Health

With evermore unhoused people on the streets of our biggest cities, and publicized subway crimes in New York, mental health treatment is again in the news. Politicians speak about “caring” for the mentally ill in a new way, which turns out to be the old way—putting them away. The mention of involuntary confinement, predictably, sparks anxiety and controversy, giving rise to the question of...

California legislators are considering a bill that could potentially ban the sale of Skittles and several other popular snacks because research shows some of the chemicals in them are toxic. The bill would force companies to change the recipes of some beloved sweets, including M&Ms and Nerds candy, or to take drastic measures and pull their items from the California market. It’s unclear...

In another twist to the ongoing search for where COVID-19 originated, an international group of researchers stumbled upon new genetic material that had been posted on a public scientific database—and then abruptly deleted. As first reported in the Atlantic, in early March, Florence Debarre, an evolutionary biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, was searching the public database GISAID, where scientists...

WASHINGTON — Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill Paxlovid won another vote of confidence from U.S. health advisers Thursday, clearing the way for its full regulatory approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The medication has been used by millions of Americans since the FDA granted it emergency use authorization in late 2021. The agency has the final say on giving Pfizer’s drug full approval and...

A new study has found that not even New York City’s rats are immune to COVID-19. The study, published in mBio, the American Academy of Microbiology’s journal, found that wild rats in the city’s sewer system and elsewhere in the city have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrated that rats are susceptible to infection with Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants of the...

While SARS-CoV-2 has dominated headlines for the past few years, other viruses have been simmering in the background. And with most of COVID-19’s infection control measures (like mask-wearing, isolation, and physical distancing) now gone in the U.S., those viruses are starting to roar back again. The U.S. has already seen spikes in RSV and influenza, and now norovirus cases are inching upward, according to...

Approximately 25 million people in the U.S. have asthma, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. While that number shows how common the condition has become, the severe form is more rare. An estimate from a September 2021 study in the Journal of Asthma and Allergy found that about 9% of people with asthma meet the criteria for severe asthma. Severe asthma...

NEW YORK — U.S. health officials said Thursday a company is recalling its over-the-counter eye drops that have been linked to an outbreak of drug-resistant infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week sent a health alert to doctors, saying the outbreak included at least 55 people in 12 states. One died and at least five others had permanent vision loss....

I carry one of the most useful lessons of childhood with me to this day: always take a book. That rule served me well in third grade, when I sneakily read The Baby-Sitters Club under my desk during math class. (After my teacher confiscated it, I pulled out another.) It’s kept me busy on airplanes, during long drives, while taking a breather in the...

Living in a city sometimes feels like living in the future. Urban life can mean exposure to new technologies, new ideas—and, sometimes, previews of the temperatures coming soon to nearby regions. In Europe, during hot periods, cities are an average of 2.7°F (1.5°C) warmer than surrounding areas, according to research published Jan. 31 in the Lancet. That amount may sound small, but scientists have...