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There is an old rule of thumb: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you stop debating taxonomy and call it a duck. When it comes to measles, we have collectively decided not to do that. The careful phrasing is everywhere you look. The United States "may lose” its measles elimination status. The country's standing is "at risk." A panel "will determine" whether elimination should be held. That conditional tense is doing a lot of work, and I understand the instinct, since no one wants to be the doctor who calls it too early. But there is a difference between waiting for certainty and refusing to see what is already on the monitor. (Jess Steier, 6/24)

Every year, a safe-sunscreen guide sparks needless concern. (Misty Eleryan and Adam Friedman, 6/25)

The genetic counselor handed me a tissue. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Whitten,” she said. “Eighty to ninety percent of people terminate these pregnancies. You can, too.” Twenty-three years ago, my husband, Tom, and I had just received prenatal screening results indicating our unborn child probably had Down syndrome. Instead of offering us actual counseling, she played a video about Down syndrome — and it was terrifying. (Michelle Sie Whitten, 6/25)

"Do we want our prescription refills to be approved or denied by Chinese Communist Party-controlled pharmaceutical companies?" (Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, 6/24)

Just before the bicentennial fireworks started, on July 1, 1976, the precedent-setting Tarasoff v. Regents of University of California case redefined patient confidentiality by introducing the concept of “mandated reporting” and codifying the ethical and legal “duty to warn.” (M. Sara Rosenthal, 6/25)