Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a near-perfect predator. In 1882, Robert Koch, the physician who discovered the microbe, told a room full of scientists that it caused one in seven of all…
-
-
There seems to be a limit to how anti-vax is too anti-vax in the Trump administration. Yesterday, hours before Dave Weldon was slated to begin his Senate confirmation hearing for…
-
Updated at 10:56 a.m. on March 14, 2025 Until the second Trump administration took over, the National Institutes of Health—the world’s single largest public funder of biomedical research—was not in…
-
The wonder of the American supermarket is the way it exists outside of seasons. Stroll into any major grocery store on a dreary winter day, and you’ll find a bounty…
-
Updated at 4:56 p.m. ET on March 11, 2025 In the early evening of March 7, 2020, I was on my cellphone in an airport terminal, telling a friend that…
-
Photographs by Jake Dockins This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Peter greeted me in the mostly empty gravel parking…
-
Until this year, public-health officials have abided by a simple playbook for measles outbreaks: Get unvaccinated people vaccinated, as quickly as possible. The measles component of the measles, mumps, and…
-
In October 2020, Francis Collins, then the director of the National Institutes of Health, sent an email that maligned a colleague. A few days before, Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of…
-
Leading the FDA has long been one of the greatest professional achievements in American health. At the start of every administration, doctors jockey for the role, hoping to steer an…
-
Last month, during Elon Musk’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as he hoisted a chain saw in the air, stumbled over some of his words, and questioned whether…