Pennsylvania's health department announced last month that two Lancaster County residents — both unvaccinated — died ​from measles. ​They were reportedly the first ​times the disease has killed anyone in the United States in 2026, a year that has already produced more measles cases than the country has seen since the virus was declared eliminated back in 2000. ​Almost 400 people ​have been infected in​ Pennsylvania; 70 have been hospitalized.

Two deaths​ is the number that has run in headlines​ and been cited in press briefing. It is also, almost certainly, a lie of omission — not because anyone is hiding bodies, but because the way America counts measles deaths was never built to capture how measles actually kills.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

The knowledge and infrastructure needed to engineer a pandemic pathogen, once confined to a handful of elite military and civilian research institutions, are quietly becoming more accessible.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

With the NFL pre-season well under way, I can't help thinking about the incremental neurological damage that's being inflicted on the players with each vicious tackle and violent collision. The damage --Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease better known as CTE -- has often been decades in the making.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Apologies for the outdated affiliation on the version sent previously!

A booming wellness market has formed around peptides—mini-proteins that affect various processes inside the body. They help regulate hunger, blood sugar, inflammation, tissue repair, sleep and hormone release, among other bodily functions. Synthetic versions are sold as injections, pills, nasal sprays and creams. Some, including insulin and GLP-1 drugs, have been rigorously tested and approved by the FDA and are sold by prescription. But many wellness peptides lack credible evidence of safety or effectiveness, yet are available online.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Every transformative technology has its prophets of doom. AI is just the latest to draw them out.

In the early 1800s, the "Luddites," followers of the possibly mythical Ned Ludd, smashed textile machinery, convinced that destroying the new technology would save their livelihoods. They weren't entirely misguided: Mechanized looms did largely displace artisans. But they were wrong about everything else. History doesn't remember the Luddites for foreseeing the future; it remembers them for mistaking sabotage for a strategy.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles