Think of epidemiologists as doctors for the world, says Dr. James Buehler, a former epidemiology professor at Emory who worked at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for two decades. “Physicians monitor an individual’s health and recommend ways to stay fit. Epidemiologists monitor the health of populations.”

This kind of functional exercise is said to recruit a greater number of muscles than traditional weight training while also stimulating the central nervous system.

Last week, scientists reported that the first COVID-19 vaccine trial in humans showed an immune response similar to the one found in people who recovered from COVID-19 infection—an important first hurdle in the race for a vaccine.

For months, people have applauded doctors in creative ways, from spontaneous cheers to donated meals. But we were curious about whom physicians themselves wanted to thank.

Western culture idolizes feeling good, making us chronically incapable of facing human fragility. People shun discussions of death. They fear talking about grief. If you haven’t yet squirmed in grief’s grip, I’m sorry to say, it’s ahead.

When I move, it is with purpose: To get stronger, to get leaner, to get somewhere, and to get there now. So to think I might try walking intentionally—as slow as humanly possible, barefoot, and without a destination in mind—is almost laughable. Yet I do it sometimes.

The number of Georgia women who die from pregnancy-related causes is startling: According to 2018 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state’s rate of such deaths was more than double that of California, and, in many recent years, that rate has been the highest in the country.