�������ýҕ�l

For the immunocompromised, for instance, whose bodies have a tougher time responding to vaccines, additional doses are meant to generate protection that might have been mostly absent before; the CDC doesn’t even call these jabs “boosters” at all. The booster-made gains in protection can also be big for the oldest among us. This group started out at higher risk of getting severe COVID-19, and for them, post-vaccination protection against infection of all flavors seems to be on a bit of a decline. More shots can shore up those defenses—that’s what I’m hoping a booster will do for my mother, whose age and health conditions put her at high risk. (Wu, 11/3)

Around the world and in a few laboratories at Stanford and other major Bay Area research centers, scientists are working on what could be the next generation of COVID vaccines, many of them designed to be inhaled through the nose and from there to mount a frontline immune barrier. The ultimate goal is what’s known as sterilizing immunity: protection so fast and so strong that it blocks the virus before it can cause infection. That level of immunity, or something close to it, would prevent almost all post-vaccination breakthrough cases, and make it virtually impossible for vaccinated people to spread the virus to others. Widely deployed, it would end the pandemic. (Allday, 10/31)

Wearing a mask in situations with high Covid-19 risk makes medical sense. But what about covering up your face just because you’re embarrassed to show it? With the transition to a post-pandemic world, some mental-health specialists worry about people who may have grown dependent on masks to shield themselves from human connection. If it gets serious enough, the dependency amounts to a form of social-anxiety disorder, they say. (Inada, 10/31)

One morning last month, Eunice Korsah, a retired nurse in Burke, Va., spent about half an hour on the phone being guided through the complexities of various plans for Medicare Part D, which covers prescription drugs. Her current drug plan was being discontinued and the insurer wanted to move her into one with sharply higher premiums. “I decided, ‘No way,’” she said. But what to replace it with? She looked at the Medicare website for Part D plans available in Fairfax County and found 23, with monthly premiums ranging from $7.10 to $97.30. “There are so many choices, so I wanted someone to clarify them for me,” she said. (Span, 10/30)

London cabbies who drive the city’s iconic black taxis have been required since 1865 to pass a difficult test known as “the Knowledge” to prove that they can find 100,000 businesses and landmarks in a labyrinth of tens of thousands of streets. The series of exams — which take three to four years to complete — have been hailed as possibly the most difficult memorization test in the world. To be fully licensed with a “green badge” to drive anywhere in London, a cabbie needs to know how to plot routes without a GPS on about 26,000 streets spanning a six-mile radius from London’s center point, Charing Cross. But London cabbies’ skills are now being tested for a different reason: to determine whether their brains hold clues that might be applied to Alzheimer’s disease research. (Free, 11/1)

If the public has learned anything about medicine during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is that science is constantly evolving. New findings can change how experts define a given illness, as well as how they diagnose, prevent and treat it. Such is the case, a new study suggests, with chronic kidney disease. A growing cadre of physicians are combating what they call an over-diagnosis of this condition in the elderly. According to these doctors, many older adults who’ve been told their kidneys are on the road to failure may not have anything more than a normal age-related decline in kidney function. For many, their kidney disease is unlikely to become a medical problem during their remaining years of life. (Brody, 11/1)

Sometimes the worst thing you can say to a person who’s feeling bad is: “Cheer up!” Chip Hooley learned this the hard way. At the beginning of the pandemic, his daughter, Hilary, called him in a panic. She and her husband had recently purchased an apartment in Brooklyn. Now, she was worried that real-estate prices in New York were falling and her friends were leaving the city. (Bernstein, 11/2)

Daylight-saving time ends Sunday, and the bonus hour when the clock turns back can bring more than extra sleep. For those still chasing the goal of becoming a morning person, the annual change can be a good time for a reset. The transition from daylight-saving time can help us recommit to better habits around sleeping and wellness, says Beth Malow, professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. “You can use it to your advantage,” says Dr. Malow. Here’s how to win the transition. (Dizik, 11/1)

To the relief of many Americans, the period of daylight saving time is finally coming to a close. Sunday, people living in states that follow this practice will set their clocks back, gaining the hour of sleep they lost in the spring. For most of the U.S., daylight saving time starts at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends on the same time on the first Sunday of November. The Department of Transportation, which is in charge of daylight saving time (DST), says the practice saves energy, prevents traffic accidents and reduces crime. Sleep experts say the health consequences of losing sleep from daylight saving outweigh its value. (Rodriguez, 11/1)