Month: May 2022

For a few months, it looked like COVID-19 was retreating in the United States. But cases are rising across the country again. Still, public health leaders are signaling that the U.S. is turning another corner in this pandemic, and that continued COVID surges might just be part of the new normal.

NPR Science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff reports on what the new Omicron variant could have in store for the U.S. in coming weeks and months, and what scientists know about Americans’ COVID immunity.

Andy Slavitt, former senior advisor to President Joe Biden on COVID, explains what the “endemic phase” could look like.

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Twin babies Lenny and Moishe were born via surrogate in Ukraine, just as Russia invaded the country. Their parents live in Chicago and had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new sons.

Rescuers exfiltrated the babies, dodging Russian artillery fire and driving through a snowstorm before finally arriving at a Polish hospital, where new father Alex “Sasha” Spektor met the boys for the first time. But a more difficult journey for the family was just beginning.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro followed up with Spektor and his partner, Irma Nuñez, as they navigated the complicated bureaucratic process of getting their twins from Poland to the United States.

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Bipartisan members who serve on state and county boards of canvassers in Michigan have an important job: certifying the results of elections, making them official.

In 2020, Former President Trump and his allies urged them not to certify as part of his campaign to undermine and overturn the presidential election, even though Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes.

Since then, local GOP leaders have replaced many of the Republican canvassers who upheld their oaths and voted to certify the results for Biden.

Michelle Voorheis, a Republican canvasser in Genessee County until last year, is one of them. She says she wasn’t re-nominated because she pushed back against false allegations of election fraud.

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The right to an abortion in the United States appears closer than ever to being eliminated, after a draft of a majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. Should it stand, the court’s ruling wouldn’t ban abortion nationwide, but would leave the decision up to individual states. Many Republican-led states are ready to enact their own bans, should Roe v. Wade be overturned, which could leave tens of millions of people without access to abortions.

NPR congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, national political correspondent Mara Liasson, and national correspondent Sarah McCammon explain the far-reaching effects this draft could have on abortion-rights advocates, as well as its potential impact on the midterm elections later this year.

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Cases of COVID-19 have been surging throughout China.

The country has implemented a stringent “zero-COVID” strategy that includes mass testing, limited travel and large-scale lockdowns.

In Shanghai, many residents haven’t been able to leave their homes. It’s an eerie reminder of the lockdowns in Wuhan during the first year of the pandemic.

NPR’s international correspondent Rob Schmitz spoke with two residents of a housing complex in Shanghai about their experiences with the city’s lockdown.

There are some people who are leaving their homes – mainly to enforce China’s “zero-COVID” plan. China has hired tens of thousands of temporary workers to test, isolate and lock down entire cities.

Beijing correspondent Emily Feng spoke to a few of those workers, many of whom are poorly treated and underpaid.

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Communities of color are the most harshly affected by climate change in the United States. While the importance of environmental justice is becoming more mainstream, too often people in this movement who are Black, Indigenous and people of color are overlooked and left out of conversations about how to solve the crisis.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, policy expert and writer, wants the broader environmental movement to understand the crucial link between the fight to save the planet and the fight for racial justice.

And we’ll hear how the Donors of Color Network is working to increase philanthropic funding for environmental initiatives led by people of color.

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