‘Right now I’m scared’ — In the race between Covid-19 vaccines and variants, in some parts of the country, the variants appear to be winning. In a stark message issued at the White House press briefing on Monday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, warned that the U.S. was on the verge of a fourth wave…

Your executive control center has helped your mental health survive the pandemic thus far. Here’s how to strengthen it for the future. — A lot has been written (including by this reporter) about the mental health toll of the pandemic, and for good reason. The latest numbers from the National Pulse Survey, a weekly mental health screen conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. …

It’s not b.s. — the practice really can strengthen your mind like a muscle — This is a modified excerpt from Inside Your Head 🧠, a weekly newsletter exploring why your brain makes you think, feel, and act the way you do, written by me, Elemental’s senior writer and a former brain scientist. Subscribe here so you won’t miss the next one. One of the…

I’ve made mistakes. We all have. — I’m a bit of a know-it-all. It comes with the territory of the job — I literally find out interesting things and then explain them to other people for a living. Depending on your view, I’m either the most fun at parties or the least fun at parties. At one…

The toll a year of loneliness, stress, fear, trauma, and loss takes on the structure and function of the brain — Sandro Galea, MD, is a physician and epidemiologist who knows trauma: He has studied people’s mental health in the aftermath of, among other earth-shattering events, 9/11, hurricanes, and civil unrest. In March and April 2020, the Boston University School of Public Health dean conducted one of the first mental health…

Vaccinated and unvaccinated individual households can also gather safely, as long as no one is at high risk for severe Covid-19 — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released highly anticipated, more lenient guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19. In a statement during a White House press briefing Monday morning, CDC director Rochelle Walensky, MD, said that fully vaccinated people can safely gather indoors…

Your brain responds to stress differently when you’re by yourself — This is a modified excerpt from Inside Your Head 🧠, a weekly newsletter exploring why your brain makes you think, feel, and act the way you do, written by me, Elemental’s senior writer and a former brain scientist. Subscribe here so you won’t miss the next one. This week’s issue…

If you knew and loved one of the 500,000-plus people lost to the pandemic, here’s what might be going on in your brain right now. — This is a modified excerpt from Inside Your Head 🧠, a weekly newsletter exploring why your brain makes you think, feel, and act the way you do, written by me, Elemental’s senior writer and a former brain scientist. Subscribe here so you won’t miss the next one. Yesterday, the official…

The viral strain causes a longer period of infection, which could explain its increased transmissibility — For this science-writing basketball fan, one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic has been the collaboration between the NBA and epidemiologists. …