Dr. Anthony Fauci is reflecting on some of the actions taken in response to the COVID pandemic, including school closures, which have led to a learning loss across the country. 

The initial closure was not a mistake, he said Tuesday on "CBS Mornings," but questions the length schools were kept shut. 

Fifteen months after caving to pro-mask public figures by applying a scarlet letter to its research questioning the effectiveness of masks against influenza and COVID-19 – over the strident objections of its authors, whose critics declared victory – a U.K.-based international research collaborative funded by American taxpayers has reached an anticlimactic conclusion.

A GOP-led House panel is seeking access to Dr. Anthoni Fauci‘s personal email accounts and cell phone records as part of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, made the request in a letter to Fauci on Wednesday ahead of the former government health official’s planned testimony next week.

LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.

The Geneva-based U.N. health agency released a technical document on the topic on Thursday. It said it was the first step towards working out how to better prevent this kind of transmission, both for existing diseases like measles and for future pandemic threats.

Deaths linked to excessive drinking surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The study in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that the average annual number of deaths from “excessive alcohol use” rose by around 30 percent from 2016-2017 to 2020-2021. In the same period, the average annual number of deaths from “excessive alcohol use” rose by around 27 percent for men and 35 percent for women.

A new study discovered possible links between the COVID-19 pandemic and possible neurological, blood and heart-related conditions.

The new study, published in Vaccine, is the largest study of its kind since the pandemic began and could reignite the debate over the risks and benefits of the vaccine.

Over the past three years, more than 13.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered around the world. The World Health Organization recently announced that vaccination has saved at least a million and a half lives in Europe alone.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering loosening its recommendations regarding how long people should isolate after testing positive for the coronavirus, another reflection of changing attitudes and norms as the pandemic recedes.

Under the proposed guidelines, Americans would no longer be advised to isolate for five days before returning to work or school. Instead, they might return to their routines if they have been fever free for at least 24 hours without medication, the same standard applied to the influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses.

Dr. Anthony Fauci completed the second day of his closed-door grilling with members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, in which he reportedly admitted that the six-foot social distancing rule that emerged at the start of the coronavirus pandemic was actually based on nothing.

Congressional Republicans are celebrating the Small Business Administration (SBA) collecting on COVID-19 loans after putting pressure on the agency to do so.

Several GOP senators and House members have put the SBA in their sights regarding the pandemic-era loans, with the agency telling lawmakers they are going to collect repayments from defaulted Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans under $100,000.

The fast-spreading COVID-19 variant known as JN.1 is now the most prevalent in the U.S., accounting for more than 44% of cases as the virus expands domestically and internationally.

The big picture: JN.1's surge suggests it's either more transmissible or better at evading our immune systems than other strains in circulation, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it's too early to tell how much it will drive an increase in infections or hospitalizations this winter.