Sarah Zhang
staff writer , eukaryote // email: [email protected]
Last synced from Twitter 1267d ago
The Vaccine News That Really Matters
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 92d 9 tweets
Soon COVID-19 vaccine makers will release early data from large clinical trials, and the results could be ambiguous.
7
Sarah Zhang I wrote about what to expect from vaccine trials over the next couple of months. A guide to making sense of the drip drip of incremental news 92d
Who Knew a Space Toilet Could Mean So Much?
Marina Koren - The Atlantic 99d 6 tweets
NASA’s new lavatory is a symbol of the agency’s growing recognition of women astronauts’ needs.
1
Sarah Zhang omg please read on the new space toilet that finally lets astronauts pee and poop at the same time, or as NASA calls it, "perform dual ops" 97d
The President Who Cried ‘Cure’
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 102d 4 tweets
Trump has found his latest silver bullet: antibody therapy.
3
Sarah Zhang Now that hydroxychloroquine clearly doesn't work and vaccines won't be available until after the election, Trump is touting yet another silver bullet: monoclonal antibodies. Here's what we actually know about them and why they will be hard to get 102d
A Photographer Has Spent 20 Years Documenting Stillbirths
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 111d 2 tweets
For grieving families, the photos preserve the only memories they have of their child.
Vaccine Chaos Is Looming
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 113d 19 tweets
The COVID-19 vaccines furthest along in clinical trials are the fastest to make, but they are also the hardest to deploy.
1
Sarah Zhang The COVID-19 vaccine is going to need "the largest, most complex vaccination program ever attempted in history." I wrote about what that's going to look like 113d
Fertility Fraud Lawsuits | IVF Misconduct Lawyers | Peiffer Wolf
Lost Embryos 125d 1 tweets
Fertility Fraud - Rise of Use of Ancestry.com, 23 and Me Home DNA Kits Revealing Widespread Fertility Doctor Abuses
3
Sarah Zhang Two more lawsuits filed against fertility doctors accused of using their own sperm. These are just the tip of the iceberg—many of these cases never become public and/or are settled 125d
Photos of the 1918 Flu Pandemic
The Atlantic 252d 2 tweets
Between 1918 and 1919, an outbreak of influenza spread rapidly across the world, and killed more than 50 million—and possibly as many as 100 million—people within 15 months.
1
Sarah Zhang I keep thinking about this 1918 flu photo essay ran in 2018. I remembered looking at the photos of cloth masks & outdoor classes and thinking, "How quaint!" 126d
One Sperm Donor. 36 Children. A Mess of Lawsuits.
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 130d 3 tweets
Parents thought Donor 9623 was a genius who spoke four languages, not a college dropout with a criminal record.
2
Sarah Zhang What happens if your sperm donor lied? 130d
America Is Facing a Monkey Shortage
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 141d 12 tweets
COVID-19 vaccines need to be tested in primates, but U.S. researchers are scrambling to find enough after China stopped exporting them.
1
Sarah Zhang Back in 2018, scientists discussed a "strategic monkey reserve" for the precise problem of running out of research animals during a pandemic. Well, that never happened 141d
2
Sarah Zhang My latest: The U.S. is running low on monkeys for research. At the same time there has been extraordinary demand for COVID-19 studies, China, a major supplier of monkeys, has shut off all exports 141d
Mask Up and Shut Up
Derek Thompson - The Atlantic 141d 19 tweets
COVID-19 transmission would go down if we spoke less, or less loudly, in public spaces. Why aren’t more people saying so?
1
Sarah Zhang As a quiet talker, I ENDORSE 141d
What the 'Emergency' Blood Plasma Debacle Reveals
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 146d 4 tweets
If the FDA’s emergency authorizations aren’t used responsibly, they could lose their power.
America Has Two Feet. It’s About to Lose One of Them.
Nytimes.com 154d 7 tweets
For decades, U.S. metrologists have juggled two conflicting measurements for the foot. Henceforth, only one shall rule.
1
Sarah Zhang "Occasionally, surveyors must use one foot for horizontal measurements and the other for elevations" 😱 154d
The Coronavirus Is Never Going Away
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 168d 27 tweets
No matter what happens now, the virus will continue to circulate around the world.
4
Sarah Zhang A really fascinating question: There are four coronaviruses in humans that cause the common cold. Could they have also first emerged in a pandemic long ago like COVID-19? 168d
3
Sarah Zhang This coronavirus is probably going to be with us forever now. I wrote about what the future could look like and why it's actually not as dire as it may sound! 168d
1
Sarah Zhang ICYMI, I wrote about why the coronavirus is probably never going away and why that's not as scary as it sounds at first 162d
Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time
Derek Thompson - The Atlantic 176d 63 tweets
Companies are power scrubbing their way to a false sense of security.
2
Sarah Zhang Back in March, I talked to a bunch of companies that do "deep cleanings" and one guy said to me, hey we keep talking about cleaning surfaces but this virus spreads through the air. And here we still are. Read on our coronavirus hygiene theater 176d
A Vaccine Reality Check
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 179d 43 tweets
So much hope is riding on a breakthrough, but a vaccine is only the beginning of the end.
6
Sarah Zhang I know we all want vaccines to bail us out from COVID-19, but so many things still need to go perfectly. I wrote about why a vaccine will not immediately end the pandemic 1/ 179d
The Birdsong That Took Over North America
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 201d 6 tweets
Since 2000, a strange new type of song in white-throated sparrows has spread across the continent at stunning speed.
1
Sarah Zhang Around 2000, scientists first noticed a strange new song among white-throated sparrows in western Canada. Then, they realized it was spreading. This new song type is taking over the entire country! 201d
How a Negative COVID-19 Test Can Mislead
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 212d 7 tweets
We know that people who don’t feel sick can spread COVID-19—but very little about how reliable COVID-19 tests are for these cases.
2
Sarah Zhang We know that people who feel healthy can spread COVID-19. We don't know how how well COVID-19 tests actually work in people who feel healthy. My latest on the dilemma of a negative COVID-19 test 211d
How — and When — Can the Coronavirus Vaccine Become a Reality?
ProPublica 216d 15 tweets
It is likely we’ll eventually have a coronavirus vaccine — but perhaps not as quickly as some expect. From development, to clinical trials and distribution, ProPublica reporter Caroline Chen explains the tremendous challenges that lie ahead.
1
Sarah Zhang An extremely helpful primer on what to expect from a COVID-19 vaccine, by 216d
The Pandemic Broke End-of-Life Care
Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic 217d 6 tweets
In a Boston ICU, staff members orchestrate goodbyes over Zoom and comfort patients who would otherwise die alone.
1
Sarah Zhang This small detail about the iPads for families to say goodbye to dying patients gutted me. It's so hard to hold the plastic-wrapped iPad so that everything is in the camera frame. An intimate and sacred moment, made almost absurd by tech difficulties. 217d
4
Sarah Zhang Ever since the pandemic began, I've been haunted by stories of coronavirus patients dying alone. I spoke to a palliative care team caring for these patients in a Boston ICU. They were often the last ones—the only ones—in the room when a patient died. 217d
1
Sarah Zhang Over and over again, the caregivers I interviewed talked about conversations with the children of patients, who felt horribly guilty about giving COVID-19 to their parents who were now dying. 216d
One Biscuit, a Billion Stories
The Atlantic 221d 12 tweets
Tracking India’s lockdown through the country’s favorite comfort food
1
Sarah Zhang This story is really worth reading—it's about a biscuit but also so much more 218d