Michaeleen Doucleff

As we launch a series about spillover viruses — like SARS-CoV-2, which triggered a global pandemic, you may have a lot of questions. So do we — 7, to be exact, in the quiz below.

Three years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a "public health emergency," scientists have learned several lessons about how pandemics begin and how to stop them.

中国新冠感染实际死亡人数以及感染激增的总体影响，很大程度上取决于一个关键因素：中国疫苗的效果如何。

As COVID spreads rapidly through China, rumors circulate about the effectiveness and safety of the Chinese-manufactured vaccines. But what does the scientific data actually say about these shots?

As case counts surge in China, rumors circulate about the effectiveness and safety of the made-in-China vaccines in use there. Here's what we know about CoronaVac and Sinopharm.

After decades of wondering, an NPR reporter finally figures out how her husband's family dog knew when the school bus would arrive everyday. She did some digging — and now it all makes scents.

China is facing possibly the world's biggest coronavirus surge yet. At the high end of estimates, 800 million people in China could become infected. What does this mean for China and other countries?

Scientists predict China will see the largest COVID surge of the pandemic this winter, with hundreds of millions of people infected. But some experts say that it could have been even worse.

Protests in China have cast a spotlight on the country's "zero COVID" policy. But why is China still relying on restrictions when the rest of the world has mostly moved on?

For nearly three years, China has enforced incredibly strict rules to keep coronavirus transmission in check. Can they continue those policies as they face an omicron surge. And will they still work?

A study shows that survivors of the bubonic plague, which lasted from 1346 to 1353, may have passed on the ability to survive other pandemics. (Aired on All Things Considered on Oct. 19. 2022.)

Up to 50% of Europeans died from the plague. Now a new study shows that those who lived had a protective gene mutation they passed on to bolster immunity — but it comes at a cost.

Early fears of an escalating outbreak have not come to pass. Scientists are finding that the virus needs a very particular set of circumstances to spread effectively.

New daily monkeypox cases have been falling, and the CDC says cases are probably going to plateau or decline over the next few weeks.

Throughout the pandemic, some people have avoided catching COVID — despite multiple exposures. Do their immune systems have some type of protection that others are missing?

We crunch the current numbers for high-risk and low-risk groups. We also look at how the risk of monkeypox compares with chances of catching COVID, of being in a fatal car crash and of a shark attack.

A new study suggests that. yes, there are superdodgers. But explaining why they've been able to avoid the virus is a bit complicated.

So sweat doesn't really smell bad at all. But when bacteria eat the sweat — nostrils, look out! Only it turns out that these sweat-eating critters are responsible for a big health benefit.

The U.S. is facing a shortage of the monkeypox vaccine as the outbreak grows rapidly. The White House is pursuing a controversial strategy where each person only gets a fraction of the full dose.

It's basically the same vaccine used against smallpox. Here's how it works — and whether researchers think it's playing a role in the fact that the current outbreak is starting to slow down.