A handful of coronavirus variants have become household names during the pandemic, including B.1.1.7, the so-called U.K. variant, and B.1.351, the South African variant. There are many others. Variants arise because viruses naturally mutate when they replicate, and, given the high rates of Covid-19 infection, SARS-CoV-2 has had many opportunities…

Research published in February in the science journal BMJ showed that people infected with the B.1.1.7 variant of the coronavirus, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, are more likely to die than people infected with the original strain. This scary news was surprising to some people, writes scientist…

These cards are generally meaningless — Though Facebook has promised to crack down on health misinformation, many scams still proliferate on the platform. One persistent scam is the sale of “vaccine exemption” or “mask exemption” cards claiming to provide legal evidence that a person does not have to get vaccinated or wear a mask. …

The Covid-19 crisis has caused demand for the lifesaving treatment to skyrocket — For many people with Covid-19, a respiratory illness, treatment with supplemental medical oxygen can be lifesaving. It’s usually administered when the disease causes a person’s blood oxygen level to drop — a condition known as hypoxemia. …

Chronic stress can physically impact neural connections — To say that people are stressed out during the pandemic would be a gross understatement. What people are feeling isn’t acute stress — the kind that can motivate you in the best of times or force you to slow down in the worst of times — it’s chronic stress, the…

Covid-19 vaccine doses are the world’s hottest commodity right now. As such, the threat of theft is very real — Interpol has even issued an orange alert warning of armed robberies of vaccine shipments. …

Many Black people experience vaccine hesitancy because of the long history of racism in health care in the United States, which in many ways is still present today. This racism is important to acknowledge, and so is the fact that vaccination is critical to ending the Covid-19 pandemic and protecting…

Some states have designed strategies to give vaccine priority to people of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In California, one program gives out vaccine access codes that allow people to make appointments on the state’s scheduling website. …

The Biden administration brokered the deal between the two competitors — Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday, but the bulk of its doses won’t be available until the end of March. Manufacturing delays have stalled production of the vaccine at the company’s plant in Baltimore. To help speed…