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What if you catch the flu and COVID-19 at the same time? Here’s what we know about ‘flurona?’

Recent reports of coinfections of COVID-19 and the flu, known as "flurona," have people searching for answers.

‘Turned out to be a fiasco’: Mask controversy erodes Mass. educators’ faith in state

It’s not clear how many of the masks distributed were the less protective version labeled “non-medical,” or how many districts received them.

Hospitals have been struggling. The state reported Thursday that 2,524 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized, a number that exceeds the peak during last winter’s deadly surge of 2,428 on Jan. 4, 2021.
Here’s why the state is changing the way it reports COVID hospitalization data
Massachusetts will soon report what proportions of patients were admitted primarily because of COVID versus those who were admitted for other reasons and happened to test positive for the virus.

THE LATEST COVID-19 NEWS

Walensky urges vaccinations for eligible children as pediatric hospitalizations rise to highest levels yet

A bicyclist braved the snowy sidewalk on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

Season’s first storm drops more than a foot of snow in some parts of Mass.

A high-intensity storm covered Massachusetts Friday, with over a foot of snow falling in some places, forcing hundreds of schools to close and causing multiple accidents, including a fatal crash in Freetown.
See snow totals in your area
COVID-detecting dogs, Duke and Huntah, sniffed around schools as part of their new jobs seeking out where the virus might be on surfaces.

COVID-detecting dogs are visiting some schools to help sniff out the virus on surfaces

The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office has launched a program that enlists two young dogs to scour nooks and crannies in 15 Bristol County schools where the odor of the coronavirus may have been left behind.
Travis McMichael, pictured here, was convicted of Ahmaud Arbery's murder along with his father Greg McMichael and their neighbor William ‘’Roddie’' Bryan; all three were given life in prison.

Ahmaud Arbery’s killers sentenced to life in prison, two with no chance of parole

Almost two years after Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed, the three white men convicted of his murder were sentenced to life in prison, two of them without the possibility of parole.
Opinion
Anna Soto (left) watches her son Lyancer, 8, joke with Joseph Chaparro, 8, before receiving a COVID-19 vaccine during a Thanksgiving party at La Colaborativa, in Chelsea, on Nov. 23.
EDITORIAL

Vaccination rates for Massachusetts children, ages 5-11, are a ‘tale of two states’

Economics alone does not explain the disparities.
More than two dozen countries make voting a civic duty akin to jury duty.
IDEAS | Miles Rapoport and Alex Keyssar

How to boost voter turnout to nearly 100 percent
Activists attend a "Defend Democracy" vigil near the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.
LETTERS

A still-smoldering injustice at the Capitol
Alex Beam

Omicron gives new meaning to calculated risk
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Can Mayor Wu really make the T free?
Mass. coronavirus at a glance
Vaccinations
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Trend:
1+ dose received:
Fully vaccinated:
Cases and deaths
Total cases:
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Other resources:
Last updated: . NOTE: Mass DPH releases data Monday-Friday starting July 2021. Mass. population of 6,892,503 is used to calculate vaccination percentages. SOURCE: Mass. Dept. of Public Health
Special Project

UNDER THE WHEEL

This is the story of Anthony Pledger and his mother, of Anthony’s lives and deaths, of Anthony and me.

More recent stories

Haymarket station closed through Monday for demolition of nearby garage

The station, which services the MBTA’s green and orange lines as well as a number of bus routes, closed at the end of service Friday night, the agency wrote in a tweet. Trains will bypass the station, which is typically situated between North Station and Government Center.

Tom Brady, right, lobbied to have Antonio Brown join the Buccaneers in 2020.
Antonio Brown calls Tom Brady ‘his friend,’ rips Bruce Arians in podcast appearance
The Buccaneers terminated the wide receiver’s contract earlier this week, but Brown said he hopes to play in the NFL again.

President Biden, center, and first lady Jill Biden, right, greeted people after arriving at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, 2022.
Harry Reid memorial in Vegas drawing nation’s top Democrats
The life of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who rose from childhood poverty and deprivation in Nevada to become one of the nation’s most powerful elected officials, will be celebrated by two American presidents and other Democratic leaders on Saturday.

Game show champion Amy Schneider on the set of "Jeopardy!"
Amy Schneider becomes first woman to surpass $1 million on ‘Jeopardy!’
On Friday, she became the fourth contestant and the first woman in the history of “Jeopardy!” to surpass $1 million in winnings during regular-season play.

Bill Ochs, project manager for the Webb Space Telescope, monitored the progress of the observatory's second primary mirror wing as it rotates into position in Saturday.
Webb space telescope opens its mirror as it meets its last milestone
NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror Saturday, the final step in the observatory’s dramatic unfurling.

Under pressure from Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz apologizes for describing Jan. 6 attack as terrorism

Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show Thursday, the conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender insisted that he had misspoken, though he has consistently described the insurrection by Donald Trump supporters as a terrorist attack over the last year.

THE GREAT DIVIDE ⟶

See the latest from our education team focused on race, class, and opportunity in schools.

RHODE ISLAND ⟶

See the latest from Globe Rhode Island.

NEWTON ⟶

See the Globe’s expanded Newton coverage in partnership with Boston University.

Recommended reads

William and Carol Stewart were married for 44 years. The couple passed away, within seconds of each other, family says, after battling COVID-19.

‘True definition of soul mates’: A New Hampshire couple died of COVID-19 just seconds apart, holding hands as they took their last breaths

Bill and Carol Stewart were together for more than four decades. On the day they died, their hospital beds were wheeled into the same room so they could spend their final moments together.

ADRIAN WALKER
Kevin Hayden
New Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden comes well prepared
“He’s just a superb human being,” said former district attorney Ralph C. Martin II, who first hired him as a prosecutor in the 1990s.

Sidney Poitier appeared with Lilia Skala in a scene from the 1963 classic, "Lillies of the Field."
Oscar winner and groundbreaking star Sidney Poitier dies
He was the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw.

Ben Affleck, left, in "The Tender Bar."
Ben Affleck talks about ‘The Tender Bar,’ sobriety, and what it’s like being ‘the guy from Boston’
With “The Tender Bar” starting to stream on Amazon Prime Jan. 7 — it opened in theaters last month — we asked the Cambridge native if he had a few minutes to chat. He said sure.

video

Culture & Lifestyle

Steve Aoki (pictured in July 2021 at Lollapalooza in Chicago) performs Jan. 8 at Big Night Live and Jan. 9 at Mémoire.
THE TICKET

Things to do around Boston this weekend and beyond
Aaron LaVigne (left) as Jesus and Tommy Sherlock as Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar."
STAGE REVIEW

A ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ with swagger, but imbued with sorrow
Mohammed Al-Kinani's story is included in a new book of Maine immigrant experiences. (Lilit Danielyan)
NEW ENGLAND LITERARY NEWS

A poet’s funny, poignant memories and a new book of Maine immigrant experiences
Khao soi (center), tonkotsu ramen (right), and pho tai at the Soup Shack in Jamaica Plain.
FOOD

January is National Soup Month. Here are 16 must-stop spots for soup in the Boston area

Special Projects

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, then president of Brigham Health, brought a Boston delegation in April 2018 to celebrate the opening of the Boao Evergrande International Hospital in China, constructed in a new medical tourism hub.
Spotlight team report

How Brigham Health helped create a Chinese hospital for elites — and almost nobody came

In a deal worth millions with Chinese developer Evergrande, a Harvard teaching hospital risked its reputation on what would become a near-empty shell.
An older lobsterman passed by Tanner Lazaro as he hauled up his traps in his boat, Used N Abused, on Aug. 24. During the summer Tanner hauled his own traps on whatever days his mentor Frankie Thompson or another lobsterman didn't need his help.

The lobster trap

The plentiful catch that brought wealth to fishing families is at risk, as climate change warms the Gulf of Maine. A way of life is on the line, but lobstermen can't, or won't, imagine another.
Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance

Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

Victoria Long, spiritual care coordinator at Suncoast Hospice, talks with a hospice resident in St. Petersburg, Fla.
IDEAS | ROSE CARMEN GOLDBERG

No one should die alone
Kevin Hayden, speaking with Jim Braude, host of GBH News’ "Greater Boston," in 2016 at the GBH Studios in Brighton.
MARCELA GARCÍA

Kevin Hayden must carry forward the mandate for progressive reform in Suffolk DA’s office
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Confusion is also a COVID-19 variant. The CDC is spreading it.
President Joe Biden speaks in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, marking one year since the deadly assault on the Capitol. President Biden denounced former president Donald Trump for promoting lies and tearing down American democracy because he could not stand the fact that he lost an election, accusing his predecessor of putting his own interests ahead of the country’s.
SCOT LEHIGH

Biden’s powerful warning about democracy
Health care workers put in a dialysis line in a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester on Dec. 2.
Kevin Tabb, Kate Walsh, Anne Klibanski, and Michael Dandorph

Hospitals are doing their part on COVID-19; we ask the public to do theirs
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Can Mayor Wu really make the T free?

Metro

Coronavirus Live Updates

Walensky urges vaccinations for eligible children as pediatric hospitalizations rise to highest levels yet

The latest news and guidance on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in New England and beyond.

Haymarket station closed through Monday for demolition of nearby garage

The station, which services the MBTA’s green and orange lines as well as a number of bus routes, closed at the end of service Friday night, the agency wrote in a tweet. Trains will bypass the station, which is typically situated between North Station and Government Center.

COVID-detecting dogs are visiting some schools to help sniff out the virus on surfaces

The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office has launched a program that enlists two young dogs to scour nooks and crannies in 15 Bristol County schools where the odor of the coronavirus may have been left behind.

Season’s first storm drops more than a foot of snow in some parts of Mass.

A high-intensity storm covered Massachusetts Friday, with over a foot of snow falling in some places, forcing hundreds of schools to close and causing multiple accidents, including a fatal crash in Freetown.

Sports

Brandon Bolden has taken on much of the third-down back role formerly filled by James White, one of his closest friends, in addition to being one of the Patriots' top special teams performers.
Patriots

In an exclusive conversation, Brandon Bolden of the Patriots discusses scary 2018 skin cancer diagnosis and surgery

Bolden’s message to others is simple: Don’t wait. “The moment you feel something’s weird … something you can’t really explain, go get it checked. Immediately,”
The No. 1-ranked Djokovic was denied entry at the Melbourne airport late Wednesday after border officials canceled his visa for failing to meet its entry requirement that all non-citizens be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
Tennis

Court documents show Novak Djokovic had COVID-19 last month

As the tennis star continues his challenge against deportation from Australia, documents show he was granted a medical exemption on the grounds of having recovered from COVID-19 last month.
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, the top US pair, had to withdraw from this weekend’s US figure skating championships in Nashville after he tested positive for COVID-19.
John Powers | Olympic notes

Olympic hopefuls have two challenges — making the team, and not catching COVID-19

“We’re worried,” David Shoemaker, the Canadian Olympic Committee’s chief executive, told CBC.
Chad Finn | Sports Media

ESPN connects with its new ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ team but whiffs badly on A-Rod
Matt Porter | Sunday hockey notes

Willie O’Ree, his number soon to be retired by Bruins, continues to inspire others
Alex Speier | Sunday baseball notes

Expect roster-building chaos when baseball’s lockout ends

Business

Webb space telescope opens its mirror as it meets its last milestone

NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror Saturday, the final step in the observatory’s dramatic unfurling.

VW gives US plant workers 10 percent pay bump amid Omicron pressure

The German automaker on Friday reported US sales of 375,030 vehicles for 2021, a 15 percent jump from the prior year.

Fourth vaccine dose could be needed in fall, Moderna CEO says

Three IPOs on Friday, and more deals in Boston biotech

STAT

Dr. Monica McLemore, Associate Professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department at UCSF, stands for a portrait at the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza on Friday, September 10th, 2021 in Oakland, Calif.
‘Health equity tourists’: How white scholars are colonizing research on health disparities
A STAT investigation shows that researchers with little or no background or training in health equity research are rushing in to scoop up grants and publish papers.

Covid winter illustration
Winter is coming, again: What to expect from Covid-19 as the season looms
STAT spoke with infectious disease experts and others about what to expect from Covid-19 as the seasons change.

Funeral goers sing during a service for Daisy Pace at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in January 2021.
DISTANCED: Pandemic stories of Black life in the rural South
Photographer Bethany Mollenkof spent six months documenting the impact of Covid-19 on residents of rural Black communities in the South.

Boston, MA -- 05/12/21 -- Dr. Matthew Carty examines patient Jerry Majethic at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital on May 12, 2021, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Kayana Szymczak for STAT)
Groundbreaking arm amputation surgery makes a ‘phantom’ hand seem real
The procedure aims to restore proprioception, the ability to sense where our limbs are in space and how fast and forcefully they’re moving.

magazine
It's been 50 years since the groundbreaking kids' show "Zoom" debuted on WGBH.
Television

In 1972, the kids took over TV on the first "Zoom" to enter our homes
Local history

The roller-skating heroes who fought racism in Boston
Love Letters

My fiance thinks my dress is too short for our courthouse wedding
Peruvian Quinoa and Corn Chowder (Chupe de Quinoa)
Cooking

Recipes: Keep that resolution to eat better with 3 quinoa dishes

metro

Maria Garcia, who works in housekeeping at Park Avenue Health Center, laughed after nurse Sarah DiPerri gave her a booster vaccine in November.

Mass. mandates COVID-19 booster shots for nursing home workers and takes action to ease hospital bottlenecks

New Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden comes well prepared

Increased federal energy aid available as winter weather arrives in Massachusetts

sports

Becky Hammon (center) is in her eighth season as a Spurs assistant under Gregg Popovich (left).

Becky Hammon will finally get to be a head coach, just not in the NBA yet

A look at the playoff races and the records at stake in the NFL’s new Week 18

In the history of the NBA 3-pointer, there have been some misses along the way

business

Construction workers finish the exterior of an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles. The Biden administration is giving state and local governments greater flexibility in spending $350 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds. The new rules from the US Treasury Department mean many cities and counties no longer have to prove a revenue loss to spend the money more freely.

Treasury broadens COVID relief uses for states, localities

Developer proposes massive lab and housing complex where Simmons dorms now stand

What comes after Omicron? We need a plan

politics

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden talked with people as they toured a neighborhood in Louisville, Colo., on Friday.

President Biden surveys Colorado wildfire damage, comforts victims

Under pressure from Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz apologizes for describing Jan. 6 attack as terrorism

Increased federal energy aid available as winter weather arrives in Massachusetts

Nation

COVID-19 tests were administered to children on Jan. 3, 2022, at L.B. Landry High School in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.

Walensky urges vaccinations for eligible children as pediatric hospitalizations rise to highest levels yet

What if you catch the flu and COVID-19 at the same time? Here’s what we know about ‘flurona?’

Harry Reid memorial in Vegas drawing nation’s top Democrats

World

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gestured as he spoke during a press conference after the extraordinary meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Russia-Ukraine tensions at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, on Jan. 7, 2022.

NATO vows united response to Russian aggression against Ukraine

France takes EU reins with push for more sovereignty

Polish leader admits country bought powerful Israeli spyware

opinion

President Joe Biden speaks in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, marking one year since the deadly assault on the Capitol. President Biden denounced former president Donald Trump for promoting lies and tearing down American democracy because he could not stand the fact that he lost an election, accusing his predecessor of putting his own interests ahead of the country’s.

Biden’s powerful warning about democracy

Confusion is also a COVID-19 variant. The CDC is spreading it.

The shot heard around the world

lifestyle

Love Letters

My girlfriend left after I lost custody of my kids

Oscar winner and groundbreaking star Sidney Poitier dies

The best places to go sledding in Boston and beyond

food & dining

Green tea and mango ice creams at Toscanini's.

The scoop on Main Street: Toscanini’s returns

McGuirk’s Folly pops up at Middlesex Lounge; Salt + Stone comes to Somerville

January is National Soup Month. Here are 16 must-stop spots for soup in the Boston area

travel

Seth Sikes at Fire Island Pines, N.Y.

Seth Sikes on beach massages, Judy and Liza, and his upcoming show at Club Café

Orbitz switched her Aruba vacation — but not her hotel in Tahiti

AutoCamp lands in Joshua Tree, Skyspace debuts in South America, and a new lodge opens in Stowe

Arts

Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940), "Landscapes and Interiors: Through the Fields, 1899." Lithograph on paper.

‘Hue & Cry’ at the Clark explores controversy of color printmaking in 19th-century France

Mass. and Cass, cast in bronze and on canvas

Actress and advocate Taraji P. Henson is part of the Museum of Science’s upcoming programming

Books

Kathryn Schulz’s memoir ‘Lost & Found’ traces life’s gifts and sorrows

Martín Espada: stacks of books, from poetry to photography

Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel ‘To Paradise’ ponders freedom and loneliness

Movies

Sly Stone performing at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary "Summer of Soul."

A list of 20 movies, TV shows, and documentaries to stream during the snowstorm

Ben Affleck talks about ‘The Tender Bar,’ sobriety, and what it’s like being ‘the guy from Boston’

Looking for intimations of immortality

Television

On Sunday, when the Golden Globe winners are named, there will be no red carpet, no celebrities, and no way to tune in.

Not really missing the Golden Globes ceremony

A list of 20 movies, TV shows, and documentaries to stream during the snowstorm

Calm down: ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ has returned

music

Music director Andris Nelsons and violinist Hilary Hahn with the BSO on Jan. 7, 2022 at Symphony Hall.

At BSO, the year’s first notes are new

Antonio Oliart Ros brings artistry to sound recording at GBH and beyond

With every note, Ranky Tanky honors an ancestry

Theater/Dance

Aaron LaVigne (left) as Jesus and Tommy Sherlock as Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar."

A ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ with swagger, but imbued with sorrow

The team that put ‘Mr. Parent’ in a class, by himself

Rather than try to explain Lord Buckley, he becomes him onstage

globe local

Auto shop instructor Louis Beckwith talks about brakes with students during an adult education class at the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School in Danvers.

Vocational schools offer adults a blueprint for success, with classes funded by the state

A runaway goat is apprehended in Norfolk

Jan. 6 arrests included 11 from New England. A look at who they are

Obituaries

Ms. Guinier admired a thank you note from a speaking engagement in 2002.

Lani Guinier, civil rights champion and Harvard law professor, dies at 71

Jim Corsi, Newton native who pitched for the Red Sox, dies at 60

Mary Richardson, pioneering female anchor and ‘Chronicle’ cohost, dies at 76