As we approach the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott Gottlieb argues that sound policy requires understanding that the danger the disease posed when it first reached our shores is not what it is today. "So long as we remain mired in a 2020 doctrine for measuring prevalence and how it correlates with risk," he writes, "we're going to be unable to adapt public-health measures to the virus's ebb and flow, or find a common touchstone for managing risk in our lives."

Steven E. Koonin argues that data challenge panicked assertations that human activity is melting Greenland's vast ice sheet. In fact, annual ice loss today is no larger than it was nearly a century ago — and the annual loss has actually been decreasing over the past decade.

Although the state of the international order seems to be in disrepair, Michael Beckley argues that competition with China is forging a new order, as nations build loose economic blocs and military barriers to confront the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Mark J. Warshawsky's latest working paper shows how COVID-19 ravaged nursing homes and afflicted senior citizens with little effective solution until vaccines became available. Vaccines are the best protection we have for the elderly, so the challenge will be to raise their vaccination rates even higher.

John P. Bailey points out an often-overlooked fact: The cost of school closures during the pandemic has been hardest on low-income families. Bailey warns that "every time a school closes or a child has to quarantine for two weeks, working parents must either find child care or risk missing work, which could result in a loss of income."

Adam J. White surveys the career of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and reviews the justice's new book, which "challenges those who are attempting to delegitimize the Roberts Court, and especially those who would attempt to pack it with additional seats."