An emerging Ebola outbreak in Guinea may have been sparked by a survivor of the historic West African outbreak of 2013-2016. That means the virus would have had to incubate in the index case, without replicating enough to cause acute disease, for at least five years. 

The United States has had about 23 million cases of COVID-19 as of Jan. 13, 2021. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 11.5 million of those cases were transmitted by someone without symptoms.

The COVID-19 pandemic is coming to a disastrous boiling point in the United States, with one of the nation’s top public health officials predicting a high death toll as the pandemic surges nationwide over the winter months.

Minks farmed for their fur are acquiring SARS-CoV-2 from humans and transmitting it back, a classic scenario for possible genetic mutation that could create a mismatch with vaccines under development, the World Health Organization reports.

In what is likely a substantial undercount, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that between Feb. 12 and July 16, there were 100,570 COVID-19 cases in healthcare workers and 641 deaths reported in the United States. General trends in COVID-19 in HCP mortality include the deaths occurred in those who were older, male, Asian, Black, and with an underlying medical condition, the CDC reported.

One parent was hospitalized after 12 children acquired COVID-19 in childcare facilities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Trying to strike a balance epidemiologically, and perhaps politically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidelines for people wanting to leave home and attend gatherings as COVID-19 cases generally have plateaued nationally.

In incomplete data that almost certainly reflect an undercount, 294 healthcare workers have died of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.