitching Station Eleven as “a postapocalyptic show about joy.” Somerville’s largely faithful adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2015 novel takes place 20 years after a particularly nasty flu strain has wiped out 99 percent of the world’s population. It’s a world mostly without electricity and the other creature comforts of the reality we know. But unlike on traditional postapocalyptic dramas The Walking Dead or The Stand...

On a visit to a public hospital in a farming community in late November, I saw something that astonished me. Empty beds. Rows of them, their black plastic-covered mattresses stripped of sheets. Blue privacy curtains folded up over rails, out of the way. I had never seen a Zambian hospital like this. When I last toured one, nearly 15 years ago, patients lay two or three to a bed, head-to-feet-to-head. And more on the floor. More on thatch mats in the hallways. The patients were gaunt, their eyes huge above sunken cheeks. Hopelessness and suffering hung in the air.

Even a mild case of COVID-19 can result in higher odds of decreased mobility and physical function for adults aged 50 years and older, according to a new national study, putting a spotlight on how hundreds of thousands could need physical rehabilitation due to this pandemic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order aimed at preventing price gouging of at-home COVID-19 test kits. The order, announced Saturday, prohibits sellers from increasing previous prices for the self-test kits by more than 10%. A nationwide shortage of those kits has led to price gouging, with some people reselling the kits for five times as much as they paid for them.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19. According to a statement released on Ocasio-Cortez's Twitter on Sunday, the Brooklyn-based Democratic congresswoman is symptomatic, despite being fully vaccinated and boostered.

Hospitals across the United States are postponing elective surgeries to free up staff and beds due to a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Administrators say hospital staff shortages have been compounded in the last month by medical practitioners isolating or quarantining as they themselves are infected or exposed to the virus.

The 'Wonder Woman' star posted a video in March 2020 of herself and some famous friends singing the John Lennon hit as a response to the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had hosted a TV science and science-fiction show in the 1980s.

Anti-vaccine activists have spent the past few days spreading lies about Betty White, the beloved actress who passed away at 99 years old on Dec. 31. But contrary to internet rumors, Betty White didn’t die after getting a covid-19 booster shot. “Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home. People are saying her death was related to getting a booster shot three days earlier but that is not true,” White’s agent, Jeff Witjas, told Yahoo Entertainment.

The rapid surge of omicron infections in the United States may be relatively brief, measured in weeks rather than months, according to infectious-disease experts who have been astonished by the speed of the coronavirus variant’s spread — and who are hoping this wave ebbs just as quickly.

The task of 2022 will be figuring out how much action we’re willing to take and how much disease and death we’ll tolerate.

CES has dropped the last day of its 2022 tech conference in Las Vegas, and the show will now end on January 7th, the Consumer Technology Association announced today. The shorter schedule is “an additional safety measure” in the face of a surge of COVID-19 diagnoses.

In late November, more than 110 people gathered at a crowded Christmas party at a restaurant in Oslo, Norway. Most of the guests were fully vaccinated. One had returned from South Africa just a few days earlier and was unknowingly carrying the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

The rapid surge of omicron infections in the United States may be relatively brief, measured in weeks rather than months, according to infectious-disease experts who have been astonished by the speed of the coronavirus variant’s spread — and who are hoping this wave ebbs just as quickly.

People infected with the heavily mutated omicron variant of Covid-19 may have increased immune protection against delta, a new study says. As a consequence, omicron could displace delta, according to the small study published by South African scientists this week.

Two new preprint papers add to the growing evidence that the Omicron coronavirus variant may be less likely to cause severe disease and hospitalization compared to the Delta variant.