TimeMagazine

Extreme temperatures — mostly heat — are projected to kill as many as 2.3 million people in Europe by the end of the century unless countries get better at reducing carbon pollution and adapting to hotter conditions, a new study says. Currently, cold temperatures kill more people in Europe than heat by large margins. But … Read more

NEW YORK — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all staff who work with the WHO must immediately … Read more

Since COVID-19 first took off, political leaders, infectious disease specialists, and the lay public have debated its origins. Eventually, two hypotheses emerged: Either the virus crossed over from animals to humans in a wet market in Wuhan—the city in which the disease first appeared—or it leaked from a Chinese lab, likely the Wuhan Institute of … Read more

One of the many indignities of being a patient is that you won’t always be taken seriously. Perhaps the most frustrating—and startlingly common—experience is being told your medical symptoms, which have nothing to do with mental health, are anxiety. Steph Fowler can tick off a long list of conditions she was initially told were anxiety … Read more

When Vanessa Walilko was in her late 20s, she got strep throat—and then she got it again and again. Because she’s allergic to strep bacteria, she says her illness turned into scarlet fever several times within a few months. Soon, she started having heart issues. After spending a day in the sun selling jewelry at … Read more

Everything is negotiable, as the saying goes—and that includes medical bills. Although many people assume their health care bills are binding, there’s often more wiggle room than one would think. “Never pay any bill right away,” says Caitlin Donovan, a senior director at Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF), a nonprofit that helps patients afford medical care. … Read more

With respiratory-disease season in full swing and a bird flu outbreak rapidly evolving, the new Trump Administration has ordered federal health agencies to secure White House approval before communicating with the public. “As the new Administration considers its plan for managing the federal policy and public communications processes, it is important that the President’s appointees … Read more

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO)—a move that experts say makes the U.S. and other countries less safe from infectious diseases and other public-health threats. “For Americans it may not be obvious immediately what the impact will be, but … Read more

Firefighters are making progress on containing the wildfires that have been raging for weeks in Southern California. But even once the physical threat of the fires diminishes, the mental-health toll will linger for months and even years, experts say. With thousands of people evacuated and homes destroyed, rebuilding people’s social and psychological resources is one … Read more

As a recent college graduate in a new city, Samantha Elliott thought she’d be lonely. Instead, she found companionship in the most unexpected place: with herself. And that, ironically, helped expand her community. “Being alone has this negative connotation, like it’s a punishment, but you’re learning to be friends with yourself,” says Elliott, who’s 24. … Read more