The numbers matter: underreporting of Lyme disease obscures the true burden of the illnesses, on individuals as well as on health-care systems.… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Vaccination is a public health issue because influenza is a highly contagious disease. If you don't vaccinate your child, his or her… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
If left untreated, Lyme disease can be crippling, yet it is a difficult illness to contract: a tick needs to attach itself… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
It is a remarkable fact that smallpox, a scourge for thousands of years, has now vanished from the earth, except for two… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States, and the incidence is growing rapidly. In 2009, the… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established highly specific criteria for the diagnosis of Lyme disease: an acknowledged tick bite,… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Now, as the world's scientists focus with increasing intensity on transforming the genetic codes of every living creature into information that can… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Until the Nineteen-Eighties, when Deng Xiaoping designated the area as China's first special economic zone, Shenzhen had been a tiny fishing village. Suddenly, eleven… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
We're lying ourselves into believing things are untrue, like organic food will solve all our problems, or vitamins will make us healthy, or we… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
I started to write about science and medicine at the 'Washington Post,' in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Clearly, some of the reason people embrace alternatives and reject vaccines is that they are angry and mistrustful of government and of pharmaceutical conglomerates.… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
The numbers matter: underreporting of Lyme disease obscures the true burden of the illnesses, on individuals as well as on health-care systems. It also… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
There is a major problem with reliance on placebos, like most vitamins and antioxidants. Everyone gets upset about Big Science, Big Pharma, but they… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Denialist arguments are often bolstered by accurate information taken wildly out of context, wielded selectively, and supported by fake experts who often don't seem… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Your dollar cheeseburger isn't a dollar if you factor in what it's going to cost in health care. — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
To suggest that organic vegetables, which cost far more than conventional produce, can feed billions of people in parts of the world without roads… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
The history of agriculture is the history of humans breeding seeds and animals to produce traits we want in our crops and livestock. — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
