Amber Dance
Freelance science journalist
Freelance science journalist
Amber Dance, Ph.D., an award-winning freelance science journalist based in Southern California, co-authors the Center's Health Divide column. She also contributes to publications including PNAS Front Matter, The Scientist, and Nature. She also edits books on a variety of topics.
After earning a doctorate in biology, Amber Dance re-trained in journalism as a way to engage her broad interest in science and share her enthusiasm with readers. She mainly writes about life sciences, with particular expertise in microbiology, cell biology, neuroscience and lab techniques.
School mask mandates become civil rights issue, booster fault lines emerge, and long COVID mysteries abound.
Mandates follow in the wake of Pfizer's full approval, and prescriptions and calls to poison control centers for ivermectin rise dramatically.
Plus, new survey data on COVID-19 vaccination in the LGBTQ+ community, and plans for booster shots take shape.
As delta cases surge, breakthrough cases are inciting new vaccine worries. Here's the latest news roundup.
The federal eviction ban is partially reinstated, while the summer delta surge changes back-to-school calculations.
Pandemic aid programs cut the number of poor Americans by almost half between 2018 and 2021. What will happen when these programs end?
Pandemic delays put Dreamers' status at risk? Will masks be fall's must-have back-to-school accessory? Read more in this week's COVID-19 news roundup.
The biotech billionaire sits down with NYT health and science writer Pam Belluck to reflect on what we've learned and the big stories to come.
Overdose fatalities rose in 2020, with Black people at high risk; cases on the rise, but vaccines remain politicized; Pfizer's booster remains uncertain.
This week: The end of pandemic housing support looms for homeless people, a nation divided by vaccination status, and the big question: Do you need a booster shot?