From This Collection

Sundance Film Fest and other big events are back after battle with omicron

Jan 18, 2023
Hundreds of businesses rely on major commercial and arts gatherings for much of their annual income.
In Park City, Utah, Sundance's cancellation of in-person events hurt local businesses in 2022. Hotels and restaurants are looking forward to welcoming guests this year.
George Frey/Getty Images

China ends zero-COVID, but are consumers ready to spend?

Jan 12, 2023
Chinese officials have lifted the harshest restrictions of the zero-COVID policy, but consumers are still cautious amid surging infections.
A tourist district in Xiamen city in late December 2022 was quiet amid a surge of COVID infections.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

China's zero-COVID whiplash

Jan 5, 2023
China has abandoned its sweeping restrictions after nearly three years. Heads are spinning from the speed of the change, and infections are spreading quickly.
A disinfection squad enters a residential building in Shanghai, responding to a confirmed COVID case. Under China's zero-COVID policy, these teams could forcibly disinfect the homes of people who contracted the virus.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

Once pandemic emergency protections end, millions likely to lose Medicaid

Jan 2, 2023
As many as 15 million people may lose Medicaid coverage after the pandemic emergency is formally declared over. But the government’s own projections show many of them will still qualify. They’ll just get hung up in the paperwork.
Patients at a low-income clinic in Nashville wait to be seen. During the pandemic, Medicaid programs were not allowed to drop patients, but income reviews will restart once the public health emergency ends.
Blake Farmer/WPLN

Federal funds for COVID testing and vaccines are running low

Dec 28, 2022
The White House has been asking Congress to allocate more funds, but that hasn't happened.
With universal coverage for COVID vaccines, treatments and tests ending, "we're going back to how the U.S. health care system generally works," said Jen Kates at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

For many Chinese workers, the country's zero-COVID policy has tested family bonds

Dec 12, 2022
Most workers who leave small towns for higher pay in big cities can't bring their families with them. For nearly three years, travel restrictions have kept them apart.
A masked factory worker works on a machine line.
Barcroft Media via Getty Images

China's protesters are angry about more than just zero-COVID

Nov 30, 2022
After nearly three years of China's zero-COVID policy, citizens are exhausted and some are calling for more than just an end to the restrictions.
A Shanghai man protesting the deadly apartment fire in locked down Xinjiang holds a sign that reads: Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Pediatricians brace for the end of federal COVID-19 vaccine funding

Nov 29, 2022
Once funding for COVID vaccines run out, doctors will have to pay upfront for the doses — and hope that they make their money back.
Pediatricians will have to pay for COVID vaccines after federal funding runs out — and that has many of them worried.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

What it's like returning to China's zero-COVID bubble

Nov 17, 2022
China is simplifying some of the rules to enter its zero-COVID bubble, but many hurdles remain.
Passengers from Pak's flight from Toronto in November are welcomed by staff at Shanghai's Pudong airport in hazmat suits.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

The pandemic delayed milestones in millennials' lives

Nov 8, 2022
Everyone lost time, but for millennials, they were years often marked by dating, marriage and family formation.
An embryologist works at a reproductive medicine center. More women are freezing their eggs, preparing to create families at a later date.
Ivan Couronne/AFP via Getty Images