This Issue Requires Volume

Today, I’m trading the written word for the spoken one. Because when Jessica Yellin invites you onto News Not Noise, you just play that!

Jess and I have known each other for decades. We went to high school and college together, and spent many a holiday at one another’s homes. If you love her energy, join her community here. And now, for some more news not noise about COVID and not-COVID.

• Breaking news! Vaccinated folks can go maskless pretty much everywhere.

• The Daily took a deep dive into the elusiveness of herd immunity…

• …while the CDC took hits for being so slow to update messaging.

• The definitions of outdoors and indoors matter, which is why word choice is messing with COVID transmission data.

• This is ironic: anti-maskers turned anti-vaxxers are victims of their own bad info but are now willing to wear masks.

• Eating disorders of all sorts spiked during the pandemic, involving both weight loss and rapid weight gain among kids.

• The intersection of food supply and climate change has made headlines (again).

• Does a new approach to food allergies foresee a comeback for peanut butter in school lunches?

• And for even more on food links today, could fasting diets harm future generations?

• If you’ve ever wondered about the science of anesthesia, then here you go!

• Gender-affirming healthcare sits on the brink of criminalization and the doctors who provide it could go to jail.

• How many friends can any one person really have? The answer seems to be changing.

• Tiktok is a lot of things, but a place for reading college essays? Yes. And this essay is AMAZING.

And in case you haven’t gotten 300 news alerts about this yesterday, kids down to age 12 can now get Pfizer’s COVID vaccine! But…