COVID force shift: Surge in milder variant focus global adaptation strategy rethink

COVID force shift: Surge in milder variant focus global adaptation strategy rethink

Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
Now Omicron is sweeping across state after state—even highly vaccinated ones—and new cases are shooting up and up. The virus ...
Viewpoint: Shutting down schools during COVID? Democrats over-reached and screwed up their COVID response

Viewpoint: Shutting down schools during COVID? Democrats over-reached and screwed up their COVID response

Angie Schmitt | Atlantic | 
I can’t imagine that I would have arrived here—not a Republican, but questioning my place in the Democratic Party—had my ...
Is the Omicron variant really 'milder' than Delta? 

Is the Omicron variant really ‘milder’ than Delta? 

Ed Yong | Atlantic | 
Omicron cases have thus far been relatively mild. This pattern has fueled the widespread claim that the variant might be less ...
Omicron appears to be milder than Delta — but it’s more infectious, including to the vaccinated. What does that mean for you?

Omicron appears to be milder than Delta — but it’s more infectious, including to the vaccinated. What does that mean for you?

Rachel Gutman | Atlantic | 
Back in July, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced that COVID had become “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” an unfortunate turn ...
Lab leak vs wet market: Navigating the odds of competing COVID origin theories

Lab leak vs wet market: Navigating the odds of competing COVID origin theories

Daniel Engber | Atlantic | 
Those inclined to think... that the pandemic must have started from a traded wild animal share a fundamental intuition with ...
How concerned should vaccinated people be about spreading COVID?

How concerned should vaccinated people be about spreading COVID?

Yasmin Tayag | Atlantic | 
In the early days of vaccine bliss, many Americans had thought that the shots were a ticket to normalcy—and at ...
What’s next for ‘living with COVID’? America’s path to endemicity is lined with potholes

What’s next for ‘living with COVID’? America’s path to endemicity is lined with potholes

Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
The answers were simpler when we thought we could vaccinate our way to herd immunity. But vaccinations in the U.S ...
‘Opting for what feels safe rather than what is safe’: Why are many pregnant women brushing off advice to get COVID vaccines?

‘Opting for what feels safe rather than what is safe’: Why are many pregnant women brushing off advice to get COVID vaccines?

Kate Cray | Atlantic | 
At least 200 pregnant people have died of COVID-19, including 22 in August alone; nearly 23,000 have been hospitalized. Newborns ...
Will schools mandate vaccines for kids?

Will schools mandate vaccines for kids?

Rachel Gutman | Atlantic | 
COVID-19 vaccination for 5-to-11-year-olds is finally a go. But even as the emergency-use-authorization process unfolded, so too did arguments over whether ...
Sperm donor controversy: Does everyone have a right to know their biological parents?

Sperm donor controversy: Does everyone have a right to know their biological parents?

Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
In the United States, where anonymous donation is still technically offered, some donor-conceived people are asserting a right to know ...
Public health has taken a huge credibility hit during the COVID pandemic. Here’s what led to this crisis

Public health has taken a huge credibility hit during the COVID pandemic. Here’s what led to this crisis

Ed Yong | Atlantic | 
[P]ublic health has succeeded marvelously by some measures, lengthening life spans and bringing many diseases to heel. But when the ...
Winter COVID guide: What we need to know about our second pandemic year

Winter COVID guide: What we need to know about our second pandemic year

Ed Yong, Katherine Wu, Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
For nearly two years now, Americans have lived with SARS-CoV-2. We know it better than we once did. We know ...
Viewpoint: Battles over ‘virginity testing’ and ‘virginity-restoration surgery’ reveal the persistence of dangerous pseudoscience

Viewpoint: Battles over ‘virginity testing’ and ‘virginity-restoration surgery’ reveal the persistence of dangerous pseudoscience

Helen Lewis | Atlantic | 
Some girls are born without a hymen, while others tear the membrane long before they have sex, most commonly by ...
Will ‘long COVID’ become a neglected disease, sabotaging the lives of millions of victims?

Will ‘long COVID’ become a neglected disease, sabotaging the lives of millions of victims?

Ed Yong | Atlantic | 
A small number of fully vaccinated people have become long-haulers after breakthrough infections, although no one knows how common such ...
At-home antigen tests are booming — but are they reliable? Here's the case for and against them

At-home antigen tests are booming — but are they reliable? Here’s the case for and against them

Katherine Wu | Atlantic | 
Researchers have long known that rapid [COVID-19] antigen tests, although convenient, sacrifice some accuracy for their art. Compared with PCR-based ...
COVID and evolutionary fitness: As vaccines limit the virus' ability to evolve into lethal strains, scientists hope future variants will be less threatening

COVID and evolutionary fitness: As vaccines limit the virus’ ability to evolve into lethal strains, scientists hope future variants will be less threatening

Katherine Wu | Atlantic | 
There is no playbook for evolution. Delta could continue to ratchet up its rate of spread, or it could be ousted ...
Think of vaccines more like flame retardants than impenetrable walls. Some people will inevitably get sick

Think of vaccines more like flame retardants than impenetrable walls. Some people will inevitably get sick

Katherine Wu | Atlantic | 
The first thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they’re doing exactly what they were designed and authorized ...
We will all likely get COVID. How can we adapt to living with the virus?

We will all likely get COVID. How can we adapt to living with the virus?

Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
We don’t know exactly how the four common-cold coronaviruses first came to infect humans, but some have speculated that at ...
‘Two Americas’: How politics will shape our emergence from the pandemic

‘Two Americas’: How politics will shape our emergence from the pandemic

Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
Newton, [Massachusetts] is an outlier even among outliers: More than 95 percent of people older than 30 have gotten at ...
Delta has disrupted the timeline for corralling COVID. What can we expect now in the months ahead?

Delta has disrupted the timeline for corralling COVID. What can we expect now in the months ahead?

Ed Yong | Atlantic | 
In May, after the CDC ended indoor masking for vaccinated people, President Joe Biden gave a speech that felt like ...
When might the Delta variant reach its peak?

When might the Delta variant reach its peak?

Sarah Zhang | Atlantic | 
We will soon get the first glimmers of data that show how Delta behaves when all restrictions are lifted in ...
How dangerous is the Delta COVID variant? Very — if you’re not vaccinated

How dangerous is the Delta COVID variant? Very — if you’re not vaccinated

Ed Yong | Atlantic | 
Here… are three simple principles to understand how [key COVID factors] interact. Each has caveats and nuances, but together, they ...
Did the global pandemic trigger a worldwide mental health crisis? Here’s why those fears never played out

Did the global pandemic trigger a worldwide mental health crisis? Here’s why those fears never played out

As clinical scientists and research psychologists have pointed out, the coronavirus pandemic has created many conditions that might lead to ...
Viewpoint: ‘Potent political weapon’ – The early and wholesale rejection of lab-leak COVID origin theory is now fully politicized

Viewpoint: ‘Potent political weapon’ – The early and wholesale rejection of lab-leak COVID origin theory is now fully politicized

David Frum | Atlantic | 
Democrats and public-health experts have asked: What should we do? Former President Donald Trump, for his part, minimized the need ...
Podcast: COVID has left many with survivor’s guilt. How can we process this onslaught of ‘cascading collective traumas’?

Podcast: COVID has left many with survivor’s guilt. How can we process this onslaught of ‘cascading collective traumas’?

Ed Yong | Atlantic | 
At least 580,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and this official tally probably omits hundreds of thousands of uncounted deaths ...
A single vaccine to protect us against COVID, SARS, MERS and all other coronavirus diseases? It may be possible

A single vaccine to protect us against COVID, SARS, MERS and all other coronavirus diseases? It may be possible

James Hamblin | Atlantic | 
“A universal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is step one,” [Anthony] Fauci said. Step two would be a universal coronavirus vaccine, capable of ...
Viewpoint: Tribalism and COVID — Many progressives rejecting science on lockdowns and becoming major hindrance to return to near-normalcy

Viewpoint: Tribalism and COVID — Many progressives rejecting science on lockdowns and becoming major hindrance to return to near-normalcy

Emma Green | Atlantic | 
The spring of 2021 is different from the spring of 2020... Scientists know a lot more about how COVID-19 spreads—and ...
Viewpoint: Do we still need to wear masks outdoors? Taking face coverings off in restaurants is ‘like watching people put on seatbelts in parked cars, then unbuckling them when they drive’

Viewpoint: Do we still need to wear masks outdoors? Taking face coverings off in restaurants is ‘like watching people put on seatbelts in parked cars, then unbuckling them when they drive’

Derek Thompson | Atlantic | 
One systematic overview of COVID-19 case studies concluded that the risk of transmission was 19 times higher indoors than outside ...
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