Martha Bebinger

"I know we will succeed somewhat and we will fail somewhat," says one of the plan's chief architects. "We won't be able to find every single person — but we will hopefully prevent a lot of deaths."

The CDC says reopening the U.S. economy during the coronavirus pandemic will require very aggressive contact tracing. WBUR health reporter Martha Bebinger talks about what that entails.

As the health industry focuses on COVID-19, there has been a big drop in nonurgent visits for primary care and specialty care. Medical practices are being forced to furlough or lay off staff.

People in recovery from opioid or alcohol addiction are weathering a new storm of depression, anxiety and isolation these days, as 12-step programs move online and detox centers close their doors.

Sobriety programs are delivering services virtually, but the coronavirus pandemic is causing a lot of difficulties for people relying on services to continue their recovery from addiction.

Despite Trump's public remarks, infectious disease experts say it's premature to think hydroxychloroquine will help against COVID-19. And patients with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis rely on the drug.

When patients need long-term treatment with IV antibiotics, hospitals usually let them do it at home — but not if they have a history of injection drug use. A Boston program wants to change that.

The state now requires women and girls under 18 to obtain permission from their parents or a judge. But in a recent poll, most Massachusetts voters favored letting minors decide on their own.

Public health officials are adopting a law-enforcement tool, the mass spectrometer, to instantly identify potentially deadly levels of opioids in local drug supplies.

Calming techniques officers learn during training for intervening in a mental health crisis don't seem to work as well when a suspect is high on meth. Police say meth calls can be much more dangerous.