In the News

With Americans largely returning to prepandemic habits, and precautions such as mask mandates dropped, many people have come to rely on rapid testing to avoid spreading the virus. But with so many people having symptoms and still testing negative, it’s hard to know whether to trust the results.
 

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned Wednesday that the window to contain the global monkeypox outbreak may be narrowing.

The country’s latest COVID-19 surge appears to have crested well before reaching anywhere near the pandemic peak seen in January. But the pandemic isn’t done, and new variants already are emerging around the country that could mean another wave this summer or fall and everyone ought to be ready.
 

What exactly is a 'universal background check' for gun sales,and why has it been so hard for federal legislation to mandate such checks?

The U.S. has 36,000 doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine in the strategic national stockpile and is adding 36,000 more as the infectious disease spreads around the world.

It was a weekend marked by terrifying gun violence across the country, with 13 mass shootings in the U.S. since Friday.
 

Just nine states and Washington, D.C., have explicit waiting periods before people can purchase at least some types of firearms.
 

The key to this household mystery may lie in our vaccination status, experts say.
 

Hopkins’ recent polling does show most Americans support gun laws that include background checks, permits and minimum age requirements.  

The massacre of children at an elementary school in Texas is adding fresh urgency to the conversation about gun control in the United States, which has been politically fraught and lacking in progress. That’s not because of a lack of support for gun control. That support just needs a little bit of parsing.
 

With a global alarm ringing because of an unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox, we should also consider a different but closely related viral threat.
Gigi Gronvall and Tara Kirk Sell coauthored the piece.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott said Tuesday that the city plans to sue Polymer80, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of “ghost gun” kits — untraceable firearms that have proliferated on city streets and contributed to a surge of violence.