Researchers across the country are in “a mad scramble” to sort out what public data the Trump administration has deleted from government websites.

Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors have finalized a nationwide settlement over their role in the opioid addiction crisis.

One of the leading agencies in the government’s fight against COVID-19 is finally on the verge of getting a new commissioner.

Several states are loosening their coronavirus restrictions on restaurants and other businesses because of improved infection and hospitalization numbers but are moving cautiously. Gretchen Whitmer said bars and restaurants can welcome indoor customers next week for the first time in 2 1/2 months. Chicago and surrounding suburbs allowed indoor dining over the weekend for the first time since October. "But we won’t be hemorrhaging money like we have the last three months.”Washington, D.C., also recently ended its monthlong ban on indoor dining, but one in New York City remains in effect. Indoor dining is still banned in the hardest-hit counties.

WASHINGTON – Up soon for President-elect Joe Biden: naming his top health care officials as the coronavirus pandemic rages. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus made a fresh push during a virtual conference call Thursday for Biden to nominate Lujan Grisham as HHS secretary. Biden is expected to announce his choice for HHS secretary next week. In the running for a top health job is former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, co-chair of Biden's coronavirus task force. Alongside his health secretary, Biden is expected to name a top-level White House adviser to coordinate the government’s extensive coronavirus response.

– If Joe Biden wins next week's election, he says he'll immediately call Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert. The early days of a Biden administration would be consumed by a pandemic response. “I’m here to tell you we can and will get control of this virus,” Biden said Tuesday during a campaign stop in Georgia. Some Republican governors, including in states like North Dakota where virus cases are on the rise, refuse to implement mask requirements. At the start of the pandemic, Biden and other Democrats criticized Trump for not more quickly moving to use the Defense Production Act to step up national production of ventilators and other medical and protective equipment.

The test kits from Iowa-based Integrated DNA Technologies are one part of the government’s effort to ramp up testing. Washington state already has “a huge demand” for testing, Dr. Kathy Lofy, state health officer, said Wednesday at a news conference in Seattle. And it did not apply to the agency’s powers during public health emergencies. “So they went small, instead of big.”In early February, the FDA authorized the CDC to send the test kits out. Whatever the reason for the problem, only about a half dozen state and local public health labs had fully functional kits as of early last week.