United Nations

Explainer: Do I need to worry about COVID again? New data from scientists and vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer /BioNTech suggests that a newer, highly mutated variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is not as alarming as some experts had feared when it was first detected several weeks ago. Deena Beasley,Julie Steenhuysen Reuters

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Earth just had its hottest summer on record, U.N. says, warning "climate breakdown has begun" "Climate breakdown has begun," U.N. chief says, adding: "The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting." CBS News

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Limited data suggest rising global COVID-19 activity The WHO said today it will shift its global COVID roundups from weekly updates to monthly reports. CIDRAP

hough case reporting doesn't accurately reflect COVID-19 activity because of decreased testing and reporting, the number reported over the past month increased by 63%, with increased cases reported in three regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest weekly update yesterday. ...

How Wildfires Kill People The deadly wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, has killed dozens of people so far. Here’s how fires threaten human health Tanya Lewis Scientific American

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Scientific American spoke with Vanessa Kerry, the World Health Organization’s special envoy for climate change and health and CEO of Seed Global Health, about the ways that wildfires kill and the need to take action to prevent and prepare for them.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

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