Would It Be Fair to Treat Vaccinated Covid Patients First?
Last week, Texas health care policymakers discussed taking vaccination status into account for Covid triage. It’s a larger conversation ethicists are bracing for.
Covid Meant a Year Without the Flu. That’s Not All Good News
The 2019–20 flu season basically didn’t happen. Same for a couple other respiratory viruses. But that could make future seasons worse.
It’s Time for a National Pandemic Prediction Agency
A federal office that collects outbreak data, models epidemics, and spreads the word to the public could keep the next Covid from being another Covid.
A New Way to Plug a Human Brain Into a Computer: via Veins
Electrodes threaded through the blood vessels that feed the brain let people control gadgets with their minds.
Dexamethasone and the Recovery Trial’s High-Speed Science
In just three months, one British research team identified the first life-saving drug of the pandemic (and helped cancel hydroxychloroquine).
Abortion Bans Create a Public Health Nightmare
Making abortion mostly illegal will kick off an unintentional, vast experiment in public health—one where the outcomes are sick or dying women and children.
‘Heartbeat’ Bills Get the Science of Fetal Heartbeats All Wrong
Anti-abortion laws lean on the heartbeat as a defining moment of aliveness. But at six weeks, it indicates little more than cells and electrical activity.
The Chernobyl Disaster May Have Also Built a Paradise
An HBO show tells the story of the nuclear explosion, but some scientists think the radioactive, human-free landscape might now be a haven for plants and animals.
Post-Apocalyptic Insurers Try Out a New ‘Make it Rain’ Strategy
These disaster insurers don't want to hear your story. They just want to drop a flat cash payout, no matter how much—or little—you suffered.
What Is an Atmospheric River?
The so-called Pineapple Express is dumping rain down all over California, for one thing. An explanation in the form of a song. (With apologies to Talking Heads.)