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Back in February, when COVID-19 vaccines were still largely restricted to the most vulnerable among us, public health leaders were determined to send a unified message: don’t worry about the differences between vaccines. “All three are really pretty good, and people should go with the one that is best available to them,” Anthony Fauci called […]
Professional runners have to endure extraordinary hardships, pain and pressure to make it to the Olympics. Meanwhile, professional racing fans have to put up with the question of which athletes really deserve to be there. This summer, before America’s tryouts for the Tokyo Olympics ended, fans were forced to digest the fact that two of […]
Updated at 7:55 p.m. on September 29, 2021. A year after the United States bombed its pandemic performance in front of the world, the Delta variant opened the stage for a face-saving encore. If the U.S. had learned from its mishandling of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, it would have been better prepared for the variant […]
Mixing and matching vaccine brands is officially on the table in the United States. But that option could soon be billed as a B-list choice. Last night, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky gave the green light to the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots, the long-awaited continuation of a similar recommendation for the Pfizer formulation […]
There was a time, at the start of the 20th century, when the field of public health was stronger and more ambitious. A mixed group of physicians, scientists, industrialists, and social activists all saw themselves “as part of this giant social-reform effort that was going to transform the health of the nation,” David Rosner, a […]
On Saturday morning, I finally rolled up my sleeve for the vaccine I’d been waiting for all summer: my annual flu shot, a technological marvel that I want to receive every fall. In times without a pandemic, the flu vaccine is a hot fall product that holds a coveted place in the public health spotlight. […]
America’s hot Vax summer started exactly as it was billed – less pandemic, more vaccinations. In the past few months, Americans have gone crazy with traveling. Airbnbs are booked months in advance. Good luck finding a rental car. Even Cruises are back … unfortunately. In July, the airports were busier for a few days than […]
For the past year and a half, humans around the world have been asked to do something we’re pretty bad at, even in the best of circumstances: figure out what constitutes safety, and act accordingly. A well-understood risk doesn’t necessarily improve our thought processes, thanks to a host of cognitive biases and external pressures that […]