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The risk is low that scientists could pass coronavirus to North American bats during winter research, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. Scientists find the overall risk to be 1 in 1,000 if no protective measures are taken, and the risk falls lower, to 1 in 3,333 or less, with proper use of personal protective equipment or if scientists test negative for COVID-19 before beginning research.
The research specifically looked at the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which is the type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, from people to bats. Scientists did not examine potential transmission from bats to people.
“This is a small number, but the consequences of human-to-bat transmission of coronavirus are potentially large,” said USGS scientist Evan Grant, an author of the new rapid risk assessment. “The virus has not been identified in North American bats, but if it is introduced, it could lead to illness and mortality, which may imperil long-term bat conservation. It could also represent a source for new exposure and infection in humans.”
“These are hard risks for wildlife managers and other decision makers to weigh as they consider whether and how to allow researchers to study bats in their winter colonies,” continued Grant.
Bats provide natural services that people value; for example, previous USGS studies found that bats save the U.S. agriculture industry more than $3 billion per year by eating pests that damage crops, reducing the need for pesticides. Yet they are often erroneously portrayed as menacing creatures at Halloween and in horror movies. They are also under duress from white-nose syndrome, a disease that has killed millions of bats in North America.
The origin of SARS-CoV-2 is not confirmed, but studies indicate the virus likely originated from similar viruses found in bats in the Eastern Hemisphere.

There is no singular way to respond to heartache or sorrow. Find the strategy that works best for you.We are all grieving right now.Perhaps you’re one of the millions who has lost a loved one to the brutalities of Covid-19, or maybe you’re grieving another kind of loss: missed time with family and friends, a postponed wedding, a former job. Many of us have also grieved circumstances or deaths unrelated to the coronavirus — each made even more difficult in the context of a pandemic.Every loss deserves to be acknowledged and addressed. So we gathered advice from bereavement experts and asked people who have recently experienced grief to tell us how they are finding peace.There are a wide variety of strategies. But it’s important to acknowledge that many people “don’t have the luxury of attending fully to grief and mourning,” said Therese A. Rando, the clinical director of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss in Warwick, R.I. “That’s one of the most insidious things about the pandemic.”If you’re running on adrenaline and still living in survival mode, start small and see if one of the methods below might be helpful to you, too.Lean on your virtual community“In initial stages of bereavement, many grievers find the most helpful resource to be other supportive people,” said Sherry Cormier, a psychologist and bereavement trauma specialist in Edgewater, Md. “This is because grief can feel like abandonment, and because it can feel isolating.”Finding this kind of support in person can be a challenge during the pandemic, but video chats with helpful friends or family are often useful substitutes for get-togethers, she added.Online resources like Grieving.com and Grief Healing Discussion Groups offer moderated group discussion forums, and the websites National Covid-19 Day and Modern Loss have additional resources for people who need support.What people tend to find most helpful during the grieving process is “acknowledgment, and an ongoing invitation to share their experiences,” said Rebecca Soffer, the co-founder and chief executive of Modern Loss. “This has become all the more urgent as grieving people have had to endure the process in relative isolation for more than a year.”Online religious services can also provide a sense of community.Elizabeth Sanford, 58, who lives in Atlanta, said she started listening to the morning prayers of a monastery in Cumbria, England, a few months after her father died and the country went into lockdown. She watches nearly every morning on Facebook Live at 3 a.m., which is when she now tends to wake up.“It’s like getting a hug,” she said. “The bells ring. The guided imagery helps me cry. The prayers bring peace.”Finally, keep an eye out this spring for a new online guide with nearly 80 websites pertaining to grief during the pandemic. The guide, which is being curated by Camille B. Wortman, an expert on grief and a professor emeritus of psychology at Stony Brook University in New York, will cover topics as varied as how to process feelings of guilt or lack of closure; how to explain death to a child; and how to help those who are mourning.Learn something new“It’s hard to be grieving actively when you are learning something new,” Dr. Cormier said. “It’s stimulating to our brain, and it takes our mind off of our struggle.”Whether you start volunteering, foster a pet or take up a hobby, you are giving yourself a mental break from grieving, the experts said.That was the case for Allyn Young, 43, who lives in Manhattan. After her father died of Covid in December, she said, she became “obsessed with horses.”She started reading books about horses, following horse rescues on Instagram and watching a documentary series that described how horses are used for therapy.“I had no idea!” she said. “Right now I’m trying to get in touch with the stables around N.Y.C. to take lessons and volunteer. My newfound and totally random excitement at the idea of petting a horse has been bringing me joy.”Mark Seaman, 51, a cake decorator who lives in Chicago, said he became sad and fearful when his husband started suffering from serious health problems in December of 2019. A few months later Mr. Seaman began teaching himself to crochet by watching a how-to video on the website Craftsy, and started to feel more at ease.“The repetitive nature of the activity distracted me so fully from the reality of the pandemic that the world was experiencing that I felt calm,” Mr. Seaman said.Explore podcasts and booksMany people who are in the depths of grief find inspiration and connection while listening to podcasts, Dr. Cormier said.In “Everything Happens,” Kate Bowler, a professor at Duke Divinity School, talks with people about what they’ve learned in dark times; “Terrible, Thanks for Asking” is hosted by Nora McInerny, an author who asks people to share their complicated and honest feelings about how they are actually doing; and “Unlocking Us,” with Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, aims to reveal the “messiness of what it means to be human.”Then there are books — far too many examples to mention here, including “Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief” by David Kessler (2019); and “It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand” by Megan Devine (2017).Dr. Cormier has also written a book, “Sweet Sorrow: Finding Enduring Wholeness After Loss and Grief” (2018), based in part on her own experience with cumulative grief. In the span of six years, she lost her father, husband, mother and sister.“I really get what people are going through. I get the heartbreak. I get the wanting to stay under the covers all day,” she said.If you have young children or teenagers, there are a variety of books and films that can help them cope with loss, too. And check out these articles about how to talk with children about death and how to help children with pandemic grief.Speak with a grief counselor, religious leader or other professionalKristin Taylor, 39, of Oak Park, Ill., who lost her mother to pancreatic cancer in November, had tried it all: meditation, talking with friends who lost their parents, long walks, writing in a journal and yoga. “Nothing helped too much,” she said.Then she started speaking with a grief counselor once a week.“I feel I have a place to not only openly weep and mourn without burdening another person, but I also now have someone to help me sort out the trauma I experienced while caregiving and witnessing an aggressive and ruthless cancer take over my mother’s body,” Ms. Taylor said.A November survey of more than 800 U.S. adults who lost someone to Covid-19 found that two-thirds of the respondents were suffering from debilitating levels of grief, a type of mourning that can disrupt a person’s ability to live life normally.If you are using drugs or alcohol to cope, or if you are having trouble functioning, it’s important to speak with a professional, said Sherman A. Lee, an associate professor of psychology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., and one of the authors of the study. Dr. Lee’s website, The Pandemic Grief Project, offers a short test that people can use to assess their level of distress: A score of seven or higher suggests that additional assessment or treatment is needed.The demands of the pandemic have made it even more difficult for some people to find a mental health provider, however, especially one who takes insurance.Psychology Today maintains a large list of providers that you can filter by location, insurance, specialty or other criteria. But if you can’t find a provider who is accepting new patients, ask the providers you contacted or your primary care provider for referrals.Online therapy services may also be worth exploring if you need to speak with someone quickly.Get activeSayrah Garrison, 47, a licensed clinical social worker and dance teacher, is grieving the death of her mother-in-law, and missing her family’s California home now that they have moved across the country to New Jersey to be closer to her father-in-law. In March, she found a “grief dancer” workshop, rooted in the meditative 5Rhythms movement practice, to be cathartic and enlightening.“I realized how much I actually missed our home in Oakland and how much I missed my regular students and the incredibly healing dance spaces we shared together,” she said.Aerobic exercise may also release mood-elevating endorphins, the chemicals that can help you feel relaxed and happy after a workout.Yoga is another option that helps strengthen your body and build flexibility, while offering an added spiritual component that can be calming in times of stress.Tania Bunik of Minneapolis, Minn., 55, said the Down Dog yoga app, which she uses every day, helped preserve her mental health during a time of chaos by giving her the space to do something therapeutic for herself.“It allows you to tailor your yoga session by the amount of time you have, the pace, the background music, the areas of your body you want to work on,” she said. “It gave me a sense of control because I had choices.”Spend time in natureSeveral people who are grieving told us that they have found it relaxing to take walks in nature; nurture their garden; or simply sit outside and observe.“I was determined to make our backyard a nature sanctuary with a lot of beautiful flowers in the gardens, a bird bath and feeders,” said Carol Struve, 70, an artist and retired nurse who lives in Kingston, N.Y. Last year, Ms. Struve fractured her sternum, mourned the deaths of three older relatives and then grappled with a uterine cancer diagnosis.“I restored the vintage, rusty patio furniture and bought a new umbrella for the table,” said Ms. Struve, who spent many afternoons making drawings of the flowers and gardens. “This helped me find my way through the cancer diagnosis and surgery, along with the support of my therapist and friends.”If you don’t have easy access to a scenic spot, watching tranquil scenes on video can also be soothing. Dr. Wortman said that she and her husband take about 15 minutes a day to watch nature videos featuring scenic landscapes and animals.It is easy and comforting, she added, and “it shows you that there’s still beauty in the world.”

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightGetty ImagesPfizer says its vaccine is preventing 91% of coronavirus cases in the six months after people are immunised.And a separate study shows even people in their 80s and 90s are producing impressive levels of antibodies after receiving both doses of the vaccine. Only 63% of them, however, also produce the T-cells that help maintain those antibodies in the longer term.And the crucial question of how long the protection from the vaccine lasts remains unanswered. Pfizer analysed data from 46,000 people on the original clinical trial, exactly six months after their second dose.It also looked at 800 trial participants in South Africa and concluded the vaccine was equally effective against the variant identified there – despite laboratory studies suggesting people’s antibodies were less effective at attacking this variant. “The high vaccine efficacy observed through up to six months following a second dose and against the variant prevalent in South Africa provides further confidence in our vaccine’s overall effectiveness,” chairman and chief executive officer Albert Bourla said. Brazil variantSeparate research by the University of Birmingham looked at what happened to the immune systems of 100 80- to and 96-year-olds.Blood samples showed high levels of antibodies able to effectively neutralise the original coronavirus.Against the variant identified Brazil, however, they were 14 times less effective.Although, the researchers were confident those who had received the Pfizer vaccine would still be protected against the Brazil variant because their levels of antibodies were so high.Coronavirus factoriesHowever, only 63% of people in this age group produced a detectable T-cell response. “It is not clear what that means for clinical protection in the longer term,” one of the researchers, Dr Helen Parry, said.T-cells can kill the cells in the body that have been hijacked and turned into coronavirus factories. But they also help maintain levels of antibodies over time. “That’s something we’ll keep an eye on very closely,” researcher Prof Paul Moss said. OXFORD JAB: What is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine?GLOBAL SPREAD: How many worldwide cases are there?VACCINE: When will I get the jab?NEW VARIANTS: How worried should we be?COVID IMMUNITY: Can you catch it twice?

Genome sequencing of thousands of SARS-CoV-2 samples shows that surges of COVID-19 cases are driven by the appearance of new coronavirus variants, according to new research from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis published April 1 in Scientific Reports.
“As variants emerge, you’re going to get new outbreaks,” said Bart Weimer, professor of population health and reproduction at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. The merger of classical epidemiology with genomics provides a tool public health authorities could use to predict the course of pandemics, whether of coronavirus, influenza or some new pathogen.
Although it has just 15 genes, SARS-CoV-2 is constantly mutating. Most of these changes make very little difference but sometimes the virus becomes more or less transmissible.
Weimer and graduate student DJ Darwin R. Bandoy initially analyzed the genomes of 150 SARS-CoV-2 strains, mostly from outbreaks in Asia prior to March 1, 2020, as well as epidemiology and transmission information for those outbreaks. They classified outbreaks by stage: index (no outbreak), takeoff, exponential growth and decline. The ease of transmission of a virus is set by the value R, or reproductive number, where R is the average number of new infections caused by each infected person.
They combined all this information into a metric called GENI, for pathogen genome identity. Comparing GENI scores with the phase of an epidemic showed that an increase in genetic variation immediately preceded exponential growth in cases, for example in South Korea in late February. In Singapore, however, bursts of variation were associated with smaller outbreaks that public health authorities were able to quickly bring under control.
20,000 virus samples
Weimer and Bandoy then looked at 20,000 sequences of SARS-CoV-2 viruses collected and from February to April 2020 in the United Kingdom and compared them with data on cases.
They found that the GENI variation score rose steadily with the number of cases. When the British government imposed a national lockdown in late March, the number of new cases stabilized but the GENI score continued to rise. This shows that measures such as banning gatherings, mask mandates and social distancing are effective in controlling spread of disease in the face of rapid virus evolution.
It could also help explain “superspreader” events when large numbers of people get infected in a single incident where precautions are relaxed.
Weimer said he hopes that public health authorities will take up the approach of measuring virus variation and linking it to the local transmission rate, R.
“In this way you can get a very early warning of when a new outbreak is coming,” he said. “Here’s a recipe for how to go about it.”
Parts of the work previously appeared online as a preprint. Bandoy is sponsored by the Philippine California Advanced Research Institute.
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People living with the often-debilitating effects of Crohn’s disease may finally gain some relief, thanks to ground-breaking research led by McMaster University.
McMaster investigator Brian Coombes said his team identified a strain of adherent-invasive E-coli (AIEC) that is strongly implicated in the condition and is often found in the intestines of people with Crohn’s disease.
“If you examine the gut lining of patients with Crohn’s disease, you will find that around 70 to 80 per cent of them test positive for AIEC bacteria, but one of the things we don’t understand is why,” said Coombes, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and the Canada Research Chair in Infectious Disease Pathogenesis.
“We believe that AIEC is a potential trigger of Crohn’s disease.”
By mutating every gene in a particular strain of AIEC and testing how those mutants grow in mice, the researchers were able to pinpoint which genes allowed the bacteria to freely colonize the gut linings of people with Crohn’s disease.
AIEC bacteria grow in a biofilm that coats cells lining the intestinal wall, protecting them from both the immune system and antibiotics. In this research, the team identified a critical protein structure on the surface of the bacteria that allow them to grow in biofilms.
Coombes said Crohn’s disease is caused by the immune system’s inability to “switch off” its inflammatory response to gut bacteria. Symptoms include severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition.
Current treatments focus on easing the inflammation, but do not address the root cause of the condition.
“New therapies are on the way — we are one step closer to figuring out how this Crohn’s disease-associated bacteria lives in the gut and when we do that, we can develop new treatments,” said Coombes.
The team’s findings were led by postdoctoral fellow, Wael Elhenawy and published in Nature Communications.
Funding for the study was provided by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Crohn’s and Colitis Canada.
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Obesity rates have increased dramatically in developed countries over the past 40 years — and many people have assumed that food marketing is at least in part to blame. But are people with obesity really more susceptible to food marketing? And if they are, is that a permanent predisposition, or can it change over time?
According to a new study by UBC Sauder School of Business Assistant Professor Dr. Yann Cornil (he/him/his) and French researchers, people with obesity do tend to be more responsive to food marketing — but when their weight drops significantly, so does their responsiveness to marketing.
For the study, which was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the researchers followed three groups: patients with severe obesity before they had gastric bypass or other weight-loss surgeries (collectively known as bariatric surgery), as well as three and 12 months after; people with obesity who were not undergoing bariatric surgery; and people who were not obese.
To measure their responsiveness to food marketing, the researchers evaluated what’s called framing effects — that is, how branding, advertising, and labeling “frame,” and thus influence food evaluations and choices. In one study, participants were asked to estimate the calorie content in well-known snacks and drinks including some, which marketers typically framed as healthy (i.e. apple juice, granola bars), and others, which are not framed as healthy (i.e. soft drinks, chocolate bars).
The researchers found that everyone underestimated the calorie content of snacks that were framed as healthy but the effect was more pronounced in people with obesity.
To further test the framing effect, the researchers had participants hypothetically choose a portion of french fries from a fast food restaurant, and gave them the nutritional information they would need to make an informed decision. The three options were always the same in quantity — 71g, 117g, and 154g — but in one instance they were labeled small, medium and large, and in another instance the same portions were labeled mini, small and medium: a marketing tactic aimed at making larger portions seem more reasonable.

New research, led by scientists at the University of Nottingham, suggests that the environment in which men live may affect their reproductive health.
The research, published in Scientific Reports, looked at the effects of geographical location on polluting chemicals found in dog testes, some of which are known to affect reproductive health. The unique research focused on dogs because, as a popular pet, they share the same environment as people and are effectively exposed to the same household chemicals as their owners.
The team also looked for signs of abnormalities in the testes. The findings showed that both the chemicals present and the extent of abnormalities in the testes were different depending on where the dog’s had been living.
The researchers analysed the testes of dogs, which had been removed for routine clinical reasons, to see what polluting chemicals were present in the tissue. Samples were taken from across the UK, in the East and West Midlands, and the South East, as well as from Denmark and Finland.
Dr Rebecca Sumner, from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University, and lead author of the study, said: “For the first time, we have shown that the profile of chemical pollutants found in dog testes depends on where they are from. We have also shown that the same cohorts of dog testes also show geographic differences in testicular pathology and evidence of an imbalance in cells that are important for sperm production.”
Dr Richard Lea, lead of the team, said: “Although this study suggests that there are fewer pathologies in dog testes from Finland compared to other locations, relating this to the chemicals detected is difficult, particularly as many other pollutants may also be present.
“We believe, that this study is of pivotal importance since our strategy to use the dog as a sentinel species for the human has allowed us to focus directly on the testis, where detected chemicals are likely to influence male reproductive function.” Professor Gary England, Dean of School of Veterinary Medicine & Science, said “This work is significant since collectively, these findings indicate that environmental exposures are determined by location and this may underpin regional differences in male reproductive health.”
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The public awareness push includes 275 participating organizations that will speak to communities where skepticism of the coronavirus vaccine remains high.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday morning announced an ambitious advertising campaign intended to encourage as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.The campaign, with ads in English and Spanish that will air throughout April on network TV and cable channels nationwide, as well as online, comes as the administration is rapidly expanding access to coronavirus vaccines.President Biden announced last week a new goal of administering 200 million doses by his 100th day in office, doubling his initial goal of “100 million shots in the arms” of Americans that he set when he was inaugurated. And last month, in an address to the nation, he announced a goal of making all adults in the United States eligible for a vaccine by May 1. Governors and public health officials in more than 40 states have said that they will meet or beat that deadline.But deep skepticism about the vaccine remains a problem, particularly among Black people, Latinos, Republicans and white evangelicals. Administration officials expect to soon face the possibility of supply exceeding demand if many Americans remain reluctant to be vaccinated. And widespread opposition to vaccination could set back a return to a more normal way of life as the virus continues to spread.Two hundred and seventy-five organizations will participate in the administration’s new public awareness push — including NASCAR, the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the North American Meat Institute — that is aimed at communities where vaccine hesitancy remains high. Among the organizations are many Catholic and evangelical groups that are expected to help address religious concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses abortion-derived fetal cell lines.The group is collectively called the Covid-19 Community Corps, administration officials said, and participating organizations are able to reach millions of Americans who trust those individual groups.A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week found that the number of Black adults willing to be vaccinated had increased substantially since February. But 13 percent of respondents over all said that they would “definitely not” get a vaccine. Among Republicans and white evangelical Christians, almost 30 percent of each group said that they would “definitely not” get a shot.Administration officials said their research showed that vaccine messaging from medical professionals and community leaders, rather than from celebrities or the president, was often more persuasive.“We are not always the best messengers,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said last month when speaking about vaccine hesitancy among conservatives.The full list of participating organizations includes health professionals, scientists, community organizations, faith leaders, businesses, rural stakeholders, civil rights organizations, sports leagues and athletes. The Department of Health and Human Services is also joining the vaccine education effort with the release of frames with the slogan “Let’s Get Vaccinated” that Facebook users can attach to their profile photographs.Part of the challenge of persuading skeptical Americans are the personal and varied reasons for vaccine hesitancy.“I’ve got some pockets where they cite religious reasons with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” said Shirley Bloomfield, the chief executive of N.T.C.A. — The Rural Broadband Association, who has been sharing with the White House what she hears from her group’s members. “There are a lot of pockets where people have already had Covid and a sense of, ‘Well, we’ve all already gotten it, so we’re not really pressed.’”The advertisements are hopeful in tone and are intended as a call to action, saying that everyone can play a part in ending the pandemic by getting vaccinated.To press that point even more, the Department of Health and Human Services has separately bought a multimillion-dollar ad in Black and Spanish-language media, as well as in outlets that reach Asian-Americans and tribal communities, reinforcing the message about the safety and efficacy of coronavirus vaccines.The administration announced last week that it was allocating close to $10 billion to increase vaccine access and confidence in minority communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.Biden officials have been working with many of the groups involved in the Covid-19 Community Corps since the presidential transition, but the formal rollout of a promotional campaign had to wait, they said, until the vaccine supply was at a level where people could quickly act on the information provided to them.

They survived serious cases of Covid-19, sometimes spending weeks on a ventilator, but not without complications. Now, a special clinic at an L.A. hospital is helping them get back to their lives.LOS ANGELES — Three days after being released from Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, Gilbert Torres returned on a stretcher, a clear tube snaking from his nose to an oxygen tank. It was the last place he wanted to be.But Mr. Torres, 30, who had just spent two weeks on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, wasn’t there because his condition had worsened. He was there to visit a new outpatient clinic for Covid-19 survivors, intended to address their lingering physical and psychic wounds — and to help keep them from needing to be readmitted.Several medical centers around the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital, have created similar clinics, a sign of an increasing appreciation of the need to address the long-term effects of Covid. Other hospitals that already had I.C.U. aftercare programs have added large numbers of Covid patients to their rolls: Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, for example, has treated more than 100. And some institutions, like Providence St. Jude in Fullerton, Calif., have recovery programs that also serve coronavirus patients who were never hospitalized.“We put a thousand percent of our energy into these patients,” said Dr. Jason Prasso, one of the intensive care doctors at M.L.K. Hospital who created the clinic there. “We feel accountable for them getting better even after they leave the hospital.”Dr. Jason Prasso, who treated Mr. Torres in the I.C.U., started the clinic with his colleagues when they realized many of their patients were getting little follow-up care.Isadora Kosofsky for The New York TimesWell before the pandemic, doctors knew that some patients recovering from critical illness developed a constellation of symptoms known as post-intensive care syndrome that can include muscle weakness and fatigue. Depression, anxiety and cognitive impairments arise in about half of people who have spent time on ventilators in an I.C.U., studies suggest. About a quarter of these patients develop post-traumatic stress disorder. The risk is higher among those who have had respiratory failure, long hospital stays and treatment with drugs to sedate or paralyze them — all common in the sickest coronavirus patients.Dr. Prasso and his colleagues created the clinic at M.L.K. after realizing that many patients whose lives they had fought to save were getting little follow-up care. The hospital is in a low-income neighborhood where health services, inadequate even before the pandemic, have grown more scarce.Since opening in August, the clinic has seen more than 30 patients. Visits, which happen on Tuesday mornings and include a physical exam and a mental health screening, often entail discussions of housing, food security and employment problems that can arise because of long-term symptoms. Patients are also offered spiritual care.The first to walk into Mr. Torres’s examination room in February was Rudy Rubio, a hospital chaplain who had visited him often in the I.C.U. The pastor asked if they could pray together and offered to get him a Bible.Mr. Torres, whose parents fled war in El Salvador, grew up in the neighborhood and worked cleaning big rigs at a Blue Beacon Truck Wash. Although he was morbidly obese — a risk factor for severe Covid — he enjoyed running and biking and rarely needed to see a doctor. He had no idea how he contracted the coronavirus or became so sick that doctors needed to insert a breathing tube within hours of his arrival at M.L.K. For days before he began showing signs of improvement, they feared he would not survive.“You were spared,” the chaplain told him at the clinic. “What are you going to do with this opportunity?”When Dr. Prasso entered the room, Mr. Torres did not recognize him at first without his protective gown and helmet. “It was you,” he said when the realization dawned.As the doctor examined him, Mr. Torres said he was able to walk short distances but was worried that if he did his oxygen levels would drop. “It is a little bit of a mind game,” Dr. Prasso said. “You may feel short of breath, but your oxygen can still be totally normal.”The clinic would arrange to get Mr. Torres a portable oxygen machine because small tanks were in short supply nationally, the doctor said. He explained that it could take anywhere from a few weeks to several months for patients to wean off; some might require it indefinitely.Mr. Torres brought up another problem. A physical therapist assigned to visit him had canceled. “A lot of the agencies are a little bit resistant to going into people’s homes right now because of Covid,” Dr. Prasso told him. He said the clinic could enroll Mr. Torres in a pulmonary rehabilitation program instead, so that he could work with therapists focused on the recovery of his lungs.Mr. Torres in the intensive care unit in January.Isadora Kosofsky for The New York TimesMr. Torres shared that he was anxious and haunted by memories of beeping I.C.U. monitors and a sensation of choking. He had barely slept since returning home and had not yet seen his 5-year-old son, who was staying temporarily with grandparents. Mr. Torres was afraid of breaking down in front of him.“Everything that you’re feeling is normal,” Dr. Prasso reassured him. “Just know that what you went through was a trauma. It takes time for that to heal.”The two exchanged memories of the moment Mr. Torres’s breathing tube was removed. “You begged me to get the tube out, and as soon as we took the tube out, you asked to have it put back in,” Dr. Prasso said.“It was hard to breathe,” Mr. Torres said. “I didn’t want to be awake.”“This guy had a vise grip on my hand,” Dr. Prasso told Mr. Torres’s partner, Lisseth Salguero, who had joined him in the exam room. Family members, themselves at risk for mental health problems, are encouraged to accompany patients to clinic. Ms. Salguero had developed Covid symptoms the same day as Mr. Torres had, but recovered quickly. Since he had returned home, she had been waking up to check Mr. Torres’s oxygen level at night. “I’m happy as long as he’s OK,” she said.Mr. Torres hours after his breathing tube was removed. He would later recall that “it was hard to breathe” and “I didn’t want to be awake.”Isadora Kosofsky for The New York TimesThe extraordinary stress of an I.C.U. stay in the era of Covid-19 is often compounded by near-unbearable loneliness. Visitor restrictions meant to reduce transmission of the virus can mean weeks separated from loved ones. “I kept asking for someone to hold my hand,” Mr. Torres recalled. “I wanted contact.”The staff members became de facto family. “You have nobody except for your nurses,” Mr. Torres said.For those I.C.U. nurses, caring for Covid patients while being among the few conduits to their family leads to deep emotional attachments. Nina Tacsuan, one of Mr. Torres’s nurses, could not hold back her tears when she saw him in the clinic.“Thank you for keeping me alive, giving me a second chance,” Mr. Torres told her. “I’m grateful.”“You’re my age,” Ms. Tacsuan said. “It was just really hard the whole time.”Nina Tacsuan, wiping tears, and Anahiz Correa, who both work in the I.C.U., joked in the clinic that Mr. Torres was not welcome to return to the unit.Isadora Kosofsky for The New York TimesOften, the experience ends in heartbreak: At the time Mr. Torres was hospitalized, only about 15 percent of Covid patients at M.L.K. being treated with ventilators had survived to go home.Those who do survive, like him, inspire the staff to keep going. But usually I.C.U. workers lack opportunities to see their former patients once they get better. The clinic has changed that.Ms. Tacsuan and a nurse manager, Anahiz Correa, joked that Mr. Torres was no longer welcome in their I.C.U.By the time the transport ambulance picked him up to go home, Mr. Torres said he was feeling much better than when he had arrived. He reunited with his young son, Austin, a couple of days later, and he has continued to improve in the weeks since.Mr. Torres with his partner, Lisseth Salguero, and their 5-year-old son outside their home.Isadora Kosofsky for The New York TimesMr. Torres visited the clinic twice more, in February and in March. Although he ended up declining outpatient rehabilitation — opting instead to climb stairs and do other exercises on his own at home — he said he felt cared for and was glad to have gone.A social worker there connected him with a primary care doctor in M.L.K.’s system for more follow-ups. An osteopath manipulated his back and taught him stretches to help relieve lingering discomfort from his time in the hospital bed. And last week, at his most recent appointment, the clinic staff strung up a congratulatory banner and shouted “Surprise!” as he entered, to mark his “graduation” from having to use an oxygen tank.He still needs more strength and stamina to be able to return to his physically demanding job at the truck wash, he said, but “I’m doing a lot more stuff.” And he is no longer haunted by anxiety, he added. “I feel great.”

From topless politicians to designers, it’s a thing. And it’s part of a longer tradition than you might expect.Someday, when the history of the pandemic is written, it may be a narrative told partly in images: the despair of crowded hospitals and body bags, the fear and isolation of the masks. And then the balm of a smiling individual, one sleeve rolled up practically to the collarbone, with a medical worker poised to jab a needle into their upper arm. Log in to any social platform, and the picture — not to mention The Pose — is almost impossible to miss.The vaccine selfie has gone viral.“I started seeing vaccine selfies almost as soon as the vaccines were available,” said David Broniatowski, an associate professor of engineering and applied science at George Washington University. “It was an almost immediate meme.” And rather than petering out, it seems only to be picking up steam.Indeed, said Jeanine D. Guidry, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University focusing on public health and health communications, “It may end up being one of the iconic images of this time.”Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has sparked its own bizarre sub-trend: the topless (or partially topless) vaccine selfie, as most often modeled by European politicians, but also the occasional celebrity.The French health minister Olivier Véran receives a dose of vaccine in February.Pool photo by Thomas SamsonPrime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece gets a shot in January.Pool photo by Yannis KolesidisThere have been partially disrobed selfies shared by the French health minister Olivier Véran (white dress shirt unbuttoned and left side exposed) and the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis (blue button-up pulled rakishly to one elbow, hairy chest on display). See the partially disrobed selfies from a variety of British members of Parliament, including Brendan Clarke-Smith (checked shirt pulled askew practically to the belly button, with one button above the belt done up for modesty) and Johnny Mercer (entirely shirtless).Also, the designer Marc Jacobs, who posed in pink sparkling shorts with his pink shirt entirely off half of his torso, leopard coat, and some pearls.“It’s a look, and a moment, worth celebrating,” Vogue chortled.Perhaps that does explain the dressing choice: Many of us have been hiding inside for so long, feeling scared and powerless, that there’s something liberating about taking clothes off. Though the answer may also be simply that we’ve forgotten how to dress for public-ish injections. Or the need to do something to get attention in an age of social media chaos. If everyone’s taking selfies, how do you signal that your selfie is an important selfie?After all, as Ms. Guidry pointed out, it is both a new phenomenon — and a very, very old one.Before there was either the vaccine selfie or the topless vaccine selfie, there was the vaccine photo op. And before that, the vaccine engraving.Yup, it goes that far back, in part because, for as long as there have been inoculations, there has been unease around the whole idea. (Taking a healthy person and injecting them with a bit of illness to make them better is a hard sell.) And that means there have been conscious efforts by public health authorities to promote them. Which have, most often, involved The Pose.Marc Jacobs takes a selfie as he gets his Covid-19 shot, later posted to his Instagram account.via Marc Jacobs“Images are just very powerful,” said Mark Dredze, an associate professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University who has studied the way vaccine pictures are shared on Twitter. “People relate to them much more than text.”There are, for example, multiple late-18th-century engravings of Edward Jenner, a vaccine pioneer and creator of the smallpox vaccine, inoculating his own children and patients. One of the most famous of the vaccine photo ops is a 1956 shot of Elvis Presley, then only 21 and a full-fledged teen idol, looking dreamy with his sweater pulled up to get his polio jab. The year before that, a lineup of French models was caught poised to receive their smallpox vaccine, grinning and flashing a bit of shoulder.By 1976, President Gerald Ford, fearful of warnings about a giant wave of swine flu, happily posed in a vest and tie with shirt sleeves rolled up while receiving his flu shot. And, in 2009, President Barack Obama was snapped in the White House with a nurse preparing to administer the H1N1 vaccine. In all cases the theory behind the images was the same.An engraving depicting young James Phipps receiving the first cowpox vaccination from the British physician Edward Jenner in 1796.Adoc-photos/Corbis, via Getty ImagesMembers of the Association of French Models line up for their smallpox vaccinations in 1955.FPG/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images“In public health communications, it’s generally considered good practice to have pictures of trusted leaders” getting their shots,” Mr. Broniatowski said. The thinking goes: You see an elected official being a wiling guinea pig, the picture works its way into your subconscious, and suddenly you start to think: “Oh, I should do that, too.” Follow-the-leader in visual code.And so it went — until the current pandemic.That’s because between President Obama and today, two things happened. First, social media really took off. (It’s hard to remember, but the iPhone was introduced in 2007, which was the same year Facebook and Twitter went global. Instagram didn’t appear until 2010.) Second, as Ms. Guidry said, in something of an understatement, “We’ve seen a breakdown in trust in some areas of science and a breakdown in trust in our political leaders.”That meant that though it was important to see snaps of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris getting their Covid shots on camera, not to mention Dr. Fauci and Vice President Pence (and though it was significant that President Trump was not captured for posterity receiving his shot), “it’s almost more important to see friends and family getting vaccinated,” Ms. Guidry said.It’s advertising 101, Mr. Dredze said, to make sure “people seeing an ad can relate to what they are seeing in the ad.” In public health terms, that translates to people like us — people of all different ages and colors and genders — getting vaccinated. And because we are all now media producers as well as media consumers, it is possible.President Ford gets a swine flu shot in 1976.Bettman, via Getty ImagesA White House nurse administers H1N1 vaccine to President Obama in 2009.Pete Souza/White House, via Getty ImagesAt a time when social networks have become one of our primary means of communication, the images are important, not just to get the news out, but to normalize the experience and expand it — to effectively pay it forward.In the drive toward herd immunity, the vaccine selfie plays a key role. No longer simply an expression of vanity or lifestyle humble brag, it has effectively turned the crowd, witting or not, into health-care proselytizers.While it is possible that all of these pictures of The Pose may cause some resentment (not everyone who wants to get vaccinated can yet get vaccinated), and the topless politicians may have gotten the most attention for their shots (in both meanings of that word), the selfie stream itself represents a tipping point. One that everyone can see.