Some products were sold under the brands of major retailers like Kroger, Price Chopper and Walmart. No illnesses so far have been linked to the waffles.Nearly 700 frozen waffle products, some of them sold under the brands of major retailers like Kroger, Target and Walmart, were recalled on Friday over concerns of potential contamination with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, according to their manufacturer.The manufacturer, TreeHouse Foods, issued a voluntary recall and said in a statement that the “issue was discovered through routine testing at the manufacturing facility.”There have been no confirmed reports of illness related to the recalled products, TreeHouse said.TreeHouse, which operates more than two dozen production facilities in the United States and Canada, said that the recall affected products distributed in both countries and in various formats.Frozen waffle brands affected by the recall included several of Kroger’s Simple Truth protein waffles, Target’s Good & Gather Homestyle and Buttermilk flavors, and Walmart’s Great Value Homestyle and Blueberry waffles.Infections from listeria, which are bacteria that can contaminate foods, are rare but can cause potentially serious illnesses.Typical symptoms include fever and headaches. Young children, older adults and pregnant women are at the greatest risk for more serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.Each year in the United States, an estimated 1,600 people are infected with listeria, and about 260 people die from those infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.“We see it most severely in people with immune systems that are compromised in some way, and that can be the very young, the very old,” Dr. Stuart C. Ray, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, said on Saturday.Symptoms “can be as simple as a gastroenteritis, but it can be as severe as a meningitis,” he added.If someone is infected with listeria bacteria, the incubation period can last several days and sometimes several weeks. An infection might not be immediately apparent.Several companies in the deli industry this year have issued recalls related to listeria outbreaks.The deli meat brand Boar’s Head faced scrutiny in recent months after one of its facilities in Virginia was found to contain black mold, dead flies and water dripping over meat. Foods distributed from that facility and containing listeria were linked to nine deaths.And BrucePac, another meat provider, this month recalled more than 10 million pounds of meats and poultry products because of listeria.Food plants and facilities are common epicenters of listeria outbreaks because of the bacteria’s ability to survive cold climates, Dr. Ray said.“It survives on damp surfaces, including in factories and food preparation facilities,” he said. “It can be shared by animals, including livestock, that don’t appear sick. It can creep into our food chain in ways that might not be obvious.”TreeHouse said that customers can check the lot code on their waffle products to see if they are a part of the recall. Consumers should dispose of any products they have in their freezers, or return them to the place of purchase for credit.

Specialized viewfinders installed across state parks let visitors with red-green colorblindness see more distinct colors.Like so many other leaf-peeping enthusiasts, Tim Yates ventured out to Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake State Park late this summer to see the early whispers of the fall foliage, which would soon give way to bright bursts of orange and red.But for Mr. Yates, it was a rare opportunity to see the leaves, whether they were just beginning to turn or in their full glory.For his entire life, Mr. Yates, 56, has been red-green colorblind, meaning his eyes have trouble distinguishing between certain hues. For him, the leaf-peeping experience can be relatively muted.“Clothes or flowers and a lot of different stuff, I just never really knew the color,” Mr. Yates, a retired beverage salesman from Bedford County, Va., said. “In school, I always struggled with colors.”But at Smith Mountain Lake, which is an hour outside Roanoke, Va., new specialized viewfinders allow Mr. Yates and others like him to appreciate the scarlets and golds on oak and maple trees from a distance. This year, the state park system was the first in the nation to install the red-green colorblind viewfinders at all of its locations, according to a statement from Virginia State Parks. Each one is equipped with lenses that expand the visible ranges of the fall displays.“I could actually see the red and distinguish the colors,” Mr. Yates said.The viewfinders went through a trial run and were installed at all Virginia state parks. Virginia State ParksWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas spent months looking into a psychiatric hospital chain that held some people against their will for financial reasons, not medical ones.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Last week, a New York Times investigation revealed a pattern of unsettling practices by one of America’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals.The chain, Acadia Healthcare, had drawn patients to its facilities and held them against their will, even when it was not medically necessary, The Times investigation found. Unless lawyers intervened, Acadia often held these patients — some for nearly a week — until their insurance ran out, maximizing payouts for the hospital.After receiving a tip last year, Katie Thomas and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Times reporters who have collaborated on several investigations, began looking into Acadia. This year they reached out to dozens of patients and their families, as well as current and former Acadia executives. For months, they pored over court files, police reports, complaints to state authorities and health inspections to learn what was taking place.When asked for comment, an Acadia spokesman said the patient examples cited by The Times were not representative of many patients with positive experiences, adding that “quality care and medical necessity drives every patient-related decision at Acadia.”In an interview, the journalists discussed how they approach reporting as a team, the challenges of a monthslong investigation and what the article means for the health care system in general. These are edited excerpts.How did you find out about this situation, and what made you decide to pursue an investigation?KATIE THOMAS While we were reporting last year on unnecessary medical procedures, someone told us: You should take a look at this company, Acadia Healthcare. They have had a lot of issues with quality.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Four people tested positive for the virus, which causes a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness, officials said. The trail was recommended to remain closed until at least Sept. 19.A popular hiking trail on the island of Kauai in Hawaii was closed this week after more than three dozen people fell ill in what officials said was a “rare occurrence” of the highly contagious norovirus.The Kalalau Trail, a 22-mile round-trip stretch within the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park, was recommended to remain closed until at least Sept. 19 while Department of Health officials assessed the ongoing risk of transmission and as stations along the trail were cleaned and disinfected.The Health Department received reports of illness from at least 37 hikers and campers over the last several weeks, though the actual number is expected to be higher, officials said.“This is a very concerning and rare occurrence, magnified by the extreme remote nature of the Kalalau Valley,” Curt Cottrell, an administrator for state parks, said in a statement.The trail was closed on Wednesday after health officials received numerous reports of gastrointestinal illnesses from hikers, and on Thursday the Health Department said that test results from four patients confirmed that they had contracted norovirus.The state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a statement that dozens of backpackers along the trail had reported gastrointestinal illness, and that one person had been evacuated but no one had been hospitalized.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Jonathan Wolfe, the reporter behind the Coronavirus Briefing, now the Virus Briefing, discusses the newsletter’s shift in focus.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.This month, the Coronavirus Briefing newsletter — an account of pandemic news that began in January 2020 — transitioned to the Virus Briefing. The new weekly newsletter, written by Jonathan Wolfe, a Times reporter, expands the briefing’s mission to include updates and expert insight on the varying diseases and pathogens — such as monkeypox and poliovirus — that are spreading across the globe.The Coronavirus Briefing has served as a critical source of pandemic news ever since Covid-19 was a mysterious new illness. More than two years later, it remained committed to providing readers with need-to-know updates. But, as the briefing recently reported, Covid is “here to stay,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The briefing is changing to reflect that outlook, with a greater emphasis on living with the virus instead of preventing infection.In an interview, Mr. Wolfe reflected on more than two years of writing the Coronavirus Briefing and discussed what would change — and what wouldn’t — in the new format. This interview has been edited.How did years of writing the Coronavirus Briefing shape your reporting?It gave me a broader understanding of the range of effects that the virus was having on people. Every issue, we would ask readers to send us a note saying how they were coping with the pandemic — I think we have 20,000 at this point. Readers wrote in with stories of losing businesses, or having sick family members, or how the virus was affecting their mental health. I heard a lot of opinions and stories in real time that I wouldn’t have otherwise. It definitely made me understand the full effects of the virus and its damaging effects on all aspects of life.Will reader engagement continue in the Virus Briefing?Definitely. We really like to engage with our readers; they always have really smart things to offer, and their stories are super interesting.What to Know About the Monkeypox VirusCard 1 of 7What to Know About the Monkeypox VirusWhat is monkeypox?