articles
COVID-19 raises the stakes for heart attacks, strokes, and even death long after infection, new study finds
Fortune October 11, 2024
Practically from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and medical experts feared–and often loudly warned–that the virus wasn’t like other infections that people might encounter during, say, flu season. SARS-CoV-2 was different. It was worse. And the potential long-term effects, as we reported two years ago, were even more worrisome. A new large-scale study puts those longer-range […]
Bird flu casts a wider net as U.S. health officials keep drip-feeding information on Fridays
Fortune September 26, 2024
What is known so far about the human cases of bird flu in the U.S. is enough to worry those who spend their professional days tracking and monitoring the spread of viruses, particularly strains with the ability to spread widely. But at a time when public dissemination of data and details about new cases is […]
The stranded astronauts are stoic. NASA shouldn’t be
Fortune September 18, 2024
The one thing you could count on was that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, NASA astronauts and retired Navy captains both, would maintain stiff upper lips. Their planned eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) is instead going to last eight months, the result of significant problems with the Boeing craft that delivered them. But when […]
Two astronauts are stuck in space. Soon, the solution could be an elevator
Fortune September 4, 2024
In late August, officials at NASA announced what had already become apparent: Two U.S. astronauts, stranded for nearly three months at the International Space Station, weren’t coming home as planned and would have to remain in space for several months. The Boeing Starliner craft that transported Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore to the ISS in June, the company’s first […]
Long COVID is a $1 trillion problem with no cure. Experts plead for governments to wake up
Fortune August 9, 2024
For months, governmental officials around the world have appeared to want to forgo discussing the specter of long COVID. As a new review makes clear, that is wishful thinking—and the latest COVID variants may well kick long COVID into overdrive, a scenario that researchers and experts have been warning about for some time. “I think they (government […]
Bird flu outbreak at Colorado farm as 5 workers reported positive: Experts warn of ‘turning point,’ call for urgent action
Fortune July 15, 2024
For months, fearing that the current version of bird flu had a much higher chance of spreading to humans than previous iterations, experts have pushed for a more aggressive response from U.S. health agencies to reduce human exposure and prevent a potential pandemic. The urgency of those requests is about to rise. Late on Sunday, the Colorado Department of Public Health […]
‘A head-in-the-sand approach’: The U.S. strategic drug stockpile is inadequate for a bird flu outbreak
Fortune June 24, 2024
The latest iteration of bird flu is concerning enough in its own right. It has already demonstrated a tremendous ability to jump species, and its spread to farm livestock has raised alarms among researchers studying the possibility of mass infection—including in humans. What’s even more worrisome in the U.S., though, is what happens next. Assuming the H5N1 outbreak […]
Elite matchmakers—with fees up to $300K—are coaching clients on how to navigate the dating world: It gets tricky for women over 40, experts say
Fortune June 21, 2024
Hilary DeCesare enjoyed professional success in spades, first as a Silicon Valley sales executive and later through her business as a life-transition and executive coach. But when it came to finding a new love match following a divorce, DeCesare for years ground through dating apps, sites, and other avenues without fulfillment. Then it hit her: She needed […]
No one wants another pandemic—but bird flu has already flown the coop
Fortune June 11, 2024
Carolyn Barber, M.D., is an internationally published science and medical writer and a 25-year emergency physician. She is the author of Runaway Medicine: What You Don’t Know May Kill You, and the cofounder of the California-based homeless work program Wheels of Change. At first glance, some of the expert reactions to the recent surge in bird flu virus […]
COVID can cause new health problems to appear years after infection, according to a study of more than 130,000 patients
Fortune May 30, 2024
Even as national institutions struggle to coordinate meaningful trials for possible long COVID treatments, researchers continue to tally the damage. New findings suggest that the disease’s reach isn’t merely long—it’s still growing. Three years after their initial bouts with COVID-19, patients who’d once been hospitalized with the virus remained at “significantly elevated” risk of death or worsening health […]
