The measles outbreak in West Texas didn’t happen just by chance.

On the fifth anniversary of the start of the COVID pandemic, we discuss the measles outbreak and the state’s ability to respond to health crises.

The fast-changing coronavirus has kicked off summer in the U.S. with lots of infections but relatively few deaths compared to its prior incarnations.

Corbevax, a low-cost coronavirus vaccine created in Houston, could be a better weapon against COVID-19 by reaching the unvaccinated in poorer countries.

The Texas Department of State Health Services, which tracks the number of coronavirus vaccinations, cases, hospitalizations and deaths across the state, won’t be updating its daily dashboard Friday through Sunday both this week and next over the holidays.

Hospitalizations related to the virus remain low in the state, but the number of people testing positive is rising and once again fueling worries about the struggling health care system’s ability to weather a new surge.

A Houston vaccine team would like a U.S. distributor but for now focuses its efforts abroad to inoculate those in countries where COVID-19 variants surface more quickly.

The announcement will likely give new life to the debate about requiring vaccinations that has been playing out in Texas and across the nation.

Experts are still cautioning against attending big sporting events during the pandemic, but say there are ways to make it safer if you go.

Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune. (Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.) In the latest episode of our podcast about the Texas Legislature, Evan Smith talks to Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and co-director of Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, about mask mandates, vaccine availability, reopening schools and businesses, and the trajectory of the pandemic.

Coronavirus infections are surging again in the region of northern Italy where the pandemic first took hold in Europe, renewing pressure on hospitals and health care workers. Well after Europe seemed to have largely tamed the virus that proved so lethal last spring, newly confirmed infections are reaching unprecedented levels in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office, urged governments to be “uncompromising” in controlling the virus. So far in the new surges, deaths have not increased at the same pace as infections. And nursing homes, which were ravaged by the virus last spring, have gotten better at controlling infections.

In the race to develop a vaccine and other stopgap treatments for coronavirus patients in the meantime, Texas has emerged as a leading site for COVID-19 research. U.S. health officials announced last week that they had approved another large-scale COVID-19 vaccine trial, which reportedly has plans to recruit participants in Texas. Johnson & Johnson is the fourth company to begin large-scale clinical trials, behind Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca, all of which have trials running in Texas. A recent Axios-Ipsos poll found that 6 in 10 Americans say they would not take a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available. At the same time, leaders of vaccine clinical trials say they’ve seen unprecedented numbers of people asking to sign up.

People might think we're out of the woods, said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. The last time Texas coronavirus hospitalizations were this low was in late June. Some Texas schools have begun in-person instruction, while many others are waiting to reopen after Labor Day or later in the fall. School leaders must weigh the public health risks of reopening against the social and developmental harm of keeping kids out of school. In Texas, about 53% of public school students are Hispanic, and about 13% are Black.