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President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have vowed to tackle what they describe as a scourge threatening American children. The rise in autism has been precipitous: One in 36 children is affected today, up from four in 10,000 in the 1980s, the president warned in a recent executive order. Under Mr. Kennedy’s direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to investigate whether vaccines are the cause — despite overwhelming evidence that they are not. (Holden Thorp, 3/20)

The scariest thing about measles is probably not the related deaths, of which there have been two already this winter, the first in the United States in a decade. It may not even be the one-in-10,000 risk of irreversible lifelong paralysis, known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Instead, it’s the much more common effect the virus can have on what’s called immunological memory — creating an immune amnesia that can devastate your ability to fight off future infections. (David Wallace-Wells, 3/19)

US health agency leadership and policymakers seem intent on undermining trust in mRNA, the technology that saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic and has shown promise in addressing a range of infectious diseases and even cancer. (Lisa Jarvis, 3/19)

For decades, scientists have worried about a human pandemic from bird flu, or H5N1, for one main reason: The virus is deadly. Historically, about half the people known to be infected globally have died. But the virus was limited to small subspecies of birds, would occasionally infect poultry, and rarely infected mammals of any kind, including humans. (Ashish K. Jha, 3/20)

What does your hair mean to you? Is it a bold statement of self-expression, a perfect finishing touch to your look or just something you quickly style and move on with your day? For most, hair is a choice — a reflection of identity, mood or routine. But for those battling autoimmune diseases, that choice is taken away. (Aamir Hussain, Magdi Elghannam and Nathan Kattapuram, 3/19)

Like up to 1.7% of the worldwide population, I was born intersex — with physical variations of sex anatomy that don’t align with typical notions of a female or male body. In the United States, roughly 1-2 of every 100 babies are born with intersex traits, so we are as common as those born with red hair or green eyes and more common than identical twins. We have always been here. In fact, researchers announced in 2019 that U.S. Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski was likely intersex. (Kimberly Zieselman, 3/20)