Public Health

The COVID Lab-Leak Hypothesis: What Scientists Do and Do Not Know

An examination of the arguments that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China and the science behind them

Amy Maxmen, Smriti Mallapaty and Nature magazine

Public Health

Labor Department Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Health Care Workers from COVID

The new rules would require employers to notify workers of possible exposure to the disease and to report deaths or hospitalizations to the government

Christina Jewett and Kaiser Health News

Medicine

A Better Way to Pay for Health Care

Fee-for-service models, such as that of the U.S., and single-payer models, such as those of the U.K. and Canada, both have significant flaws—but Singapore may have found a workable compromise...

James Breiding | Opinion

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

Sara Reardon

Biology

Why Scientists Tweak Lab Viruses to Make Them More Contagious

Some “gain of function” studies explore how a dangerous pathogen might cross species barriers to start an outbreak. They are not without controversy. 

Emily Willingham