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 […]
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — It began as a rumble. A deep bass rattling through the building. And then a roar for seven, eight, nine seconds, an eternity. A sound that could be made only by the world itself breaking open. I was certain it was an earthquake. My husband rushed from the balcony to our bedroom. […]
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My first summer job was at the port of Beirut. It was the late ’90s and I was just a teenager. I spent muggy months entering shipping data as part of an ambitious new program to move the port from analogue to digital log keeping. It was as unglamorous as you would expect from a […]
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Frustrated by a nationwide testing backlog, the governors of six states took the unusual step of banding together on Tuesday to reduce the turnaround time for coronavirus test results from days to minutes. The agreement, by three Republican governors and three Democratic governors, was called the first interstate testing compact of its kind. The six […]
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As the coronavirus pandemic shuttered bars and restaurants in March, Phil McDaniel’s craft distillery in St. Augustine, Fla., stopped producing bourbon. Then he realized there was one alcohol-based product he could make that people would still clamor for: hand sanitizer. His St. Augustine Distillery soon churned out the first of what became 10,000 gallons of […]
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THE NAVAJO NATION — When Summer Brown lived in Phoenix, she had no problem finding fresh produce. If the Sprouts supermarket near her home didn’t have what she was looking for, she would just drive somewhere else. This winter, Ms. Brown, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, moved back to her childhood home in […]
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In April, as the coronavirus was rampaging through the Northeast, Larry Churchill considered what he would do if the pandemic caused medical shortages. Should he, a 75-year-old, direct care to younger people before him if he got sick? He was in a good position to raise the question. A bioethicist retired from Vanderbilt University, he […]
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What is a conscientious person who already wears a mask and maintains social distance to do? Is there a moral obligation to get a test? Yes, said R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “One of the most important things to keep in mind when discussing public health […]
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Growing up in San Diego in the early 2000s, Kelsey Fehlberg proudly displayed her state quarters in a map with inserts for each coin. Then, she said, sometime in middle school, “I started to be too cool for it.” Her collection collected dust in her parents’ closet for 15 years, until she was home for […]
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A nationwide coin shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic has revived a debate: Is now the time to eliminate the penny? During lockdowns, consumers have stayed home and avoided emptying their piggy banks of coins in exchange for paper money. Shoppers have also opted to rely on credit and debit cards instead of touching cash. […]
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MISSIRAH, Senegal — The couscous was all ready for the lunchtime crowd in Yassin Dicko’s restaurant near one of the biggest sheep markets in Senegal. But except for family members, the place was empty. Ms. Dicko’s usual customers, shepherds from Mauritania, had not shown up. She looked outside to the vast holding area where just […]
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When a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, who should get it first? A preliminary plan devised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this spring gives priority to health care workers, then to people with underlying medical conditions and older people. The C.D.C. has not yet decided whether the next in line should be Blacks […]
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Labs across the country are facing backlogs in coronavirus testing thanks in part to a shortage of tiny pieces of tapered plastic. Researchers need these little disposables, called pipette tips, to quickly and precisely move liquid between vials as they process the tests. As the number of known coronavirus cases in the United States fast […]
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The Queens Hospital Center emergency department has a capacity of 60, but on its worst night of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 180 patients lay on stretchers in the observation bays and hallways. Alarms rang incessantly as exhausted doctors rushed from crisis to crisis. Less than four miles away, a temporary hospital opened the next […]
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On an afternoon in early April, while New York City was in the throes of what would be the deadliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Lorna M. Breen found herself alone in the still of her apartment in Manhattan. She picked up her phone and dialed her younger sister, Jennifer Feist. The two were […]
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Video CreditCredit…By The New York Times Here’s everything you need: The Case for Masks Overnight, masks have become a symbol of social responsibility. If you still need convincing, here’s why you now should be wearing a mask in public spaces to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Why masks matter more for this coronavirus To […]
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