Stories

For most of the 20th century, peptic ulcers were blamed on stress and excess stomach acid. Beginning in 1982, two researchers in Perth argued the real culprit was a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori. The idea was dismissed for years — then became medical consensus, and a Nobel Prize.

Six years into the pandemic, most people have immunity from prior infection, vaccination, or both — so the real question is what the latest booster adds on top of that. New 2026 studies converge on a meaningful but modest reduction in hospitalization and urgent care, largest for older and higher-risk adults, and waning over months. Whether it’s “worth it” depends a lot on who you are.

Each month, the headline U.S. jobs number leads the news — then quietly gets revised as more data arrive. In February 2026, annual benchmark revisions cut 2025’s job growth by more than 400,000, leaving just ~181,000 jobs added for the entire year: an already-soft labor market was even softer than first reported. This is the “memory problem” in miniature — the correction rarely reaches everyone who saw the first number.