Melody Schreiber

@m_scribe

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.

Lara Bazelon’s book argues that children benefit from seeing their mothers pursue careers.

As the BA.2 variant moves through the U.S., our data on Covid-19 and its variants is getting worse, not better.

Two years into the Covid pandemic, the agency is still confusing the public with contradictory, erratic messaging.

The lab leak theory is dead. Covid-19’s true origins show why we need better disease surveillance of wild and domesticated animals alike.

The physicians and scientists of the Urgency of Normal are cherry-picking data in their push to end pandemic precautions, but are getting favorable mainstream media attention and support from wealthy, white communities that never felt the full brunt of Covid-19.