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Scientists are skilled at tackling unexpected problems that threaten the integrity of their experiments — it comes with the territory. But the coronavirus pandemic poses a new — and entirely unprecedented — challenge. The global health emergency has shut down scientific research labs across the country in a crisis that has left some scientists scrambling to save their work — and has left others grieving the loss of experiments they had dedicated months or even years to carrying out. Many are grappling with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about how they’ll continue their work. (Chen, 5/4)

Government officials and researchers are warning world leaders not to lose focus on global security threats as extremist groups and terrorist organizations exploit the coronavirus pandemic to increase their operations. Top lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic and the European Union’s anti-terrorism chief have issued warnings in recent days that bad actors are threatening global security and growing their influence as countries address the impacts of the pandemic. The increased warnings come as governments, including the U.S., will have to balance their national security budgets as they pour resources into reviving their economies and into public health. (Kelly, 5/3)

People dying of Covid-19 could have expected to live on average for at least another decade, according to two studies that help fill in the developing picture of the human cost of the coronavirus pandemic. The findings show the virus isn’t just carrying off the elderly or infirm a few months before their time. “Some people think that these people dying would have died this year anyway,” said Andrew Briggs, a professor of health economics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led one of the studies. “That’s simply not the case.” (Douglas and Michaels, 5/2)

When all this started — when the coronavirus began stalking humanity like an animal hunting prey, when she and her husband lost their restaurant jobs overnight as the world shut down to hide, when she feared not being able to feed her family — Janeth went outside with a red kitchen towel. It was Passover. Her pastor had told her about the roots of the Jewish holiday, about Israelites smearing a lamb’s blood on their doors as a sign for the plagues to pass them by. So Janeth, an immigrant from Honduras, reached up to hang the red towel over the door of her family’s apartment on the edge of the nation’s capital. It was close enough, she figured, “to show the angel of death to pass over our home.” (Knickmeyer and Martin, 5/4)

As it became clear in March that the coronavirus was tearing through the U.S., federal health officials and cancer societies urged Americans to delay their routine mammograms and colonoscopies. The public has heeded those recommendations — and that’s helped lead to an apocalyptic drop in cancer screenings, according to a white paper released Monday by the electronic medical records vendor Epic. (Robbins, 5/4)

On the good days, Bonnie Reed believes that, for the first time in a long time, just about everyone is united in a common cause: to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens against the coronavirus. On the bad days, the Sherman Oaks senior is stunned by the carelessness she sees around her. She sees it in the unmasked young people who saunter toward her and her husband, Alton, with little regard for social distancing. She sees it in the decisions of some governors to reopen economies despite dire warnings from public health officials. (Newberry, 5/1)

Kaiser Health News: Always The Bridesmaid, Public Health Rarely Spotlighted Until It’s Too Late

The U.S. is in the midst of both a public health crisis and a health care crisis. Yet most people aren’t aware these are two distinct things. And the response for each is going to be crucial. If you’re not a health professional of some stripe, you might not realize that the nation’s public health system operates in large part separately from the system that provides most people’s medical care. (Rovner, 5/4)

An ingredient found in everyday cold medicine appears to promote infection from the coronavirus, according to a new lab study looking at the impact of over-the-counter and prescription drugs on the coronavirus, led by virus experts at UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes. Researchers found that dextromethorphan — found in most over-the-counter cough syrups tablets and gel capsules — caused SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to grow more in a lab setting. (Stark, 4/30)

On a good day, New York City is awash in its neuroses, a tightly wound place where a wide assortment of sky-scraping anxieties can build to an almost comic crescendo. But with the coronavirus pandemic grinding on, that angst has reached new heights. Many New Yorkers are cloistered in their homes, often jammed tight with family or roommates; others must report to work in a contaminated city. They are dealing with isolation and fear; some have lost their jobs. Others are sick or in grief. It can be overwhelming, even for the mental health professionals tasked with easing such problems. (Nir, 5/3)

It was after midnight when Leslie Rowe woke up on April 11. Her 9-year-old son, Zaiden, was in tears, saying he had an intense pain in his groin. At any other time, said Rowe, who lives in Collierville, Tennessee, she would have headed straight to the emergency room. "He was crying, he was in pain," Rowe said. "I was scared." (Smith, 5/4)

The coronavirus shutdowns are giving scientists an opportunity they never thought they would have: to see what would happen to the planet if the world’s economy went on hiatus. The result has been drops in air pollutants to levels not seen in at least 70 years, easier breathing for people with respiratory ailments and consistently clear views of landmarks often obscured by smog, such as the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles and the Manhattan skyline. (Carlton, 5/3)