When Moritz Kraemer first heard about the new monkeypox outbreak spreading through the UK, Europe, and the US, it was not through conventional scientific channels, or from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), but via Twitter. As each suspected case was reported, and infectious disease experts shared their theories in real time, Kraemer—an epidemiologist at […]
Read MoreJennifer knew that her pregnancy at the age of 37 was fraught with risks—so she was all the more excited to be expecting twin boys. However, detailed ultrasound images at 12 weeks showed that there were significant complications. Both fetuses were missing limbs, and fluid was accumulating in their brain cavities. An additional ultrasound and […]
Read MoreIn Greenland in January 2021, a child just under two years old was sick—very sick. And his doctors couldn’t figure out why. He was feverish, vomiting, having seizures. Meningitis was suspected to be the cause; a tuberculosis diagnosis was also being tossed around. The child was transferred to Copenhagen—to Rigshospitalet, the largest hospital in Denmark—for […]
Read MoreHistorically, a state’s legal code has been assumed to stop at its borders. And for the most part, states have not prosecuted residents who leave to do something that is legal at their destination but illegal at home. “Before it became legalized in most places, people would travel to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to […]
Read MoreIn a perfect world, abortion access would be easy. The minute you realized you needed an abortion, you’d be able to grab some abortion pills from the drugstore, or make an appointment with your regular gynecologist for a quick and easy vacuum aspiration. But we don’t live in a perfect world. In modern-day America, abortion […]
Read MoreWe no longer have a supply problem with vaccines. The only question left is, are you limited by demand or by logistics. In less vaccinated countries, there isn’t much demand. In Nigeria, Covid would be, like, the 15th-largest cause of death—you’ve got HIV, TB, malaria, diarrhea. So when you say to them, “Hey, number 15,” […]
Read MoreA disease that is so rare in the United States that it is recognized in only about 40 people each year has taken the life of a person living in Maine. The cause, Powassan virus, is transmitted by ticks, which can pass it on within 15 minutes of biting. The virus causes neurological damage; one […]
Read MoreWithin minutes of the leaking of the draft opinion from the US Supreme Court calling for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Elizabeth Constance, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, was inundated with messages on social media from concerned patients. What does this mean for the embryos I […]
Read MoreIn January 2022, doctors in Scotland noticed a worrying trend: a scattering of cases of severe hepatitis in kids between 1 and 5 years old. The children were presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms—abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting—followed by the onset of jaundice. To see such acute hepatitis (a broad term that essentially describes inflammation of the liver) […]
Read MoreLines on charts can tell you something about the state of the Covid pandemic in the United States. Deaths: declining, even with the looming milestone of the millionth US death. Hospitalizations: at historically low levels, but ticking back up. Cases: rising, particularly in the Northeast, reliably a harbinger for the rest of the country. What […]
Read MoreOf course, just because research is published in a journal instead of a preprint server doesn’t mean it’s inherently risk-free. But it does mean that any glaring dangers are more likely to be picked up in the reviewing process. “The key difference, really, between journals and the preprint server is the level of depth that […]
Read MoreAlmost immediately, her data revealed that drones beat cars. Delivery times vary by distance, but drones consistently outpaced typical driving times. In 12,733 orders over 32 months, the smallest difference was a three-minute boost and the largest was 211 minutes, always in favor of drones. The drones also reduced the quantity of blood that expired […]
Read MoreAs of last week, the fast-moving pathogen had been found in poultry and adjacent species 182 times in 27 states, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture. It has invaded every type of bird-growing operation—turkeys, broilers, egg-laying farms, and breeders that produce eggs for hatching—as well as […]
Read MoreOne of mRNA’s strengths is its “remarkable agility,” as Hatchett puts it. Its only raw ingredients are the four amino acid bases that form the “letters” of the RNA sequence, so it can be designed and made pretty rapidly. “Biological manufacturing is very hard and temperamental and has been difficult to introduce in many environments. […]
Read MoreSince the invasion of Ukraine began a month ago, representatives of Russia have unleashed an avalanche of disinformation to justify this aggression, claiming they plan to liberate breakaway regions, restore Russia’s pre-Soviet boundaries, or rescue Ukrainians from a “drug-addled” government. Some assertions are comically outlandish—“denazifying” a country led by a Jewish president, for instance—but one […]
Read MoreFor the past two years, the hottest data set in the United Kingdom has dropped every Friday. Scientists, journalists, and amateur data sleuths all dial up one specific website: The Covid-19 Infection Survey, run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), an independent government agency. With 180,000 participants who are swabbed every fortnight, it is […]
Read MoreLinda Boiler, who researches public mental health at the Trimbos Institute in the Netherlands and was not involved in this study, compares well-being to a vaccine that can protect people when they run into tough situations. “Maybe we shouldn’t aim for ‘happy’ all the time,” she says. “It’s more fruitful to equip people with the […]
Read MoreGaskill noted that when she submits information online, it doesn’t seem to get picked up by the right department or web address. “I’m still on those lists. Magellan will tell patients I’m a provider, yet I was never credentialed for them in that state—ever.” She still gets calls from patients who tell her they were […]
Read MoreTadhg Ó Laoghaire, a researcher in economic ethics at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, echoes Gillard: “They don’t have legal obligations to continue to provide goods to people.” But if they are not technically legally obliged, it’s still the moral thing to do, he continues. Pharmaceutical companies play a very niche role—“it’s not like someone […]
Read MoreMedication is now hard, if not impossible, to access because supplies have been depleted or destroyed and logistical chains broken, says Maistruk. Terminals and storage are generally located near Kyiv, Ukraine’s most populous city. “Now everything is in very poor condition. Unfortunately many companies lost the possibility to transport,” she says. Some health care workers […]
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