Laura Ungar

Stay informed with Laura Ungar’s coverage and analysis for Fortune.

  • FILE – Children run on the lawn at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., on April 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)Health

    ‘Kids are the canaries in the coal mine’: Huge study finds worse childhood obesity, depression, all-around ill health

    By Laura Ungar, Jonel Aleccia, and others
  • FILE – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference on the Autism report by the CDC at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)Health

    RFK Jr. tosses all 17 members of CDC’s vaccine advisory committee

    By Laura Ungar, Amanda Seitz, and others
  • A dentist cleans the teeth of a child in the public health department’s mobile dental clinic visiting Starmount Elementary school in Charlotte, N.C., on March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)Health

    State and local health departments that do invisible but critical work are being hollowed out by cuts

    By Laura Ungar, Michelle R. Smith, and others
  • The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.Lifestyle

    Measles is highly contagious. Here’s how to protect yourself

    By The Associated Press, Devi Shastri, and others
  • FILE – A sign marks the entrance to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, on Oct. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)Health

    Trump administration looks to claw back $11.4 billion in COVID funding from state and local health departments

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press
  • President Trump smilingFamily

    Trump signs executive order to cut the $25,000 price tag of IVF

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press
  • RatLifestyle

    Brown rats got to America nearly 300 years ago and wiped out black rats in just a few decades, says study that looked at 32 piles of rodent bones

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press
  • mMind

    A pacemaker for the brain helped a woman with crippling depression. It may soon be available widely

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press
  • Elon MuskTech

    Elon Musk says the first human to get a neural implant was ‘recovering well’ after a ‘promising neuron spike detection’

    By Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Laura Ungar, and others
  • Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is a medication typically used in combination with misoprostol to bring about a medical abortion during pregnancy and manage early miscarriage. A United States appeals court has ruled to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone, ordering a ban on telemedicine prescriptions and shipments of the drug by mail, this issue has created uproar in the USA, according to a report. It also limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy, rather than 10. Mifepristone’s availability remains unchanged for now, following an emergency order from the US Supreme Court in April preserving the status quo during the appeal. A Box of Mifepristone Pills photo was taken at a pharmacy in Tehatta, West Bengal; India on 18/08/2023. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Health

    Some U.S. women are stocking up on abortion pills—but they remain out of reach for those facing the ‘greatest barriers to abortion care’

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press
  • Neanderthal scientistLifestyle

    ‘The Hobbit’ had a grain of truth: DNA reveals a lost age when ‘a different kind of human’ walked the earth

    By Maddie Burakoff, Laura Ungar, and others
  • Lab-grown meatHealth

    ‘Lab-grown’ meat gets first ever nod from US regulators: ”The most common response we get is, ‘Oh, it tastes like chicken”

    By Jonel Aleccia, Laura Ungar, and others
  • FILE – Bottles of abortion pills mifepristone, left, and misoprostol, right, at a clinic in Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 22, 2010. A federal appeals court has preserved access to an abortion drug for now but under tighter rules that would allow the drug only to be dispensed up to seven weeks, not 10, and not by mail. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)Health

    Abortion providers are scrambling to help patients and after pill restriction from courts: ‘This is going to have a severe, severe impact on access’

    By Laura Ungar, Amanda Seitz, and others
  • Chinese scientist He Jiankui speaks at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong on November 28, 2018. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)Health

    The man who claimed he genetically engineered babies just got out of a Chinese prison for practicing without a license and he’s eyeing a comeback

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press
  • Rylae-Ann PoulinHealth

    ‘There’s a lot of exciting times ahead of us’: Game-changing gene therapy for brain disorders is right around the corner

    By Laura Ungar and The Associated Press