TimeMagazine

NEW YORK — Health officials are warning people who are infected with monkeypox to stay away from household pets, since the animals could be at risk of catching the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for months has had the advice in place as monkeypox spreads in the U.S. But it gained new … Read more

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law this afternoon, with a package that includes sweeping climate and tax initiatives and the biggest change to health care policy since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. The new law works to bring down skyrocketing drug prices, one of the most intractable problems … Read more

Until recently, polio had been a relic of history in the U.S. Once a scourge that paralyzed or killed up to tens of thousands of children every year, the U.S. declared the disease officially eradicated in 1979, thanks to widespread vaccination. But polio is back. On July 21, the New York State Department of Health … Read more

WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans will be able to buy hearing aids without a prescription later this fall, under a long-awaited rule finalized Tuesday. The Food and Drug Administration said the new regulation cuts red tape by creating a new class of hearing aids that don’t require a medical exam, a prescription and other specialty … Read more

California teenagers can snooze a little later this year, thanks to a newly implemented law that says most high schools and middle schools cannot start before 8:30 a.m. and 8 a.m., respectively. That law—the first in the country to set statewide mandates for school start times—isn’t only big for California students, but also for public-health … Read more

Across the country, K-12 schools are starting their next year of classes in the middle of a COVID-19 surge. As the BA.5 Omicron subvariant drives thousands of reinfections, schools have largely put aside safety measures like mask requirements and physical distancing. In response, some parents and experts are trying to improve ventilation in schools, since … Read more

Scotland has become the first country in the world to legally enshrine the right to free period products, in a vital step toward ending “period poverty.” The Period Products Act, which came into force today after Scotland’s parliament unanimously approved the law in 2020, compels local governments and educational institutions to provide products to anyone … Read more

I remember the day the U.S. confirmed its first case of monkeypox. It was mid-May, and I had just interviewed Steven Thrasher for my podcast, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. He has a new book out, The Viral Underclass, about how different classes of people bear an unfair burden of the cost of viruses—fitting, … Read more

LONDON — British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that aims to protect against the original virus and the Omicron variant. In a statement on Monday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it had given the green light to Moderna’s combination “bivalent” … Read more

As chief executive of San Diego-based genomic sequencing company Illumina, Francis deSouza feels well-placed to witness the world’s next great scientific transformation. “I really believe that just like the 20th century was the era of the bit and the digital revolution, the 21st century is likely to be remembered as the era of the genome,” … Read more