A COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for medical professionals this fall and for the general population next spring, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday in laying out a timetable more optimistic than many other experts have proposed.

Kizzmekia Corbett, the lead scientist at the National Institutes of Health working on the coronavirus vaccine, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 it’s “looking like we’re on track for” a vaccine that could be available for emergency use this fall. 

NIH’s lead scientist for coronavirus vaccine research Kizzmekia Corbett lays out the government’s race to create a vaccine, saying they could be on track to have a vaccine from sequence to the general population within 8 months. https://t.co/FtacDLY6rn pic.twitter.com/hlE34Wz64I

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) April 15, 2020

Most other experts in the field have used a 12-18-month timetable. Still, others have said a 12-18 month goal is “risky” for reasons of safety. 

Corbett, though, said her team has benefited from previous research on vaccines. 

Asked why her team is moving faster than others, Corbett said, “It is based on several of our previous projects where we were investigating vaccines for MERS and SARS – coronaviruses which are very closely related to the virus that causes COVID-19. … We’ve researched coronavirus vaccine development for the last…

President Donald Trump has decided to stop all funding for the World Health Organization, saying the group has put “political correctness over lifesaving measures.”

According to Fox News, Trump said the U.S. will lead a 60-to-90 day investigation into allegations that WHO downplayed coronavirus and how the organization uses funding.

WHO is accused of downplaying the virus when it emerged in China. Trump said WHO caused “so much death” by “severely mismanaging and covering up” the spread of the virus.

The U.S. is WHO’s largest backer with about $500 million given to the organization each year.

“This funding would be unaffected because the decision to pull funding would only apply going forward,” said Brett Schaefer, senior research fellow in international regulatory affairs at the Heritage Foundation. “Nonetheless, suspending funding immediately would represent a big cut to WHO funds right when developing countries, which depend far more on international assistance to address health issues, are being impacted by COVID-19.

“Although the U.S. is providing significant assistance through other channels, withholding funding to WHO could negatively impact the COVID-19 response in these countries.”

An internal report obtained by the Associated Press last year found that in 2018, the organization spent more on travel expenses than to combat problems in public…

The vision of one pastor to feed the needy at this time of crisis has sparked a nationwide movement of compassion and generosity.

The Boxes of Hope project is billed as a “tangible way to stretch out a hand to those that are affected either through illness, quarantine, or just the uncertainty of this time” and offers boxes of much-needed supplies to those in need; boxes that are delivered right to their door by an army of dedicated volunteers.

The initiative is the brainchild of New Jersey pastor Chris Morante. The leader of Evangel Church in Scotch Plains, Chris says his goal is simple: “to see HOPE spread faster than COVID-19.”

“We’ve always been committed to reaching our neighbors,” Morante told Fox News. “We always say our mission field is across the street and around the world, so we began to mobilize our efforts as soon as we saw this crisis beginning.”

“We wanted to do something tangible to show God’s love, so we just delivered some groceries in a box to their front door.”

After seeing the profound effect these gifts were having on beneficiaries, Morante’s team started ramping up their operations – they were soon shipping out 600 boxes across the New Jersey area.

Evangel church then partnered up with Convoy of Hope and World Help – along with innumerable local church congregations – to start rolling out the project on a national…

Strip clubs are the latest type of business to want government assistance to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The owners of three strip clubs in Michigan and Wisconsin have filed suit against the U.S. Small Business Administration in recent days, asserting they should be eligible for loans as part of the CARES Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.

The strip clubs that sued were the Little Darlings strip club in Flint, Mich., and Silk Exotic Gentlemen’s Clubs in Milwaukee and Middleton, Wis., according to CNN.

The Small Business Administration says businesses with live performances of a “prurient sexual nature” are not eligible for the loans.

“The emergency regulations promulgated by the Small Business Administration … improperly and unconstitutionally limit benefits to businesses and workers unquestionably engaged in First Amendment-protected expression,” a lawsuit filed on behalf of Little Darlings says.

The lawsuit says Little Darlings wants to take part in the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program, which provides small businesses with funds to pay their employees.

Meanwhile, a company headed by strip club owner Jason Mohney also filed suit against the Small Business Administration. His company owns more than two dozen strip clubs in Michigan, Nevada, Louisiana, Illinois, Florida, Oklahoma and California, according to the Detroit News. Among…

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — At the height of the influenza pandemic in 1918, the Rev. John Misao Yamazaki stopped holding services at St. Mary’s Japanese Mission, the Episcopal church in Los Angeles he helped found more than a decade prior. Before mandatory quarantines were enacted, Yamazaki began visiting homes to pray for sick children and families.

More than a century later, in the midst of another global pandemic, the Rev. Laurel Coote, Yamazaki’s successor at what is now St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, stands in the quiet sanctuary livestreaming images of its empty pews and stained glass windows to her congregation via Facebook.

“I felt compelled to come into the sanctuary so that I could sit in its beauty and its silence and stillness. And I know that you’re missing it too, and so I thought, let me share it with you today,” Coote says in the video. “Christ is alive in this holy place.”

Historical records unearthed by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles show scenes of quarantine in the winter of 1918 and 1919 similar to the ones unfolding today: church doors shuttered, congregants in masks, clerics visiting sick patients. The experiences of older, traditional churches like St. Mary’s, logged in yellowed histories and faded black-and-white photographs, show how American religious institutions once weathered a crisis strikingly similar to this one.

“The example that was set by congregations…

(RNS) —The scene in New York City’s Central Park was a snapshot of the nation’s cultural and religious divide.

On Tuesday (April 14) a group of LGBTQ activists stood several yards away from the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital on the East Meadow lawn and blasted city and state officials and Mount Sinai Hospital for partnering with the evangelical humanitarian relief organization treating overflow patients suffering from the coronavirus.

Activists with the Reclaim Pride Coalition holding signs saying “help not hate” called out New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the leadership of Mount Sinai just across the park, for allowing the organization headed by evangelist Franklin Graham to treat New Yorkers while adhering to an anti-gay statement of faith.

“How was this group ever considered to bring their hatred and their vitriol into our city at a time of crisis when our people are fighting a pandemic?” asked Jay W. Walker, an activist with the Reclaim Pride Coalition.

The LGBTQ coalition is the latest in a series of barbs aimed at Samaritan’s Purse since it opened a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park two weeks ago. The conflict pits the country’s growing acceptance of LGBTQ rights with the conservative values of a premier evangelical relief organization.

The hospital is staffed with Christian doctors and nurses experienced in treating infectious…

(RNS) — A student at Liberty University, an evangelical Christian school, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the school alleging that students were put at “severe physical risk” when the campus reopened in March despite the pandemic and accusing administrators of profiting from the health crisis by refusing to fully refund students.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on Monday (April 13), focuses on Liberty’s refusal to fully close its campus in response to the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. The plaintiff, who is listed only as Student A “out of legitimate fear of retaliation and harassment,” contends that while allowing students to return to Liberty’s campus after spring break put their “health at risk,” the school had subsequently instituted several measures such as shifting to online classes and barring large gatherings.

“The University’s statement that it is ‘open’ is an illusion being put forth to try to keep money that should be returned to students and their families,” the complaint reads.

The suit goes on to suggest that the school’s decision to remain open in an official capacity allows administrators to avoid fully refunding students for fees paid to fund on-campus services and activities.

“Liberty University is, in a very real sense, profiting from the COVID-19 pandemic — keeping its campus services…