WASHINGTON — As the coronavirus surges in their states and districts, fanned by a more contagious variant exploiting paltry vaccination rates, many congressional Republicans have declined to push back against vaccine skeptics in their party who are sowing mistrust about the shots’ safety and effectiveness. Amid a widening partisan divide over coronavirus vaccination, most Republicans…
The Biden administration has not yet nominated a leader for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a $7 billion program that sets priorities for AIDS care worldwide — leaving countries that receive funding from the program without guidance during a pandemic that is particularly dire for those with H.I.V. PEPFAR is led by a…
The coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is much less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus, according to a new study posted online on Tuesday. Although troubling, the findings result from experiments conducted with blood samples in a laboratory, and may not reflect the vaccine’s performance in the…
The Compton-born pitmaster Kevin Bludso, of Bludso’s Bar & Que, has never understood why pitmasters in California are often left out of the national barbecue story, which has a rich history well beyond Santa Maria-style. “At one point, L.A had so many barbecue restaurants, stretching from Watts to Compton,” he said. “As African Americans migrated…
It’s Complicated “Complicated things break,” I warned my husband five years ago as he gazed at the plumbing store’s touch-free toilet. “There’s an electromagnetic field,” he said, smiling like a 10-year-old about to eat frosted birthday cake. “Just wave your hand to flush.” Who was I to deprive him of joy by insisting on an…
Headliner Sarashina Horii The history of this restaurant, which specializes in soba noodles, goes back to 1789 when it started serving its noodles to aristocrats and the imperial families in Japan. Using the heart of the buckwheat seeds, its soba is white, making it more delicate and refined. Yoshinori Horii, who runs the company, decided…
Johnson & Johnson, and other manufacturers, are on trial in California state court and just settled with the state of New York and two New York counties last month, on the eve of trial. The money for the New York settlement, $230 million, will be paid over nine years with an additional $33 million for…
Americans owe nearly twice as much medical debt as was previously known, and the amount owed has become increasingly concentrated in states that do not participate in the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion program. New research published Tuesday in JAMA finds that collection agencies held $140 billion in unpaid medical bills last year,. An earlier…
For the first flight, Blue Origin auctioned off one of the seats with the proceeds going to Mr. Bezos’ space-focused nonprofit, Club for the Future. The winning bid was $28 million, an amount that stunned even Blue Origin officials, far higher than they had hoped. Blue Origin announced it will distribute $19 million of that…
The sun is shining, the whole friend group is vaccinated and everyone is ready to make up for lost time. Sure, you could book a table for eight and eat inside at a restaurant — it’s still a thrill — but we spent the last year figuring out how best to eat and socialize outside,…