Experts say low-dose aspirin might be an underutilized weapon in our battle with the coronavirus — During the first months of the pandemic, back when vaccines were little more than a wishful ambition, the global medical community was desperate for something — anything — that could weaken the mortal grip of severe Covid-19 disease. Aspirin emerged as an early drug-of-interest. Covid-19 does its damage primarily via…

Adrift in a timeless plague state — Here we are — leaves falling, chill creeping, apples in the oven — ages after the great panic sent us all into hiding. We are vaxed. We are masked, still hiding, and appropriately unsettled. We are also, somehow, carrying on. Is this lockdown? Extended lockdown? Partial lockdown? Limbo lockdown? I…

Covid restrictions may feel permanent. Denmark’s experience shows they don’t need to be. — The U.S. may be one country, but when it comes to handling Covid, it has from the start been very much a collection of states, states that have responded to the pandemic in very different ways. (And even within states, there are often dramatic differences in the policies cities and…

Whether it becomes more or less deadly is the big question now — Someday, the Covid-19-causing coronavirus might be no more of a nuisance than the common cold, circulating seasonally and causing what’s known as an endemic disease that amounts to little more than sniffles in some children. That’s the most likely endgame, many experts have said. But it’s not inevitable. …

A conversation with Stanford epidemiologist Steven Goodman on the perpetual pandemic — “We’re not done with this,” warns Stanford epidemiologist Steven Goodman about the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe my brother. In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading and lockdowns were being imposed, I asked Steven to join me on The Vermont Conversation, the radio show and podcast that I host…

You aren’t lazy. You are suffering the aftershocks of pandemic stress. — There’s a kind of pleasant fatigue that comes from a day of physical activity — hiking, biking, swimming, running. But this? This isn’t it. You feel exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious and even depressed. The heaviness of your limbs is only second to a heaviness of mind, a feeling of alienation, of…

The hard-to-capture research is in: children’s birthdays were linked to higher infection rates in counties that already had more cases — Epidemiologists regularly warned of the risks of small group gatherings, particularly indoors, during the pandemic before vaccines were available. News stories about superspreader family events popped up now and then, and infectious disease experts warned that these small indoor gatherings were a substantial driver of infections.