Down But Not Out: Pandemic Likely Dealt Blow To Economy But There's Room For Hope The U.S. economy is likely to have slowed in the last three months of the year, ending 2020 smaller than it began. But for some companies, business is now back to pre-pandemic levels. Scott Horsley
Biden Administration Aims To Buy 200 Million More COVID-19 Vaccine Doses President Biden announced on Tuesday that his administration is trying to secure enough vaccine doses to ensure that 300 million Americans are vaccinated by the fall. Scott Detrow
Biden Announces Plans To Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Supply On Tuesday, President Biden announced a plan to boost the COVID-19 vaccine supply by 20% over the next three weeks and by hundreds of millions of doses by summer. Pien Huang
Some European Countries Move To Require Medical-Grade Masks In Public Germany, Austria and France have announced new measures that push fabric masks aside. European leaders have tied the policy changes to efforts to fend off fast-spreading coronavirus variants. Laurel Wamsley
CDC Makes Case For School Reopening Federal researchers say, with proper safety precautions, schools don't seem to fuel outbreaks, with some exceptions, such as indoor sports practices. Cory Turner
Biden Administration Criticized For Delay In Tackling Opioid Crisis More than 200 Americans are dying from drug overdoses daily. Now the Biden administration faces criticism for reportedly delaying a Trump administration policy widely seen as a way to help save lives. Brian Mann
Opinion: Why I'm An Invisible Man In The Global Vaccine Campaign Nigerian physician Ifeanyi Nsofor writes: "I was elated when the first COVID-19 vaccine was shown effective. My joy was cut short when richer Western nations began buying up the vaccine doses." Ifeanyi Nsofor
California, Nation's Most Populous State, Struggles With Vaccine Rollout California has lifted regional stay-at-home orders, citing improved Coronavirus numbers. But that good news is tempered by ongoing problems with the state's vaccine rollout. Eric Westervelt
Turkey Struggles During Pandemic To Protect Public Health, Economy Turkey says it has vaccinated more than a million front-line workers against COVID-19, and is now vaccinating people in their 80s. The country is hard hit — even as weekend lockdowns continue. Peter Kenyon
Health Workers Still Face Shortages Of Critical Medical Supplies Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, personal protective equipment, or PPE, has been in short supply. Exam gloves currently top the ever-changing list. What's holding up the supply? Yuki Noguchi
