Health

Feeling Herd

What I learned from a steer named Chico

The Pandemic After the Pandemic

Long COVID isn’t going away, and we still do not have a way to fully prevent it, cure it, or really to quantify it.

Vaccinating Kids Has Never Been Easy

Uptake of COVID vaccines for kids has been slow, but it has been slow for other vaccines too.

Restaurant Vaccine Mandates Were Set Up to Fail

Did they keep dining rooms safer? Probably a little. Did they persuade many people to get a shot? Maybe not.

The Coronavirus’s Next Move

Here are four shapes that the next variant might take—which will also dictate the shape of our response.

My Pandemic Baby Has Made This So Much Easier

She was born as the first U.S. surge began, and we’ve been living in that reality ever since.

How Did This Many Deaths Become Normal?

The U.S. is nearing 1 million recorded COVID-19 deaths without the social reckoning that such a tragedy should provoke. Why?

Why America Loves Love Is Blind

The hit dating show is unsettling—and also completely relatable.

The Pandemic Is Following a Very Predictable and Depressing Pattern

As with diseases such as malaria and HIV, rich countries are “moving on” from COVID while poor ones continue to get ravaged.

This Is Peak Subscription

Forking over another $5 a month is getting pretty old.

The Biden Administration Killed America’s Collective Pandemic Approach

Protections meant to shield everyone can’t be a matter of personal preference.

Restaurants Learned the Wrong Pandemic Lessons

Are we stuck with QR codes forever?

Ukraine’s Surrogacy Industry Has Put Women in Impossible Positions

When your job is carrying a baby for someone else, you can’t leave it behind.

Next Winter, What If We Test for Even More Viruses?

Cough? Test. Stuffiness? Test. Scratchy throat? Test.

We Might Not Need Annual COVID Shots

The vaccines will need an update at some point. But not every variant of concern will warrant one.

Paul Farmer Invented a New Way of Caring for One Another

The global-health pioneer redefined his field to make it more human, in part by being so wonderfully human himself.

There Will Never Be Another Paul Farmer

The physician and humanitarian embraced the world’s most vulnerable people, and saved more lives than can be counted.

Mask Mandates Are Illogical. So What?

They only need to align with communities’ goals.

Omicron Revived a Heartbreaking Pandemic Measure in NICUs

With cases rising, more parents were having to isolate from their vulnerable newborns.

We’re Entering the Control Phase of the Pandemic

The virus isn’t done with us. So we need a new approach to dealing with it.