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It is fortunate that, in a majority of cases, kidney cancer is caught before spreading to other parts of the body. For these patients, treatment usually involves a nephrectomy, which is the surgical removal of one or both of the kidneys. The goal of the surgery is to prevent the cancer from metastasizing. Unfortunately, many … Read more
A recent Consumer Reports investigation struck fear into the hearts of chocolate lovers everywhere. After testing 28 dark chocolate bars, scientists detected the heavy metals lead and cadmium in all of them. For 23 of the chocolate bars, eating just an ounce would put an adult above the daily upper threshold recommended for heavy metals … Read more
A new federal law requiring that sesame be listed as an allergen on food labels is having unintended consequences—increasing the number of products with the ingredient. Food industry experts said the requirements are so stringent that many manufacturers, especially bakers, find it simpler and less expensive to add sesame to a product—and to label it—than … Read more
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of prescription flu medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile to states as flu-sickened patients continue to flock to hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country. This year’s flu season has hit hard and early. Some people are even noticing bare shelves at pharmacies and … Read more
Even for China, where the distance between official narrative and empirical evidence is often a chasm, the last few days have been jarring. On Tuesday, officials announced five deaths from COVID-19—up from two the previous day, which were the first recorded in the country since Dec. 3. On Wednesday, there were officially none. But a … Read more
After Dr. Anthony Fauci steps down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to President Biden on Dec. 31, he’ll leave behind a long and storied career. Ahead of his last day, he spoke to TIME from his office at the National Institutes of Health about … Read more
CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., two of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains, are limiting purchases of children’s pain-relief medicines amid constrained supplies and high demand. CVS is restricting shoppers to two products each for in-store and online purchases. Walgreens is limiting online orders to six products and isn’t setting limits for in-store … Read more
I’ve been saying for years that the world is getting better. I’ll point out that, for example, the number of young children who die before their fifth birthday has fallen by more than half in just two decades—from 10 million in 2000 to just over 4 million today. But current events are making it harder … Read more
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. For a brief moment, there seemed to be a lull in the politicization of a plague. Sure, there were still the anti-vaxxers showing up at school board meetings—and sometimes running them—and the … Read more
