To mask or not to mask? For the past few months, public health officials have advised that healthy people should not wear masks as a way to protect themselves from coronavirus. But now more experts are saying there is probably some benefit to covering our faces in public. The federal Centers for Disease Control and…
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[Sign up here to receive Love Letter, a weekly newsletter about relationship highs, lows and woes, in your inbox every Friday.] As many of us are following stay-at-home orders in the United States and around the world because of the coronavirus pandemic, isolation has become our new normal. Some people may find the forced solitude…
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A month ago, Nick Stone had a $50 million coffee business, with dozens of cafes in bustling downtowns. Now the coronavirus pandemic has eliminated 90 percent of Bluestone Lane’s revenue, and he has laid off some 700 workers. “Everything I’ve put into this, everything all these other people have put into building the company, basically…
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Judging by the pinking of my neighborhood in cherry and magnolia blossoms, Covid-19 can’t stop spring. And this means vegetables like ramps, green garlic and asparagus have been making their way into the markets, bringing a needed relief from those wintry pantry staples we’ve all been relying on. I may have to wait on a…
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This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. After earning a Ph.D. at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, in 1994 while raising two young children, Gita Ramjee was exhausted. Her thesis had been on kidney diseases in children — she had worked in a…
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The coronavirus outbreak has turned many of us into nervous germophobes, seeking to protect ourselves from infection by washing our hands methodically and frequently, avoiding unnecessary contact with so called high-touch surfaces and methodically sanitizing packages, our homes and our bodies. For people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or O.C.D., the worry created by the threat…
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Dr. William Frankland, one of the top allergists of the 20th century and an indomitable researcher who helped legions of hay fever sneezers by distributing daily pollen counts to the British public, died in London this week. He was 108. The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology announced his death on its website. Dr.…
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As we enter April, caring for those sick with Covid-19 and preventing others from becoming so remains the priority in New York City, as in the rest of the country. But how can we look out for others particularly affected by the crisis? Citywide closures of nonessential services have devastated the arts at every level:…
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We have never experienced a lockdown like this. Public and personal spaces have been transformed almost overnight. With so many new rules to follow, it’s understandable to feel destabilized. But we should still strive to be our best selves as we go about our day. “Acts of kindness and support in a community are deeply…
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The Finns have a tradition of getting drunk at home in their underwear. It’s so commonplace there is a word for it, “kalsarikännit,” as well as two emojis: a man in gray underwear with pint of beer, and a woman in a polka-dot slip with a glass of red wine. In English, the rough translation…
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