News Room

A normal return to college this fall is anything but normal. The variety of COVID-19 impacted education plans range from fully online to fully in-person, and everything in between. Many colleges have cancelled or delayed football and other sports this fall. Colleges have welcomed students back to campus, and students are glad to be back; some have reciprocated with new infections, mostly asymptomatic. College life has been upended, with no end in sight.

Currently, dozens of experimental COVID-19 vaccines are being developed in the United States and throughout the world, including seven vaccine candidates funded by the U.S. government, according to a report by the Statesman Journal. Two of the seven vaccines are in Phase 3 clinical trials, which now begs the question: how will the vaccine be distributed, and who will be first to receive it when it’s available?

Nine of the pharmaceutical companies actively working on a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine have pledged to make sure whatever drug they come up with is safe for people, even if it means taking longer to develop. In a joint statement, the U.S. and European firms, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline, promised to “uphold the integrity of the scientific process as they work towards potential global regulatory filings and approvals of the first Covid-19 vaccines.”

After U.S. health officials warned Americans to continue social distancing and wearing masks on Labor Day weekend, the United States may report its 190,000th death from the new coronavirus on Tuesday or Wednesday. In sports news, the American men are out at the U.S. Open after Frances Tiafoe, who had tested positive for COVID-19 in July, lost Monday to No. 4 Daniil Medvedev of Russia. The next Grand Slam event, the French Open, which begins later this month, will allow spectators, organizers announced Monday.

When the coronavirus hit, even the most enthusiastic cooks had to adjust to a new, more complicated relationship with their kitchens. For the first time in a generation, Americans began spending more money at the supermarket than at places where someone else made the food. Grocers saw eight years of projected sales growth packed into one month. Shopping trends that were in their infancy were turbocharged.