For a Texas nurse, the first sign that something was wrong happened while brushing her teeth — she couldn’t taste her toothpaste. For a Georgia attorney, it was hitting a wall of fatigue on a normally easy run. When a Wisconsin professor fell ill in June, he thought a bad meal had upset his stomach.…
Of all the coronavirus’s qualities, perhaps the most surprising has been that seemingly healthy people can spread it to others. This trait has made the virus difficult to contain, and continues to challenge efforts to identify and isolate infected people. Most of the evidence for asymptomatic spread has been based on observation (a person without…
The timeless soundtrack of a public pool in summer is largely silent this summer. No shrieking children, no splashy entrances or periodic whistle blasts and curt admonitions from lifeguards (“Walk! Don’t run!”), little of the buzzy hum of happy people chatting in and around the water. On a recent weekday morning at El Cerrito Swim…
ImageA funeral attendant providing hand sanitizer to a mourner arriving for a visitation in Elsa, Texas.Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times Federal health authorities issued a formal warning on Wednesday about the dangers of drinking hand sanitizer and alerted poison control centers across the nation to be on the lookout for cases of methanol…
In this emotional equivalent to an ultramarathon, it’s key to have some stress-reducing strategies available that work quickly and efficiently to help you hit the reset button. Here’s why: Struggling with chronic worry gets in the way of effectively managing your emotions. Unfortunately, many people who experience distress try to escape their unpleasant emotions by…
Roughly 80 percent of Americans say they wear face masks when they expect to be within 6 feet of other people, according to recent national surveys. That’s a lot of face masks. Disposable masks, of course, just get thrown out. But many people prefer more stylish permanent styles, which has led to a variety of…
I am one of the many women who now find our name used as an insult or shorthand for an obnoxious, entitled, occasionally racist creature who demands to speak to the manager or calls the police for no good reason. I know this is not the biggest problem. But it really hurts me, especially since…
The recent outpouring of support for Black-owned businesses has brought attention to fashion labels that work with African prints. The labels, many of them founded by West African designers living in the United States and Britain, are turning the traditional patterns of West African fabric into contemporary American silhouettes. “May was our biggest month ever,…
Regular exercise helps to bulk up our brains and improve thinking skills, numerous studies show. But physically demanding jobs, even if they are being carried out in an office, might have a different and opposite effect, according to a provocative new study of almost 100 older people and their brains and work histories. It finds…
For months, the call for coronavirus testing has been led by one resounding refrain: To keep outbreaks under control, doctors and researchers need to deploy the most accurate tests available — ones reliable enough to root out as many infections as possible, even in the absence of symptoms. That’s long been the dogma of infectious…