Opinion

Social media is just one online habit hurting teens

Last spring, my tween was begging for more independence, starting with being allowed to walk home from school alone. The mile-plus walk involves crossing a few busy streets. I was hesitant; she doesn’t have a phone, so she had no way to contact me if something went wrong. But we practiced a fe...

Opinion

New post-partum depression pill is a vital breakthrough

The landmark approval of the first pill for post-partum depression offers an important new treatment for the 1 in 7 new mothers who experience post-partum depression.Suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality in the US. And yet on its own, the new drug — promising as it is — isn&rs...

Opinion

Cancer vaccine hunt finally makes progress

The long-awaited cancer vaccine revolution is getting a little closer to reality. New data from Moderna Inc. and Merck & Co. suggest that after decades of failures, researchers are finally figuring out the right way to design a vaccine that can teach immune cells how to recognize and combat tumo...

Opinion

Blockbuster Alzheimer’s drug a scientific breakthrough

Biogen Inc. and Eisai Co. caused a stir in September when they announced positive results in a late-stage trial for a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab. Doctors tempered their excitement, though, until they could scrutinise the full peer-reviewed data.That data arrived a few days ago...

Opinion

Pfizer’s RSV vaccine succeeds where others failed

As parents worry over the cases of RSV filling up pediatric hospitals in the US, finally some good news: Vaccines that protect newborns from the virus could be ready in time for next year’s season. Pfizer Inc. today unveiled promising data on a maternal RSV shot that shows it lowered babies&rs...

Opinion

New Covid variants are here

Some rather alarming headlines recently circulated about the newest members of the omicron family. “Nightmare Covid variant,” read one. “The most immune-evasive Covid variants yet.”Apparently, it’s spooky season for Covid variants.Or not. These fear-mongering headlines ...

Opinion

Long Covid has become a parallel pandemic

The price of “living with Covid” in a free and open society is turning out to be much heftier than public health experts predicted.Even with good vaccines and treatments, this year’s US death toll is already many orders of magnitude higher than that of the other virus that circulat...

Opinion

A scary link between air pollution and lung cancer

A new study has upended the way researchers think about how air pollution causes lung cancer. The work cracks open a whole new way of thinking about certain cancers and how to treat and even prevent them. It also suggests environmental agencies may have good reason to impose much stricter limits on ...

Opinion

New Monkeypox tests are needed to contain the disease

After weeks of frustration, commercial testing for monkeypox is now going strong in the US and has reduced the backlog. The tests show that, as of Monday, the US had nearly 3,500 cases, among the most in the world.Yet wider access to existing tests hasn’t made it possible to diagnose infection...

Opinion

Faster progress needed on treatments for long Covid

Long Covid is making it hard for millions of Americans to return to normal life, pushing some out of the workforce altogether, sometimes permanently. Yet medical efforts to figure out how best to help these patients are proceeding only slowly.Research has zeroed in on a few probable causes of long C...

Opinion

Covid boosters need a yearly schedule

The world is waiting for a new generation of Covid-19 vaccines that last longer and can actually prevent infections. The existing shots have averted millions of deaths and hospitalizations, but the public’s willingness to get vaccinated seems to s hrink with each new round of boosters. A new a...