“More than 600,000 people have been told to isolate by the NHS covid-19 app across the week of July 8 in England and Wales,” she says, “but that’s only a little more than double the number of new positive cases in the same period. While we had concerns about the […]
Category: Coronavirus
Why England’s sudden lifting of covid restrictions is a massive gamble
England is about to take a huge gamble. On Monday, July 19, the country is ditching all of its remaining pandemic-related restrictions. People will be able to go to nightclubs, or gather in groups as large as they like. They will not be legally compelled to wear masks at all, […]
How to mend your broken pandemic brain
Chronic stress can also alter the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s executive control center, and the amygdala, the fear and anxiety hub. Too many glucocorticoids for too long can impair the connections both within the prefrontal cortex and between it and the amygdala. As a result, the prefrontal cortex loses its […]
Pfizer wants to give you a booster shot—but experts say it’s too soon
About half a dozen other countries are considering the idea. If those countries also begin offering booster shots, “this will require an additional 800 million doses of vaccine,” said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan at a press briefing on Monday. Those doses should be going to countries that have had […]
Welcome to the Tokyo Olympics, where public health, money, and politics collide
It’s nighttime on the streets of Ibaraki prefecture in Japan when the Olympic torch comes through. A viral video shows the torch bearer’s slow jog past spectators lining the road. Then, as the flame passes, a woman in the crowd shoots a water gun. “Extinguish the Olympic flame! Oppose the […]
Here’s what we know about kids and long covid
When it comes to covid, kids have largely been spared. They can get infected and spread the virus, but they have little risk of becoming seriously ill or dying. Yet, just like adults, they can have symptoms that persist well beyond the initial infection. This condition, officially known as post-acute […]
We tried out the first statewide vaccine passport
So what is it like to use? In anticipation of attending my first comedy show in years, at Union Hall in Brooklyn, I registered for the Excelsior Pass. Spoiler: It did not go smoothly. Downloading the app to my iPhone was simple enough. But like many users, I was greeted […]
What went so wrong with covid in India? Everything.
But voices like his were drowned out by the federal government’s messaging, which suggested that India had somehow outwitted the virus. The hype was so strong that even some medical professionals bought into it. A Harvard Medical School professor told the financial daily Mint that “the pandemic has behaved in […]
Your guide to what’s happening with vaccine passports in the US
A year ago, vaccines to tackle the covid pandemic seemed like a far-off idea. Today, though, doses have been delivered to almost one-quarter of the world’s people—and some are being asked to prove they’re among them, leading to the rise of so-called vaccine passports. The details of these credentials vary […]
Inside the risky bat-virus engineering that links America to Wuhan
For Baric, that research started in the late 1990s. Coronaviruses were then considered low risk, but Baric’s studies on the genetics that allowed viruses to enter human cells convinced him that some might be just a few mutations away from jumping the species barrier. That hunch was confirmed in 2002–’03, […]