LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Lisa Dansby Williams loves connecting students in need with mental health resources.

"It's just been hard for many of the students and their families to navigate some of the resulting issues of the pandemic, whether that be domestic violence within the family, homelessness, maybe mom, dad lost a job," she said.

As the need rises, services are stretched thin.

"We do have a limited pool of mental health professionals to employ. Some of the main issues are that they are moving to different platforms to provide services. Some have been burnt out themselves by the pandemic and some of the increase of need for services and so that's been a major issue as well," Dansby said.

The national recommendation for school counselors is 1 for every 250 students. According to the National Association of School Counselors, only 17.8% of school districts met that requirement. Only 4.2% of urban school districts met it, according to pre-pandemic numbers.

"We are definitely seeing an increase in the number of students, families, and staff, and even administrators that are referring students and families to us," said Alma Lopez, who is a school counselor at a California middle school.

"It's been a challenge, you know, we're putting in some full days and then some and so definitely the need to have more mental health professionals in the school building is an essential need right now," she said.

What's been helping, Lopez said, is the waning stigma around mental health and the increased awareness from lawmakers. However, she believes more needs to be done, including help for counselors.

"More people need to actually understand the role of the school counselor and of mental health professionals right in the school building," she said.

For mental health workers, no matter what assistance comes, they're going to show up for the students, and be their much-needed rock, even if everything is so uncertain

"Right now there's a greater need to help family, so if I can make it happen, that's what I try to do," Williams said.

A growing number of men and women are skipping the salon or barbershop.

45% percent of men are cutting their hair at home, according to research firm Attest.

21% of women are doing the same.

"Men are getting more haircuts themselves because it's cheaper, they can, and they've learned how over the last two years," said Jeremy King, CEO of Attest.

King said he's one of them.

"I could get some clippers for about $20 from Amazon, which is already about $10 than one haircut," King said. "That lasted me for five haircuts during lockdown at various times. And my wife did a pretty good job with some minor instructional videos."

The haircut trend is reflective of a broader shift toward a quicker, more D.I.Y. style of grooming.

76% percent of people are spending less than 30 minutes on their morning routine.

"The last few years have given us these tectonic shifts in consumption behavior," King said. "People tend to have a limited amount of time and a limited number of slots where they can think about beauty and grooming products."

There is one notable exception to this rule.

Researchers say there is a group of people, mostly millennial men and women, who are spending more than $100 a month on beauty products.

This group is "Highly Invested in Beauty and Grooming," or HIBAGs for short.

"These groups are throwing off worries about higher prices, economic uncertainty and inflation," King said. "But what's interesting is we start to pick up takeaways for brands here. How to win these HIBAGs, and how things you learn from them can be applied to broader markets."

Social media 'influencers' are one of the least important factors in the decision-making process.

The research from Attest shows people value the opportunity to sample products.

They are also looking for a clean message.

"Consumers are looking for brands that promote clean beauty, rather than sustainable beauty, which is an interesting distinction," King said. "More than half of Americans say that a brand's use of natural or clean ingredients is a big consideration when making purchasing decisions. By contrast, only 26% take a brand's environmental credentials into account."

Sustainability experts warn that some deceptive marketers are already using these tactics to "greenwash" their products.

Some ingredients to avoid, according to conservationists, include sulfates and triclosan, which are sometimes found in toothpaste or body wash.

BOSTON —

Since the start of the pandemic, Adjoa Anyane Yeboa's day-to-day schedule has changed.

"I was able to find more flexibility in my work life in order to take time and finally take time and do something for me," Yeboa said.

More work from home means more time to make plans for the future. For Yeboa, who's in her mid-30s, that means family planning.

"I've been thinking about egg freezing for a long time and only recently I finally decided to take the leap," Yeboa said.

Fertility experts say egg freezing has spiked about 20% during the pandemic.

"I see so many people settling for their partners or rushing to find somebody and to get engaged and get married because they're beating a clock and I didn't want to have to do that," Yeboa said. " I wanted to do things on my timeline."

Dr. Rachel Ashby, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston says there are key COVID-19 reasons more women are making the personal decision to freeze their eggs, including how isolation impacted relationships.

"The pandemic has delayed a lot of social interaction, so for people who were dating and planning on dating and looking for partners," Ashby said. "There were a lot of patients I've seen that were in a long-term relationship with this idea that this person I plan to build a family around, and the relationship did not survive."

There's been more time to think and for many, to turn to science.

The egg freezing process takes about two weeks and involves daily injections of FSH hormones to stimulate the ovaries to grow as many eggs as possible.

Then, the eggs are retrieved and preserved in a lab in subzero temperatures to be used at a later date.

"The biggest thing for women to know is that travel is not easily accomplished because you're coming in every few days, usually at 6:30 to 7 a.m. for bloodwork or ultrasound," Ashby said. "Over that two-week time frame, the follicles go from very small to mature."

Ashby says women who are thinking about doing this should focus on getting all the information first, to see if it makes sense for them.

The process can run anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to freeze your eggs.

Ashby says more and more companies are including egg freezing in their health insurance but you should make sure your coverage also includes medication.

She cautions there are no guarantees, so potential patients should ask a lot of questions about fertility and see what's best for them.

Data shows that more men have died of COVID-19 than women.

Between April of 2020 and May of 2021, men accounted for 55% of COVID-19 deaths, Harvard researchers found.

Now a new study is shining light as to what may be helping women better survive the disease.

A study published in the journal, Family Practice, revealed that estrogen may help lower mortality rates among women.

UK researchers looked at women who received hormone replacement therapy six months after they were diagnosed with coronavirus.

The therapy helps restore estrogen levels during menopause.

Researchers found that women who received the therapy had a 78% lower mortality rate, from all diseases stemming from COVID, than women who did not go through the therapy.

Uber is restarting shared rides in a handful of major U.S. cities after a more than two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the company announced on Tuesday.The revamped rideshare carpool option, dubbed UberX Share, is now available in nine cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The company said it has plans to expand UberX Share to more cities this summer.Uber suspended its former iteration of the shared ride service, Uber Pool, in March 2020 as health officials urged social distancing to curb the spread of COVID-19. Lyft restarted a version of a similar service in July 2021, after having also suspended the option in 2020.Related video above: Uber is adding a gas surcharge on all trips and Uber Eats ordersFor years, both Uber and Lyft attempted to broaden adoption of shared rides, with the promise that carpooling could disrupt other transportation methods by making ride-hailing cheaper and more convenient. But the pandemic forced the companies to pause those plans. Andrew Macdonald, Uber's SVP of mobility and business operations, said in a statement Tuesday that UberX Share "reimagines the future of shared rides with greater efficiency and safety top of mind." He also said riders can expect to receive "an upfront discount and up to 20% off the total fare, if matched with a co-rider along the way."In an apparent nod to pandemic concerns, Uber is also taking steps to limit the number of people in a carpool at once, for now. The company said in a blog post that customers can currently request only one seat with UberX Share and will share the ride with only one other passenger at a time. Masks are optional but recommended, the company added, except in locations that still mandate masking. Uber also referenced the importance of making transportation more affordable and accessible, "especially in the current economic climate." Fears of a major economic downturn have loomed large over the tech sector in recent months. Meanwhile, sky-high gas prices have been an added burden for all drivers, including those working in the ride-hailing industry. In response, Uber and Lyft previously announced they were adding temporary fuel surcharges to rides. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview at the Bloomberg Technology Summit earlier this month that he sees the company as "recession resistant." His comments, however, came just a month after the Wall Street Journal reported Uber was planning on cutting costs as investor optimism recedes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation raging near its highest level in four decades, Congress is poised to approve President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act. Its title raises a tantalizing question: Will the measure actually tame the price spikes that have inflicted hardships on American households?

Economic analyses of the proposal suggest that the answer is likely no — not anytime soon, anyway.

The legislation, which is headed for final approval Friday in the House and will then be signed into law, won't directly address some of the main drivers of surging prices — from gas and food to rents and restaurant meals.

Still, the bill could save money for some Americans by lessening the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly, extending health insurance subsidies and reducing energy prices. It would also modestly cut the government's budget deficit, which might slightly lower inflation by the end of this decade.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded last week that the changes would have a "negligible" impact on inflation this year and next. And the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model concluded that, over the next decade, "the impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero."

Such forecasts also undercut the arguments that some Republicans, such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have made, that the bill would "cause inflation," as McCarthy said in a speech on the House floor last month.

Biden himself, in speaking of the legislation's effect on inflation, has cautiously referred to potentially lower prices in individual categories rather than to lower inflation as a whole. This week, the president said the bill would "bring down the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance premiums and energy costs."

At the same time, the White House has trumpeted a letter signed by more than 120 economists, including several Novel Prize winners and former Treasury secretaries, that asserts that the bill's reduction in the government's budget deficit — by an estimated $300 billion over the next decade, according to the CBO — would put "downward pressure on inflation."

In theory, lower deficits can reduce inflation. That's because lower government spending or higher taxes, which help shrink the deficit, reduce demand in the economy, thereby easing pressure on companies to raise prices.

Jason Furman, a Harvard economist who served as a top economic adviser in the Obama administration, wrote in an opinion column for The Wall Street Journal: "Deficit reduction is almost always inflation-reducing."

Yet Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was a top economic adviser to President George W. Bush and later a director of the CBO, noted that the lower deficits won't kick in until five years from now and won't be very large over the next decade considering the size of the economy.

"$30 billion a year in a $21 trillion economy isn't going to move the needle," Holtz-Eakin said, referring to the estimated amount of deficit reduction spread over 10 years.

He also noted that Congress has recently passed other legislation to subsidize semiconductor production in the U.S. and expand veterans' health care, and suggested that those laws will spend more than the Inflation Reduction Act will save.

In addition, Kent Smetters, director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, said the bill's health care subsidies could send inflation up. The legislation would spend $70 billion over a decade to extend tax credits to help 13 million Americans pay for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Those subsidies would free up money for recipients to spend elsewhere, potentially increasing inflation, although Smetters said he thought the effect would likely be very small.

While the bill could have the benefit of increasing the savings of millions of households on pharmaceutical and energy costs, it's unlikely to have much effect on overall inflation. Prescription drugs account for only 1% of the spending in the U.S. consumer price index; spending on electricity and natural gas makes up just 3.6%.

Starting in 2025, the act will cap the amount Medicare recipients would pay for their prescription drugs at $2,000 a year. It will authorize Medicare to negotiate the cost of some high-priced pharmaceuticals — a long-sought goal that President Donald Trump had also floated. It would also limit Medicare recipients' out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month. Insulin prescriptions averaged $54 in 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"This is a historic change," said Leigh Purvis, director of health care costs at the AARP Public Policy Institute. "This is allowing Medicare to protect beneficiaries from high drug prices in a way that was not there before."

A study by Kaiser found that in 2019, 1.2 million Medicare recipients spent an average of $3,216 on drug prescriptions. Purvis said recipients who use the most expensive drugs can spend as much as $10,000 or $15,000 a year.

The legislation authorizes Medicare to negotiate prices of 10 expensive pharmaceuticals, starting next year, though the results won't take effect until 2026. Up to 60 drugs could be subject to negotiation by 2029.

Holtz-Eakin argued that while the provision may lower the cost of some Medicare drugs, it would discourage the development of new drugs or reduce new venture capital investment in start-up pharmaceutical companies.

The Inflation Reduction Act's energy provisions could also create savings, though the amounts are likely to be much smaller.

The bill will provide a $7,500 tax credit for new purchases of electric vehicles, though most EVs won't qualify because the legislation requires them to include batteries with U.S. materials.

And the legislation also significantly expands a tax credit for homeowners who invest in energy-efficient equipment, from a one-time $500 credit to $1,200 that a homeowner could claim each year. Vincent Barnes, senior vice president for policy at the Alliance to Save Energy, said this would allow homeowners to make new energy-efficient investments over several years.

But for all Americans, including those who aren't homeowners, the impact will likely be limited. The Rhodium Group estimates that by 2030 the bill's provisions will save households an average of up to $112 a year as gas and electricity becomes cheaper as more Americans drive EVs and houses become more energy- efficient.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Americans generate a lot of waste — about five pounds per person per day — and a lot of it is plastic. Those flimsy grocery bags, shrink-wrap packaging and of course, bottles — lots and lots of bottles.  

Every year, we toss out 2.5 million plastic bottles.  

"They are highly recyclable and it's imperative they end up in your recycling bin," Republic Services External Communications Manager Jeremy Walters said.

Together, we create 400 million tons of plastic waste a year. Only 2 million tons of that gets recycled. We used to do better but during the pandemic, our recycling rate dropped because we started making more garbage.  

"It's how much trash is generated versus how much recycling is generated. And when that trash starts to go up, the recycling volumes start to dilute," Walters continued. 

Las Vegas is a city known for excess— huge hotels and big casinos. It also has the largest residential recycling plant in the country.  

Republic Services recycles 2 million pounds every day, which is the equivalent weight of 500 cars. Workers at the massive plant sort the mixed recyclables, plastics, aluminum, glass and paper and remove the wish-cycle items, which are things we wish we could recycle but can't. 

"Bowling balls, shoes, engine blocks, steel security doors—I promise you, if you use your imagination, we've seen it here," Walters said.

Paper is easily the most recycled item — 50 million tons of it per year, and we also break down and recycle almost all of our cardboard boxes. More than 90% of those boxes get recycled.

There is plenty that doesn't get recycled, though. Approximately 110 million glass bottles get thrown away every year. Glass can be recycled indefinitely—same with aluminum— but we still don't recycle about seven million tons a year. And then there are all those plastic bottles.

All the trash that we create, which does not go through recycling plants, ends up in landfills.  

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NEW YORK (AP)  — When President Joe Biden announced a plan to forgive student loan debt, many borrowers who kept making payments during the pandemic wondered if they'd made the right choice.

Borrowers who paid down their debt during a pandemic freeze that started in March 2020 can, in fact, get a refund — and then apply for forgiveness – but the process for doing that hasn’t always been clear.

If you think you’re eligible, here’s what you need to know:

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WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND?

Borrowers who hold eligible federal student loans and have made voluntary payments since March 13, 2020, can get a refund, according to the Department of Education.

For some people, that refund will be automatic. You can get a refund without applying if your payments brought your loan balance below the maximum debt relief amount: $10,000 for all borrowers and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers can check their balance in their studentaid.gov account.

For example, if a borrower paid $100 a month for 10 months of the pandemic and their balance is now $8,000, that $1,000 will automatically be refunded. Then they can apply to get the rest of their debt forgiven.

But if a borrower paid throughout the pandemic and still owes $14,000, they won’t get an automatic refund. They can, however, apply to have $10,000 of that debt erased.

Another group of people that has to apply for a refund is those who completely paid off their loan balance during the pandemic. If that’s you, you’re eligible for loan forgiveness, but you’ll have to request a refund prior to applying for debt relief. Borrowers should confirm their eligibility for the loan forgiveness program prior to requesting a refund.

For example, if a borrower had $5,000 in debt at the start of the pandemic and paid it all back during the freeze but is eligible for up to $10,000 in forgiveness, they would apply for a $5,000 refund, then apply to have their debt forgiven.

“Borrowers who paid off their loans during the pause will need to request a refund first, then request cancellation,” said a spokesperson from the Department of Education.

The refund is not available for private student loans.

Eligible federal student loans:

—Direct Loans (defaulted and non-defaulted)

—Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans held by ED (defaulted and non-defaulted)

—Federal Perkins Loans held by ED (defaulted and non-defaulted)

—Defaulted FFEL Program loans not held by ED

—Defaulted HEAL loans

If you are not sure which loan you have, visit your dashboard at studentaid.gov and find the “my loan servicers” section. If you can’t access your dashboard, you can call the Federal Student Aid office at 1-800-433-3243 to ask for loan servicer information.

HOW CAN I APPLY FOR A REFUND?

Borrowers who want a specific amount refunded can apply by calling their loan service provider. Right now, refunds are only being done via phone and not through any website or email.

When the Biden Administration announced the forgiveness, loan servicers found themselves inundated with calls. But many borrowers now say they’re not waiting long when calling.

“I was on hold for about five minutes,” said Megan McParland, of New Jersey, who graduated in 2018 and made several payments during the payment freeze.

McParland requested a refund the first week of September. At first, she felt the servicer tried to dissuade her from making the request. But after confirming that she wanted to proceed, she was told that she would see her refund in about a month.

Sierra Tibbs, a 47-year-old resident of Casselberry, Florida, had a similar experience. The entire phone call with her loan servicer took around 20 minutes.

Tibbs applied for a refund after seeing a video online informing her that she could get back money she paid during the pandemic.

If you are unsure who services your loan or if the servicer changed during the pandemic, visit your student aid account dashboard and scroll to “my loan servicers” or call 1-800-433-3243.

Before calling your loan provider to request your refund, you need to know your account number and the amount you want to be refunded.

—Loan servicers’ phone numbers:

FedLoan Servicing: 1-800-699-2908

Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.: 1-800-236-4300

Edfinancial: 1-855-337-6884

MOHELA: 1-888-866-4352

Aidvantage: 1-800-722-1300

Nelnet: 1-888-486-4722

OSLA Servicing: 1-866-264-9762

ECSI: 1-866-313-3797

Default Resolution Group: 1-800-621-3115 (1-877-825-9923 for the deaf or hard of hearing)

HOW WILL THE REFUND WORK — AND WHEN WILL MY LOANS BE FORGIVEN?

When you request a refund, the amount that you have paid during the payment freeze will be added back to your student loan balance, said Katherine Welbeck, Civil Rights Counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center.

That amount is still eligible for cancellation and can be eliminated after you apply for forgiveness.

You're eligible for debt relief if you had an annual federal income below $125,000 individually or $250,000 if you're married or head of household in 2020 or 2021. The application is expected to open in early October, and you can apply until Dec. 31, 2023.

It is unclear when borrowers will see debt relief. So far, the plan only mentions borrowers will be notified by their loan servicer when their debt is forgiven. There is also a possibility that forgiveness could be delayed if the Biden administration faces legal challenges.

Laura Baum, a 30-year-old resident of Chicago, paid $5,000 during the payment freeze toward her $15,000 remaining debt. She is eligible to have $20,000 canceled since she was a Pell grant recipient when she was an undergraduate. At the beginning of September, Baum called her loan servicer and asked for a refund.

But because of the uncertainty, she plans to save that money until the Department of Education confirms her debt has been canceled.

“I’m going to hold on to that refund until I absolutely see $0 in my student loans,” Baum said.

WHEN IS THE DEADLINE TO APPLY?

The deadline to apply for a refund is December 31, 2023. However, Welbeck recommends applying for a refund before applying for debt forgiveness.

“If you apply first, you can process the refund to get your money back, and then that balance in your account is canceled,” Welbeck said.

The application process for loan forgiveness is expected to take four to six weeks.

The Department of Education offers a subscription page where you can sign up to be notified when the application is open.

HOW MUCH CAN I GET REFUNDED?

According to the Department of Education, you can get a refund for the entire amount you paid during the payment freeze. However, you can choose a lower amount.

You might pick this option if, during the pandemic, you paid enough to get your debt below the maximum amount of forgiveness. You could get a partial refund, then apply to have your remaining debt wiped out.

Say you had $15,000 worth of debt remaining at the beginning of the payment freeze and have since paid $8,000 but qualify for $10,000 in debt relief. You might decide to ask for a refund of just $3,000. Then, your debt balance will be exactly $10,000, and you can apply for maximum loan forgiveness.

WHEN WILL I GET MY REFUND?

Borrowers should expect to receive their refund six to 12 weeks after requesting it, according to the Department of Education. But you might want to double-check with your loan servicer.

McParland’s loan servicer told her that she should see her refunded amount in 30 to 45 business days, but Baum was told that it would take 60 to 70 business days to see her money back in her bank account.

IS THE REFUND TAXABLE INCOME?

It is not yet clear if the refunded money will be considered taxable income. Welbeck recommends borrowers check with financial advisers from their own state.

Some states, such as Indiana, have already said they will tax debt relief for people who have their student loans canceled. Policies vary from state to state.

DOES THE REFUND AFFECT MY CREDIT SCORE?

Since the Department of Education has not yet announced how the cancellation or refunds will be reported to the credit bureaus, it is still uncertain if these amounts will affect borrowers’ credit scores, said Welbeck.

SHOULD I START PAYING AGAIN WHEN THE PAYMENT FREEZE ENDS?

The pandemic payment freeze is set to end on Dec. 31. If you have not seen debt relief by then, you are still expected to start making payments. Welbeck recommends that borrowers enroll in income-driven repayment plans before the end of the payment freeze.

Income-driven repayment plans allow you to set an affordable payment amount based on income and family size.

You can find more information about the four types of income-driven repayment plans here.

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You can find all of AP's financial wellness coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/financial-wellness.

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The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Is the pandemic over or not?

President Joe Biden sparked the debate when he declared it is, then Dr. Anthony Fauci quickly disputed the claim.

“I think the truth is somewhere in between,” said TriHealth infectious disease expert Dr. Stephen Blatt. “I do think it’s time we learn to live with this virus.”

Blatt said dealing with the pandemic and with the virus are two different things.

“I think it’s going to be really hard to define when the pandemic ends because we’re going to be dealing with this virus forever,” Blatt said.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction. I don’t think we’re there yet,” said the Health Collaborative’s Tiffany Mattingly.

Right now, in this region, there are 177 people in local hospitals with COVID-19, 20 are in the ICU and six are on ventilators.

That compares with the peak when there were 1,033 people in local hospitals with COVID-19, 196 in the ICU and 141 on ventilators.

“Part of the question is, what does it mean that the pandemic is over? It doesn’t mean COVID has gone away," Mattingly said.

It started late 2021 with some tongue-in-cheek Tweets about bad Amazon reviews for Yankee Candles. 

Could they be a canary in the coal mind for a COVID surge to come? 

Northeastern University Assistant Professor and Researcher Nick Beauchamp was curious.  

He'd been looking at social media impacting COVID-19 data. His next hypothesis included the COVID symptom of anosmia, aka loss of smell.  

"I downloaded a bunch of review data, counted up the references to no smell or no scent and sort of shared a plot of that curve, which indeed matches the COVID curve," Beauchamp said.   

He then looked beyond candles, adding perfume reviews to the data and eventually publishing his findings.

"I try, in the project, to sort of check to see whether it holds for perfume. Yeah, it does hold for perfume ... Does it hold for flu? No, it doesn't hold for flu. Does it work even when you control for the sort of seasonality of both COVID and candle purchases and complaints? Yes, it seems to survive that," Beauchamp continued. 

His 2021 results, COVID cases predicted negative reviews but negative reviews did not predict cases.

SEE MORE: COVID-19 Survivors Still Dealing With Lingering Symptoms

"It's possible, or plausible, that the rise in complaints was actually due to COVID, you know, with all the usual caveats, but that the reviews themselves were not super good at giving us a heads up on when cases were rising," Beauchamp said.

He ran the numbers again June 2022 and found bad reviews went out and then cases went up.  

Beauchamp has visited the numbers again this month. He says so far, in October, the bad reviews have been on the rise for the past two months, cases have stayed flat or declined over the same period.  

Important to note: Case tracking has been impacted by factors like at-home testing. The CDC has also moved from daily case and death counts to weekly ones. 

Health experts are predicting a modest fall and winter wave, going off current case increases in Europe.   

Meanwhile, Beauchamp says the candle data is just interesting and funny, nothing more. But the research has impacted how his family thinks about health.

"We haven't taken to sniffing candles to test ourselves, but, you know, we are fairly cautious—and I think, probably because I spend time working on this—more cautious than the average household," he said.

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Trending stories at Newsy.com

There is new evidence of how significantly the COVID-19 pandemic impacted learning loss in the classroom for students.

Those impacts — declines in reading and math scores in a majority of states — were noted in the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or The Nation's Report Card.

The report compared math and reading test scores in the fourth and eighth grades pre-pandemic in 2019 and post-pandemic this year.

In eighth grade, every state except Utah showed math test score declines. More than three dozen saw similar declines in the fourth grade.

In the fourth grade, a majority of states saw declines in reading test scores.

"I don't make this statement lightly because these aren't the kind of data that I would normally attribute cause and effect to," said Peggy Carr, commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics. "But, it is very clear what we're looking at now is unprecedented disruption in the lives of everyone, including students, their academic careers, ya know, really pushed off-kilter, really knocked off rack. It is because of the pandemic."

Moving forward, Carr said school systems need to use this data to do a "reset" and refocus on learning and tutoring programs, as well as social and emotional mental health services for students.

Watch the video above for the full story.

A lot of people added pets to their families during the pandemic, but quite a few "pandemic puppies" lack proper socialization. If you fit in that category, you can get some relief by taking your dog to a training facility.

Heather Gillihan is a certified professional dog trainer with Zoom Room. It's an indoor dog training gym with locations nationwide.

"I could train your dog really well," Gillihan said. "That's not going to do you a bit of good if you don't know how to follow up, right? So we believe that it's more important to empower the owner to train their dog."

Gillihan says the first step to building a bond with your pup is having some empathy for their feelings.

"Think about it from his point of view," Gillihan said. "So he's on the leash. He knows he can't run. Dogs, when they get nervous or afraid, they have two reactions: fight or flight. The fact that the leash is attached means his only option is to fight. So he's not an aggressive dog, but he doesn't know what's coming at him. So his point of view is 'I am stuck. I can't run. So I better sound scary because what if he's a bad dog?'"

If you show frustration with your dog, Gillihan says that makes the situation worse.

"He's already nervous and afraid, and now the person he loves most in the world is fussing at him," Gillihan said. "So it just makes that dog even more scary."

Gillihan says the good news is that you can retrain a dog's brain to like other animals.

"Let him know you have some really good food, like some barbecue, something that he has never had before, but smells amazing. Let him know you have it. But he doesn't get it until we see a dog. So as soon as he sees a dog and before he can react, you say, 'Yes!' and give him that barbecue. Think about what happens in his little brain now. 'Hey, mom, there's a dog. Can I have my barbecue? Because there's one right there.'"

The other common trait with pandemic puppies has been separation anxiety as people return to the office. Gillihan suggests you get a camera in your house. If your dog is panting, sniffing and soiling the house, that's separation anxiety. Otherwise, they may simply lack coping skills, and you can help with that.

"No big hellos or goodbyes," Gillihan said. "Make it non-eventful. You're just walking out. There are things you can do to help them, though, if you're going to be gone for a while. Such as toys, stuff about you, toys, puzzles."

If it is separation anxiety, Gillihan suggests you visit a dog behavior specialist with a veterinary background who can use medications to help your fur baby.

"What those dogs need more than anything is to be able to settle the brain so that they can be retrained," Gillihan said.

Gillihan says it's possible to have a well-rounded dog at any stage in their life. She notes it just may take a lot of practice and dedication through a training regimen.
 

When everything came to a screeching halt at the beginning of the pandemic, parents had no choice but to start in-home care. Ever since, childcare facilities have been facing many changes and trials trying to get back to pre-pandemic levels of children and staff.

Sunset Academy is one of the hundreds of thousands of childcare facilities across the nation that hit a major roadblock at the start of the pandemic. Director Samantha Emmer says Sunset Academy reopened after two months, but with very few kids and teachers.

"We went from actually being at an enrollment of 120 students, which is full capacity, to 27 when we reopened," Emmer said.

Emily Bustos leads Denver's Early Childhood Council, a nonprofit that is part of a national network called Child Care Aware of America.

"We all work to do systemic change in early childhood, as well as provide governmental grants, funding, coaching and training to early-learning providers," Bustos said. "[The pandemic] has been really rough on childcare providers. We did see some sites closing permanently after the pandemic. And right now, what we're experiencing is more of a workforce shortage crisis, if you will, around having enough qualified teachers to actually open, reopen classrooms or keep them open."

She says the best way to attract teachers is to offer a living wage and career pathways to grow. That's exactly what Emmer says they had to do at Sunset Academy.

"We would provide things like sign-on bonuses," Emmer said. "We provided opportunity for staff to be able to reach their credential of becoming a lead teacher if they reached that credential during a certain time period. We would give them another extra bonus, and so that would help us to retain them and it would give them a solid job as well."

However, paying teachers more means parents must pay more.

"The cost of child care was already unaffordable for many families, especially if they have more than one child," Bustos said. "The pandemic has sort of increased that challenge in that there again are fewer teachers, but really there is a movement to pay them more of a living wage."

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, childcare providers made an average of $12.40 an hour in the year 2021. Bustos says the industry needs more public investment.

"I think, in general, there's a broad need for recognition of early learning services as essential for working parents, and I think we need to engage with the business community," Bustos said.

Bustos says incentive for well-trained educators is especially important due to kids returning with greater social-emotional needs.

"There's a lot more challenging behaviors that we're finding amongst the little ones," Emmer said. "So just being able to teach them and to show them positive ways of interacting with one another now, because they didn't have that, you know, some families had one child, no siblings. That child was at home alone. They didn't learn those social-emotional ways."

Emmer says there were a few benefits to the pandemic. It gave Sunset Academy an opportunity to restructure and now they're working toward becoming an English-Spanish bilingual school. She says it also helped parents to feel more sympathetic toward providers after child care was temporarily taken away.

"It can be emotionally draining sometimes," Emmer said. "Of course, it's very rewarding, but it is a lot. I think that they have a little bit of more appreciation, gratitude and understanding at what early childcare teachers really do."
 

The COVID-19 pandemic sent Heidi Whitney’s daughter into a tailspin.

Suddenly the San Diego middle schooler was sleeping all day and awake all night. When in-person classes resumed, she was so anxious at times that she begged to come home early, telling the nurse her stomach hurt.

Whitney tried to keep her daughter in class. But the teen’s desperate bids to get out of school escalated. Ultimately, she was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, failed “pretty much everything” at school and was diagnosed with depression and ADHD.

As she started high school this fall, she was deemed eligible for special education services, because her disorders interfered with her ability to learn, but school officials said it was a close call. It was hard to know how much her symptoms were chronic or the result of mental health issues brought on by the pandemic, they said.

“They put my kid in a gray area,” said Whitney, a paralegal.

Schools contending with soaring student mental health needs and other challenges have been struggling to determine just how much the pandemic is to blame. Are the challenges the sign of a disability that will impair a student’s learning long term, or something more temporary?

It all adds to the desperation of parents trying to figure out how best to help their children. If a child doesn’t qualify for special education, where should parents go for help?

“I feel like because she went through the pandemic and she didn’t experience the normal junior high, the normal middle school experience, she developed the anxiety, the deep depression and she didn’t learn. She didn’t learn how to become a social kid,” Whitney said. “Everything got turned on its head.”

Schools are required to spell out how they will meet the needs of students with disabilities in Individualized Education Programs, and the demand for screening is high. Some schools have struggled to catch up with assessments that were delayed in the early days of the pandemic. For many, the task is also complicated by shortages of psychologists.

To qualify for special education services, a child’s school performance must be suffering because of a disability in one of 13 categories, according to federal law. They include autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities like dyslexia, developmental delays and “emotional disturbances.”

It’s important not to send children who might have had a tough time during the pandemic into the special education system, said John Eisenberg, the executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

“That’s not what it was designed for,” he said. “It’s really designed for kids who need specially designed instruction. It’s a lifelong learning problem, not a dumping ground for kids that might have not got the greatest instruction during the pandemic or have major other issues.”

In the 2020-2021 school year, about 15% of all public school students received special education services under federal law, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Among kids ages 6 and older, special education enrollment rose by 2.4% compared with the previous school year, according to federal data. The figures also showed a large drop in enrollment for younger, preschool-age students, many of whom were slow to return to formal schooling. The numbers varied widely from state to state. No data is available yet for last year.

While some special education directors worry the system is taking on too many students, advocates are hearing the opposite is happening, with schools moving too quickly to dismiss parent concerns.

Even now, some children are still having evaluations pushed off because of staffing shortages, said Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan. In one district, evaluations came to a complete halt in May because there was no school psychologist to do them, she said.

When Heather Wright approached her son’s school last fall seeking help with the 9-year-old’s outbursts and other behavioral issues, staff suggested private testing. The stay-at-home mom from Sand Creek, Michigan, called eight places. The soonest she could get an appointment was in December of this year — a full 14 months later.

She also suspects her 16-year-old has a learning disability and is waiting for answers from the school about both children.

“I hear a lot of: ‘Well, everyone’s worse. It’s not just yours,’” she said. “Yeah, but, like, this is my child and he needs help.”

It can be challenging to tease out the differences between problems that stem directly from the pandemic and a true disability, said Brandi Tanner, an Atlanta-based psychologist who has been deluged with parents seeking evaluations for potential learning disabilities, ADHD and autism.

“I’m asking a lot more background questions about pre-COVID versus post-COVID, like, ‘Is this a change in functioning or was it something that was present before and has just lingered or gotten worse?’” she said.

Sherry Bell, a leader in the Department of Exceptional Children at Charleston County School District in South Carolina, said she is running into the issue as well.

“In my 28 years in special education, you know, having to rule out all of those factors is much more of a consideration than ever before, just because of the pandemic and the fact that kids spent all of that time at home,” said Bell.

The key is to have good systems in place to distinguish between a student with a lasting obstacle to learning and one that missed a lot of school because of the pandemic, said Kevin Rubenstein, president-elect of the Council of Administrators of Special Education.

“Good school leaders and great teachers are going to be able to do that,” he said.

The federal government, he noted, has provided vast amounts of COVID relief money for schools to offer tutoring, counseling and other support to help students recover from the pandemic.

But advocates worry about consequences down the line for students who do not receive the help they might need. Kids who slip through the cracks could end up having more disciplinary problems and diminished prospects for life after school, said Dan Stewart, the managing attorney for education and employment for the National Disability Rights Network.

Whitney, for her part, said she is relieved her daughter is getting help, including a case manager, as part of her IEP. She also will be able to leave class as needed if she feels anxious.

“I realize that a lot of kids were going through this,” she said. “We just went through COVID. Give them a break.”

Three years on since the COVID-19 outbreak turned into a global pandemic and another new coronavirus variant has surfaced.

The omicron subvariant named XBB.1.5 has caused just over 40% of new coronavirus infections in the United States, the CDC says.

About 75% of new coronavirus cases in the Northeastern U.S. are from the XBB.1.5 strain.

Dr. Barbara Mahon, director of the CDC's proposed Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, said, "We're projecting that it's going to be the dominant variant in the Northeast region of the country and that it's going to increase in all regions of the country," CBS News reported.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said, "Probably the worst variant that the world is facing right now is actually XBB," according to Reuters.

Dr. Jay Varma of Cornell Medicine said this is a very "precarious" time for the U.S. health care system and public health experts worry about a possible surge in infections.

Varma also said that Americans shouldn't be overly alarmed as the variant is expected to cause similar issues seen earlier this year, he told PBS.

Experts urge the public to take similar precautions as people were asked to do earlier in the year and last year to slow the spread, including wearing a mask whenever possible, such as when traveling.

The CDC said that at this point, there isn't the belief that "XBB.1.5 is more severe" compared to COVID-19.

Public health officials also haven't reported additional symptoms tied to the XBB.1.5 strain outside of symptoms listed with previous variants and COVID-19.

Axios reported that in October, health officials deemed the XBB.1.5 variant as well suited to evade COVID-19 immunity.

A Wall Street Journal report pointed to health experts who have highlighted studies suggesting that this new variant can evade existing vaccines, antibodies from prior infections along with existing monoclonal antibody treatments.

A study in the journal Nature said, “Such rapid and simultaneous emergence of multiple variants with enormous growth advantages is unprecedented.”

A three-year pause on student loan payments will end this summer regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the White House plan to forgive billions of dollars in student loan debt.

If Congress approves a debt ceiling deal negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden, payments will resume in late August, ending any lingering hope of a further extension of the pause that started during the COVID pandemic. Even if the deal falls through, payments will resume 60 days after the Supreme Court decision.

That ruling is expected sometime before the end of June. No matter what the justices decide, more than 40 million borrowers will have to start paying back their loans by the end of the summer at the latest.

Here's what to know to get ready to start paying back loans:

How should I prepare for student loan payments to restart?

Betsy Mayotte, President of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, encourages people not to make any payments until the pause has ended. Instead, she says, put what you would have paid into a savings account.

"Then you've maintained the habit of making the payment, but (you're) earning a little bit of interest as well," she said. "There's no reason to send that money to the student loans until the last minute of the 0% interest rate."

Mayotte recommends borrowers use the loan-simulator tool at StudentAid.gov or the one on TISLA's website to find a payment plan that best fits their needs. The calculators tell you what your monthly payment would be under each available plan, as well as your long-term costs.

"I really want to emphasize the long-term," Mayotte said.

Sometimes, when borrowers are in a financial bind, they'll choose the option with the lowest monthly payment, which can cost more over the life of the loan, Mayotte said. Rather than "setting it and forgetting it," she encourages borrowers to reevaluate when their financial situation improves.

What's an income-driven repayment plan?

An income-driven repayment plan sets your monthly student loan payment at an amount that is intended to be affordable based on your income and family size. It takes into account different expenses in your budget, and most federal student loans are eligible for at least one of these types of plans.

Generally, your payment amount under an income-driven repayment plan is a percentage of your discretionary income. If your income is low enough, your payment could be as low as $0 per month.

If you'd like to repay your federal student loans under an income-driven plan, the first step is to fill out an application through the Federal Student Aid website.

Talk to an adviser

Fran Gonzales, 27, who is based in Texas, works as a supervisor for a financial institution. She holds $32,000 in public student loans and $40,000 in private student loans. During the payment pause on her public loans, Gonzales said she was able to pay off her credit card debt, buy a new car, and pay down two years' worth of private loans while saving money. Her private student loan payment has been $500 a month, and her public student loan payment will be $350 per month when it restarts.

Gonzales recommends that anyone with student loans speak with a mentor or financial advisor to educate themselves about their options, as well as making sure they're in an income-driven repayment plan.

The Federal Student Aid website can help direct you to counselors, as well as organizations like the Student Borrower Protection Center and the Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

"I was the first in my family to go to college, and I could have saved money with grants and scholarships had I known someone who knew about college," she said. "I could have gone to community college or lived in cheaper housing … It's a huge financial decision."

Gonzales received her degree in business marketing and says she was "horrible with finances" until she began working as a loan officer herself.

Gonzales's mother works in retail and her father for the airport, she said, and both encouraged her to pursue higher education. For her part, Gonzales now tries to inform others with student loans about what they're taking on and what their choices are.

"Anyone young I cross paths with, I try to educate them."

Can I set up a payment plan for my student loans?

Yes — payment plans are always available. Even so, some advocates encourage borrowers to wait for now, since there's no financial penalty for nonpayment during the pause on payments and interest accrual.

Katherine Welbeck of the Student Borrower Protection Center recommends logging on to your account and making sure you know the name of your servicer, your due date and whether you're enrolled in the best income-driven repayment plan.

What if I can't pay?

If your budget doesn't allow you to resume payments, it's important to know how to navigate the possibility of default and delinquency on a student loan. Both can hurt your credit rating, which would make you ineligible for additional aid.

If you're in a short-term financial bind, according to Mayotte, you may qualify for deferment or forbearance — allowing you to temporarily suspend payment.

To determine whether deferment or forbearance are good options for you, you can contact your loan servicer. One thing to note: interest still accrues during deferment or forbearance. Both can also impact potential loan forgiveness options. Depending on the conditions of your deferment or forbearance, it may make sense to continue paying the interest during the payment suspension.

How can I reduce costs when paying off my student loans?

— If you sign up for automatic payments, the servicer takes a quarter of a percent off your interest rate, according to Mayotte.

— Income-driven repayment plans aren't right for everyone. That said, if you know you will eventually qualify for forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, it makes sense to make the lowest monthly payments possible, as the remainder of your debt will be canceled once that decade of payments is complete.

— Reevaluate your monthly student loan repayment during tax season, when you already have all your financial information in front of you. "Can you afford to increase it? Or do you need to decrease it?" Mayotte said.

— Break up payments into whatever ways work best for you. You could consider two installments per month, instead of one large monthly sum.

Are student loans forgiven after 10 years?

If you've worked for a government agency or a nonprofit, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program offers cancellation after 10 years of regular payments, and some income-driven repayment plans cancel the remainder of a borrower's debt after 20 to 25 years.

Borrowers should make sure they're signed up for the best possible income-driven repayment plan to qualify for these programs.

Borrowers who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges may also apply for borrower defense and receive relief.

These programs won't be affected by the Supreme Court ruling.

WASHINGTON —

Video above: Doctor compares current COVID-19 strains to original virus

A crucial question has eluded governments and health agencies around the world since the COVID-19 pandemic began: Did the virus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab?

Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has assessed with "low confidence" that it began with a lab leak, according to a person familiar with the report who wasn't authorized to discuss it. The report has not been made public.

But others in the U.S. intelligence community disagree.

"There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. government about exactly how COVID started," John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday. "There is just not an intelligence community consensus."

The DOE's conclusion was first reported over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal, which said the classified report was based on new intelligence and noted in an update to a 2021 document. The DOE oversees a national network of labs.

White House officials on Monday declined to confirm press reports about the assessment.

In 2021, officials released an intelligence report summary that said four members of the U.S. intelligence community believed with low confidence that the virus was first transmitted from an animal to a human, and a fifth believed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab.

While some scientists are open to the lab-leak theory, others continue to believe the virus came from animals, mutated, and jumped into people — as has happened in the past with viruses. Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years — if ever.

Calls for more investigation

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the report. All 18 offices of the U.S. intelligence community had access to the information the DOE used in reaching its assessment.

Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, said she isn't sure what new intelligence the agencies had, but "it's reasonable to infer" it relates to activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. She said a 2018 research proposal co-authored by scientists there and their U.S. collaborators "essentially described a blueprint for COVID-like viruses."

"Less than two years later, such a virus was causing an outbreak in the city," she said.

The Wuhan institute had been studying coronaviruses for years, in part because of widespread concerns — tracing back to SARS — that coronaviruses could be the source of the next pandemic.

No intelligence agency has said they believe the coronavirus that caused COVID-19 was released intentionally. The unclassified 2021 summary was clear on this point, saying: "We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon."

"Lab accidents happen at a surprising frequency. A lot of people don't really hear about lab accidents because they're not talked about publicly," said Chan, who co-authored a book about the search for COVID-19 origins. Such accidents "underscore a need to make work with highly dangerous pathogens more transparent and more accountable."

Last year, the World Health Organization recommended a deeper probe into a possible lab accident. Chan said she hopes the latest report sparks more investigation in the United States.

China has called the suggestion that COVID-19 came from a Chinese laboratory " baseless."

Support for animal theory

Many scientists believe the animal-to-human theory of the coronavirus remains much more plausible. They theorize it emerged in the wild and jumped from bats to humans, either directly or through another animal.

In a 2021 research paper in the journal Cell, scientists said the COVID-19 virus, is the ninth documented coronavirus to infect humans — and all the previous ones originated in animals.

Two studies, published last year by the journal Science, bolstered the animal origin theory. That research found that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was likely the early epicenter. Scientists concluded that the virus likely spilled from animals into people two separate times.

"The scientific literature contains essentially nothing but original research articles that support a natural origin of this virus pandemic," said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who has extensively studied COVID-19's origins.

He said the fact that others in the intelligence community looked at the same information as the DOE and "it apparently didn't move the needle speaks volumes." He said he takes such intelligence assessments with a grain of salt because he doesn't think the people making them "have the scientific expertise ... to really understand the most important evidence that they need to understand."

The U.S. should be more transparent and release the new intelligence that apparently swayed the DOE, Worobey said.

Reaction to the report

The DOE conclusion comes to light as House Republicans have been using their new majority power to investigate all aspects of the pandemic, including the origin, as well as what they contend were officials' efforts to conceal the fact that it leaked from a lab in Wuhan. Earlier this month, Republicans sent letters to Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, Health Secretary Xavier Beccera and others as part of their investigative efforts.

The now-retired Fauci, who served as the country's top infectious disease expert under both Republican and Democratic presidents, has called the GOP criticism nonsense.

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has asked the Biden administration to provide Congress with "a full and thorough" briefing on the report and the evidence behind it.

Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, emphasized that President Joe Biden believes it's important to know what happened "so we can better prevent future pandemics" but that such research "must be done in a safe and secure manner and as transparent as possible to the rest of the world."

___

AP reporters Farnoush Amiri, Nomaan Merchant and Seung Min Kim contributed. Ungar reported from Louisville, Kentucky.

North Korea imported more than 1 million facial masks and 15,000 pairs of rubber gloves from China in July, shortly before declaring victory over COVID-19, Chinese trade figures show.Pyongyang last week declared victory over the coronavirus, ending a little-detailed fight against "fever" cases that had risen to 4.77 million in the country of around 26 million people. It has registered no new such cases since July 29.Still, China exported 1.23 million facial masks to North Korea in July, worth $44,307, surging from 17,000 the previous month, according to data released by Chinese customs at the weekend.From January to July, the last month for which data is available, the North bought more than 11.93 million masks from China, data showed.North Korea did not import any COVID-19 prevention and control products from China in May, the data showed.China's overall exports to North Korea surged to $59.74 million in July from $19.05 million in June.Top exports were semi- or wholly milled rice, cigarettes, disodium carbonate and smoked sheets of natural rubber.North Korea bought $5.16 million worth of semi- or wholly milled rice, $1.98 million of soybean oil and fractions, and $1.21 million of granulated sugar in July, the Chinese customs data showed.China suspended cross-border freight train services with North Korea following consultations due to COVID-19 infections in its border city of Dandong, China's Foreign Ministry said on April 29.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Across the country, mask mandates are going away. Every state, except Hawaii, has either dropped its mandate or announced plans to do so in the future.

On Jan. 20, the U.S. was averaging 735,652 new COVID-19 cases a day.

On Feb. 20, the country was down to 102,385 daily cases..

While those numbers have gone down, another number has gone up.

In January, more Americans called in sick than usual. In fact, the latest numbers from the Department of Labor show the statistics to be around twice as much as they did throughout last year.

The statistics are a reminder that the pandemic is not over.

PUSH BY LAWMAKERS

Some in Congress fear that as the pandemic continues, more people will go to work even if they test positive, especially if they don't have sick leave.

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, a group of Democrats is pushing a policy proposal to mandate sick leave to be included in the speech and voted on sometime this year.

Earlier in the pandemic, Congress enacted paid sick leave for those who contracted the virus but that program has expired.

One proposal would give every American worker at least two weeks of sick leave if they catch COVID-19.

Around 33.6 million American workers do not have paid sick leave, according to the latest figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The U.S. is one of only 11 countries in the world without mandatory leave for health problems.

A LOOK AT HISTORY

"The 1918 pandemic came in waves just like ours does," John M. Barry is a distinguished scholar at Tulane University.

He isn’t an expert on paid time off but he is an expert on how pandemics end.

He wrote "The Great Influenza" about the pandemic of 1918.

A hundred years ago, he says, even after all the public health restrictions were lifted, people still got sick and couldn’t go to work.

In fact, cities like Detroit, Kansas City and Milwaukee saw some of their worst outbreaks after people stopped wearing masks.

As a result, the government, as well as employers, should still be prepared for employees to call in sick.

“There will be another variant," Barry cautioned.

Whether paid sick leave can pass Congress is still very much unclear.

Democrats in Congress have struggled in recent months to pass similar initiatives.

All government-mandated coronavirus restrictions in England were lifted on Thursday, including the legal requirement for people who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate at home.

Officials say that those who tested positive will still be advised to stay at home for at least five days. But, from Thursday they are not legally obliged to do so, and those on lower incomes will no longer get extra financial support to make up for a loss of income due to isolation.

The routine tracing of infected people's contacts has also been scrapped. Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out on Monday his Conservative government's strategy for "living with COVID" in the longer term. He said Britain is moving "from legal restrictions to personal responsibility," and that the end of all domestic legal measures marked the end of two of the darkest years in the country's peacetime history. 

The strategy includes plans to massively scale back free universal coronavirus testing from April 1. England already tossed most virus restrictions in January, after infection rates and hospitalizations fell following a surge in late December. Face masks are no longer legally required anywhere and vaccine passports for entering nightclubs and other venues were nixed. 

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which set their own public health rules, have similarly opened up, though at different paces.

Some other European countries,  including Denmark and Sweden, have also recently lifted all COVID-19 restrictions.

Some critics have questioned whether it is too early to end all restrictions, especially isolation laws. The British Medical Association warned that Johnson's strategy fails to protect the most vulnerable people and those at the highest risk of harm from COVID-19.

Some 85% of people aged 12 and older in the U.K. are fully vaccinated, and about 66% have had their third or booster dose. 

The U.K. still has Europe's highest coronavirus toll after Russia, with more than 161,000 recorded deaths.

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The COVID-19 vaccine for kids under five is on hold again.

On Friday, the FDA said it was delaying an advisory committee meeting to review the vaccine for children six months and up.

New data from Pfizer indicates while the vaccine appears safe, it may not work well enough to meet FDA standards.

“What we see, particularly among two- to five-year-olds, the data is not so compelling in terms of it being effective," said Eyal Oren, who runs the public health program at San Diego State University. "Meaning two doses did not promote an effective or strong immuno-response in these kids."

He says FDA officials say they want to wait on a decision until there is data available about a third dose of the vaccine.

Some doctors hope a vaccine is approved soon because kids are still sick.

“The younger the child, they could have difficulty breathing as that mucus gets in the lungs," said Dr. Joe Perno, the vice president of medical affairs at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. "So breathing problems where they’re breathing fast, where it’s sucking in around their ribs, they’re panting, those types of things. Those are come see us in the emergency room right away."

He says it’s important to note how safe the vaccine has been in other age groups.

“There are over eight million kids in the U.S. alone that have received at least one dose of the vaccine over the age of five, and the safety profile is astronomical," said Perno.

The FDA hasn't said when it would review this topic again, but Pfizer said it would have data on the third dose available in April.

BELLEVUE, Wa. — Even as they're learning more about defeating COVID-19, doctors are up against another contender.

"When the vaccine came out and we felt everybody felt that the pandemic was ending or going to end soon, but now, you know, another year has dragged on and, and we really don't see the end in sight," said Dr. Radha Agrawal, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Overlake Hospital in Washington State.

The second contender being a pandemic of misinformation, or as the World Health Organization calls is an infodemic: “false or misleading information” that “causes confusion and risk-taking behaviors that can harm health” and “leads to mistrust in health authorities.”

Dr. Agrawal and Dr. Ed Leonard, an infectious disease physician at Overlake, say they are battling misinformation daily in interactions with COVID-19 patients, when they argue about their treatments or don't believe their diagnosis.

"Every day, we're learning something new about the pandemic, and sometimes, what we learn kind of makes what we said yesterday obsolete," said Dr. Leonard, "and so, that kind of leads to a confusion in the public of all the way that you just said yesterday, this now we're doing this."

"They have their mind made up, they've thought about it and they've decided, and they really don't value my input in terms of what they should do," said Dr. Agrawal.

From doctors to hospital leaders, this "infodemic" weighs heavily on the hearts and minds of those in healthcare.

"We see people coming in actually angry when they get diagnosed with COVID because they say COVID, isn't real, you're making it up, you're you're doing this only for profit," said CEO of Scripps Hospital, Chris Van Gorder.

"I've heard some people use the word that we've, in some ways, been villainized, I wouldn't say that. I would say that we've been forgotten," said Dr. Agrawal.

Even with the surgeon general declaring misinformation a significant public health challenge, the pushback from patients continues with no clear solutions of how to drown out the false information regarding COVID-19, leaving healthcare workers to deal with this problem at the patients' bedsides.

"It would be very easy as a provider with our morale and fatigue to kind of snap back and that is the last thing we need to do," said Dr. Leonard.

"You see them every day and you take care of them everyday and they become part of your family and it's hard to kind of hold a grudge in a sense," said Dr. Agrawal.

"I'm still going to take care of you and I'm still going to hope that you do get better," she said.

As year three of the pandemic has begun, these doctors want us to know that they will continue the fight for our lives, against all odds, just like they have done since day one.

"It's really seen patients hoping for that improvement, really hoping for those stories, where we made a difference. That is really what gets us to work every day," said Dr. Agrawal.

DENVER, Colorado — Adversity has a way of knocking us off our intended path. For many doctors, nurses, and first responders, the uncertainty of the pandemic has made them feel as if they're lost in the woods — far away from the calling that first brought them to their career.

"When we get burned out, there's this sort of surreptitious trick with burnout that causes us to forget why we do what we do every day and what we love about our job," said Rev. Mike Guthrie, the director of spiritual care at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s & Rocky Mountain Children Hospital in Denver.

"I just had to try to help connect people back to calling back to purpose, why they're here," he said.

"I think there's been a rise in people asking the big questions, you know, 'Where do I go when I die? What's going to happen?'" said Mike Neil, the president of the Washington State Chaplain Foundation.

Guthrie is a hospital chaplain and Neil, recently retired, has been a law enforcement chaplain. Both men have been doing this work for nearly 20 years.

"It's called a ministry of presence," said Neil.

Their job is to be present for patients, victims, and their colleagues when their jobs get too heavy, whether that's through a conversation about faith or just being there to listen.

However, being "present" has been tough these last two years.

"We all feel like we're a prizefighter with our hands tied behind her back. Everybody's wearing a mask, try to relate to someone that you can't see their face. You can't see their facial expressions," said Neil.

"We walk this tension between wanting to support our patients, but also having these restrictions in place to protect everybody else from accidental exposure," said Guthrie.

A tight line to walk, but the emotional and spiritual support they have been offering through these tough times has never been more important.

"We will never go back to being the same person we were before COVID hit. I think the lifelong lessons in the impact and experiences that we've been through over the last two years, and continue to go through, will change us in a lasting way," said Guthrie, "and the goal is to make sure that that change is done in a healing way."

For these chaplains, and chaplains across the country, these last two years, though hard, have made them more sure than ever in their own vocation to their jobs, being the heroes to our heroes.

"It's been my calling. That's why I did it in the beginning, it's not for me, it's not for me in my soul, but it's for them," said Neil.

Almost anywhere with a sewer connection can help the Center For Disease Control's (CDC) system for tracking COVID-19 in wastewater.  

The CDC’s Network Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) includes labs to track COVID cases.

"As you can see here, there's all these tubes, and they just have 200 microliters of this clear liquid that has all the RNA and DNA from the wastewater sample," said Joaquin Bradley Silva, lab manager at UC Berkeley.

From the samples, scientists can tell how much of the coronavirus is in an area. The CDC’s NWSS project lead says they can identify it down to the zip code.

Now, they’re starting to share that information with the public on their online COVID tracker. More than 500 sites will begin submitting data in the coming weeks.

Alexandria Boehm, a professor of civil engineering at Stanford University, leads a team of researchers testing samples from wastewater processing plants across northern California.

She says the program will help move the U.S. from a pandemic to an endemic state.  

"It's really exciting that the public can see all the hard work we've been doing and maybe become more educated about how wastewater can provide a glimpse into the public health of their communities," Dr. Boehm said. 

Monitoring wastewater provides information on a population in a single sample. It also is less biased than individual case data, which may under-represent asymptomatic infections and cases in communities with lower testing rates. 

Some critics have voiced concern about the nuance of interpreting the data.  

The CDC’s project lead says their tracker’s main metric will be looking at the percentage change of concentration over a 15-day period. People can also see how many samples tested positive at a site over that same 15 days, but it won’t compare site to site. For example, users won't be able to look at California next to Washington D.C.

This is just the start for what CDC plans to use wastewater surveillance for. By the end of this year, they plan to track other health threats like influenza and E. coli.

This story was originally reported on Newsy.com.