Gabrielle Emanuel

Radiation was another treatment that researchers were refining at the time. Gordon Isaacs was the first patient treated with the linear accelerator (radiation therapy) for retinoblastoma. Gordon's right eye was removed January 11, 1957 because the cancer had spread. His left eye had only a localized tumor and was treated with the electron beam. Gordon's vision in the left eye returned to normal. NIH/National Cancer Institute hide caption

Don Murphy hands out free rapid COVID tests outside of Robinson Middle School in Lowell, Massachusetts. Gabrielle Emanuel/WBUR hide caption

Hillary Creech, of Jonesboro, Ark., built a DIY air purifier for her husband's classroom. "My husband's classroom in particular has a wall full of windows, none of which open," she said Courtesy of Hillary Creech hide caption

Jodee Pineau-Chaisson sits in her office in Springfield, Mass., on Jan. 12. Pineau-Chaisson, a social worker, contracted the coronavirus last May and continues to have symptoms even months after testing negative for the virus. Meredith Nierman/GBH News hide caption

A sign outside a U.S. Social Security Administration office in Mount Prospect, Ill., in October last year. Closed SSA offices across the country are being blamed for a 30 percent drop in applications for an aid program for the most vulnerable. Nam Y. Huh/AP hide caption

A Boston EMS ambulance crew wheels in a patient to MGH from their ambulance in Boston on April 8, 2020. Hospitals brace for a surge in patients. Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption