Medicine
A Simple Solution Would Make COVID Antivirals More Accessible, Pharmacists Say
The Biden administration’s Test to Treat program aims to make the treatments available at pharmacies, yet it requires a medical provider to prescribe the drugs
Stories by Sara Reardon
Epidemiology
Wastewater Monitoring Offers Powerful Tool for Tracking COVID and Other Diseases
A CDC database of sewage data from communities around the nation could provide earlier warning of outbreaks and new viral variants
Cognition
Can Lab-Grown Brains Become Conscious?
A handful of experiments are raising questions about whether clumps of cells and disembodied brains could be sentient and how scientists would know if they were
Health Care
When Should You Get a COVID Test?
It depends, but vaccinated people should generally wait five days after exposure before taking an antigen test. Here’s why
Ethics
Will Giving COVID Booster Shots Make It Harder to Vaccinate the Rest of the World?
Wealthy countries have bought up most of the available vaccine doses for booster shots but still have far more than they need
Reproduction
A Timeline of How Abortion Laws Could Affect Pregnancy Decisions
If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in a Mississippi abortion case, numerous state laws will interfere with key biological and social decisions during pregnancy
Medicine
Do Monoclonal Antibodies Help COVID Patients?
Experts explain what this treatment involves, who needs it and how to get it
Natural Disasters
The True Haiti Earthquake Death Toll Is Much Worse Than Early Official Counts
A tool built by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that the number of fatalities may range from 10,000 to 100,000 or more
Epidemiology
Why Do Variants Such as Delta Become Dominant?
Mutations that make a virus more transmissible are only part of the equation
Public Health
How the Delta Variant Spreads So Quickly
Viral load is roughly 1,000 times higher in people infected with the Delta variant than those infected with the original coronavirus strain, according to a study in China
Public Health
COVAX Effort to Vaccinate the World Is Faltering
The international collaboration does not have enough COVID vaccine doses to meet its goals, so wealthy countries must step up to fill the gap
Neuroscience
Injection of Light-Sensitive Proteins Restores Blind Man’s Vision
The first successful clinical test of optogenetics lets a person see for the first time in decades, with help from image-enhancing goggles
Policy
New Arkansas Law—and Similar Bills—Endanger Transgender Youth, Research Shows
The legislation runs counter to evidence that puberty blockers and hormone treatments are safe and save lives
Public Health
A Visual Guide to the New Coronavirus Variants
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus seems to be suddenly acquiring mutations at a rapid rate. The most worrying variants, first discovered in South Africa and Brazil, increase the virus’s contagiousness and may even help it evade the human immune system...
Public Health
The Most Worrying Mutations in Five Emerging Coronavirus Variants
Here is a guide to novel versions of the COVID-causing virus—and genetic changes that can make them more contagious and evasive in the body
Public Health
The U.K. Coronavirus Mutation Is Worrying but Not Terrifying
There is evidence the new variant could be more transmissible, yet vaccines work very well against it
Public Health
Who Will Get COVID Vaccines First, and Who Will Have to Wait?
In the U.S., health workers come first. But for other groups, scientists and policy makers are weighing a mix of disease risks, logistics and ethics
Medicine
For COVID Drugs, Months of Frantic Development Lead to Few Outright Successes
There have been mixed results as researchers try to stop a disease they are still trying to understand
Policy
Leading Scientists Urge Voters to Dump Trump
Journals and Nobelists, usually cautious, cite unprecedented damage and incompetence in calls for a U.S. leadership change
Biology
Plants Have Hormones, Too, and Tweaking Them Could Improve Food Supply
Crops sense and respond to drought, pests and other stressors in surprising ways, researchers are discovering
