Medicine

The scantness of available data leaves the decision up to the individual and their doctors, though benefits can outweigh risks in some cases

It will not be an easy task

After Pfizer and Moderna, a slew of other candidates could fill gaps in efficacy, production or distribution

Lessons from other viruses show that even if vaccines don’t completely stop disease spread, they can still successfully contain it

With a vaccine in limited availability, many still need medicines to keep the virus at bay

Scientists are debating whether to delay, skip or halve doses. But untested tweaks could shake public confidence

In the U.S., a third of Americans are at risk of chronic kidney disease, and age is a major factor. More than half of Americans older than 75 are thought to have some sort of kidney damage. Here is what happens when you have it. Read the full five-part series in partnership with Undark: “Profit and Loss: America on Dialysis.”

The job of the oncologist of the future will be to prevent and treat the emergence of disease

Social science offers valuable lessons about ways to convince those who are hesitant about the shots

Companies are scrambling to obtain supplies for hundreds of millions of doses of a type of vaccine that has never been made at this scale before

There is evidence the new variant could be more transmissible, yet vaccines work very well against it

Two RNA vaccines will be useful as U.S. infections surge, but the speedy authorizations complicate clinical trials