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On the Pointlessness of Pointy Sneakers

On the Pointlessness of Pointy Shoes

Nor could one easily kneel or pray in what were sometimes known as “Satan’s clutches.” In 1215, Pope Innocent III banned it. Clergymen, among other things, wear “shoes with embroidery or pointy toes”. The edict was so unsuccessful that Pope Urban V tried again in 1362.

Poulaines swept to England in the 14th century, supposedly at the feet of Anne of Böhmen, the 16-year-old bride of 15-year-old Richard II, but maybe even a little earlier. (Poulaines, a French term, refers to Poland; the shoes were sometimes called Krakow, after the Polish capital.) In Dr. Dittmar’s study, the bunions were more common in wealthy individuals, but they even occurred in skeletons from a charitable hospital. “It seems that these types of shoes are pretty popular with everyone,” she said. Poulaines disappeared sometime after 1465 when Edward IV banned any shoe longer than two inches from England.

It was neither the first nor the last time that people have forced their bodies to conform to fashion; Foot binding began in China in the 10th century and lasted a millennium, overtaking the Victorian corset. No doubt future paleopathologists, smarter and barefoot, will scoff at the many ways – earth shoes, cowboy boots, Air Jordans, brogues, chukkas, Uggs – we have found to sell our soles to the devil.

“It is certainly something,” said Dr. Dittmar. During the pandemic lockdown, she wore her running sneakers to the lab, most of which she has to herself, and isn’t particularly excited about what’s next: “Every time you go to a conference and put on your high heels, think I, this is so bad, why are we doing this? But it’s fashion, isn’t it? “

Recognition…Tony Cenicola / The New York Times

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New Jersey has totally vaccinated 4.7 million individuals, Gov. Murphy says

New Jersey Gov. Murphy defends eligibility criteria

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) speaks at the coronavirus press conference in Trenton, New Jersey.

Michael Brochstein | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

New Jersey has achieved its goal of fully vaccinating more than 4.7 million people living, working and studying in the state about two weeks before its original target date, June 30, Governor Phil Murphy said Friday.

The milestone comes after an aggressive vaccination campaign that included door knocking and incentives for the state’s residents like free beer and wine, free tickets to state parks, and even a dinner with Murphy and his wife.

The state also exceeded President Joe Biden’s goal of vaccinating 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4th. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Jersey vaccinated about 77% of its adults with at least one dose.

“With the millions of you who have stepped forward today to protect yourself, your families and our communities, we are proud to announce that we have exceeded our original goal now and 12 days before our self-appointed deadline “said Murphy Friday at a press conference.

The New Jersey outbreak, which peaked in January with a seven-day average of more than 6,000 new cases per day, has since declined to a daily average of around 260 cases per day over the past week. New Jersey has seen more than 1 million Covid cases and 26,000 Covid deaths since data collection began.

Covid deaths in the state peaked in April 2020 with a seven-day average of 345 deaths per day. The number has since fallen to an average of 6 deaths per day.

The state previously defied the CDC’s recommendations to allow vaccinated people to wear a mask indoors, but passed the CDC guidelines two weeks later.

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Delta Variant: What to Know For Summer season Journey

Delta Variant: What to Know For Summer Travel

With vaccinations on the rise and mortality rates related to Covid-19 going down in Europe and other parts of the world, many people are making plans to travel this summer and beyond. But experts say the quickly circulating Delta variant is a new concern for travelers, particularly those who are unvaccinated.

The European Union said on June 18 that the United States would be added to its “safe list” of countries, a decision that should allow even unvaccinated visitors from the U.S. (who can provide proof of a negative coronavirus test) to enter its 27 member states for nonessential travel. These countries, however, can impose their own restrictions and requirements for entry.

The E.U. decision comes the same week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention elevated the Delta variant of the coronavirus to a “variant of concern” as it appears to spread more quickly and may affect people more severely than earlier forms of the virus.

If you’re wondering how the variant will affect your travel plans, here is everything you need to know before booking a flight.

So far, the variant, first identified in India, has spread to more than 80 countries as of June 16, according to the World Health Organization. In a news conference on June 10, Dr. Hans Kluge, W.H.O.’s regional director for Europe, said that the variant was “poised to take hold” in Europe.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said this will probably be the case in other countries, as well.

“If you’re out and about this summer, chances that you’re going to encounter the Delta variant, either in the U.S. or in Europe or other parts of the world, are pretty high,” she said.

The Delta variant currently makes up between six and 10 percent of cases in the United States, said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, adding that it will probably will be the dominant strain in the United States by August.

If you are fully vaccinated, particularly with a two-dose vaccine, “don’t worry about the Delta variant,” Dr. Jha said.

Millions of Americans have received either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines; both are two-dose vaccines. Studies have shown their efficacy drops only slightly when encountering variants.

“People who have been vaccinated still do quite well against this variant,” Dr. Jha said, “but it is one where you need a high degree of immunity to ward off, so you really need to have both of your doses of your vaccine.”

The C.D.C. has a global variant map that shows the countries where different variants have been identified, though it does not list infection rates. It also lists the risk level by country.

Using information from government sources compiled by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, The New York Times has been tracking global vaccinations, showing the percentage of people vaccinated in individual countries.

You may also look online to the national health department websites for the country you are planning to visit to get more specific data.

In Britain, for instance, where the Delta variant is already the most widespread strain, the National Health Service publishes information on the spread of the variant and vaccination rates in the country.

Unequal access to the vaccine across the world has meant that poorer countries are less adequately protected, with cases continuing to rise in parts of South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. According to the W.H.O., 75 percent of vaccine doses have gone to just 10 nations.

Updated 

June 18, 2021, 11:29 p.m. ET

Dr. Jha said it’s important to look at not just vaccination rates for the country, but also the vaccine that is being used there. Brazil, Turkey and other countries are relying on one or both of the two main vaccines manufactured by Chinese companies to inoculate their citizens.

“We don’t have data that the Chinese vaccines, for instance, are quite as good in general, and particularly around the Delta variant,” Dr. Jha said.

A recent study by the C.D.C. shows that the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines reduce the risk of infection from any form of the virus by 91 percent for fully vaccinated people. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is about 66 percent effective at preventing infection.

“Is it complete? No,” Dr. Nuzzo said. “But is it pretty darn good to the point that I personally would relax? Yes.”

It’s possible for vaccinated people to still be infected, she said, but the cases of this happening are quite low, and even if they get infected, they are unlikely to become ill. She added that those who have symptoms are more likely to spread the virus, so “if the vaccines did a good job at keeping you without symptoms, the likelihood that you’re going to spread it is quite low.”

If you want to further improve your odds of not getting infected, she recommends continuing to follow safety protocols like wearing a mask, social distancing and avoiding crowded, poorly ventilated indoor spaces.

If you are vaccinated but your immune system is compromised, because of a medical condition or because of certain medications you take, you should heed caution. You may not be fully protected, she said.

“If you’re an unvaccinated person, that, I think, makes your travel prospects much riskier,” Dr. Nuzzo said. “I really would not advise people traveling in an era of the increasing spread of these, not only more transmissible but possibly more severe, forms of the virus.”

Dr. Jha adds that “the simple answer” for protecting yourself as a traveler is to get vaccinated. This, he said, makes the prospect of encountering the Delta virus much less risky.

“But if you are unvaccinated or with unvaccinated people, then it really does pose a substantial risk,” he said.

He adds that travelers can use other safety measures to protect themselves, like wearing masks or social distancing, “but if you’re going to be vacationing this summer, that’s a less fun way to vacation.”

Dr. Nuzzo suggests thinking about vaccination and safety measures as different layers of protection against the virus. “Each layer adds something,” she said. “Vaccination is the thickest layer of protection against all forms of the virus.”

If your kids are over 12, get them vaccinated, said Dr. Jha. But for children under 12, who cannot yet get vaccinated in the United States, he suggests continuing to follow mask-wearing and social distancing rules. He also said that getting vaccinated yourself can help protect your children.

“The single biggest thing we can do to protect kids under 12 is to make sure everybody around them, all the adults, are vaccinated,” he said. “There’s very good evidence that when adults are vaccinated, kid infection numbers go down.”

He said that he plans to travel with his children this summer, one of whom is too young to be vaccinated.

Dr. Nuzzo, who has two young unvaccinated children, said she will, as well. “We are in a phase where we have to gauge the risks and benefits of everything that we do,” she said. “Everybody’s going to make those calculations differently.”

When the initial version of the coronavirus swept the globe last spring, much of the world hunkered down, restricting domestic movement, and many countries shut their borders to nonessential travel.

Now, many nations are opening up, but concern remains about the virus, particularly about the Delta variant. Some countries are making specific changes to their entry decisions because of the variant, while others are ordering emergency lockdowns.

On June 18, Italy’s health minister said that the nation would require a mandatory five-day quarantine and testing for people coming from Britain, even if they are vaccinated, over concerns about the Delta variant. It also extended the ban on arrivals from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

On the same day, Portugal ordered a weekend lockdown for the capital region of Lisbon, as a way to curb a surging number of virus cases. Roughly half of the reported cases stem from the Delta variant.

Rules around testing and requirements to enter another country are evolving and can change quickly from one day to the next. Make sure to check the requirements for your destination country before booking your flight, but also in the days before to you travel make sure you are following the most updated rules.

THE WORLD IS REOPENING. LET’S GO, SAFELY. Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter: Each week you’ll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world.

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Biden says delta Covid variant is ‘notably harmful’ for younger folks

Biden says delta Covid variant is 'particularly dangerous' for young people

President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Friday, June 18, 2021, regarding the achievement of 300 million COVID-19 vaccinations.

Evan Vucci | AP

President Joe Biden on Friday doubled his government’s request that Americans get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible, warning that the highly transmissible Delta variant appears to be “particularly dangerous” for young people.

“The data is clear: if you are not vaccinated, there is a risk that you will become seriously ill or die or spread,” Biden said during a White House press conference.

Delta, the variant of Covid identified for the first time in India, “will make unvaccinated people even more vulnerable than it was a month ago,” he added. “It’s a more easily transmissible, potentially more deadly, and particularly dangerous variant for young people.”

Biden said that young people can best protect themselves by getting fully vaccinated.

“Please, please, when you have a shot, get the second shot as soon as you can,” he said.

The president’s remarks come as his administration’s latest goal of partially vaccinating 70% of US adults by July 4th is on the way to falling as the pace of vaccination slows.

The World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Friday that Delta is becoming the dominant strain of the disease worldwide. This is due to its “significantly increased transferability,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO senior scientist, during a press conference.

Studies suggest that Delta is about 60% more transmissible than Alpha, the variant first identified in the UK that was more contagious than the original strain that emerged from Wuhan, China in late 2019.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also said Friday that she expects Delta to become the predominant variant in the United States and urged people to get vaccinated. The variant now accounts for 10% of all new cases in the US, up from 6% last week, according to data from CDC.

“As worrying as this Delta strain is about its hypertransmittance, our vaccines are working,” Walensky told ABC’s Good Morning America. If you get vaccinated, “you will be protected against this Delta variant,” she added.

Health experts say the Delta strain is of particular concern for young people, many of whom do not yet need to be vaccinated. While scientists still don’t know if Delta is causing more severe symptoms, there is evidence that it could cause different symptoms than other variants.

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the Delta variant essentially replaced Alpha, the variant that swept Europe and later the US earlier this year. He said as the virus continues to mutate, the US will need a higher percentage of the vaccinated population.

“How much more information do we need to see this virus mutate and create viruses that are more contagious?” said Offit, also a member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products. “We have to vaccinate now. Let everyone vaccinate now.”

According to the CDC, as of Friday, more than 176 million Americans, or 53.1% of the population, had had at least one injection. More than 148 million Americans are fully vaccinated, according to the agency.

States are offering incentives ranging from free beer to $ 1 million worth of lotteries to try to convince Americans to get a prick.

On Friday, Biden announced some of these incentives, including the fact that most pharmacies offer 24-hour service on select days in June.

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Richard R. Ernst, Nobelist Who Paved Method for M.R.I., Dies at 87

Richard R. Ernst, Nobelist Who Paved Way for M.R.I., Dies at 87

Richard R. Ernst, a Swiss chemist who received the 1991 Nobel Prize for his work on refining nuclear magnetic resonance or NMR spectroscopy, the powerful chemical analysis method of MRT technology, died on June 4th in Winterthur in northern Switzerland. He was 87.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), at which Dr. Ernst, who had spent most of his career, announced the death on their website. No reason was given.

Dr. Ernst – whose work and interests included chemistry, physics, math, music, and the arts – helped develop NMR from a time-consuming niche technique to a critical scientific tool routinely used in local hospitals and chemistry laboratories.

As a chemist, he was outstanding.

“Comparing him to Einstein would offend physicists,” says Jeffrey A. Reimer, an NMR expert at the University of California at Berkeley. “But as far as its effect in the discipline is concerned, seriousness is fundamental.”

Dr. Serious was driven and demanding – especially of himself – and even as his stature grew, colleagues and former students said he had remarkably little ego. He was quick to pay tribute to his co-workers and to describe his own contributions in humble terms.

“I’m not really what you would imagine as a scientist who wants to understand the world,” he said in a 2001 Nobel interview. He continued, “I’m a toolmaker, not a real scientist in that sense, and I wanted to offer these problem-solving skills to other people.”

NMR spectroscopy was first developed in the 1940s and early 50s by Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952 for this achievement. With this technique, scientists place a substance in a magnetic field that aligns the nuclei of its atoms. Then they bombard it with radio pulses that throw the nuclei out of alignment. When the nuclei realign themselves, the atoms emit unique electromagnetic signals that can be analyzed to determine the chemical composition and molecular structure of the material.

When Dr. Ernst, when he started studying NMR in the late 1950s, as a PhD student, researchers had to slowly scan a substance in a magnet and use continuous radio waves. She suffered, wrote Dr. Ernst in an autobiographical sketch on the Nobel website, “with a disappointingly low sensitivity that severely limits its application possibilities”.

Instead of slowly scanning a substance, Dr. Serious them with a short but intense pulse of radio waves. Then, with the help of a computer, he used a complex mathematical operation to analyze the signal. This method, known as Fourier transform NMR or FT-NMR, was much more sensitive and allowed scientists to study more types of atoms and molecules, especially those that were low in abundance.

“That was a very great invention that was ahead of its time,” says Matthias Ernst, physical chemist at ETH Zurich, who was a former student of Dr. Serious was (and is not related). That was the 1960s and the era of personal computing had not yet begun; Instead, Dr. Ernst and his colleagues transfer their data from the perforated tape to punch cards and then take them to a data center for processing.

In the 1970s, Dr. Seriously the two-dimensional NMR. This technique involves bombarding samples with sequences of radio pulses over time. The resulting signals provide more information about the sample and enable scientists to determine the exact composition and structure of large and complex biological molecules.

“It was beautiful,” said Dr. Reimer, an undergraduate chemistry student, as Dr. Ernst published his results. “Richard really did everything.”

Two-dimensional NMR is the foundation of MRI, a medical advance that enabled doctors to create detailed images of the body’s internal structures. “He made NMR the powerful technique it is in chemistry, biochemistry and biology today,” said Robert Tycko, physical chemist at the National Institutes of Health and president of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance, in a telephone interview.

Dr. Ernst was on a transatlantic flight when his Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced in October 1991; he learned of the honor from the pilot. But in accordance with his characteristic modesty, he was unsettled when he was the only winner.

“He was very happy about the recognition,” says Beat H. Meier, physical chemist at ETH. “

Richard Robert Ernst was born on August 14, 1933 in Winterthur as the son of the architects Robert Ernst and Irma Ernst-Brunner. As a child he developed a passion for music and chemistry. When he was 13 years old, he found a box of chemicals in the attic of his house and learned that it belonged to an uncle.

“I was almost immediately fascinated by the possibilities of trying out all conceivable reactions with them, some of which led to explosions, others to unbearable air pollution in our house, which terrified my parents,” he wrote in his Nobel sketch. He started devouring chemistry books and gave up plans to become a composer.

He did his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at ETH Zurich in 1956 and then briefly served in the Swiss military before returning to ETH in 1962 for his doctorate in physical chemistry.

The next year he married Magdalena Kielholz. The bereaved are his wife and their three children Anna, Katharina and Hans-Martin. Matthias Ernst, his former student, said Dr. Ernst died in an old people’s home.

In 1963, Dr. Ernst joined the technology company Varian Associates in Palo Alto, California as a scientist. There he developed FT-NMR

He returned to ETH 1968 and taught and researched there until his retirement in 1998. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he received the Wolf Prize for Chemistry, the Horwitz Prize, the Marcel Benoist Prize and 17 honorary doctorates.

Dr. Ernst was an avowed “workaholic”, as he put it.

“He had dinner with his wife and then went back to his desk and worked late into the night,” says Alexander Wokaun, retired chemist and emeritus professor at the ETH. Ernst received his doctorate. Students. “But in this total devotion to science, I think he showed us what can be achieved.”

Dr. Ernst gave his students freedom and was interested in the work of young scientists who had not yet made a name for themselves. “At meetings of scientists or scientific conferences,” said Dr. Tycko, “he sat in the front row and took careful notes and listened to other people describe their work, which is actually very unusual for someone of his stature.”

Dr. Ernst maintained his love of music and also developed a passion for Tibetan scroll paintings, which he put together with his wife and adorned almost every wall of their home with them, said Dr. Wokaun. He used advanced laboratory techniques to examine the paintings’ pigments to find out where and when they were made.

After receiving his Nobel Prize, he traveled and lectured on the responsibility he believed scientists have to contribute to society.

“He always said to me, ‘It’s not enough for a scientist to accumulate knowledge just for the sake of knowledge,'” said Dr. Wokaun. “‘What for, for what purpose are you doing this?'”

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Peter Thiel-backed psychedelic start-up’s shares pop in Wall Avenue debut

Peter Thiel-backed psychedelic start-up's shares pop in Wall Street debut

Peter Thiel-backed psychedelic start-up Atai Life Sciences soared on Friday on its first day of trading on Wall Street.

The newly listed Nasdaq stock opened 40% before falling a little.

The German biotech company’s IPO on Thursday evening was $ 15 per share, the upper end of the expected range. The company, which aims to make psychedelic drugs for the treatment of mental disorders, raised $ 225 million on a valuation of $ 2.3 billion.

Atai is the third psychedelic biotech company to go public in the US, following in the footsteps of MindMed, which went public on Nasdaq in April, and Founder Fund-funded Compass Pathways, which listed in September were. As of Thursday’s close, Compass Pathways is up 26% since it debuted, and MindMed, which was just announcing the resignation of its CEO, has been down about 19% since it went public.

Each biotech develops therapies with the psychedelic mushroom compound psilocybin, LSD and MDMA derivatives for the treatment of addiction and mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and traumatic brain injuries. Three years after its inception, Atai Life Sciences has 10 therapeutic programs in its pipeline, each in different phases of clinical trials.

Atai founder and chairman Christian Angermayer said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”: “The world we are building is a bad place for our brains, so mental health problems will increase. Portfolio to end the mental health crisis . “

Investor interest in psychedelic treatments has grown as the medical community’s interest in these therapies has grown.

Centers for psychedelics and psychology include Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, and the Icahn School of Medicine. Recent studies showing MDMA’s promise in treating post-traumatic stress disorder and the effectiveness of psilocybin, a hallucinogenic chemical found in psychedelic mushrooms, in treating drug-resistant depression have only increased interest in the area.

Angermayer was an early investor in Compass Pathways, and his own company, Atai, serves as the holding company for various psychedelic startups seeking alternative treatments for mental illness. He told CNBC on Friday that new age biotechs are building on centuries of practice in shamanic cultures and religions.

There are currently federal restrictions on psychedelic mushrooms, MDMA – commonly known as molly or ecstasy – and LSD around the world. However, Oregon became the first US state to legalize psychedelics for therapeutic use last year. Washington, DC residents also recently voted to decriminalize the use of psychedelics for medical purposes.

Atai Life Sciences listed on Nasdaq for its IPO on June 18, 2021.

Source: Nasdaq

Angermayer insists that government approval of these drugs for therapeutic purposes for the mentally ill could make a big difference. “They are very, very strong drugs, but they must be taken under supervision. … You will trip while sitting with your therapist.”

Atai Life Sciences are, among others, the billionaire Thiel as well as Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Investments and Angermayer’s own Apeiron Investment Group.

According to venture capital tracker CB Insights, VC deals in psychedelics have grown significantly over the past three years: less than $ 100 million in venture capital was invested in psychedelic startups in 2018 and 2019, but $ 346 million in 2020. By April 2021, VCs had already invested $ 329 million in the industry.

It’s no wonder Atai’s was oversubscribed more than 12 times, according to a market source that asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of the discussion. “A good part was taken over by existing investors,” said the person, adding that Thiel was the largest existing investor and that he would be “doubled” when it went public.

Mutual fund Palo Santo said it made a notable stake in Atai’s initial public offering. “There is an urgent need to address our broken mental health system,” said Daniel Goldberg, co-founder of Palo Santo, in a statement. “We believe psychedelics will expand treatment options and transform the outdated system.”

Atai filed an S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April that showed it raised a total of $ 362.3 million from private investors at the time.

The company, which describes itself as a drug development platform, was founded to acquire, incubate, and develop psychedelics and other drugs used to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental illnesses.

Atai, which employs around 50 people in offices in Berlin, New York and San Diego, currently works with 14 companies focused on drug development and other technologies.

In exchange for a controlling interest in the drugs and technologies they develop, Atai helps scientists raise money, work with regulators, and conduct clinical trials. None of Atai’s drugs have yet been officially approved by regulatory agencies.

Thiel invested $ 11.9 million in Atai in November through his venture firm Thiel Capital.

“Atai’s great virtue is to take mental illness as seriously as we should all have taken illnesses all along,” said Thiel, the co-founder of Palantir and PayPal, in a statement shared with CNBC at the time. “The company’s most valuable asset is its sense of urgency.”

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For a Science Reporter, the Job Was All the time In regards to the Individuals

For a Science Reporter, the Job Was Always About the People

“I would have liked to have lived longer, worked longer,” said Sister Mary Andrew Matesich, a Catholic nun in 2004. But she said, “It is not the hand that has been given to me.”

She had breast cancer that had spread and she had volunteered for experimental treatments knowing they probably wouldn’t save her but hoping the research would help other patients.

“I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for other women in clinical trials,” she said.

She died about a year after our conversation. She was 66.

In 22 years of writing medicine for the New York Times, I have covered births, deaths, illnesses, new treatments that worked and some failed, bold innovations in surgery, and countless studies in medical journals. The goal has always been to provide clear information that is useful and interesting to readers, and to show the human side of what the message could mean to patients. When reporting on Covid last year, the focus of my work was on vaccines and treatments, but also on people with other serious illnesses who missed care because of the pandemic.

Today is my last day as a staff writer at The Times. When I retired, the most vivacious were the people: their faces, their voices, their stories, the unexpected truths they revealed – sometimes after I put my notebook away – that shook me or taught or humiliated me, and about it reminded that this beat is about a lot more than all of the data I’d tried to analyze over the decades. It offers a glimpse into the way disease and injury can shape people’s lives, and the huge differences medical advances can make for those who have access to them.

Many who spoke to me suddenly became what we all fear – patients – and faced difficult situations. Nobody sought attention, but they agreed to interviews in the hopes that their stories might help or encourage other people.

Tom and Kari Whitehead invited me to their home in 2012 to meet their daughter Emily, then 7, who was near death from leukemia while they were playing an experimental treatment that genetically altered some of her cells. She was the first child to have it. When we visited seven months after her treatment, she did somersaults and adorned the family’s Christmas tree with a naked Barbie doll. Emily is now 16 years old and the treatment she received was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017.

Daily business briefing

Updated

June 17, 2021 at 1:52 p.m. ET

Other stories were painfully instructive. One woman described her painful, aggressive cancer caused by a sexually transmitted virus, but had to omit her name because she believed her mother-in-law would call her a “slut” when she was diagnosed.

A young former Marine with a brain injury and severe facial damage from a bomb in Iraq said he had a girlfriend prior to his deployment and they were discussing marriage when he returned. “But I didn’t come back,” he said.

Moments of kindness and wisdom also stand out. A doctor who suggested that a little extra time for a cancer patient could mean being there for a wedding or graduation forever tempered my science writer’s cynicism about treatments that could only add months to a person’s life.

In the middle of the night, I accompanied a transplant team who, with the consent of the parents, were to harvest organs from a young woman who was brain dead from an overdose. Team members slipped into a waiting room, taking special care not to allow relatives to see the ice boxes that would carry the young woman’s organs, including her heart.

Looking for help with an article in January, I told Dr. James Bussel, a blood disorders expert at Weill Cornell Medicine, told of a woman who had developed a severe bleeding problem after receiving a Covid vaccination. He surprised me by asking for the family phone number so he could offer his help. Under the direction of Dr. Bussel, the woman’s doctors changed her treatment, a change of course that the patient believes saved her life. Since then, Dr. Bussel has provided similar assistance in about 30 to 40 other cases of this rare condition across the country.

When I asked why he was ready to get involved, he said he became a doctor to help people, adding, “I feel like I have this expertise and it would be stupid to waste it, if I could contribute and help someone. “

In a lesser way, I had similar aspirations. I’ve had an opportunity to do work that I believe is valuable and that I hoped could do something good. Reporting for The Times was a license to meet fascinating people and ask them endless questions. I owe my thanks to everyone who took the time to speak to me, and I hope I lived up to their stories.

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5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Friday, June 18

5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday, June 18

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

1. Dow tracks for first five-session losing streak since January

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange.

Source: NYSE

U.S. stock futures fell sharply Friday as the Dow looked to be set up for its first five-session losing streak since January. Dow futures sank 300 points. Thursday was the second 200-point-plus down day in a row following the Federal Reserve meeting. As of Thursday’s close, the 30-stock average was off nearly 2% for the week. The S&P 500, tracking for a more modest weekly decline, fell Thursday for the third straight session. The Nasdaq bucked Thursday’s down trend, adding nearly 0.9% and breaking a two-session losing streak. The Nasdaq was within just 13 points of Monday’s record close. The S&P 500 was less than 1% from its record close Monday. The Dow was more than 2.7% from its latest record close in early May.

2. 10-year yield continues to bounce around after Fed-driven spike

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington, December 1, 2020.

Al Drago | Pool | Reuters

The 10-year Treasury yield to fluctuate after Wednesday’s Fed-driven spike to nearly 1.6%, trading Friday around 1.5%. Yields drifted lower despite rising inflation expectations from the Fed. The central bank on Wednesday afternoon also signaled two interest rate hikes in 2023. In March, policymakers said they saw no increases until at least 2024. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has said he’s willing to let inflation run above the Fed’s traditional 2% target rate before adjusting policy in order to allow the economy more room to recover from the depths of the Covid pandemic.

3. Many commodities bounce one day after falling sharply

Many commodities bounced Friday, one day after falling sharply as China started to take steps to cool off rising prices. Those declines cut into months of gains and weighed on stocks. On Thursday, the drops in commodities were widespread, with platinum futures falling more than 11%, along with declines of nearly 6% in corn futures and 4.8% in copper futures.

A Chinese government agency announced a plan Wednesday to release some of its reserves of key metals. Commodities often move inversely to the dollar since they are mostly priced globally in the U.S. currency, which has been strengthening since this week’s Fed decisions.

4. Warnings about Covid from U.K. study and England’s top medical officer

Paramedics arrive with a patient with Covid-19 at the emergency department of Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California.

Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A new U.K. study examined brain imaging before and after coronavirus infections and looked specifically at the potential effect on the nervous system. “In short, the study suggests that there could be some long-term loss of brain tissue from Covid, and that would have some long-term consequences,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.” The destruction of brain tissue could explain why Covid patients lost their sense of smell, he said.

Hounslow, London, which has become one of the U.K.’s biggest hotspots for the variant of coronavirus first identified in India, on Thursday 27th May 2021.

Tejas Sandhu | MI News | NurPhoto | Getty Images

England’s top medical officer warned it would likely take five years before new Covid vaccines could “hold the line” to a very large degree against a range of coronavirus variants. Until then, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said, new vaccination programs and booster shots would be needed. A further easing of lockdown restrictions in England was delayed this week due to a surge in cases of the delta variant first discovered in India.

5. Biden signs a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday

U.S. President Joe Biden is applauded as he reaches for a pen to sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law as Vice President Kamala Harris stands by in the East Room of the White House in Washington, June 17, 2021.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Most federal workers will observe Juneteenth on Friday because the new holiday marking the end of slavery in the U.S. falls on a Saturday this year. The New York Stock Exchange will not close for Juneteenth but will evaluate closing for it in 2022. On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed a bill establishing Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, as the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived Galveston, Texas, and officially ended slavery in the state. It happened more than two years after then-President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

— Follow all the market action like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest on the pandemic with CNBC’s coronavirus coverage.

Disclosure: Dr. Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, health-care tech company Aetion and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings′ and Royal Caribbean’s “Healthy Sail Panel.”

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Health

Taiwan Orders Some Tech Employees to Keep Indoors to Sort out an Outbreak

Taiwan Orders Some Tech Workers to Stay Indoors to Tackle an Outbreak

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Officials in a county in Taiwan face a storm of criticism after banning foreign workers from going outside to eradicate a cluster of coronavirus infections among workers at several technology manufacturers.

As part of the measures announced by authorities in the central Miaoli district last week, thousands of migrant workers, mostly from Vietnam and the Philippines, will be prevented from leaving their dormitories except to travel to and from their jobs in high-tech factories. Some workers expressed concerns that conditions in the cramped dormitories, where up to six people share a room, could further spread the virus.

Other workers who were in close contact with infected colleagues were confiscated in quarantine centers. In some of these facilities, activists said workers were served spoiled food or lack of running water.

The officials did not say how long the restrictions apply. At a press conference last week, Miaoli County Magistrate Hsu Yao-chang denied complaints from migrant workers.

“They tested positive and even died from the virus,” he said. “Why talk about human rights now?”

On Friday, Miaoli County reported 26 new infections, mostly among migrant workers, bringing the total number of confirmed cases related to the factories to more than 450, according to the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. More than 300 packages were found at the hardest hit company, King Yuan Electronics, a semiconductor chip testing and packaging company.

Some workers said they understood the reasons for the restrictions, but argued that they were selecting foreign workers. Taiwanese workers, most of whom work as managers and supervisors in the factories, were allowed to come and go as they pleased, many foreign workers said.

“This is discrimination,” said John Ray Tallud, 29, a Filipino equipment engineer with King Yuan Electronics, in a telephone interview from his dormitory. “Local Taiwanese can go outside anytime.”

Throughout the pandemic, migrant workers were among the most vulnerable groups in the world. Singapore banned hundreds of thousands of low-paid foreign workers from leaving their dormitories for months after the major outbreaks last year. Rural laborers in the United States were considered indispensable and continued to work shoulder to shoulder in the fields, although many became infected.

Until recently, Taiwan was an exception – a covid-free island for most of the pandemic, with tight border controls making it difficult for companies to accept more migrant workers. As a result, union activists say the existing migrant workers – more than 700,000 workers, most from Southeast Asian countries – have gained bargaining power with their employers.

That changed with the recent outbreak. Advocates of migrant workers have criticized the Miaoli government for creating further fear and stigmatization of foreign workers. Many said the order exposed longstanding discrimination against workers who have become a vital, if largely invisible, pillar of the Taiwanese economy – especially its important high-tech industries.

“This is a clear case of injustice,” said Chang Cheng, founder of 4-Way Voice, a multilingual publication for migrant workers in Taiwan. “If we talk about Taiwan’s main industries, they couldn’t survive without these foreign workers.”

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Health

U.S. officers push for extra Covid vaccinations as delta variant features

U.S. officials push for more Covid vaccinations as delta variant gains

Travelers view Covid-19 results after being tested at JFK International Airport in New York on December 22, 2020.

Hit by Betancur | AFP | Getty Images

Federal health officials continue to urge more Americans to get vaccinated as the Delta variant accounts for a larger proportion of new cases in the United States.

“You need to get vaccinated to be protected from Covid-19, the Delta variant and any other variant that might come on the way,” said Jeffrey Zients, White House coordinator of the coronavirus response, Thursday.

The variant, first discovered by scientists in India, has now spread to more than 80 countries and accounts for more than 10% of new cases in the US, up from 6% last week.

“If you are vaccinated, you are protected, and if not, the threat of variants is real and growing,” said US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy in the briefing on Thursday after explaining that the Delta variant “is significantly more transferable and can be more dangerous than previous variants.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently identified the Delta variant as a variant of concern “based on increasing evidence that the Delta variant spreads more easily and compared to other variants, including B.1.1.7 (Alpha) causing more severe cases. “

New cases and deaths are falling dramatically in the United States thanks to generally successful vaccination campaigns in many states. Some parts of the country are still seeing spikes in cases and hospital admissions.

“We see that communities with the highest vaccination rates have lower new cases and hospital admissions, and communities with the lowest vaccination rates have higher new cases and hospital admissions,” Zients said.

In the UK, the Delta variant recently became the dominant strain there, outperforming its native alpha variant, which was first discovered in the country last fall. The Delta variant now accounts for more than 60% of new cases in the UK

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said last week that “we cannot allow this to happen in the United States” when he urged more people, especially young adults, to be vaccinated.