Federal statistics show nursing homes still overuse medications to quell the behavioral problems that come with cognitive decline. Experts advocate for alternatives. After Bobby Tweed moved into a Tennessee nursing home, the spirited 78-year-old with dementia grew listless and withdrawn. Tweed, a gentle man who his daughter says “never hit anybody in his whole life,” was suddenly labeled “agitated” after a scuffle with another resident. In reality, Tweed was suffering from a common, treatable urinary tract infection, a physical condition well known to trigger temporary delirium and behavioral changes in dementia patients. Doctors treated him for the infection, but facility staff still...

The strain of bird flu that’s ripped through American barns for the last four years has killed two people who caught it from sick animals. But as far as anyone can tell, humans can’t spread it. The virus has remained a true “bird” flu, tailored to attach to avian cells, not invade human throats and noses, where coughing and sneezing reliably spew droplets. Under the right conditions, however, that could change. A single mutation could give the bird flu a foothold in people and spark a pandemic that experts fear could be deadlier than COVID-19. For that to happen, this bird flu would likely need to find an intermediate host — an animal vulnerable to viruses that infect both birds and...