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Idaho’s new “abortion trafficking” bill, passed earlier this month, criminalizes helping a pregnant minor travel to get an abortion or obtain abortion pills out of state without parental consent, and creates a right to sue doctors who perform abortions for those minors, even if those doctors live and work in a state where abortion is legal. (Mary Ziegler, 4/28)

Among the dubious points that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk makes in his recent ruling suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of mifepristone is that abortion is part of the now-reviled practice of eugenics. (Carla Hall, 5/1)

When the coronavirus took off in 2020, the unknowns were immense, as was the urgency. It was clear that the virus was novel, that it was spreading widely and that it was killing many of the people it infected. And there was no vaccine or proven drug treatment. This was the context in which states first mandated masks, issued stay-at-home orders and closed schools, among other measures — an emergency. (Jennifer B. Nuzzo, 4/30)

Scientists are starting to get a better picture of the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in China. To better understand this pandemic and prevent the next one, it matters not just how and where the virus jumped to humans but when. But information is scarce, in part because it seems the Chinese government has been withholding crucial data on early cases that could fill in the timeline. (Faye Flam, 4/29)

Unfortunately, nearly all states have stopped frequent public reporting of new cases and deaths, making it difficult to enable us to see how the virus is trending. And the widespread use of at-home tests has meant that most positive results almost never get recorded in public health databases, making it virtually impossible to detect and monitor outbreaks in a timely way. (Beth Blauer, Lauren Gardner, Sheri Lewis and Lainie Rutkow, 4/30)

Loneliness and isolation hurt whole communities. Social disconnection is associated with reduced productivity in the workplace, worse performance in school, and diminished civic engagement. When we are less invested in one another, we are more susceptible to polarization and less able to pull together to face the challenges that we cannot solve alone — from climate change and gun violence to economic inequality and future pandemics. As it has built for decades, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation has fueled other problems that are killing us and threaten to rip our country apart. (Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, 4/30)

Federal support for science traditionally backs incremental, hypothesis-driven research, while private-sector business plans demand a solid return on investment in a reasonable time frame. Lost in the middle are promising research efforts that lack funding or a champion to turn an idea into a life-saving breakthrough. (4/30)