A record number of Americans — 13.6 million — have signed up for health plans through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces for 2022, after Congress lowered the cost of Obamacare insurance; the Biden administration boosted advertising; and the pandemic disrupted many Americans’ employer-provided coverage. The Covid-19 public health emergency helped usher in an era of…
Princeton, where a student died by suicide while studying remotely last spring, has seen a 15 percent increase in demand for services, a record. “More students were reporting various cases of homesickness, where they really felt kind of lost about not having their parents around,” said Calvin R. Chin, the school’s director of counseling and…
Three separate teams of scientists on two continents have found that Omicron infections more often result in mild illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus, offering hope that the current surge may not be quite as catastrophic as feared despite skyrocketing caseloads. The researchers examined Omicron’s course through populations in South Africa, Scotland and England.…
WASHINGTON — President Biden promised Americans he is making 500 million coronavirus tests available free of charge, but help is at least weeks away — if not longer — for anxious Americans facing a surge of new virus cases. Mr. Biden’s administration has not yet signed a contract to buy the tests, and the website…
Raising a glass of something bubbly is a timeless way to end a year. The act is innately celebratory, hopeful and a little nostalgic, and the bubbles themselves can take many forms: tiny and flashy, racing to the glass’s surface; big and bouncing across the tongue; delicate and softly sparkling. They can come from time-honored…
Welcome. Back in the spring, when we changed the name of this newsletter from “At Home” to “At Home and Away,” we did so expecting that our plans for the foreseeable future would involve continual tinkering. The Time Spent At Home to Time Spent Away ratio was not an exact formula; it would change frequently,…
Some people have it all. And for those, holiday gifting is beyond our comprehension. While many of us are budgeting the season away or simply eschewing material gifts altogether, there are things out there that are so extravagant, you’re surprised they even exist. But isn’t that the fun of gifting in general, to indulge someone…
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first pill for Covid-19, offering a highly effective defense against severe illness that will arrive as the country endures another major surge of the pandemic. The drug, developed by Pfizer and known as Paxlovid, is authorized for Covid patients age 12 and over who are vulnerable…
Lili Reinhart is one of us. By that, I mean she also loves Target. “Target is great,” she tells me over the phone. “It’s like a winter wonderland during the holidays.” The actress made a career of being the relatable girl next door as Betty Cooper in Riverdale—which she swiftly dismantled in 2020’s Hustlers—but the…
NEW HOPE, Minn. — Pfc. Shina Vang and his fellow soldiers in the Minnesota National Guard have had an exceptionally busy year. They helped process Afghan refugees fleeing Kabul for the United States, provided security at American military bases across the Horn of Africa and stood sentinel in Washington, D.C., following the Jan. 6 attacks…