Public Health
Hard-Won Pandemic Gains
Building on lessons learned from SARS-CoV-2, pandemic preparedness has taken on renewed urgency
"The Coronavirus Outbreak"
Epidemiology
Even Mild COVID Can Increase the Risk of Heart Problems
Scientists are just starting to unravel the disease’s long-term cardiac effects
Epidemiology
People, Not Science, Decide When a Pandemic Is Over
Historians of the 1918 influenza pandemic discuss lessons for what the future of COVID might look like
Vaccines
People Are Getting COVID Shots Despite Hesitation
Recent findings blow up assumptions about who chooses to get vaccinated against the disease
Public Health
When Is It Safe to Have Sex after COVID?
How to limit your risk of transmitting or getting infected with SARS-CoV-2
Pollution
Tons of COVID Medical Garbage Threaten Health
Burning piles of used gloves, test kits and syringes release toxic pollutants. But there are ways to improve medical recycling
Public Health
Making COVID Tests Better at Detecting Infectious People
Scientists are debating whether to use a little-known measure to determine who is truly contagious. The NFL is already using it
Public Health
The Push to Move Past the Pandemic: COVID Quickly, Episode 25
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American ’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between.You can listen to all past episodes here...
Evolution
The Devastating Loss of Grandparents among One Million COVID Dead
Grandparents are a majority of the pandemic’s death toll
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
Epidemiology
When Should COVID School Restrictions Lift? Intense Debates Persist
Opinion among physicians and scientists still ranges widely on how quickly to proceed
Inequality
COVID Has Made Global Inequality Much Worse
The poor, no matter where they live, will suffer the greatest lasting toll
Inequality
The Pandemic Deepened Fault Lines in American Society
COVID energized the Black Lives Matter movement—and provoked a dangerous backlash
Policy
COVID Pushed Global Health Institutions to Their Limits
The need to reinvent the World Health Organization has become abundantly clear
Policy
COVID Changed the World of Work Forever
People realized their jobs don’t have to be that way
Health Care
Pandemic-Era Research Will Pay Off for Years
The COVID research infrastructure will help fight all sorts of pathogens
Health Care
COVID Long Haulers Are Calling Attention to Chronic Illnesses
But society is not prepared for the growing crisis of long COVID
Health Care
The Pandemic Set Off a Boom in Diagnostics
COVID accelerated the development of cutting-edge PCR tests—and made the need for them urgent
Inequality
Vaccine Inequality Has Shut Vulnerable People Out of Plans to Save the Planet
Those with the most at stake were heard the least
Public Health
Contagions Worse Than COVID Will Prevail If Neglect of Global Public Health Continues
Health security is as important to a nation as a standing army
