Experts say the brand new COVID boosters are a a lot nearer match to at the moment circulating variants than prior vaccines and boosters.

Frederick J. Brown/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Frederick J. Brown/AFP by way of Getty Images

Experts say the brand new COVID boosters are a a lot nearer match to at the moment circulating variants than prior vaccines and boosters.

Frederick J. Brown/AFP by way of Getty Images

In spring 2023, COVID hospitalizations and deaths hit their lowest ranges because the begin of the pandemic. Masks got here off and faculties and a few workplaces have been again in individual. The nation emerged from the three-year COVID nightmare – and entered a tentative, new regular.

And with the official finish of the federal public health emergency in May, the U.S. well being care system reverted to the best way it often works: People’s medical insurance, or lack of it, as soon as once more dictates their entry to COVID-related assessments, vaccines and shortly – in 2024 – to treatments.

“Our health care system has well-known and documented disparities,” says Dr. Mandy Cohen, who took the helm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July. “So when we go back to the ‘normal course of business,’ it doesn’t make for the equitable distribution of things.”

While business-as-usual resumed for a lot of, the nation was completely modified in blatant and refined methods which are nonetheless shaking out. Here are tales on the COVID beat from NPR’s well being reporters that present a number of the classes realized – and never realized — because the pandemic advanced in 2023.

From left to proper: Long COVID sufferers Linda Rosenthal, Julia Landis and Shelby Hedgecock proceed to endure from extreme signs.

Courtesy of Linda Rosenthal, Julia Landis and Shelby Hedgecock

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Courtesy of Linda Rosenthal, Julia Landis and Shelby Hedgecock

From left to proper: Long COVID sufferers Linda Rosenthal, Julia Landis and Shelby Hedgecock proceed to endure from extreme signs.

Courtesy of Linda Rosenthal, Julia Landis and Shelby Hedgecock

As ‘normal life’ returned, some felt left behind

For many, college and work and social lives and journey resumed freely. For some – dwelling with compromised immune techniques or lengthy COVID or grief – the world appeared to surge forward without considering them. As the general public well being emergency ended, kids mirrored on misplaced mother and father, nurses remembered misplaced colleagues and people grappled with how their well being, careers, households, society and lives have been ceaselessly modified.

Patients and advocates for folks affected by lengthy COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/persistent fatigue syndrome hosted an set up of 300 cots in entrance of the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in May, to symbolize the hundreds of thousands of individuals affected by post-infectious illness.

Andrew Harnik/AP

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Andrew Harnik/AP

Patients and advocates for folks affected by lengthy COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/persistent fatigue syndrome hosted an set up of 300 cots in entrance of the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in May, to symbolize the hundreds of thousands of individuals affected by post-infectious illness.

Andrew Harnik/AP

Scientists tackle the mysteries of long COVID

For the hundreds of thousands of individuals within the U.S. dwelling with lengthy COVID signs similar to mind fog, poor sleep and ache, higher understanding of the illness and coverings cannot come quickly sufficient. In 2023, researchers made headway in discerning in detangling theories about what might be inflicting lengthy COVID — such as lingering viral reservoirs and errant immune cells – however there are nonetheless no confirmed cures.

A new COVID vaccine strategy could help — if only people would pay attention

Updated COVID vaccines got here to U.S. shoppers this fall, promising better protection against recent variants. And there was new messaging too: Get an annual COVID boosters alongside along with your flu shot each fall. But anticipated “high demand” didn’t materialize. By mid-December, fewer than 20% of US adults had gotten the up to date shot, and the CDC warned of a doable surge in serious illness if vaccination protection fails to enhance.

A sewage therapy plant in Norfolk, Va., is among the websites the place employees gather wastewater samples to check for COVID traits within the close by neighborhood.

Meredith Rizzo/NPR

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Meredith Rizzo/NPR

A sewage therapy plant in Norfolk, Va., is among the websites the place employees gather wastewater samples to check for COVID traits within the close by neighborhood.

Meredith Rizzo/NPR

A big shift in collecting COVID data — from case counts to monitoring poop

Earlier this yr, the CDC stopped collecting data on new infections (as in constructive assessments) – relying as a substitute on COVID hospitalizations, deaths and, increasingly, on wastewater surveillance – a community arrange throughout the pandemic to regularly test sewage samples from across the nation. The surveillance community has expanded past COVID to trace flu, RSV, norovirus and different well being threats which are detectable in human waste.

The nation’s other health problems grew during the pandemic

It wasn’t simply COVID – the information got here on this yr displaying how the pandemic exacerbated different public well being and medical issues. For many, mental health suffered and folks turned to medicine and hard drinking to deal with grief and isolation. Children missed recommended vaccines. Obesity charges rose. The U.S. inhabitants emerged from the general public well being emergency with a shorter life expectancy than earlier than – indicating that the well being of the nation faces a protracted restoration.

A employee inspects disposable gloves at a manufacturing facility in Malaysia, a rustic that has been the highest provider of medical gloves to the U. S. and which is going through rising competitors from China.

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A employee inspects disposable gloves at a manufacturing facility in Malaysia, a rustic that has been the highest provider of medical gloves to the U. S. and which is going through rising competitors from China.

MOHD RASFAN/AFP by way of Getty Images

We didn’t learn our lesson about PPE

Who’s fascinated by the subsequent pandemic? A couple of devoted public well being professionals are combating to make everlasting adjustments they are saying would assist make the nation extra ready for the subsequent main risk. But within the boom-and-bust cycle of funding for public well being, the nation’s post-emergency curiosity is on the downswing. One legacy is a U.S. panorama affected by empty rubber glove factories, which obtained greater than $290 million in public funds to bolster the provision chain for private protecting gear, solely to be left half-built within the lurch.