Sometimes these terms are thematically related, particularly in the wake of world-altering events. 'Pandemic,' 'lockdown' and 'coronavirus,' for example, were among the words chosen in 2020. At other times, they are a potpourri of various cultural trends, as with 2022's 'goblin mode,' 'permacrisis' and 'gaslighting.' This year's slate largely centers on digital life. But rather than reflecting the unbridled optimism about the internet of the early aughts ' when words like 'w00t,' 'blog,' 'tweet' and even 'face with tears of joy' emoji (') were chosen ' this year's selections reflect a growing unease over how the internet has become a hotbed of artifice, manipulation and fake relationships. Macquarie defines the term, which was popularized in 2024 by British programmer Simon Willison and tech journalist Casey Newton, as 'low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors, and not requested by the user.' AI slop ' which can range from a saccharine image of a young girl clinging to her little dog to career advice on LinkedIn ' often goes viral, as gullible social media users share these computer-generated videos, text and graphics with others....

The Food and Drug Administration is seeking to drastically change procedures for testing vaccine safety and approving vaccines, based on unproven claims that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines caused the death of at least 10 children. Citing an internal, unpublished review, the memo, written by the agency's top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, attributes the children's deaths to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. And it says the deaths were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, but provides no evidence that the vaccines caused the deaths. The death of children due to an unsafe vaccine is a serious allegation. I am a pediatric cardiologist who has studied the link between COVID-19 vaccines and heart-related side effects such as myocarditis in children. To my knowledge, studies to date have shown such side effects are rare, and severe outcomes even more so. However, I am open to new evidence that could change my mind. But without sufficient justification and solid evidence, restricting access to an approved vaccine and changing well-established procedures for testing vaccines would carry serious consequences. These moves would limit access for patients, create roadblocks for companies and worsen distrust in vaccines and public health....

Sometimes I think I became a mother not in a hospital room but in a Trader Joe's in New York City. It was May 2020. A masked but smizing employee took one look at my stomach and handed me a packet of dark-chocolate peanut-butter cups. 'Happy Mother's Day!' she said. I was pregnant, with twins, during the early months of the pandemic, and all I could think about was food'what to eat and how to acquire it. Once a week I dashed clumsily through the store's aisles, grabbing cans of beans and bags of apples while trying not to breathe, like a contestant on a postapocalyptic episode of Supermarket Sweep. Food then was interlaced with a sense of danger, the coronavirus potentially spreading (we worried, absurdly it turned out) even by way of reusable totes. Meanwhile, I knew from my relentless pregnancy apps that what I ate could have monumental implications for my future children's eating habits. I was scared, and I felt powerless, and food seemed like one of the few things I could control, or at least try to....

Following the federal government's changes to COVID-19 vaccine eligibility and recommendations in 2025, many people are wondering whether they can get COVID-19 vaccines for themselves or their children. In May 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limited eligibility for updated COVID-19 vaccines to people ages 65 years and up and to those under 65 with a 'high-risk' condition. In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted an 'individualized decision-making' approach to COVID-19 vaccination instead of broadly recommending the vaccines. In the fall of 2025 that landscape looks a bit different in light of the new guidelines. While it is causing understandable confusion, most people who want to get a COVID-19 vaccine can do so. Broad access is possible, in part, through what in health care is called 'off-label use.' 'Off-label' refers to using an FDA-approved product for a different purpose, or with a different population, than that for which it received approval. Off-label prescriptions are common in health care, particularly in pediatrics....