Katherine J. Wu
The Atlantic
Cambridge, MA, United States
Contact Katherine
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Katherine:
Wash Your Hands and Pray You Don’t Get Sick
Once a norovirus transmission chain begins, it can be difficult to break. → Read More
I Bought a CO2 Monitor, and It Broke Me
I thought I could fix the air quality in my apartment. I was wrong. → Read More
Trying to Stop Long COVID Before It Even Starts
New data offer hope that chronic illness can be headed off with the right combination of drugs. → Read More
COVID Couldn’t Kill the Handshake
The gesture has survived plenty of outbreaks before COVID, and it will almost certainly outlast more to come. → Read More
How Worried Should We Be About the XBB.1.5 Subvariant?
Yet another new and highly transmissible subvariant of the coronavirus is taking over. → Read More
China’s COVID Wave Is Coming
The world’s most populous nation is being forced onto a zero-COVID off-ramp. → Read More
The Year Without Germs Changed Kids
Children who spent their formative years in the bleach-everything era will certainly have different microbiomes. The question is whether different means bad. → Read More
The Worst Pediatric-Care Crisis in Decades
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, as lines of ambulances roared down the streets and freezer vans packed into parking lots, the pediatric emergency department at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was quiet. It was an eerie juxtaposition, says Chris Woodward, a pediatric-emergency-medicine specialist at the hospital, given what was happening just a few… → Read More
The Fatal Error of an Ancient, HIV-Like Virus
It got too cozy with its host. → Read More
America’s Fall Booster Plan Has a Fatal Paradox
New boosters that target Omicron may be our most important COVID vaccines since 2020—but the U.S. may be setting up the new shots to fail. → Read More
Twice a Year, Reindeer Eyes Pull Off a Wonderful Magic Trick
The Arctic can stay perpetually dark for months. Reindeer cope by changing part of their eyes from gold to blue. → Read More
A Frog So Small, It Could Not Frog
Most frogs can jump and land with the precision and grace of an Olympic gymnast. And then there’s the pumpkin toadlet. → Read More
Vaccines Are Still Mostly Blocking Severe Disease
Our original-recipe shots are holding up against new variants. But we may need to improve them, and soon. → Read More
Frogs Keep Mating With the Wrong Things
Could humans be to blame? → Read More
BA.2 Is Here. Does Anyone Care?
The United States could be in for a double whammy: a surge it cares to neither measure nor respond to. → Read More
America Is About to Test How Long ‘Normal’ Can Hold
Whenever it arrives, the next surge could put the country’s tolerance for disease and death in full relief. → Read More
The Risk of Ignoring Long COVID
Long COVID isn’t going away, and we still do not have a way to fully prevent it, cure it, or really to quantify it. → Read More
Why Do We Like Sour Food?
When researchers consider the classic five categories of taste—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami—there’s little disagreement over which of them is the least understood. Creatures crave sweet for sugar and calories. A yen for umami, or savoriness, keeps many animals nourished with protein. Salt’s essential for bodies to stay in fluid balance, and for nerve cells to signal. And a sensitivity… → Read More
Will Delta Survive the Omicron Wave?
Omicron may seem unstoppable, but its predecessor might still make a comeback. That could be bad news. → Read More
No One Will Stop You From Getting Whatever Booster You Want
The CDC indicated that it would move toward a hands-off stance: Booster-eligible people should stick with one brand, but may mix and match at will. → Read More