The Coming Birth-Control Revolution
Katherine J. Wu
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.Within the next couple of decades, a new generation of contraceptives could hit the American market. One, a pill that blocks certain cells from accessing vitamin A, might be able to limit fertility without flooding the body with hormones; another is an injection that temporarily blocks up the reproductive plumbing. The method that's furthest along in trials is a topical gel that promises to induce temporary i...
The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now
Nancy Walecki
Updated at 3:23 p.m. ET on April 3, 2024A man comes to Northwell Health's hospital on Staten Island with a sprained ankle. Any allergies? the doctor asks. How many alcoholic drinks do you have each week? Do you have access to firearms inside or outside the home? When the patient answers yes to that last question, someone from his care team explains that locking up the firearm can make his home safer. She offers him a gun lock and a pamphlet with information on secure storage and firearm-safety cl...
Zyn Was 100 Years in the Making
Jacob Stern
For something that isn't candy, Zyn nicotine pouches sure look a lot like it. The packaging, a small metal can, looks more than a little like a tin of mints. The pouches come in a wide variety of flavors: citrus, cinnamon, "chill," "smooth." And they're consumed orally, more like jawbreakers or Warheads than cigarettes.America has found itself in the beginnings of a Zyn panic. As cigarette and vape use have trailed off in recent years, Zyn and other nicotine pouches are gaining traction. The abso...
The CDC Is Squandering the Breakthrough RSV Vaccine
Katherine J. Wu
When a new RSV vaccine for pregnant people arrived last fall, Sarah Turner, a family-medicine physician at Lutheran Hospital, in Indiana, couldn't help but expect some pushback. At most, about half of her eligible pregnant patients opt to get a flu vaccine, she told me, and "very few" agree to the COVID shot.But to Turner's surprise, patients clamored for the RSV shot--some opting in even more eagerly than they did for Tdap, which protects newborns against pertussis and had previously been her eas...
I Just Want a Normal Drink
Yasmin Tayag
Recently, a balmy spring day left me feeling parched. I needed a beverage--stat!--and had forgotten my water bottle at home. I ducked into a nearby CVS to pick up a drink.The choices were so overwhelming, I nearly forgot my thirst. The drink aisle included a bevy of the usual thirst-quenching options--and some that looked like they belonged in an apothecary rather than next to the LaCroix. Row upon row of multicolored cans and bottles held drinks with purposes beyond mere hydration and flavor. Some ...
DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest
Sarah Zhang
When Steve Edsel was a boy, his adoptive parents kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings in their bedroom closet. He would ask for it sometimes, poring over the headlines about his birth. Headlines like this: "Mother Deserts Son, Flees From Hospital," Winston-Salem Journal, December 30, 1973.The mother in question was 14 years old, "5 feet 6 with reddish brown hair," and she had come to the hospital early one morning with her own parents. They gave names that all turned out to be fake. And by 8 o...