BEIJING — As new cases of the coronavirus spiked on two continents, the World Health Organization warned on Monday that the world was not ready for a major outbreak, even as it praised China’s aggressive efforts to wrest the epidemic under control. After two weeks on the ground in China, a team sent by the…
If you’re looking for context, history or scientific information about the spread of disease, these books are a good place to start. AIDS Image ‘And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,’ by Randy Shilts As Shilts writes in the prologue of his award-winning 1987 book: “The story of these first five…
Every so often, someone writes an article or blog post or tweet about how they wish people who wrote recipes would just “shut up and publish the recipe.” They don’t want to hear about how chickpeas were your childhood dog’s favorite food, or how a particular pasta dish in a small town outside Rome led…
The Instagram posts began surfacing on a Thursday in November. The actress Lupita Nyong’o wore a knitted red and black midi-dress with a high neck and cap sleeves. Sarah Jessica Parker wore a full-length dress in black silk, with a plunging keyhole neckline and billowing sleeves slit down the sides. Both dresses came from the…
A nurse called the 24-hour hotline to complain about a constant headache. A doctor said he was feeling ostracized by the public, even as he worked to save patients from the epidemic. One caller said she was feeling suicidal. The volunteers at Yong Xin Kang Yi (“Use your heart to fight the virus”), a crisis…
The act of buying wine can rank high among life’s unpleasant tasks. It’s not a physical or mental issue so much as a psychological one. We’re just talking about a bottle of wine, after all, first among first-world problems. But often the act of selecting that bottle is fraught with the fear of making a…
Jengkol beans, as fat as silver dollars, bobbing in chile sauce. Jackfruit braised in sticky-sweet soy sauce until it falls apart like pulled pork. Tender slices of beef lung nestled among famously fragrant stink beans. Dishes like these bring Wendy Wong to the New York Indonesian Food Bazaar in Elmhurst, Queens, every month. On a…
After a long journey at sea on the Westerdam cruise ship, which was denied entry at ports across Asia over fears of the coronavirus, Holley Rauen finally returned home to Florida on Wednesday night. Moments later, she discovered that she had joined a cast of thousands who are being meticulously tracked by local health officials…
Ryan Springer’s mystery illness began last summer with a dull ache in his chest. Over the next few days, the symptoms grew more alarming: sharp pain with every breath, a rapid heartbeat and a spiking fever. Emergency room doctors at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., were stumped. They ordered up a lung biopsy and…
I recently found myself trapped in the arms of a shaman. It was a hug — and a consensual hug, let me be clear — albeit an unexpected one. I had held out my hand to offer this person a shake, as we were meeting professionally for the first time. He rejected my hand and…