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California declares a state of emergency as a new severe bird flu case was discovered. What it means for the rest of the country
Health officials in the most populous state in the country have seen where the bird flu story appears to be heading, and they’re determined to stay ahead of it. Whether the rest of the nation is willing to follow suit remains to be seen. On the same day that the first severe case of the avian […]
Canadian teenager in critical condition with presumptive bird flu as U.S. official warns the virus ‘seems to be gearing up for wider impact’
As a Canadian teenager’s condition worsened amid the first presumptive positive test for bird flu in that country in over a decade, health officials were struggling to answer a broader and potentially worrisome question: how the infection occurred. None of the obvious connections to an H5N1 influenza case were in play, according to Dr. Bonnie […]
Bird flu begins its human spread, as health officials scramble to safeguard people and livestock
Almost from the beginning of the spread of H5N1 bird flu among farms and ranches in the U.S. earlier this year, experts and researchers warned that a critical lag in the blood testing of exposed workers might lead to an underestimation of the virus’s potential transmission to humans. Those warnings have proved prophetic. And the federal Centers […]
COVID-19 raises the stakes for heart attacks, strokes, and even death long after infection, new study finds
Practically from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and medical experts feared–and often loudly warned–that the virus wasn’t like other infections that people might encounter during, say, flu season. SARS-CoV-2 was different. It was worse. And the potential long-term effects, as we reported two years ago, were even more worrisome. A new large-scale study puts those longer-range […]
Bird flu casts a wider net as U.S. health officials keep drip-feeding information on Fridays
What is known so far about the human cases of bird flu in the U.S. is enough to worry those who spend their professional days tracking and monitoring the spread of viruses, particularly strains with the ability to spread widely. But at a time when public dissemination of data and details about new cases is […]
The stranded astronauts are stoic. NASA shouldn’t be
The one thing you could count on was that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, NASA astronauts and retired Navy captains both, would maintain stiff upper lips. Their planned eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) is instead going to last eight months, the result of significant problems with the Boeing craft that delivered them. But when […]
Two astronauts are stuck in space. Soon, the solution could be an elevator
In late August, officials at NASA announced what had already become apparent: Two U.S. astronauts, stranded for nearly three months at the International Space Station, weren’t coming home as planned and would have to remain in space for several months. The Boeing Starliner craft that transported Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore to the ISS in June, the company’s first […]
Long COVID is a $1 trillion problem with no cure. Experts plead for governments to wake up
For months, governmental officials around the world have appeared to want to forgo discussing the specter of long COVID. As a new review makes clear, that is wishful thinking—and the latest COVID variants may well kick long COVID into overdrive, a scenario that researchers and experts have been warning about for some time. “I think they (government […]
Bird flu outbreak at Colorado farm as 5 workers reported positive: Experts warn of ‘turning point,’ call for urgent action
For months, fearing that the current version of bird flu had a much higher chance of spreading to humans than previous iterations, experts have pushed for a more aggressive response from U.S. health agencies to reduce human exposure and prevent a potential pandemic. The urgency of those requests is about to rise. Late on Sunday, the Colorado Department of Public Health […]
‘A head-in-the-sand approach’: The U.S. strategic drug stockpile is inadequate for a bird flu outbreak
The latest iteration of bird flu is concerning enough in its own right. It has already demonstrated a tremendous ability to jump species, and its spread to farm livestock has raised alarms among researchers studying the possibility of mass infection—including in humans. What’s even more worrisome in the U.S., though, is what happens next. Assuming the H5N1 outbreak […]
