As fires blanket growing swathes of the West, scientists are beginning to understand more about how their smoke affects the transmission and severity of COVID-19 and other illnesses, and how it differs from that of other types of air pollution.

Researchers’ painstaking examinations have begun to reveal how the virus wreaks havoc in multiple organs and tissues.

Symptoms documented in cases of long COVID are wide ranging and variable.

Every medical intervention—even one with a centuries-long history—brings dangers, some of which become clear only later.

A year and a half into the pandemic, the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection are garnering more research attention as millions of long COVID patients emerge.

Officials say it’s not yet clear whether this case is linked to an outbreak in Guinea earlier this summer.

CDC investigators continue to search for the source of the bacteria that caused four infections—two of them lethal—in four different states. The Scientist spoke with melioidosis expert Bart Currie about the disease.

The makers of the CRISPR-based testing platform, called miSHERLOCK, say it could enable people at home or physicians in resource-limited environments to detect SARS-CoV-2—and eventually, other pathogens.

The finding of the Ebola-like disease, which killed a man in Guinea, has prompted public health measures.

As a result of massive summer gatherings in and around Cape Cod, hundreds of vaccinated people tested positive for COVID-19 with viral titers similar to unvaccinated patients.

A patient caught the rare disease in Nigeria before flying through two US airports, exposing more than 200 people from 27 states.

Lateral flow tests for COVID-19 can be very accurate and specific when used as directed, but introducing acidic fluids can cause the tests’ detecting antibodies to clump, which may read as a positive result.

A broad and nimble sequencing program is necessary to track, anticipate, and quash SARS-CoV-2 and other dangerous pathogens that threaten humanity.