Stories don't end when the headlines move on.

Since the rollout of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, one of the most persistent claims has been that the vaccines change or integrate into a person's DNA. This story tracks what the evidence actually shows. While laboratory studies have explored isolated molecular mechanisms under artificial conditions, multiple lines of evidence indicate that the vaccines do not alter recipients' genomic DNA under normal clinical use.

Six years into the pandemic, most people have immunity from prior infection, vaccination, or both — so the real question is what the latest booster adds on top of that. New 2026 studies converge on a meaningful but modest reduction in hospitalization and urgent care, largest for older and higher-risk adults, and waning over months. Whether it’s “worth it” depends a lot on who you are.

Each month, the headline U.S. jobs number leads the news — then quietly gets revised as more data arrive. In February 2026, annual benchmark revisions cut 2025’s job growth by more than 400,000, leaving just ~181,000 jobs added for the entire year: an already-soft labor market was even softer than first reported. This is the “memory problem” in miniature — the correction rarely reaches everyone who saw the first number.

Reports linking Ozempic (semaglutide) and other GLP-1 receptor agonists to blindness have drawn widespread attention. The current evidence does not establish that these drugs cause blindness, but several observational studies have reported an association with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a rare form of sudden optic nerve injury. We are tracking whether accumulating evidence supports a causal relationship or whether the observed association is explained by underlying risk factors such as diabetes and vascular disease.

For most of the 20th century, peptic ulcers were blamed on stress and excess stomach acid. Beginning in 1982, two researchers in Perth argued the real culprit was a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori. The idea was dismissed for years — then became medical consensus, and a Nobel Prize.