Health

What’s the Use of a Pretty Good Vaccine?

New vaccines are falling short of the spectacular expectations set by Pfizer and Moderna. The world still needs them.

Podcast: Have We Turned the Corner?

Or is it still risky to be optimistic?

COVID-19 Deaths Are Still Rising

Hospitalizations are falling, but they are still higher than at any point before this current surge.

The World’s Best Tennis Players Are Serving Balls Into Hotel Mattresses

Two weeks of quarantine is a professional athlete’s worst nightmare.

The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust

Patients say the “Rock Doc” helped them like no one else could. Federal prosecutors say his “help” often amounted to dealing drugs for sex.

The Dogs Trained to Sniff Out COVID-19

Images from around the world, showing canine COVID-19–detection programs under development

Ask Dr. Hamblin: Am I Wrong to Tell Someone to Pull Up Her Mask?

A woman who works in my pharmacy can’t seem to stay masked. Help.

The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship

There’s a reason you miss the people you didn’t even know that well.

Why You Can’t Just Get Vaccinated at Your Doctor’s Office

Seniors are on waiting lists for vaccines, even as states are supposedly failing to use up all of their allotted doses. Why can’t vaccination happen faster?

Hospitalizations Are Down

And the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases has dropped significantly too.

The Pandemic Is Finally Softening. Will That Last?

With vaccination racing the spread of COVID-19 variants, America could be at a tipping point.

Podcast: Who Gets the Next Shot?

A bioethics expert on the moral questions facing our vaccine rollouts.

The Good Kind of Brain Drain

Some concussions may linger for months or even years because of damage to vessels that clear waste from the brain.

Pandemic Numbers Are (Finally) Tiptoeing in the Right Direction

The United States remains in a very alarming place, but COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all fell in the past seven days.

Why Kids Might Be Key to Reaching Herd Immunity

Children rarely get very ill from COVID-19. But there’s another reason to vaccinate them.

Ask Dr. Hamblin: So When Can We Stop Wearing Masks?

Hopefully one day, getting vaccinated will mean you no longer need a mask. But not yet.

A Tragic Beginning to a Presidency

On the eve of Biden’s inauguration, the pandemic’s toll has reached nearly 24 million cases and 400,000 deaths.

America’s Most Reliable Pandemic Data Are Now at Risk

The Biden administration has to make a choice: Should it undo a vital system that Trump’s health department created?

A Troubling New Pattern Among the Coronavirus Variants

The most concerning versions of the virus are not simply mutating—they’re mutating in similar ways.

‘What If You Just Don’t Tell Anyone?’

Why some people pretend they never had COVID-19