FDA unlikely to rule on Merck’s COVID pill before December

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will ask its outside experts to meet in late November to scrutinize Merck’s pill to treat COVID-19. The Nov. 30 meeting means U.S. regulators almost certainly won’t issue a decision on the drug until December, signaling that the agency will conduct a detailed review of the experimental […]

EU watchdog to rule Friday on Pfizer for youths

The European Medicines Agency will announce on Friday whether it has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus jab for 12- to 15-year-olds, the regulator said. If approved it will be the first vaccine to get the green light for young people in the 27-nation European Union. Pfizer is currently authorised for people aged 16 and older. The […]

As mask mandates end, Oregon bucks trend with permanent rule

As states around the country lift COVID-19 restrictions, Oregon is poised to go the opposite direction—and many residents are fuming about it. A top health official is considering indefinitely extending rules requiring masks and social distancing in all businesses in the state. The proposal would keep the rules in place until they are “no longer […]

COVID-19 response shows how an informal rule of law plays a supporting role in society

Through much of the last year, COVID-19 has propelled many people to accept and follow new patterns of behavior. These include wearing a mask in public, attempting to socially distance and restricting groups to smaller numbers. Developed in what critics say was an absence of strong national leadership, these behaviors have been policed, by and […]

As states reopen, tensions flare between the rule followers and rule breakers

Since Republicans, on average, are five times more likely than Democrats to believe it’s safe now to resume normal business activity, reopening the economy has often been framed as a partisan issue. But within households, many families are having their own arguments about how lax or strict they should be about the threat of the […]

White House moves to weaken EPA rule on toxic compounds

The Trump White House intervened to weaken one of the few public health protections pursued by its own administration, a rule to limit the use of a toxic industrial compound in consumer products, according to communications between the White House and Environmental Protection Agency. The documents show that the White House Office of Management and […]