Melody Schreiber

Efforts to stop the spread of infectious disease have always suffered from a cycle of panic and neglect. Vaccine skepticism in the new administration brings even greater challenges.

Plummeting trust in vaccines could be lethal on its own. But there are also ways Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services could reduce vaccine availability, as well.

Virus monitoring, the budgets to investigate E. coli outbreaks, and much, much more could be on the chopping block.

Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer with a chilling past, says Trump has promised to name him head of Health and Human Services. The Trump camp has denied this—unconvincingly.

The CHNV program provided a vital refuge, and the people who came filled vacant jobs. But now, Trump is targeting these immigrants and Biden has declined to renew the program.

Some people mistakenly think raw milk could protect against bird flu. Instead, they could infect themselves, giving the virus a better chance to mutate for rapid human-to-human transmission.

While wild animals can spread the virus, industrial farms are where it really thrives—and likely originated.

The agency reportedly plans to tell people with Covid and other infections to isolate based on symptoms. Researchers say symptoms aren’t a good indicator of who’s contagious.

Plants offered a respite from grief and anxiety. They also offered a new way to live in the world—with all its challenges.

Two government agencies have now concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic originated in an accidental leak from a lab. But paradoxically, they also point to a natural origin.

Now that minks are getting sick, experts are watching for two signals to indicate whether avian influenza could jump into the human population. But underfunding makes their job harder.

The president’s remarks undermined the campaign for the new booster shots. Nearly 4,000 people have since died of Covid-19 in the United States.

The United States has a brief window in which it can decide how monkeypox plays out from here.

Gay men are being disproportionately affected by the virus. While we don’t have all the answers on transmission, we should be asking why the U.S. government is failing to tackle yet another public health crisis.

As the World Health Organization declares an international emergency, it’s clear America has dropped the ball.

As the BA.5 variant takes over, Covid death numbers have become an object lesson in why raw data is often misleading.

A quick, targeted vaccination campaign could stop this disease in its tracks.

Monkeypox and Covid aren’t a zero-sum game. They’re more connected than they first appear. Acknowledging that can help us fight both.

New variants can infect people who had Covid-19 as recently as a few months ago.

Climate change is driving animals into new habitats, increasing the encounters that give rise to viruses like Covid-19.