Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

Last July, I read an article in a medical journal about a puzzling new strain of the mpox virus that had turned up in Kamituga, a scrappy mining town in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 1,200 miles from where mpox was known to be endemic. It seemed to be spreading primarily through sexual contact, moving rapidly between people. That behavior hadn’t been seen in mpox before.