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NPR surveyed all 50 states about their contact tracing work. The workforce has barely grown since mid-June, while cases have skyrocketed.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins about the ongoing pandemic, delays in the mass vaccination campaign and the impending political transition.

The U.S. Postal Service is still digging out from under an avalanche of mail sent over the holidays. Plus, the system has been strained by the impact of COVID-19 on its workflow and workforce.

Oxford-AstraZeneca promised its COVID-19 vaccine would be effective, cheap and available worldwide. Five months after its launch, the path forward has been anything but smooth.

When the 2014 Ebola outbreak was spiraling out of control, Gayle Smith worked on the team that devised the Obama administration's response.

Last year, China drastically cut back its imports of plastic waste to recycle. Now the U.S. and other wealthy nations must figure out what to do with their discards.

With a federal judge poised to approve Purdue Pharma's controversial Chapter 11 plan, the company is working behind the scenes to preempt a legal challenge by the DOJ.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, about the U.S. offering COVID-19 booster shots. The World Health Organization criticized the decision.

In Japan, a country rich with visual storytelling, food has skyrocketed as a genre of manga — and the stories often depict a struggle for self-improvement.

Tapeworms, hookworms, leeches. Millions of specimens. This collection has it all — except legs.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Khwaga Ghani, who was NPR's producer in Afghanistan for the past few years and is now at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin awaiting her visa.

During the pandemic, karaoke has been kayoed due to fears of viral spread. If you've got a song in your heart and a vaccine in your arm, is it safe to pick up a karaoke mic in public?

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Cecily Wong, one of the co-authors of a new book called Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide. It explores culinary delicacies from every continent.

The updated guidance promotes vaccination for those old enough and says vaccinated children may not need masks. What about kids too young for vaccines? And as summer begins, what about vacation risks?

NPR's Michel Martin talks with former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy about how hospitals can improve their coronavirus response measures.

The Adelanto ICE Processing Center houses nearly 2,000 people in California. Federal, state and watchdog reviews say the Florida-based firm that runs Adelanto fails to provide adequate health care.

Many Uyghurs living in Afghanistan want to leave now that the Taliban are back in control. They fear that the Chinese government could push the Taliban to deport them to China.

Pat Maginnis was out in front of the fight to legalize abortion in the 1960s, but few know her name and the lengths she went to.

Desmond Tutu will be remembered for helping end apartheid. But also for his memorable laugh, an infectious, cackling howl employed in the service of easing tensions in a very tense nation.

Your college kid just got home and may be a bit jaded about COVID. But your coming holiday visit could be a real risk to grandparents. Here's how one mom is getting through to her sons about safety.

Two rapid-testing initiatives the Biden administration released in the past week are inaccessible to some residents of multifamily housing, people who don’t speak English well, or those without internet access.

The White House coronavirus task force gave its first public briefing in months on Friday after daily COVID-19 case numbers have reached record levels.

Daniel Estrin discovered while reporting from Ukraine that the current geopolitical drama touches his family's history in unexpected ways.

Analyst Evan Kohlmann talks with Renee Montagne about al-Qaida's public relations arm and multimedia production team, al-Sahab. The group produced a video that connected al-Qaida to the USS Cole bombing in 2000, and has since produced high-quality videos and audio tapes about al-Qaida's activities around the world.

Bonobo chimpanzees Kanzi and Panbanisha understand thousands of words. With the help of a keypad, they use sentences, talk on the phone, and gossip. They are challenging the idea that language is unique to humans.