America Is Starting to See What COVID Immunity Really Looks Like
With time and effort, we can build enough protection to blunt surges—but herd immunity remains out of reach.
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Being Human
Our health writers explore wellness culture, human behavior, mortality and disease, and other mysteries of the body and the mind.
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Are We in the Middle of an Invisible COVID Wave?
No one’s actually sure.
What the Fitness Industry Doesn’t Understand
A new generation of fitness instructors teaches simple skills that make a difference. Why is beginner-level exercise treated like a niche?
What Masks Off on Public Transit Means for the Pandemic
Why is this mandate different from all other mandates?
‘It’s Just Scaring People, and It’s Not Saving Lives’
Stories about the pandemic’s continuing risks for immunocompromised people may create unintended harms.
Have We Already Ruined Our Next COVID Summer?
A lot has changed since last year’s pre-Delta lull, but America can still reclaim some coronavirus-free chill—if it decides to commit.
Two Long Years
Your pandemic reflections
Why Can’t We Just Call BA.2 Omicron?
Whatever happened to the simpler Greek-letter naming system?
The Final Pandemic Betrayal
Millions of people are still mourning loved ones lost to COVID, their grief intensified, prolonged, and even denied by the politics of the pandemic.
America Created Its Own Booster Problems
Months of confusing messaging, piled onto existing inequities, kneecapped America’s booster campaign before it had really started.