Vaccines making Thanksgiving easier, but hot spots remain

The U.S. is facing its second Thanksgiving of the pandemic in better shape than the first time around, thanks to the vaccine, though some regions are seeing surges of COVID-19 cases that could get worse as families travel the country for gatherings that were impossible a year ago.

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Ravages of COVID surge evident inside Missouri hospital

Daryl Barker was passionately against a COVID-19 vaccination, and so were his relatives. Then 10 of them got sick and Barker, at just 31, ended up in a Missouri intensive care unit fighting for his life. It's a scenario playing out time and again at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, where 22 people died from the virus in the first 23 days of July. Many other hospitals across Missouri are fighting the same battle, the result of the fast-spreading delta variant invading a state with one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates, especially in rural areas.

COVID-19's global death toll tops 5 million in under 2 years

The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 5 million on Monday, less than two years into a crisis that has not only devastated poor countries but also humbled wealthy ones with first-rate health care systems.

Burning Man mulling mandatory COVD-19 vaccines for August

Burning Man festival organizers have said that they are considering requiring attendees to prove they have been vaccinated for COVID-19 if the organizers move forward with plans to hold this year's counter-culture festival in the Nevada desert. The organizers backed off an earlier statement indicating that they had already decided to make the shots mandatory. They say they won't decide for sure until the end of the month whether the event that was canceled last year because of the pandemic will take place this summer.