Anthony Fauci

The dangerous Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading so quickly in the United States that it's likely the mutant strain will become predominant in the nation within weeks, according to federal health officials and a new analysis.

President Biden said on Wednesday that he has asked the U.S. intelligence community to push to get closer to a "definitive conclusion" on how the pandemic started.

To justify their reopening decisions, governors point to falling case counts. “We make decisions based on facts,” Cuomo said. “New York City numbers are down.” But epidemiologists and public health experts say a crucial factor is missing from these calculations: the threat of new viral variants. One coronavirus variant, which originated in the United Kingdom and is now spreading in the U.S., is believed to be 50% more transmissible. The more cases there are, the faster new variants can spread.

The pandemic put a spotlight on health care workers and inspired many to pursue a career in medicine. The record number of applicants comes as the U.S. faces a projected shortage of physicians.

Deaths from COVID-19 have jumped nearly 40% this week, and hospitals around the country are straining under their patient load. Here's what happened in the first week after Thanksgiving.

More than 91,500 people were hospitalized with the virus on Saturday, with 18,000 in intensive care units. That's according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, which collects and analyzes data from across the United States. Over 6,000 patients were on ventilators.

Public health experts and officials don’t agree that giving up control is a foregone conclusion, instead warning that steps can and must be taken now to avoid the unnecessary loss of life. And no credible experts have suggested the pandemic will end the day after voting stops, despite suggestions from Trump, who himself has tested positive for the virus, that the media is amplifying coverage of COVID-19 as a way to make him look bad.

How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.

The U.S. death toll has doubled since May. Some experts predict it could nearly double again before 2020 ends. "We are experiencing a tremendous amount of unnecessary suffering," one researcher says.

The agency now says contacts of people with COVID-19 don't necessarily need to get tested. Public health experts say less testing of potential carriers could lead to more spread of the disease.