TimeMagazine

All COVID-19 vaccines that are used in the U.S. target the same original strain of SARS-CoV-2. But boosters designed to protect against the latest Omicron subvariants could be coming soon. On Aug. 22, Pfizer-BioNTech submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize its Omicron-specific vaccine. The shot targets BA.4 and … Read more

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A man in Indonesia has tested positive for monkeypox, making him the country’s first confirmed case of the disease, authorities said late Saturday. The 27-year-old who lives in the capital, Jakarta, had returned from an overseas trip on Aug. 8, Health Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril said in a news conference. The man … Read more

As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, knowing your immunity status—both from vaccines and from infections—will become increasingly important. COVID-19 antibodies are the best proxy for disease immunity. But they currently require a health care provider to order the test, which has to be performed at a pharmacy or doctor’s office. The sample is then sent to … Read more

COVID-19 has proven capable of affecting nearly every part of the body—including the brain. A study of 1.28 million people who had the disease, published Aug. 17 in the Lancet Psychiatry, sheds light on the often complex, and sometimes long-term, impacts of COVID-19 on the minds of kids and adults. Analyzing data from patients in … Read more

As the world continues to feel the effects of climate change, research suggests that the severity and frequency of extreme weather events—like unrelenting stretches of heat—will only worsen with time. “We shouldn’t be worried—we should be terrified,” says Camilo Mora, an associate professor in the department of geography and environment at the University of Hawai‘i … Read more

KAMPALA, Uganda — The head of Africa’s public health agency says he’s “really pleased” that the World Health Organization is renaming the strains of the monkeypox disease to remove references to African regions amid concerns about stigmatization. The variant of the disease formerly known as the Congo Basin is now called Clade 1 and what … Read more

NEW YORK — The U.S. is setting aside an extra 50,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine for places with upcoming gay pride events, health officials said Thursday. The number of doses sent to each will be based on factors like the size of the event, how many health workers will be available to give shots, and … Read more

Sunscreen is an important way to protect people from skin cancer and other harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) rays. But certain chemicals, or filters, in sunscreen have come under scrutiny lately for their potential impacts on the environment and human health. Most of the concern centers on ingredients in chemical sunscreens—like oxybenzone, avobenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, … Read more

More than half of people—56%—who are infected with the Omicron variant are not aware of their infection. That’s the conclusion of a small study published on Aug. 17 in JAMA Network Open. It’s good news, in some ways, since it underscores the fact that Omicron tends to cause relatively mild symptoms (or no symptoms at … Read more

NEW YORK — The head of the nation’s top public health agency on Wednesday announced a shake-up of the organization, intended to make it more nimble. The planned changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — CDC leaders call it a “reset”— come amid ongoing criticism of the agency’s response to COVID-19, monkeypox … Read more