Donald G. McNeil, Jr.

Social distancing and masks are doing their job in keeping us safe during the pandemic. Donald McNeil offers more nuggets of optimism going into the winter.

As the number of cases grow, can the U.S. emulate China's aggressive public health strategy. 

Where the virus is spreading and what you can do to avoid getting sick.;  

The CDC has warned pregnant women not to travel to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where the Zika virus is spreading. Hear what you need to know.

Health officials have taken up a "cordoning" tactic not used in almost a century to try and isolate the Ebola outbreak. We discuss the latest news and the history of fighting plagues such as this with New York Times science reporter Donald G. McNeil, Jr.

By most accounts, the history of AIDS begins sometime in the late 1970s, before the first official cases were diagnosed in 1981 among a handful of gay men. But a striking new book by Dr. Jacques Pépin, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, upends medical history. In "The Origins of AIDS," Pépin traces the roots of the disease back to 1921 when a handful of bush-meat hunters in Africa may have been the first to be exposed to infected chimpanzee blood.

Two new studies released on Wednesday show that taking a daily pill designed to fight AIDS can actually prevent an uninfected person from contracting HIV. Donald G. McNeil, Jr., science and health reporter for The New York Times, wrote about this potentially monumental find in today's paper, and has the latest on the story. 

For the second time in history, an infectious disease has been eradicated. In 1979, smallpox was the first disease to be successfully wiped away. Now, a little-known disease called rinderpest is now joining the list. Rinderpest means "cattle plague" in German, and is a relative of the measles virus that infects cattle, deer, and other hoofed animals. The most virulent strains killed 95 percent of the herds they attacked, which was life-threatening for any society dependent on cattle. It has been blamed for speeding the fall of the Roman Empire.

Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science reporter for The New York Times, joins us with a look at what could be a significant breakthrough in the fight against the spread of HIV. Researchers h...

Pain medication is one of the marvels of the modern age. But as Americans buy billions of doses of acetaminophen each year, the risk of misuse increases. More than 400 people die and ...

The Center for Disease Control said on Friday that at least one million people in the U.S. have contracted the H1N1 virus known as swine flu. The Takeaway is talking to Donald McNeil,...

Looks like H1N1 virus, still more popularly known as the swine flu, is waning in Mexico. The virus has sickened at least 245 people in the U.S., and killed a young boy. So what lies a...

An update on the ongoing outbreak of swine flu around New York and the world

While Mexico struggles to manage the outbreak of swine flu and is rushing to confirm cases by sending samples to the United States, Hong Kong is already performing genetic tests and h...

Somali immigrants living in Minneapolis, Minnesota are finding that an increasing number of their children have autism. Is it random coincidence, or evidence of a larger epidemic? New...