Many pain conditions and traumas force the need for opioid painkillers, so the government is funding five studies across the nation to create non-opioid medicines for specific types of joint and muscle pain.

The government’s top infectious diseases expert says families can feel safe trick-or-treating outdoors this year for Halloween as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. decline, especially for those who are vaccinated.

The latest attempt at an HIV vaccine has failed, as researchers announced Monday they have stopped giving the experimental shots in a major study. The study had enrolled more than 5,400 people since 2016 in South Africa, a country with one of the world’s highest HIV rates. “An HIV vaccine is essential to end the global pandemic and we hoped this vaccine candidate would work. Two other large studies, in several countries, are under way testing a different approach to a possible HIV vaccine. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.