While the public health emergency may be over, the COVID-19 virus has and likely will continue to change the healthcare landscape. Here are four recent updates about the virus and its continued effects across the public health spectrum:

The FDA launched a 'rumor control' hub May 16 aimed at combating widespread misinformation about vaccines, medicine, science and health trends.

Do you have access to a gun? Do you live with anyone who has acces to a gun? Clinicians at the University of Michigan's psychiatric emergency department are asking these hard questions as part of an initiative to reduce gun violence — one gun and one family at a time. 

Weekly emergency department visits nationwide for mental health conditions and drug overdoses among adolescents, have fallen by 10 percent, but levels are still slightly increasing for adolescent female patients specifically, according to a May 12 report from the CDC. 

In February, the CDC issued a warning against a brand of eyedrops linked to dozens of severe eye infections in the U.S. But the bottles were causing infections months before that. 

The CDC on May 11 released details about the nation's first two cases of a drug-resistant form of ringworm caused by an emerging pathogen known as Trichophyton indotineae.

The CDC is investigating new mpox cases, with some of the infections happening among vaccinated individuals, the agency said May 10. 

The CDC published updated masking recommendations for healthcare facilities days before the nation's May 11 COVID-19 public health emergency expiration.

In the last decade, 152 million infants worldwide were born preterm — and while preterm birth rates are not changing, death rates from preterm birth complications are on the rise, according to a May 9 report from the World Health Organization. 

The bacteria that caused a massive infant formula shortage in 2022 may soon be added to a federal watch list of diseases, according to a May 9 report from NBC News affiliate WSMV.

Chicago is seeing an increase in mpox, drawing concerns from some experts about the potential for a nationwide resurgence of the virus this summer, according to a May 8 report from NBC News.

A rare fungal outbreak at a Michigan paper mill has infected more than 100 people, and health officials are still searching for the source of the fungus. 

Six days out from the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, hospitalizations and deaths are down and the CDC has released details about what will change in its surveillance of the virus going forward. The major changes? Reporting cadence will shift, three surveillance reports will be discontinued and the agency will launch a redesigned data tracker.

COVID-19 has dropped to the fourth leading cause of death after being the third in 2020 and 2021, a May 5 CDC report found. On the same day, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. 

Public health officials are investigating an outbreak of unidentified illnesses at an elementary in Detroit, NBC News reported May 4.

Hospitals across the country eagerly await the release of The Leapfrog Group's Safety Grades in the spring and fall each year. Leah Binder, president and CEO of the organization, spoke with Becker's about why her organization's A-F grades are important.

Some states saw "alarming" and "dangerous" increases in three specific healthcare-acquired infections, according to Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. The organization's spring 2023 Safety Grades report was released May 3.

After an intensive 'tripledemic' virus season where flu, COVID-19 and RSV all peaked at high rates nationwide, physicians at children's hospitals are actively preparing to take on what could be another round this fall, U.S. News reported May 3.

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are nearing a new low after various variants caused spikes and dips, data shows, and some hospitals say they have zero cases. 

The CDC has released its first-ever strategic plan on public health data, which aims to "help our nation quickly respond to health threats, promote health equity and improve health outcomes," the agency said in a May 3 tweet.