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Luna Holt’s parents and doctors spent two years fighting for her life, even as they didn’t know what they were fighting against. A scan during her mother’s pregnancy had shown what appeared to be an enlarged liver and spleen. After Luna’s birth, prematurely at 31 weeks, she couldn’t breathe on her own, and she spent the following 14 weeks in intensive care. Genetic test results for the newborn appeared to be normal, but Luna’s parents, Cassie and Dylan Holt, were frantic. “If you don’t have a diagnosis, you at least want a prognosis,” Cassie says. “But we were in the dark.” (Ellison, 8/5)

When Dr. Matthew Daley began his term on a previously little-known advisory committee with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he knew he had a bigger task before him than he had expected. (Ingold, 8/7)

Adult children are less likely to assist an aging stepparent, studies show. A growing “step gap” in senior care worries experts. (Span, 8/3)

Companies and others responsible for some of America's most toxic waste sites are using a federal health agency’s faulty reports to save money on cleanups, defend against lawsuits and deny victims compensation, a Reuters investigation found. A Missouri neighborhood's tale. (Dowdell, Pell, Lesser, Conlin, Quinton and Cunningham, 8/7)

In March, Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink introduced its first human trial participant, a quadriplegic who showed the world how he could control a computer cursor with just his thoughts. Neuralink’s fully implantable, wireless device—if it proves safe during clinical trials—would be a major upgrade on older technology, returning function to thousands of disabled individuals who have lost it. Here’s a look at its device, how it works and similar ones from rivals. (Champelli and Winkler, 8/3)

An empty Duane Reade, steps from Wall Street, darkens a landmark office building. A former Walgreens in a condo in Murray Hill has been closed for over seven years. A boarded-up Rite Aid in Astoria has attracted a homeless encampment in its parking lot. They’re all examples of the city’s living dead. Scores of chain drugstores that once anchored shopping hubs across New York City remain shuttered even as much of the city’s storefront real estate has bounced back from the Covid-19 pandemic. (Chen, 8/6)