The Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of America’s most notorious vaccine skeptics, to run the country’s leading health agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on Thursday, sparking outrage among public health experts who worry that Kennedy will harm public health and further erode trust in science and medicine. “I think it’s a sad day for America’s children. I think it’s a sad day for public health when someone who is a science denialist, conspiracy theorist, and virulent anti-vaccine activist is [leading] the biggest public health agency in the United States,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who has served on vaccine advisory committees for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “I think every Senator who voted for his confirmation should be ashamed of themselves for their unwillingness to stand up for the health of the American public.” Kennedy, 71, was one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees. For years, Kennedy has spread medical disinformation, enraging experts in the field. He’s repeated the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism—even though research overwhelmingly proves that vaccines are both safe and effective—and has made controversial statements about raw milk and fluoride in water. During his confirmation hearings, he faced heated questioning by Senators over his anti-vaccine views, flip-flopping stance on abortion, and previous support for some conspiracy theories, such as his assertions that Lyme Disease and COVID-19 were engineered bioweapons. He appeared unfamiliar with certain issues he would oversee as the head of HHS, at times seemingly confusing Medicaid and Medicare. All the same, Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 52 to 48, with Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—a polio survivor—the only Republican who voted against his confirmation. Read More: RFK Jr. Outlines His Health Secretary Priorities in Post-Confirmation Interview With Fox News Public health experts first sounded the alarm when Trump announced Kennedy as his nominee to lead HHS back in November. As head of HHS, Kennedy will oversee health agencies like the CDC and the FDA. At the forefront of experts’ concern is the influence Kennedy would have over vaccines. Kennedy tried to distance himself from his previous anti-vaccine statements during his confirmation hearings, saying that he’s not “anti-vaccine” but “pro-safety,” and he has said that he and the Trump Administration wouldn’t take vaccines off the market. But experts cast doubt on whether the Administration would hold true to that statement, and many worry that Kennedy could appoint people to agencies like the FDA and CDC who could impede or revoke vaccine approvals, not only limiting access to but also sowing distrust in a powerful public health tool. Dr. Rob Davidson is an emergency physician in Michigan and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, which had circulated a petition garnering more than 22,000 signatures from physicians calling on the Senate to reject Kennedy. Davidson says he worries about how Kennedy will respond to emerging diseases, such as H5N1, more commonly known as bird flu. In addition to his anti-vaccine rhetoric, Kennedy has previously suggested putting a pause on infectious disease research, sparking backlash from many public health experts. “He’s just a dangerous individual when it comes to public health,” Davidson says. “It’s dangerous to have a guy who’s led [the vaccine skepticism] movement being the head of this agency, the mouthpiece of the U.S. government when it comes to public health. So that is truly terrifying.” “I think a lot of lives are at risk potentially because of this person running this agency,” Davidson continues. Read More: RFK Jr. Denied He Is Anti-Vaccine During His Confirmation Hearing. Here’s His Record Experts are also concerned about the actions Kennedy could take on abortion. Kennedy, who had previously expressed support for people’s right to choose, has since shared anti-abortion statements, saying during his confirmation hearings that he agrees with Trump “that every abortion is a tragedy” and abortion policy should be left up to individual states. During the hearings, Kennedy was asked about the abortion medication mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA for abortion purposes more than twenty years ago but has recently been unsuccessfully challenged in court by a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations. Kennedy gave vague answers when asked about the drug, saying that Trump asked him “to study the safety of mifepristone” and that the President “has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it.” Davidson worries that, under Kennedy’s leadership, HHS and the FDA could make mifepristone less available or accessible. Read More: The Powers Trump’s Nominees Will Have Over Abortion The one area in which Kennedy has garnered some favor among health experts is his stance on food and nutrition. Kennedy has shared a plan to “Make America Healthy Again,” in which he vows to “ban the hundreds of food additives and chemicals that other countries have already prohibited” and “change regulations, research topics, and subsidies to reduce the dominance of ultra-processed food.” Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, says he thinks Kennedy and the Trump Administration “have a chance to really coalesce around the top crisis facing our country, which is food-related chronic conditions.” While he hopes that Kennedy will focus on addressing this issue and turn away from his more controversial statements on vaccines, Mozaffarian says he was disappointed by Kennedy’s responses to questions over his anti-vaccine rhetoric during his confirmation hearings. “I think he had a chance there to put that controversy to rest and show he’s going to really focus on where the consensus is, which is that our food system is broken,” Mozaffarian says. Many health experts are skeptical that Kennedy will actually take meaningful steps on food and nutrition. “It is absolutely eclipsed by his other controversial views,” Davidson says of Kennedy’s stance on food. “The danger of him is so much greater than any potential benefit of those views.” Experts worry that Kennedy could exacerbate public distrust in science and medicine, and many say that his confirmation and the support he’s received is already a concerning sign of that. “I think today really is a marker in the road, marking growing mistrust in institutions, marking power of changing information landscape, but most prominently, the marker that the lines between truth and falsehoods are blurred and how we navigate this new world is going to require a different approach,” says Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and founder of the newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist. “What I’m most concerned about is the rhetoric and the sowing of doubt and the confusion … that we’re all going to be facing

Despite the Trump Administration’s talk of a drop in egg prices, everyday consumers are still feeling the pressure on their wallets. The retail price of eggs remained elevated and continued to rise in March, increasing by nearly 6% to $6.23 a dozen, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s more than double the retail price of eggs in March 2024, when eggs cost $2.99 a dozen. So, what exactly is causing the egg shortage and rising prices? The pandemic and inflation has contributed to the overall rise in the price of groceries. But the shell-shocking price of eggs has reached record highs in recent months, due to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (also known as bird flu) outbreaks. More than 23 million birds were affected by bird flu in January, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Infected birds have to be depopulated, contributing to the national egg shortage. “It will take time to replace the hens and restore normalcy,” Mike Walden, an economist at North Carolina State University, tells TIME. “There has been an increase in egg imports and federal help to increase hens. All this will take time, so my best recommendation for the consumer is to buy fewer eggs and use other sources of protein.” Read More: 8 Surprising—and Healthy—Egg Replacements USDA data indicates that the number of flocks, and therefore birds, that have been affected by the avian flu has substantially decreased over the last few months. In March, some 2 million birds were culled as a result of contracting the disease. The widespread bird flu first affected livestock on U.S. turkey farms in 2020, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By 2024, the H5N1 strain of the virus began to impact goat kids and dairy cows. The first-ever reported cow-to-human spread of the avian influenza virus was also recorded last April. Amid the shortage upset, the U.S. has sought to import eggs from Turkey and South Korea to meet demand and lower egg prices. “When our chicken populations are repopulated, and we’ve got a full egg laying industry going again, hopefully in a couple of months, we then shift back to our internal egg layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in March. Local officials have also been attempting to keep egg prices at bay. Beginning on Feb. 20, the Nevada Department of Agriculture temporarily suspended a previous state law requiring eggs to be cage-free—eggs that come from hens that do not live in cages. The agency also allowed for the sale of Grade B quality eggs, which are a lower quality than Grade A eggs and are typically used to make frozen and dried egg products. American restaurant chain Waffle House announced they would be adding a 50-cent per egg surcharge to orders due to the egg shortage and rise in prices. "While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” Waffle House said in a Feb. 4 statement to the Associated Press. Now, marketers are working to meet the usual demand around Easter, when families often dye and paint eggs, or hide them for a holiday hunt. “Retail demand is limited in the near-term which has provided grocers with an opportunity to overcome the shell egg shortages that plagued the marketplace earlier in the year and prices at retail are gradually adjusting downward in many parts of the country,” USDA said in its weekly egg markets overview published on April 4. Generally, egg supply has improved at local grocery stores, the market report confirmed. Still, February marked the lowest level of egg products stocks in the last decade, according to USDA. According to David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, who spoke to the New York Times, although wholesale prices have decreased, it could take weeks for that to be reflected in retail prices. “All indications are that there’s some relief coming for consumers,” he is quoted as saying, but “even then, there are a lot of other factors that determine the price of eggs.

Mental-health lingo has peppered conversations for years. Look no further than “gaslighting,” which ushered in a new era of therapy-speak, and its counterparts “trauma,” “toxic,” and “triggered”—all generally used in oversimplified or inaccurate ways. Perhaps you’ve noticed a newer addition while scrolling social media: “overstimulated.” Across the internet, people are reporting being overstimulated by fresh photos of their favorite celeb, weekends packed full of plans, grocery stores loaded with too many choices, and the exhausting demands of new parenthood. “I think people mean that there's too many things going on at once, and they feel overloaded by it—like task paralysis for your senses,” says Dr. Jessi Gold, chief wellness officer for the University of Tennessee System. “It resonates, and it sticks. It becomes almost like a slang word.” Yet experts say that most of the time, people aren’t experiencing true overstimulation, but something else. What it really feels like to be overstimulated In clinical terms, overstimulation—or sensory overload—means your brain is unable to process all the sensory information it’s receiving. That could include loud noises, bright lights, strong smells, unexpected physical contact, or being around too many people in a small space. “You’re experiencing sensations, and you feel them more than they actually are,” says Naomi Torres-Mackie, a psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and head of research at the nonprofit Mental Health Coalition. That makes it different from overwhelm, which is an emotional reaction caused by stress or anxiety—like when your responsibilities exceed your capacity—and isn’t necessarily tied to sensory input. Though anyone can experience overstimulation, it’s particularly common among those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia, she adds. Imagine you’re body-to-body with strangers on a subway car, for example. While many people would find the experience unpleasant, they’d be able to stick it out until they reached their destination. Those experiencing true sensory overload, on the other, might need to exit sooner than planned. “For somebody with PTSD, ADHD, or ASD, it would feel intolerable,” Torres-Mackie says. “You might feel the need to escape or flee; you might feel restless, like you just cannot calm down; you might have feelings of anxiety. You might experience a panic attack, or feel agitated or angry or rageful, and become highly emotionally reactive.” Read More: 4 Signs Your Body Is Telling You It’s Time to Take a Break That's because your nerves are on edge, she says; if you're overstimulated, you feel unsafe and, as a result, react strongly. Some people also report physical symptoms, like lightheadedness, headaches, muscle tension, and heart palpitations. Exactly what triggers sensory overload can vary depending on a person’s underlying mental-health condition. People with PTSD, ASD, ADHD, and anxiety disorders tend to become particularly overstimulated by crowds and loud noises; those with autism are often especially triggered by touch. Schizophrenia can lead to overstimulation around visual and auditory signals: "These can feel so strong and intense that they often get kind of jumbled,” Torres-Mackie says, “and one theory is that’s what leads to hallucinations.” When people have PTSD, meanwhile, their sensory overload is often tied to traumatic experiences. Being around a person who was present when the trauma happened, or who reminds you of the perpetrator, could trigger a feeling of overstimulation, Torres-Mackie says. Certain smells could, too. “We see this a lot around the Fourth of July,” she adds. “The sounds of fireworks can be triggering if you've seen active combat.” Why the term resonates so much Caitlin Slavens, a psychologist specializing in maternal mental health in Alberta, Canada, often hears from overwhelmed moms who are drenched in the sensory bombast of modern parenting: rat-a-tat noise, touch, little sleep, and constant demands. “They describe it as ‘overstimulated’ more than any other word,” she says. The internet has molded sensory overload into a catch-all phrase for parental burnout, frustration, and exhaustion, Slavens says. Are these moms overstimulated in the technical sense? Sometimes. “Other times, they’re overwhelmed, touched-out, or emotionally drained,” she says. “But ‘overstimulated’ seems to be the most straightforward explanation for how it feels when their systems are maxed out.” Read More: Do Less. It's Good for You Torres-Mackie, who runs a group for new parents at Lenox Hill Hospital, also reports hearing “overstimulated” pop up among those adjusting to parenthood. “There’s so much sensory information or sensory experiences all of a sudden that you didn’t have before,” she says. “It can feel overwhelming.” Of course, Torres-Mackie acknowledges, overwhelm isn’t unique to parents: Most people have days when there’s so much going on, they just want to hide under a heavy blanket. “You don't have to be a new parent to feel overwhelmed in a sensory way,” she says. Is it sensory overload or overwhelm? When Torres-Mackie works with clients who describe themselves as overstimulated, she dives into what’s causing those feelings—and how the person’s day-to-day functioning is impacted. “If you’re feeling really inundated with certain tasks and requests at work, and you’re still able to perform, you may be overwhelmed," she says. “But if you completely freeze, and you're not able to perform—maybe you even have a panic attack—then you’re likely overstimulated.” It can be particularly revealing to ask yourself if whatever’s bothering you is uncomfortable or intolerable. If it’s simply uncomfortable, working on finding a way to adapt to it is key, Torres-Mackie says. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be an effective way to overcome a tendency to simply steer clear of your triggers. “Avoiding something that’s uncomfortable often backfires, because you don't build the muscle to deal with it,” she says. “If it feels absolutely intolerable, that's one thing, but if it is somewhat tolerable, I do recommend staying in the discomfort to give yourself the experience of living through it and knowing that you can handle it.” That way, the next time you experience it, you’ll be better equipped with the sense of agency and empowerment you need to persevere, she adds. What to do if you’re overstimulated Many of the same strategies are helpful whether you’re overstimulated or overwhelmed. Here’s what experts recommend. Seek out a soothing space Slavens teaches people to designate a space of their own where they can seek solace in order to feel more regulated. That might mean plopping down on the bed, taking a whiff of a favorite essential oil, or hugging a pillow for a few minutes. “Deep pressure helps calm the nervous system down,” she says. The goal is to “go from being really amped up to calmer than you were.” Try grounding strategies One of the most effective ways to self-soothe is to focus on your five senses. “You’re tapping into the very thing that’s feeling fraught,” Torres-Mackie says. Spend a few minutes noticing what you’re feeling on your body—like the way your fuzzy socks warm your feet—what you see around you, what you hear, and what you taste. Or, you could choose to zero in on just one sense, like scent. When Torres-Mackie is feeling overwhelmed, she lights a woodsy candle that reminds her of happy times. “I also have perfumes I use that are soothing,” she says. If you’re more of a touch person, you might find solace by holding your own hand, or if you find sound calming, you could turn on your favorite relaxing song. Read More: How to Be Mindful if You Hate Meditating Enlist a friend’s support If you’re struggling in a social situation—maybe a loud dinner party or sold-out concert—let a trusted friend know you might need to go somewhere quiet for a few minutes. You could agree on a gesture you’ll make to indicate that you're going to step away and will come back when you feel better, Gold says. Use that time to gather yourself on the fire escape or balcony, or even to spend a few minutes practicing deep-breathing techniques in the bathroom. “And if you can’t come back,” Gold says, “then you’ll try it another day.” Test out noise-canceling headphones Putting on a pair of noise-canceling headphones can help create a quieter environment and reduce stress caused by external noise. If you’re worried you’ll look standoffish if, for example, you wear them at work, let your colleagues know that wearing them allows you to focus better. Talk to a professional Psychotherapy is effective for both overwhelm and sensory overload. Cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy are typically considered the gold standard. Sensory integration therapy is also an option, though it’s most frequently used with children. “Psychodynamic and insight-oriented work can be really effective,” Torres-Mackie says, because these approaches help you figure out how to cope with daily stressors. The most important thing to do, experts agree, is explore what’s going on if you often feel overstimulated. “If you’re really resonating with the word, and want to know what it means about you, you should use that as fuel to go talk to someone,” Gold says. Whether it turns out you’re overwhelmed or overstimulated, it’s possible to achieve both calmness and balance.

Narcissistic personality disorder is relatively rare, affecting just 1-2% of Americans by some estimates. But having some form of a relationship with someone who has narcissism is not uncommon. The disorder—characterized by arrogance, grandiosity, a lack of empathy, exploitativeness, aggression, and a constant need for affirmation and admiration—also has a more alluring side. “We’re attracted to narcissists at first,” says Amy Brunell, professor of psychology at Ohio State University and a prolific researcher of narcissism. “They’re charming, they’re fun, they’re energetic, and then over time, the negative qualities come out more and more.” Brunell wrote a recent scientific article on how to understand narcissism and cope when you’re in a relationship with a narcissist. Here’s what she says you should know about how to navigate those relationships. How can narcissism present? As Brunell describes it, narcissists are “self-centered, they’re entitled, and very often they think the world should revolve around them.” But they don't all present the same way. A large body of work going back decades divides narcissism into three types: agentic narcissism, communal narcissism, and vulnerable narcissism. Of the three, agentic narcissism is the most recognizable—and toxic. Agentic narcissists hold exalted views of themselves, seeing their competence and intelligence as far greater than that of others, Brunell explains. In an effort to maintain that self-image, they will often derogate the talents and temperaments of friends, colleagues, and family members. They are more invested in status and admiration than they are in intimacy. They self-promote tirelessly, harbor grandiose fantasies of their prospects and projects, and often engage in rivalries with people—especially work colleagues—who threaten their sense of primacy. Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang Branded Content Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang By China Daily “Ask these narcissists about themselves [and] they say, ‘Oh yeah, I'm so pro-social and so great,’” says Brunell. “But if you ask their peers about them, they actually see them as being kind of aggressive.” Read More: Gaslighting, Narcissist, and More Psychology Terms You’re Misusing Communal narcissists seek out admiration by being exceedingly—often excessively—caring and helpful, sometimes offering assistance when it’s neither needed nor requested. That kind of other-directedness seems inconsistent with the me-first impulses of narcissism; however, the behavior does not come from a place of genuine altruism, but instead from a need to be loved and admired, Brunell says. “Communal narcissists are self-enhancing,” she says. “They think they’re the most helpful person—that no one can do as much good as they do.” The vulnerable narcissist is the most fragile type. Vulnerable narcissists have none of the overweening self-regard that is the province of the agentic or communal narcissist, Brunell explains; instead, they overcompensate for a deep sense of low self-esteem. Often, they can be socially inhibited, defensive, anxious, and depressed—a painful suite of feelings that they try to battle with egotism, arrogance, defensiveness, and self-centeredness. “Vulnerable narcissists feel bad about themselves,” says Brunell. “They are chronically mad that they’re not getting what they think is due them, so they tend to be more hostile. For a while, I struggled with understanding why vulnerable narcissists are narcissists at all, except they share the core feature of self-centeredness.” What causes narcissism? The roots of narcissism are as varied as the types. Some research, including a 2014 study of twins in China, suggests that genetics may play a role, with both grandiosity and entitlement seeming to be shared more by the twins than by other siblings. Other studies comparing adopted children to biological children point to heritability too, with the biological children exhibiting more of the behavior of their narcissistic parents than adopted children. But the research in this area is not robust. “There is some evidence that narcissism is genetic, though it’s small,” says Brunell. This type of research is also cloudy: “Within families, you’re looking at shared genes, but you’re also looking at behaviors that are learned from generation to generation.” In general, most researchers in the narcissism field lean toward the “nurture” rather than the “nature” school. “It’s pretty easy to answer from the perspective of grandiose narcissism that parents kind of create these little narcissists,” Brunell says. Read More: How to Relax and Unwind Without Drinking Alcohol Too much parental praise, Brunell writes in her new paper, can cause the child to “develop an inflated sense of self as ‘special’ that can only be maintained through continual admiration by others.” The same parenting trait can also give rise to communal narcissism, with exalted children growing up to believe that they are uniquely qualified to serve and save the world. Vulnerable narcissists are created in the opposite way: by parents who dismiss, ignore, or demean. These kinds of starvation rations of parental approval lead the child to look elsewhere for emotional nourishment. “With vulnerable narcissism,” says Brunell, “a lot of times children are criticized harshly, and they start to experience that anger and that rage at not being seen.” Can narcissists change? Narcissism is not typically like other emotional or psychological conditions. The person with a phobia does not want to be terrified of spiders. The person with depression does not want to be so sad. Many narcissists, on the other hand, are sold on the idea of their own uniqueness and often do not want to change, Brunell says—even if they know that their behavior is working against them. “There’s a body of research that suggests that narcissists know that other people find them annoying,” Brunell says. “They know that their reputations aren’t great. But they don’t put that awareness to work and change. They still think it’s the other person’s fault. They think that you’re jealous, that you don’t see how great they are.” Read More: What to Do If Your Doctor Doesn’t Take Your Symptoms Seriously Still, Brunell points out that people with narcissism generally disapprove of narcissistic traits in others—evidence that they are not incapable of recognizing the downsides of the behavior. There's some research that finds narcissism can improve. One 2014 study showed that when people who exhibit agentic narcissism were asked to make and endorse such communal statements as “I am a caring person,” they reported behaving less narcissistically in real-world situations afterwards, though the effect was temporary. The same study showed similar improvement when narcissists were asked to recall a time when they showed concern, love, and acceptance for another person. “The thing is to get them to talk or think more in terms of ‘we,’” says Brunell. How to cope with narcissism in relationships When dealing with a narcissistic parent or partner, it can help to be direct about the changes you’d like to see the person make, Brunell says, but to stress that you’re making that request because that person is important to you. “For a child, if you get a parent angry, they can take away all of your resources,” says Brunell. “I would suggest that rather than necessarily confronting the parent, they can approach them in a way where they say, ‘Mom, I really care about our relationship and making you happy,’ and then try to assert yourself.” In a romantic relationship, it helps to set up clear boundaries for behaviors that will and won’t be tolerated, but those conversations can often end in grief. “Narcissists tend to be highly reactive and tend to play the victim, so they don’t necessarily handle critical feedback well,” Brunell says. “Still, if you couch it in a way that you care about the other person, you can maybe temper the blow a little bit.” Things are trickier with a narcissistic boss, because, like a parent, that person may have the ability to deny you something important—in this case, your job. Here Brunell recommends being mindful of what your goals are in any encounter with a narcissistic boss—what you’re trying to get out of a meeting, say—and not getting distracted or rattled by bad behavior. “Have an agenda for every meeting,” she says. “Know what you need from it, and then set expectations for what you’re going to get and what you’re not going to get.” When to say goodbye Often, the healthiest way to handle a relationship with a narcissist is to leave it, Brunell says. When it comes to a romantic relationship, anything that makes a person feel unsafe—any suggestion at all of violence—requires leaving. Those relationships must end. Short of that, things often depend on how much of an effort the partner without narcissism wants to continue to put in. “If you’ve tried everything there is to try and you're not getting your needs met, if you're chronically feeling torn down and not seen, if you've tried therapy, if you've tried working with your partner, then it may be time to end the relationship,” Brunell says. The stakes aren’t as high in a friendship with a narcissistic, but the same guidelines apply. Read More: How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone Then there is the dilemma that can arise when you have a good job with a bad boss—doing work you love for a manager you loathe. In this case, Brunell recommends assessing whether it’s possible to do the same kind of work elsewhere—possibilities you can explore on your own while continuing to work at your present job—and then grab the opportunity if one presents itself. When people free themselves of these toxic dynamics, they still have some work ahead of them. It’s important, for one thing, not to let someone creep back into your life who you want out. “If the narcissist calls you and you don’t want to take the call, that can be your boundary,” Brunell says. “I think feeling a little bit more empowered to make those decisions for yourself can be really important.” Both during the relationship and after it ends, it’s also important to seek out the validation and emotional support you probably haven’t been getting. Friends, teachers, and mentors can all provide these kinds of resources. The point is to remember your own agency. “Sometimes,” says Brunell, “we feel stuck in situations that we’re not actually stuck in. It just feels that way.”

If your job involves sitting in front of a screen all day, there’s a good chance your eyes are paying the price. After hours of emails, video calls, and spreadsheets, you may be left with symptoms like a headache, dry or uncomfortable eyes, and blurry vision. “It’s an occupational hazard in a digital society,” says Dr. Douglas Wisner, chief of cataract and primary eye care at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. Why do these visual symptoms happen, and are they cause for concern? Here’s what to know. Why does looking at screens cause blurry vision? There are two main reasons, says Amy Watts, director of vision rehabilitation at Massachusetts Eye and Ear hospital. First, you blink much less than normal when you’re focusing on a screen, which dries out the eyes. “Your eyelids are like your windshield wipers on your car. They’re making sure that the surface is smooth and clear,” she says. When you’re not blinking as much, it’s as if raindrops are accumulating on your windshield, making it harder to see. Holiday inbound tourism thrives Branded Content Holiday inbound tourism thrives By China Daily Second, the muscles in your eyes get tired after hours of training your focus on a fixed point. “All of these muscles have to work just perfectly…in order to see clearly,” Watts says. They get tired as the day goes on, and vision slips as a result. These issues can lead to temporarily blurred vision and a range of other symptoms, including headaches as well as redness, itchiness, fatigue, or general discomfort in the eyes. How can I avoid or treat digital eye strain? Taking visual breaks throughout your work day is the most important thing you can do. Experts often suggest following the 20/20/20 rule, which says that every 20 minutes, you should look at least 20 feet into the distance for 20 seconds or longer. But recent research suggests that even the 20/20/20 method may not be enough to avoid digital eye strain, and that longer breaks—say, a five-minute break every hour—may be better. Read More: Are ‘Broken Skin Barriers’ a Real Thing? "Overall, the message is: take a break and don’t focus on a computer screen for eight hours,” Watts says. “It helps to relax your focus and let those muscles take a little break.” (Short breaks are also a great opportunity to get up, stretch, and move, which can improve overall health.) Eye drops can also help counter the dryness that comes from reduced blinking, Watts says. You can use eye drops to treat symptoms you’re already experiencing, but they work best when used preventively. If you know you tend to get blurry vision at the end of the day, put in drops every few hours throughout the day, Watts recommends. Just make sure you’re using preservative-free products, as drops with preservatives can irritate the eyes, she says. Finally, make sure your lighting is bright and your screens are clean, Watts says. A dirty or smudged screen makes it harder for your eyes to focus, so they fatigue faster. What about blue-light glasses? Is it worth wearing glasses that claim to block the blue light from digital devices? “The best I can say is it doesn’t hurt,” says Steven Reed, president of the American Optometric Association. But there’s not much data on these products, and studies that have been published suggest they don’t do much to alleviate eye strain. While you probably don’t have to shell out money for blue-light glasses, Wisner says it is worth limiting screen time before bed, since using devices at night can interfere with sleep. “Not getting good sleep is also a cause of chronic fatigue and then eye strain,” he says. “It all builds on itself.” Should I be concerned about digital eye strain? Don’t worry too much, Wisner says. Most of the time, digital eye strain is not a signal of a major issue or damage, but rather an understandable side effect of using your eyes in a way they were not designed to work. “For hundreds and thousands of years, we weren’t doing these things to our bodies: sitting at a desk and staring at a computer or reading all day long,” Wisner says. “Our bodies were not adapted for this.” Read More: How to Relax and Unwind Without Drinking Alcohol That said, regular, persistent, or severe eye strain can be a sign of underlying vision problems, Reed says, so it’s worth getting checked out if the symptoms are bothersome or don’t clear up through simple solutions like breaks and eye drops. There may be a relatively quick fix, like using over-the-counter reading glasses or tweaking a prescription you already have, Wisner says. And if your children complain of symptoms like blurry vision and eye discomfort after using devices, take them seriously, Reed says. Some studies suggest that screen use can contribute to myopia, or nearsightedness, among children whose eyes are still developing, so it’s worth getting any symptoms checked out by a doctor, Reed says.

Another patient has received a transplant with a genetically modified pig kidney. Tim Andrews, a 66-year-old who lives in Concord, N.H., has end-stage kidney disease and had been on dialysis for more than two years to compensate for his failing kidney function. He received the pig kidney at Massachusetts General Hospital on Jan. 25. as part of a new study authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which will include a total of three patients. Andrews was discharged on Feb. 1 and is staying in the Boston area for follow-up before returning home. Doctors say the transplanted pig kidney is functioning normally and producing urine. The hope is that pig kidneys could help ease the organ-shortage problem in the U.S. According to the transplant team, Andrews had just a 9% chance of receiving a human kidney in the next five years, and a nearly 50% chance of being removed from the transplant wait list because of his deteriorating health. His dialysis left him unable to continue with many of his usually activities, and he had a heart attack in 2023. As of last September, nearly 90,000 people were waiting for a kidney, and in 2023, just over 27,000 transplants were performed—revealing the gap between demand and supply that xenotransplants, or animal-to-human transplants, could address. Restoring a city’s charm Branded Content Restoring a city’s charm By China Daily How pig kidneys can work in humans The challenge with this type of transplant is that the human body often rejects foreign tissue. Andrews' pig kidney is possible because of several new genetic advances including cloning and the gene-editing platform CRISPR, which allowed scientists to modify the organ to make it more compatible with the human immune system. The company that created the the kidney, eGenesis, removed three major pig proteins on the organ, introduced seven human genes to reduce the chances it would be rejected, and disabled certain viruses in the pig genome that would have been harmful to the patient. This process has been done once before. Richard Slayman, who was 62 at the time of his transplant in March 2024, recovered well, but died two months later due to causes unrelated to the kidney, according to his doctors. Read More: 8 Ways to Shorten Your Wait for a Doctor’s Appointment With Andrews, “it’s the exact same kidney and the same genetic [modifications] that Mr. Slayman received,” says Michael Curtis, CEO of eGenesis. “We learned enough from Mr. Slayman to say it looks good enough, and the data are compelling enough that we should absolutely try again.” Surgeons from Massachusetts General Hospital on Saturday, Jan. 25 successfully transplanted a genetically-edited pig kidney into 66-year-old Tim Andrews of Concord, N.H. Surgeons from Massachusetts General Hospital on Jan. 25 successfully transplanted a genetically-edited pig kidney into 66-year-old Tim Andrews of Concord, N.H.Kate Flock—MGH Photography There is one major change, however, from Slayman’s case. The surgical team, in consultation with the FDA, decided to operate on a patient with less-severe end-stage kidney disease. While Slayman had been on dialysis for eight years and had had a kidney transplant and heart disease, Andrews had only been on dialysis for two years and has a stronger cardiovascular system. That may lead to better outcomes for Andrews and give doctors more insights about who is a good transplant candidate: someone with severe enough kidney disease, but who isn't too ill that they can’t benefit from the transplant. “Xenotransplant represents a turning point by eliminating organ shortage as a barrier to transplant,” said Dr. Leonardo Riella, medical director for kidney transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital, at a press briefing. “It offers a solution far superior to dialysis.” Just as Slayman did, Andrews also received an experimental drug called tegoprubart to suppress his immune system and increase the chances that the pig kidney would not be rejected. Developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals, the drug is being studied in several trials involving human kidney transplants. Next step: clinical trials eGenesis isn’t the only company developing pig organs for human transplant. In February, the FDA approved the first large trial of pig kidneys in people, conducted by United Therapeutics, which also modifies pig organs to make them more compatible for humans. The trial will ultimately involve 50 patients, if the first few do well after 12 weeks. Curtis says that the encouraging results from the first two pig-kidney patients, Slayman and Andrews, are leading to discussions about other animal organs that could be transplanted, including pig hearts. Results from baboons that have received genetically modified pig hearts are so far “impressive,” he says. While the company and transplant surgeons initially planned on using pig hearts as a bridge for patients waiting for human hearts—for anywhere from 100-200 days—the baboons have survived for more than 500 days. “The results suggest that maybe we can do destination transplants and don’t have to go through bridge,” says Curtis. But more studies will be needed before that’s clear. Read More: What to Do If Your Doctor Doesn’t Take Your Symptoms Seriously For now, Andrews' transplant team will monitor his health closely; his progress will determine when and whether the next two patients in the trial receive pig kidneys. “The first time I saw Tim in the clinic, he was frail and struggling with complications from diabetes," Riello said at the press conference. "Dialysis was taking a severe toll on his body, and his path to transplant [with a human kidney] was not certain.” But when Andrews was discharged, he walked out of the hospital on his own, holding his wife’s hand. “Tim’s journey is more than one patient’s success,” Riello said. “It represents hope for the millions suffering from kidney failure, and brings us one step closer to making xenotransplant a viable, widespread solution for the organ shortage crisis.” Correction, Feb. 11 The original version of this story misstated that the patient is the second to ever receive a pig kidney transplant. He is the second to undergo the procedure with this type of genetically modified pig kidney.

On Feb. 7, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an order to temporarily close live bird markets after cases of avian influenza, or bird flu, were detected in seven markets in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx in the past week. The closures apply to all bird markets, including those that didn't report any cases, in New York City, Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau counties. The order requires market owners to sell or otherwise remove all live birds and conduct a thorough cleaning and disinfection of their facilities—even if bird flu wasn't detected there. All markets must remain closed for five days after the cleaning to confirm they are free of the H5N1 bird flu virus so that the virus won't spread again when live animals are reintroduced. Here's what to know about the decision and what it means for bird flu to be detected in poultry. Will closing the markets reduce the threat of bird flu? “Getting ahead of any biological threat—in this case, amongst birds—is good to do,” says Dr. Raj Panjabi, senior partner at Flagship Pioneering and former leader of the National Security Council’s pandemic office. Panjabi coordinated the White House’s response to bird flu in 2022. “I like that New York is being proactive here, and leveraging the state agriculture commissioner and the health commissioner at the state as well as city level, to coordinate.” Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang Branded Content Grottoes bear the enduring touch of Tang By China Daily Jarra Jagne, professor of practice in the department of public and ecosystem health at Cornell Veterinary School, says some of the infected birds had died and were reported by market operators, while some were detected by the state's routine surveillance for H5N1. Jagne's lab is funded by New York State Animal Health Diagnostics Lab, and her team performs testing for the state for a number of infectious diseases in chickens and other species. Because of the extensive testing network, she says, the cases "were picked up pretty early." New York State health commissioner Dr. James McDonald says once the positive tests were confirmed, the state health and agriculture departments decided to close all markets in several counties, including those that had not reported any infections. "When you get a result from surveillance, now you have new information," he says. "That's when you need to take the prudent next step, and this is the prudent next step. We know if we act now, we have a better chance of not seeing the virus spread to others." How are birds in live markets getting infected? There are many ways birds could be infected. Some could have picked up the infection from the farms where they originated; the virus is currently prevalent in wild birds, and as they leave feces in the environment, birds on farms or commercial operations could become exposed and infected. Jagne says that in January, her lab found 23 cases of H5N1 in wild birds from 12 counties in New York. In markets in particular, people might also be spreading the virus to the chickens. "People walking into markets could have been on the beach and picked up some feces on their shoes from Canada geese," says Jagne. "Farmers could also be bringing it in from farms after walking into chicken houses with infected feces. It's really hard to pinpoint the source of the virus." Should other states also shut down live bird markets? "I think it’s worth considering,” says Panjabi. During his tenure in the White House, when H5 bird flu viruses began causing outbreaks, he says “it was really challenging, because in wild bird populations, there are certain times of year when they will be more active in migration and also have more active virus. Detection of the virus in wild birds gets outbreaks spiraling.” Read More: What to Know About the H5N9 Bird Flu Panjabi says New York’s actions will be closely watched by public health and agriculture experts. “What we’ve generally seen is that while there is short-term pain, there is less spread over the long term,” he says. While commercial poultry farms have a number of policies in place now to recognize and intervene if animals get sick, live bird markets are less regulated and have fewer protection measures in place. Typically, “a seller of birds may not recognize the symptoms and signs of infection, no one is wearing personal protective equipment, and they are not cleaning and sanitizing,” he says. “We know the risk [of disease in people] increases if there is more human interaction with poultry, especially in less-controlled environments.” How widespread is bird flu? Outbreaks among commercial poultry farms have jumped in the last two months. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that 85 flocks and nearly 24 million birds were affected by H5N1 by the end of January. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, says the increasing number of outbreaks may be due to higher amounts of H5N1 in the environment. Infected wild birds leave behind feces, which comes in contact with commercial flocks. “This virus is common in the environment, and it’s blowing around. That’s different from anything we’ve seen before,” he says. Can I get bird flu from eating chicken or eggs? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eating properly cooked chicken and eggs is safe, but “eating undercooked or uncooked poultry, eggs or consuming unpasteurized milk from infected dairy cows could also be an exposure risk for infection with avian influenza A viruses.” “The current risk to New Yorkers of bird flu (H5N1) remains low," said New York City health department acting commissioner Michelle Morse in a statement. "Avian influenza viruses only present a wider risk if the virus develops the ability to transmit between people—which we have not seen." To protect themselves from the virus, McDonald says people should not drink raw milk; pasteurization can kill the virus. And when it comes to chickens, he says that "no birds from impacted establishments are sold or allowed to enter the food supply." But if an infected chicken slips in undetected, cooking chicken and eggs properly can neutralize the virus and make the products safe to eat.

Sara Sidner, an anchor and correspondent for CNN, has reported live from war zones, political uprisings, and natural disasters. But putting herself in the headlines was far more nerve-wracking. Staring straight into the camera, Sidner announced during a January 2024 broadcast that she had been diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. She urged women—and particularly Black women, who she noted are roughly 40% more likely than white women to die from the disease—to get screened and “catch it before I did.” Sidner, 52, didn’t always plan to be so public; at first, she thought she’d keep the news private and quietly muscle through her recovery. But when she learned her cancer was advanced enough to require intensive treatment, she realized there was no way to keep the situation to herself. Instead, she decided to tell the world. Speaking so publicly about her health was “uncomfortable,” Sidner says. “It is putting yourself in this very vulnerable position where you know there are likely going to be negative comments. But I don’t care. Living, and helping someone else live through this, is a far greater power.” Sidner has used her platform to share intimate details from her treatment, posting about chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation on Instagram and even allowing cameras into the room for her last radiation session. The goal, she says, was to demystify what can be a terrifying process—especially for women of color, who tend to be diagnosed when the disease is more advanced, and thus harder to treat, compared to white women. That’s true for lots of reasons, including disparities in socioeconomic status and access to medical care, but stigma plays a part, too. “Particularly in the Black community, and some other communities of color, there is a shame around it. There is a fear around just the word cancer,” Sidner says. “People are worried about being seen as weak.” Sidner has demonstrated that facing cancer is, in fact, about strength. At one point, she kept a bucket by her anchor desk in case she felt nauseated on air. She also went for a run six weeks after a double mastectomy. She has even thanked the disease for “choosing” her and transforming her outlook on life. “We don’t have much time in the dash between our birth and our death,” she says. “Do you want it to be filled with stress and worrying about things you can’t control or aren’t worth your time? Or do you want to wake up in the morning and say, ‘Thank you’? I choose the latter.” Though she’s done with treatments for now, Sidner isn’t done with advocacy. Next, she wants to raise awareness about the long tail of cancer recovery, which for her includes years of medications as well as early menopause. “That’s something we need to talk about more,” she says. “I want women to know that they are so amazing, resilient, and beautiful in their ability to get through it and work through it.”

Becoming a nurse was practically a given for Eugenia Millender, who began her years of health service by helping her grandmother, who didn’t like needles, with her insulin injections. Born in Panama, Millender grew up in a racially diverse family and community. “My mom is Afro-Latina Panamanian, and my father was indigenous Guna Panamanian,” she says. When she was 12, she arrived in Brooklyn with her mother, who was hoping to give her a better life. Living in project housing, they experienced poverty, and Millender saw firsthand the inequities in both the access and quality of health care people received. “My mother did not speak English, and when she tried to get care, people ignored her and were not giving her proper care. So for that reason, I became even more interested in research in health disparities and how to provide the best care to all individuals, regardless of where they are from, or whether they have insurance.” Millender, 53, moved to Florida as a teen and joined the Army after high school, which allowed her to earn her undergraduate and master’s degrees in nursing. Working in emergency departments in the state, which often care for the uninsured, she witnessed families struggling with the same challenges her mother had. “You know they don’t have the resources to take care of their loved ones once they are discharged from the hospital, or they don’t understand what the doctors and nurses are telling them because they speak a different language or an indigenous language—with my indigenous background, I was sensitive to those things, because I also learned English as a second language.” Sorry, the video player failed to load.(Error Code: 101102) Now a tenured professor at Florida State University College of Nursing, Millender co-founded and serves as co-director of the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity at the institution, which focuses on addressing the causes of health inequities—from language and cultural barriers to mental-health challenges. Building off her own life experiences, Millender takes time to learn from communities about their needs and the obstacles they face in receiving high-quality health care. That includes incorporating, rather than dismissing, cultural beliefs in community-based programs that connect people with health care, often for the first time. “If an individual believes in green tea as part of their regimen, then you need to include green tea as part of their medication list when you do an intake,” she says. “Do not ignore it, do not ask questions about it, but include these holistic approaches as part of the treatment plan.” Recently, Millender has seen her efforts come full circle with programs she has launched in her native Panama to improve health care for indigenous people. “I feel very privileged, so I have to give back,” she says.

When Elaine Welteroth was pregnant with her first child, she assumed she would give birth in a hospital, like her mother and grandmother had. But she struggled to find a doctor who made her feel safe and comfortable, often leaving appointments in tears. After going through eight, she found an alternative: Kindred Space LA, a Black-owned birthing center staffed with midwives. “[They] completely changed my perspective on birth, on my body, on my agency, and they really changed my life,” says Welteroth, now 38. Midwives, she explains, typically spend more time with an expectant family during appointments, and take a more holistic approach, such as by asking about stress levels and work life. Research also suggests that midwifery care can reduce maternal deaths, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths. Welteroth wanted to make that compassionate care more accessible, so she started a fundraiser on her Instagram in December 2023 to help one family afford midwifery services. She ended up exceeding that goal, raising enough money to support two. That motivated her to start birthFUND, which aims to raise awareness about midwifery and help expectant families access those services. Part of birthFUND’s mission, Welteroth says, is “to make birth joyful again” and help pregnant people understand what their options are. Officially launched in April 2024, birthFUND raises money through its founding family funders (which include celebrities like Serena Williams, John Legend, and Chrissy Teigen), corporate donations, and individual contributions. birthFUND partners with two organizations—Birth Center Equity and the Victoria Project—to identify midwifery-care providers, who then identify families in need in their communities. These families can then apply for grants to help them access midwifery care. As of mid-January, birthFUND had supported 53 families, and 26 babies had been born with birthFUND’s support. Welteroth says that birthFUND was a “natural extension” of her career thus far. Welteroth made history as the youngest editor-in-chief in Condé Nast’s history when she was chosen to lead Teen Vogue in 2016. Under her leadership, the magazine expanded its politics coverage and focused on uplifting marginalized voices. “The throughline throughout my whole career is creating what I feel I needed—creating what I feel the world needs more of, and not just contributing to the status quo,” says Welteroth, who left the publication in 2018 and went on to write the best-selling book More Than Enough. Welteroth was always aware of the statistics about maternal mortality: The U.S. has one of the highest maternal-mortality rates of any high-income country in the world, and Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from an issue related to pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Welteroth’s own negative experience with the maternal-health-care system further galvanized her to make sure that “every mother who does not feel safe within the medical system and who wants to have a birth on their own terms, surrounded by community support of birth workers who are incredibly capable” have that option. “This is a systemic issue; there’s so many different contributing factors to why Black women are dying at higher rates during and after childbirth in this country,” Welteroth says. “But I think the beauty of birthFUND is that we’re taking on one solution that we know has worked to keep us alive and to help us thrive and to help us stay empowered through our birth journeys, and that’s midwifery.” “If we each can just focus on what we can do to move the needle, then I really, truly believe that we can solve this crisis in our lifetime,” Welteroth says.