Covid-19

Bingeing on Doom: Expert on the ‘Black Death’ Attracts Cult Following

A 2016 series on the 14th-century plague became must-see TV during spring’s COVID-19 outbreak — and flooded Purdue medievalist Dorsey Armstrong with questions about parallels between that pandemic and the current crisis.

Pandemic-Inspired Food Labeling Raises Alarms for Those With Food Allergies

The Food and Drug Administration released new “temporary guidance” for manufacturers facing supply chain shortages that allows them to make some ingredient substitutions without changing food labels. The pandemic had already made finding trusted foods difficult for some people with allergies. Now they’re worrying about what’s actually in their go-to products.

Administration Eases Rules to Give Laid-Off Workers More Time to Sign Up for COBRA

Under the federal COBRA law, people who lose health coverage because of a layoff or a reduction in their hours generally have 60 days to decide whether to pay to maintain that coverage. But under new regulations, the clock won’t start ticking until the government says the coronavirus national emergency is over, and then consumers will have 120 days to act.