Healthcare

The "gold-standard'' COVID-19 tests need to be processed in a lab, and usually take at least a day to provide results. Rapid tests can be processed in the same place a patient is tested, sometimes in as few as 15 minutes, but they are generally considered less reliable than lab results.

For the past thousand years, our lifespans have been slowly and steadily increasing. With the exception of somewhat unscheduled plagues and wars, each generation has enjoyed their years on our planet a slight bit longer than the previous. That is, until now. Rather shockingly, new research indicates that segments of the population have begun, just recently, to experience a reversal of this thousand-year long trend. Moreover, while other wealthy nations around the world continue to see a steady march toward longer lives, mysteriously, the reversal in lifespan is, thus far, only evident in the United States.