With Fewer Resources, Rural America Tackles Vaccine Distribution
As the United States begins its massive vaccine rollout, health departments across the country are scrambling to plan and adjust, often while managing a surge in new Covid-19 cases. Rural clinics with...
View ArticleElectric Cars’ Looming Recycling Problem
As makers of electric vehicles transition to cheaper battery components in an effort to compete with fuel-powered vehicles, the financial incentives to recycle lithium-ion batteries are eroding. That...
View ArticleBook Review: A Fervent Call to Protect ‘America’s Amazon’
In “Saving America’s Amazon,” environmental journalist Ben Raines chronicles the threats to Alabama’s wonderous Mobile River Basin. The branching network of rivers, creeks, forests, and swamps is home...
View ArticleWith Trump Departure, Biden Reveals a New Pandemic Plan
President Joe Biden moved away from some elements of Trump’s pandemic policy on Wednesday, signing executive orders to rejoin the WHO and to require masks to be worn on federal property. The...
View ArticleAre We Screening Too Much for Skin Cancer? It’s Complicated.
An analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine argues that physicians are overdiagnosing melanoma, identifying small irregularities that might never prove harmful. This can take a physical,...
View ArticlePatients Face Daunting Hurdles to Get Covid-19 Antibody Therapies
While hundreds of thousands of vials of monoclonal antibody therapies for Covid-19 sit unused, sick patients who, research indicates, could benefit from early treatment — available for free — have...
View ArticleWith Mass Vaccination, Medical Volunteers Face a New Test
Since the pandemic began, hundreds of Medical Reserve Corps units have deployed volunteers to help with the Covid-19 response. They have since logged hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours, often...
View ArticleFour Steps to Building Vaccine Trust in Marginalized Communities
According to the Pew Research Center, just 42 percent of African Americans say they would be willing to take an FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine. As Black nurses with more than 70 years of combined...
View ArticleBook Review: Behind the Myth of a Pioneering Female Physician
In “The Doctors Blackwell,” Janice P. Nimura retells the story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American female physician and iconic feminist, and her sister Emily. But as Nimura’s research brings...
View ArticleEp. 52: In India, Mismanaging the Monkey Menace
This month: In India, macaque monkeys are a menace — attacking people for food, breaking into offices, and in one state, damaging at least 54 million dollars worth of crops. A sterilization program...
View ArticleDespite Ramp Up, Vaccine Rollout Remains Patchy
The pace of Covid-19 vaccination continued to accelerate in the U.S. this week, with health care workers now delivering around 1.2 million shots each day. Still, distribution remains patchy, with some...
View ArticleAre Conservative Policies Shortening American Lives?
A 2013 report tried to suss out why Americans suffer a “health disadvantage” compared to their peers in other high-income countries, but it was unable to do so. Since then, health in the U.S. has...
View ArticleMortality Study Establishes Numerous Threats to Orcas
As top predators, killer whales mean a great deal both ecologically and culturally. After a large drop in the population of southern resident orcas in the 1990s, their numbers have remained low....
View ArticleCan You Trust a Pro-Beef Professor? It’s Complicated.
Air quality scientist Frank Mitloehner has some controversial views on climate change. The quintessential Mitloehner take: Worry less about the burgers and more about Big Oil. That stance puts him at...
View ArticleIn Public Health’s Response to Covid, Fear Tactics Are a Misstep
There is compelling evidence that fear can change behavior, and as public health professors with expertise in history and ethics, we have been open to using fear in some situations. But, if fear-based...
View ArticleAs Covid-19 Vaccination Continues, Variants Pose Challenges
New research and reporting this week raised further alarm about highly infectious variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The new variants, researchers fear, will make it more difficult...
View ArticleWhen Scientists Become Allergic To Their Research
It’s not uncommon for researchers to develop allergies to the organisms they study. Often, those allergies are a minor inconvenience — dealing with rashes from coral, for instance, or working around a...
View ArticleNationwide, Cities Are Underreporting Their Carbon Footprints
A new study shows that on average, cities across the country pollute more than they’ve reported by about 20 percent. The reason: Lacking a national template, local governments take a scattershot...
View ArticleThe Enduring Mystery of Critchfield’s Spruce
At the center of the so-called Quaternary conundrum — the mismatch between how mathematical models project a changing climate will affect living things in the future compared to how fossil records show...
View ArticleI Gave up My Spot in the Vaccine Line. Maybe You Should Too.
A medical student turned down his chance to get vaccinated for Covid-19 — not because he doubts its efficacy or fears the side effects, but because, as someone who faces low exposure risks, he decided...
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