The Coronavirus Outbreak

Companies backed by millions in public and private cash are racing to bring the tests to market

Former CDC director Robert Redfield says he believes in a lab leak—but offers no evidence. The odds are against his notion

The pandemic has spotlighted ways to make clinical trials easier on patients and better for science, a heart drug researcher says

We each have more power to be a science communicator than we realize

Reactions reflect unique features of an individual’s immune system, not the strength of a response

Antibodies can change to counter new forms of the shape-shifting virus, research hints

Scientists say the conclusions make sense but note that supporters of the lab-leak theory are unlikely to be satisfied

Pharmaceutical companies are starting clinical trials in young children and adolescents, but they must balance speed and safety

Pandemic highlights for the week

Today we bring you the third episode in a new 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.

A now familiar 21st-century scenario of circumventing public-health strictures played out as well at the beginning of the 20th century

Undercounting or ignoring cases of the disease on the continent could lead to new variants that might derail efforts to end the pandemic