A string of negatives can still presage a clear-as-day positive. By Katherine J. Wu In early May, 27-year-old Hayley Furmaniuk felt tired and a bit congested, but after rapid-testing negative for the coronavirus two days in a row, she dined indoors with friends. The...
Will the danger mount each time, or will it fade away? By Katherine J. Wu Two and a half years and billions of estimated infections into this pandemic, SARS-CoV-2’s visit has clearly turned into a permanent stay. Experts knew from early on that, for almost...
Early anecdotes about Paxlovid’s effects on long COVID are intriguing, but no one’s testing them in clinical trials yet. By Katherine J. Wu In the two years since she caught the coronavirus, 38-year-old Jessica McGovern has cycled through “well over 100 drugs,...
With time and effort, we can build enough protection to blunt surges—but herd immunity remains out of reach. By Katherine J. Wu The Atlantic I, as far as I can tell, have not yet been infected by the virus that causes COVID-19. Which, by official counts, makes me an...
Here are four shapes that the next variant might take—which will also dictate the shape of our response. By Katherine J. Wu If the coronavirus has one singular goal—repeatedly infecting us—it’s only gotten better at realizing it, from Alpha to Delta to Omicron. And it...
Here’s everything we do. By Katherine J. Wu As fall dips into winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the coronavirus has served up the holiday gift that no one, absolutely no one, asked for: a new variant of concern, dubbed Omicron by the World Health...
Delta is far from the last variant. But what shape the virus takes next depends on us. By Katherine J. Wu Originally published on August 24, 2021 If evolution is a numbers game, the coronavirus is especially good at playing it. Over the past year and a half, it’s...