Science Controversies
‘Improper medical exemptions’? Some doctors are helping parents circumvent California’s student COVID vaccine mandate
As some California parents scramble for ways around a new Covid-19 vaccine mandate for schools, the state is increasingly scrutinizing ...
‘Misinformation kills’: Websites cataloguing unvaccinated people who died from COVID stir controversy
The details of [auto mechanic Nick] Bledsoe’s death and desperation-fueled change of heart stayed largely confined to his Facebook page ...
‘Sanitized eugenics’: Did I do the right thing by selling my eggs to fund my education?
Seven months ago, I received my acceptance to Columbia University’s School of Journalism. I was absolutely stunned to be admitted, ...
COVID vaccine manufacturing is finally ramping up — but people in low-income countries still can’t access shots
After months of severe shortages, Covid-19 vaccine supplies for the world’s poorest nations are finally ramping up. But many countries ...
Lab leak vs wet market: Navigating the odds of competing COVID origin theories
Those inclined to think... that the pandemic must have started from a traded wild animal share a fundamental intuition with ...
Why the FDA hasn’t reined in experimental stem cell therapy cottage industry
In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration put the emerging stem cell cottage industry on notice. At the time, a ...
China loosens seed regulations, making it easier to approve genetically modified crops
China is planning changes to its seed regulations that will make it easier to approve genetically modified crops, a move ...
‘If you’re not going to take a stand now, then when?’: Physicians defer booster shots in protest of global vaccine inequity
They wore white coats and gave a press conference, standing next to a 12-foot-tall pile of fake bones. The 15 ...
Glaxo-Vir COVID antibody drug appears effective against Omicron variant
Early laboratory studies suggest that a Covid-19 antibody treatment developed by GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Vir Biotechnology Inc. is effective against ...
National vaccine mandate for healthcare workers at institutions that accept Medicare or Medicaid put on hold, as federal judge issues injunction
A federal judge has halted enforcement nationwide of the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers at institutions that accept ...
As COVID cases slope upwards, Europe takes hard line against the unvaccinated
As temperatures drop and coronavirus infections spike across Europe, some countries are introducing increasingly targeted restrictions against the unvaccinated who ...
How does COVID stir chaos in the brain?
COVID’s brain-related symptoms go beyond mere mental fuzziness. They range across a spectrum that encompasses headaches, anxiety, depression, hallucinations and ...
Viewpoint: Why does the latest American Medical Association guide proscribe ‘acceptable’ language?
After Donald Trump took office in 2017, there was a surge of interest among the intellectual left in “1984,” George ...
Frustration grows over Ghana’s delay in approving GM cowpea
As crop losses in Ghana lead to skyrocketing prices for cowpea — a protein-rich staple food — farmers, seed producers ...
If the anti-vaccine movement had prevailed in early 19th century England, we’d still be battling smallpox today
In the early 19th century, British people finally had access to the first vaccine in history, one that promised to ...
Canada establishes path toward likely approval of CRISPR crops and other forms of agricultural gene editing
In Spring 2021, Health Canada released proposed new guidance for the Novel Food Regulations, specifically focused on plant breeding, and ...
Who owns your genes? Book review of ‘The Genome Defense’
In 2009, [lawyer Chris] Hansen, a veteran of civil-rights cases at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York ...
US lawmakers press Biden Administration to challenge Mexico on violating genetically-modified crop import treaty
Congressmen Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Jim Costa (D-CA) led a bipartisan group of more than 70 members in sending a ...
Can paralysis be cured? Injectable cell therapy helps mice regain the ability to walk
A new injectable therapy harnesses “dancing molecules” to reverse paralysis and repair tissue after severe spinal cord injuries. When just ...
Climate-hardy gene-edited rice varieties are nearly ready for introduction — but EU Farm to Fork legislation might hold them back
Scientists and the rice sector are ready to use the new gene editing tools to develop rice varieties more adapted ...
How concerned should vaccinated people be about spreading COVID?
In the early days of vaccine bliss, many Americans had thought that the shots were a ticket to normalcy—and at ...
Chronic fatigue syndrome treatment breakthrough? Research on long COVID may unlock hidden clues
Now that vaccines and therapeutics have lessened the chance of severe illness and death and people are eager to return ...
mRNA technology can revolutionize the flu vaccine, too
The reason the Covid-19 vaccines were developed so quickly is that they used a new, much faster and easier-to-create type ...
Preventing the next pandemic: Inside the quest to find a universal vaccine against all coronaviruses
An emerging-infectious-diseases researcher with the U.S. Army, Dr. [Kayvon] Modjarrad is pursuing a vaccine to protect against a range of ...
Infographic: Unvaccinated people up to 20 times more likely to die of COVID than vaccinated people, California data show
Unvaccinated Californians were between 15 and 20 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated ones when deaths from ...
Viewpoint: Should the US resume ‘risky virus research’?
Called the “DEEP VZN” project, USAID will partner with a consortium of universities and public health organizations, led by Washington ...
Beset by quickly rising COVID cases, Austria becomes first Western European country to set universal vaccine mandates and reimpose lockdowns
Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full coronavirus lockdown this autumn to tackle a ...
