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Today, the world is learning its limitations in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the most important lesson is that a key strategy we banked on to defeat the virus — herd immunity — appears unobtainable. (Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein, 7/25)

The World Health Organization had a hard time deciding whether to label monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) or not. (Therese Raphael, 7/26)

America is in the midst of a women's health crisis. From the ongoing gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the loss of abortion rights to rising maternal mortality numbers—the highest amongst industrialized nations—women in the world's richest democracy are fighting for our lives. (Anushay Hossain, 7/25)

When Americans used to imagine life post-Roe, many seemed to believe that at the very least the country would agree on one thing: the need for an exception to save a woman’s life. These exceptions enjoy sweeping public support; a recent Pew Research Center poll found that 73 percent of Americans favored legal abortion if a woman’s life or health was at risk. Only 8 percent of respondents favored no exception whatsoever to criminal abortion laws. (Mary Ziegler, 7/25)

You’ve got to hand it to anti-abortion activists in the Republican party and the Supreme Court justices now doing their bidding. At least they’re being consistent. If we grant that a newly-fertilized human ovum is a “person,” killing or otherwise terminating that life is indeed murder. And the fact that this potential human being was conceived through rape or incest does not mitigate the crime. It’s not the fault of the fertilized ovum that a drunken uncle brought it into existence. Even a 10-year-old rape victim must not be allowed to abort the person criminally implanted within her, right? (Mark Haskett, 7/24)

President Joe Biden's Veterans Administration (VA) annual budget requests have increased by double-digit percentages—positive steps to take care of the nation's nearly 20 million veterans. The VA's request for Fiscal Year 2022 was roughly $270 billion, up 10 percent from 2021. For Fiscal Year 2023, it is $301 billion. (Sergio De La Pena, 7/25)