COVID-19 pandemic

…during the course of the pandemic. In mid-2021, for example, the emergence of the so-called Delta variant, which was even more contagious than the original form of the virus, led to breakthrough cases among vaccinated individuals and was a significant cause of illness and hospitalization among the unvaccinated. Likewise, in…

…giving rise to a multiyear pandemic that resulted in millions of deaths. The pandemic also spurred a revolution in business and education, spawning a reliance on distance learning and work-at-home arrangements and the rise of videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom, which became one of the most downloaded applications worldwide and…

Looking back, the COVID-19 pandemic stands as arguably the most disruptive event of the 21st century, surpassing wars, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the effects of climate change, and the Great Recession. It has killed more than seven million people to date and reshaped the world economy,…

In March 2020 an ongoing outbreak of a novel coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2) was declared a pandemic by WHO officials. Infection with SARS-CoV2 produced an illness known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); the illness was characterized primarily by fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The…

…in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic, when violent extremists opposed the country’s vaccination program, and in the United States following the presidential election of 2020. When public figures vocalize violent language that may previously have been found only in remote corners of the Internet (such as encrypted chat rooms or…

…United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early 2020, as the novel coronavirus began spreading more rapidly, health experts raised concerns about the viability of the Olympics. Although the Olympics had faced virus-related challenges in the past (e.g., the Zika virus at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics and the swine flu at the Vancouver…

…health protocols related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.