Tag: high stakes
The Importance of Dissent in Wartime
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Question of the Week
While covering Donald Trump, multiple journalistic outlets published articles questioning his mental fitness. In Pennsylvania, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman is running for the Senate while recovering from a stroke, stoking debate between critics who say he
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh: ‘A Substitution,’ a Short Story
Three days before opening night, the lead actress quits my play to do summer-stock theater in the Catskills. “Occupational hazard,” the director tells me, meaning this is what happens when no one’s getting paid for two weeks of rehearsal for one performance only in a basement on the Lower East Side that seats 40 on folding chairs. In other words, opening night is the same as closing night. Never mind that I’ve put my heart and soul into this
How Is COVID Testing Still This Confusing?
Updated at 12:44 p.m. ET on November, 23 2021
In a world with perfect coronavirus tests, people could swab their nose or spit in a tube and get near-instant answers about their SARS-CoV-2 status. The products would be free, fast, and completely reliable. Positives would immediately shuttle people out of public spaces and, if needed, into treatment; negatives could green-light entry into every store, school, and office, and spring people out of isolation with no second thought. Tests would guarantee
Most Pregnant Women Haven’t Gotten the COVID-19 Vaccine
Across the U.S., vaccination numbers have been slowly climbing, protecting more and more of the population and bringing the country closer to getting the coronavirus under control. But despite this success, some high-risk groups have lagged behind. In particular, rates among pregnant people are discouragingly low.
Although more than three-quarters of all eligible adults have gotten at least one COVID-19 shot, only about 25 percent of mothers-to-be have gotten one during their pregnancy. Rates are even lower for Latina and
The Vaccine Culture War Doesn’t Have to Be So Dire
Large swaths of America’s vaccinated masses—along with elites in the White House, boardrooms, public schools, hospitals, and the mainstream media—are feeling frustrated with their unvaccinated neighbors. And understandably so. COVID-19 vaccines offer stellar protection against hospitalization and death. I despair that many thousands more unvaccinated Americans will die needlessly, that overcrowded hospitals will keep struggling to treat people with other medical emergencies, and that continuing spread of the coronavirus puts vulnerable people such as my grandparents at greater risk of