Health, Science, Environment

Across Missouri, more than 100 schools have spent over $3.5 million — often at taxpayers’ expense — snapping up ionization and other air-purifying devices in an attempt to keep kids safe from COVID-19. But experts warn the largely unregulated technology hasn’t been thoroughly tested in classroom settings and is “often unproven.”

Under the new law, Missouri counties and towns will only be able to issue orders that restrict access to businesses, churches and schools for 30 days when the governor declares a public health emergency. Without it, they can impose restrictions for 21 days. The law also bars officials from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccinations to use public facilities and services.

Hospital leaders from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force on Monday ended 14 months of weekly livestreamed briefings, citing falling coronavirus cases and hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19. They used the final briefing to encourage residents to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Agriculture, business and health care groups in Missouri are discussing ways to help boost the number of people in rural communities who receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Their goal is to change the way vaccine advocates communicate their message to rural residents.

Some Missourians who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are relishing the freedom to resume in-person activities. But others are struggling with anxiety, after a year of isolation and uncertainty.

Southwest Missouri’s most popular tourist areas are the epicenter of a COVID-19 outbreak linked to the Delta variant that is responsible for making India second to the United States in coronavirus cases. All eight counties along a heavily traveled route from Branson to the Lake of the Ozarks are among the 30 local health jurisdictions with the highest rate of newly reported cases so far this month.

This fall, about 20 Black faith leaders will take an environmental bus tour to examine St. Louis locations that have irrigation and air quality systems, sustainable buildings and repurposed sites to better understand how to protect the environment and keep their congregations healthy.

A three-judge panel from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a federal judge’s decision last year that blocked Missouri from enforcing a 2019 law that banned most abortions at eight weeks or because a fetus has Down syndrome.

Black people make up more than 35% of people on dialysis but just 13% of the U.S. population. They’re also less likely to get on the waitlist for a kidney transplant. Part of what is causing the disparity is that an algorithm doctors rely on uses race as a factor in evaluating all stages of kidney disease care.

The county health department has found 212 coronavirus cases among vaccinated people, which shows the shots are "terrifically effective," county health experts said.