Before Hurricane Laura made landfall in the United States, it had already proved to be a deadly storm in three Caribbean countries, bringing torrential downpours, flooding, power outages, and other damage that killed over 20 people and has made life dangerous for millions more. As a tropical storm, Laura pummeled the Dominican Republic last weekend Read more about Hurricane Laura was already a deadly storm before it reached the US[…]

Click:numerical control machine A couple of months ago, President Donald Trump said he told federal officials to “slow the testing down, please.” Now the Trump administration is taking a step that would, in effect, slow down testing. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its testing guidelines to no longer recommend Read more about Trump asked for fewer Covid-19 tests. Now the CDC is recommending less testing.[…]

To get the US pandemic under control, a growing number of health and medical experts are making a clarion call for an additional testing approach to Covid-19. What we need, they argue, are at-home rapid tests that look for antigens, proteins the live virus makes. These kits would allow anyone to test themselves for the Read more about Rapid $1 Covid-19 tests exist. Why can’t we get them?[…]

As America, and even his own administration, woke up to the threat of Covid-19, President Donald Trump still didn’t seem to get it. Within weeks of suggesting that people social distance in mid-March, the president went on national TV to argue that the US could reopen by Easter Sunday in April. “You’ll have packed churches Read more about How Trump let Covid-19 win[…]

Tropical Storm Laura, which has been downgraded from a hurricane, made landfall early Thursday morning in Cameron, Louisiana — just 35 miles east of the Texas-Louisiana border — as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds. Already, pictures and videos of the storm from Lake Charles, Louisiana, a town about 50 miles north of Read more about Tropical Storm Laura’s flooding and other impacts on the ground: What we know[…]

President Donald Trump’s speech on Thursday — and the events surrounding the Republican National Convention in general — at times came off as a celebration: a series of rhetorical monuments to a president who, based on what he and his supporters said, had triumphantly carried America through one of its best periods. It’s an image Read more about The absurdity of Trump’s RNC speech, in one photo[…]

Earth is now in the middle of a mass extinction, the sixth one in the planet’s history, according to scientists. And now a new study reports that species are going extinct hundreds or thousands of times faster than the expected rate. The researchers also found that one extinction can cause ripple effects throughout an ecosystem, Read more about “Extinction breeds extinctions”: How losing one species can wipe out many more[…]

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday announced changes to its guidelines on who should wear a mask during the Covid-19 pandemic and where they should wear it. The new guidance recommends that the general public wear cloth masks made from at least three layers of fabric “on public transport, in shops, or in other Read more about The WHO has new guidelines on face masks to fight Covid-19[…]

Decades of research paint a clear picture: The No. 1 environmental health risk in the US is soot. Also known as particulate pollution, it is made up of extremely small particles spewed into the air by power generation, industrial processes, and cars and trucks. There are “coarse particles,” between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter, Read more about Trump’s EPA balks at a chance to save black lives[…]

When states had strict stay-at-home orders and lockdowns in place, many decisions about the risk of getting the coronavirus were simple. People didn’t have to think about whether dining in a restaurant is safe if the restaurant was closed. Now, that states are opening up — with varying degrees of precautions and adherence in place Read more about 6 feet away isn’t enough. Covid-19 risk involves other dimensions, too.[…]