Stories
Susan Parker walked through the offices at ProHealth Physician’s Glastonbury Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine carrying a large white box. She set it down on a table next to a couple of small medical freezers. “This is literally the first one,” she said before grabbing a pair of scissors and tearing open the box. Inside were…
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Commentary from WBUR reporter Barbara Moran. One of my son’s favorite recipes is “dinner en papillote” — it sounds fancy but it’s just sausage, potatoes, onions and mushrooms, wrapped in aluminum foil and baked for an hour. Voila — dinner is served! I expected the vegan version would be a hit. The soy chorizo looked…
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Sneezing. Scratchy eyes. Car windshields caked with yellow-green buildup. These are the signs of spring that New England allergy-sufferers (including this reporter) greet with disdain. Despite heralding the triumphant return of our local plant life, these gifts feel more like lumps of coal. We’re early in the pollen season here in the Northeast, with most trees…
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The six New England states will soon receive more than $200 million from the federal government to replace lead pipes in the region’s drinking water system. The allocation is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed by President Biden last year. The overall law targets $15 billion toward replacing every lead pipe in the country’s…
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On a recent February morning, Eliza, a senior at Amherst Regional High School in Amherst, Massachusetts, walked down the school hallway. Accompanied by a school social worker, Eliza chatted about some of her favorite books and TV shows, and when she passed a teacher she hadn’t seen in several weeks, she got excited. There was…
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In the first year of the pandemic, Liam Magan, 28, decided it was finally time to get gender-affirming surgery. Magan researched medical centers, made appointments with doctors and surgeons and got authorization from his health insurance company. But over a year later, he’s still waiting for a hospital bed to open up. Transgender people in…
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Health care workers in Maine have been besieged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest surge in hospitalizations has pushed an already overextended workforce to the brink. To get a better sense of what hospital workers are facing, we asked frontline staff to record audio diaries. The first audio diary was submitted by ICU nurse Cynthia…
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COVID data out of Massachusetts General Hospital show a new version of the omicron variant is in the state, but in very small numbers. The variant, known as BA.2, will likely increase in Massachusetts as it is elsewhere that cases have been detected, said MGH Dr. Jacob Lemieux. In those countries, BA.2 is extending the wave of…
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Despite the latest statistics showing an increase in opioid use and overdoses among women in Massachusetts, the number of women seeking addiction treatment has dropped dramatically. While the pandemic presented challenges to accessing treatment because of staffing and concerns about congregate settings, state officials are looking at other factors that may be behind the drop. Meanwhile, there are signs that…
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On a bustling Wednesday, volunteers are packing plastic bags with green peppers, ears of corn, peaches — and ingredients specifically used in Southeast Asian dishes, like water spinach, scallions and ginger. Other days, jasmine rice, bok choy and Japanese eggplant make their way into the bags. “That’s super popular as well. A lot of people…
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