Last Word

Unfortunately for demographers, birth rates are hard to predict far into the future. gremlin/E+ via Getty Images ~~~~~ Pronatalism – the belief that low birth rates are a problem that must be reversed – is having a moment in the U.S. As birth rates decline in the U.S. and throughout the world, voices from Silicon Valley to the White House are raising concerns about what they say could be the...

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Reporting Highlights A Powerful Doctor: Dr. Nancy Harper is a leading child abuse pediatrician based in Minnesota. She testifies in criminal trials across the Midwest, almost always for the prosecution. Casting Doubt: Defense attorneys and judges...

The emergence of antiretroviral drugs saved millions of lives — but some worried about long-term health problems. Here’s how that turned out. Miguel, a 63-year-old Los Angeles teacher, recently marked the 38th anniversary of his diagnosis with HIV. The doctor had told him he would be dead in a couple of years. He lived fearful that each passing one might be his last. Miguel started to take AZT...

In April of 2020, physician-scientist Mady Hornig—then an associate professor at Columbia University—experienced an itchy throat, a swollen lymph node and a severely inflamed muscle radiating pain from deep in her ribcage. Three weeks after these initial symptoms, she developed a fever that persisted for two weeks. Before the pandemic, Hornig routinely worked 10- to 12-hour days. Trained in both...

Nitrous oxide is often inhaled with a balloon. Matt Cardy/Getty Images News ~~~~~ The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning Americans about the ever-increasing and potentially deadly recreational use of nitrous oxide products, particularly among young people. Marketed with names like “Galaxy Gas” and “Miami Magic,” and often sold in steel cartridges known as “whippets,” these products are...

Remember when your family doctor was actually your doctor? That quaint historical period when physicians made independent medical judgments instead of reading from pharmaceutical scripts? When they looked at you as a unique human being rather than a collection of compliance metrics needing correction? Those days are gone. Today’s primary care physician is something entirely different—a...