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A Chinese laboratory conducting advanced coronavirus research faced a series of biosafety problems in November 2019 that drew the attention of top Beijing officials and coincided with the Covid pandemic’s emergence, according to a new report being released by Senate Republicans on the pandemic’s origins. The report, released Monday by a Republican member of the Senate Health Committee, a final version of which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, charts a confluence of unexplained events in that month and concludes the pandemic more likely began from a lab accident than naturally, via an animal infecting humans. (Strobel and Gordon, 4/17)

The coronavirus pandemic appeared to originate from a laboratory accident, based on biosafety issues in the epicenter in Wuhan, China, and factors observed in the nature and early spread of the virus, according to a 302-page Senate report obtained by Axios. The detailed summary of an investigation by the Republican leadership of the Senate health committee doesn't concretely settle the question of how the pandemic began but evaluates the two leading theories, transfer from wild animals or an accident at a Chinese government lab, and concludes the latter is stronger. (Owens, 4/17)

As US lawmakers continue to seek answers about how the Covid-19 pandemic first began, former Republican staffers are releasing details from their own investigations, putting pressure on the Biden administration to declassify sensitive intelligence. (Griffin and Muller, 4/17)

A new COVID-19 subvariant “threatens to shatter” hopes to stave off a new coronavirus surge in the U.S. before next winter, and some experts worry it could be linked to the rise of a previously rare pandemic symptom. XBB.1.16, which reached reportable levels in the U.S. last week, could be behind an uptick of conjunctivitis, especially in children, reports from India suggest, alongside the more common symptoms of fever, cough and fatigue. (Vaziri, 4/17)

A new COVID-19 subvariant, XBB. 1.16, has been spreading around the world and gaining more recent traction in the U.S. The spread of the new subvariant, known as Arcturus, comes as much of the world eases out of the pandemic. The World Health Organization said it first detected samples of Arcturus in January, before designating it as a new variant under monitoring (VUM) on March 22. (Saric, 4/17)

Boys born to mothers who got COVID-19 while pregnant appear nearly twice as likely as other boys to be diagnosed with subtle delays in brain development. That's the conclusion of a study of more than 18,000 children born at eight hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. Nearly 900 of the children were born to mothers who had COVID during their pregnancy. (Hamilton, 4/18)

COVID-19 vaccination directly saved at least 1,004,927 lives across Europe from December 2020 to March 2023, according to new research presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting this week in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Soucheray, 4/17)

The investigational metabolic modulator AXA1125 was associated with significantly less physical and cognitive fatigue compared with a placebo in long-COVID patients, according to a small randomized, controlled phase 2 pilot study trial led by researchers from the University of Oxford and AXA1125 maker Axcella Therapeutics, which also funded the study. (Van Beusekom, 4/17)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: As Pandemic Emergencies End, People Battling Long Covid Feel ‘Swept Under The Rug’ 

Lost careers. Broken marriages. Dismissed and disbelieved by family and friends. These are some of the emotional and financial struggles long covid patients face years after their infection. Physically, they are debilitated and in pain: unable to walk up the stairs, focus on a project, or hold down a job. Facing the end of the federal public health emergency in May, many people experiencing lingering effects of the virus say they feel angry and abandoned by policymakers eager to move on. “Patients are losing hope,” said Shelby Hedgecock, a self-described long covid survivor from Knoxville, Tennessee, who now advocates for patients like herself. “We feel swept under the rug.” (Fortier, 4/18)

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the biggest one-year drop in U.S. births in nearly 50 years. But a new study shows not every state was equally affected. Researchers found some states experienced steep decreases in fertility while other saw little change, according to the report published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Human Reproductions. (Rodriguez, 4/17)