Health

Your Vaccinated Immune System Is Ready for Breakthroughs

Getting COVID-19 when you’re vaccinated isn’t the same as getting COVID-19 when you’re unvaccinated.

4 Reasons I’m Wearing a Mask Again

Our vaccines are extraordinary, but right now they need all the help they can get.

America Is Getting Unvaccinated People All Wrong

They’re not all anti-vaxxers, and treating them as such is making things worse.

My Community Refuses to Get Vaccinated. Now Delta Is Here.

Only 35 percent of Arkansas is fully vaccinated, and with case rates rising, living there can feel like moving through a distorted reality.

We’re Zeroing In On the ‘Holy Grail’ of COVID-19 Immunity

There’s no good way of measuring whether your vaccine worked—yet.

Vaccination in America Might Have Only One Tragic Path Forward

COVID-19 vaccination rates have fallen off a cliff. Will it take a deadly summer surge to change things?

In the 1500s, Mail Disinfection Was Really, Really Weird

Past epidemics left behind a paper trail of stained, scorched, and punctured letters.

Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri

For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last.

The FDA Is a Melting Iceberg

For decades, scientists have been crying out for action. Will they finally be heard?

Post-vaccination Infections Come in 2 Different Flavors

Lumping all breakthroughs together, regardless of symptoms, miscasts what our COVID-19 vaccines can do.

Emergency Medicine’s Original Sin

The misperception that paramedics are merely ambulance drivers is everyone’s problem.

Doctors Might Have Been Focusing on the Wrong Asthma Triggers

The pandemic was a big social experiment that sent asthma attacks plummeting.

Doctors Are Puzzled by Heart Inflammation in the Young and Vaccinated

Weighing the balance of risks is a shade more challenging when it affects the youngest among us.

The 3 Simple Rules That Underscore the Danger of Delta

Vaccines are still beating the variants, but the unvaccinated world is being pummeled.

The Pandemic Really Did Change How We Tip

Some essential workers have been compensated for pandemic risks with bonuses or higher wages. In restaurants, all they really got was better tips.

Why No One Is Sure If Delta Is Deadlier

The variants are spreading faster, but they don’t necessarily have incentive to kill more often.

We’re Not Ready for Another Pandemic

The next big plague is coming, and despite making progress on pandemic preparedness, the U.S. might still suffer mass casualties. Here’s why.

The Dos and Don’ts of Hot Vax Summer

A vaccinated American’s guide to traveling this summer

The mRNA Vaccines Are Extraordinary, but Novavax Is Even Better

Persistent hype around mRNA vaccine technology is now distracting us from other ways to end the pandemic.

The Only Way We’ll Know When We Need COVID-19 Boosters

Research can tell us only so much. The rest is a waiting game.