• American Democracy and Pandemic Security

    Covid-19 cost the nation and the world millions of lives and trillions of dollars in economic losses and caused major societal deficits in learning, health, and well-being. The United States faced specific challenges in how its national pandemic response, rooted in its culture and federated system of public health, was organized and executed. National crises have historically brought the country together. Yet, the United States was unable to organize cohesive leadership at the national, state, local, and tribal levels, and it failed to rapidly unify its citizens to act in solidarity to suppress the emerging pandemic.

  • Could Bird Flu in Mink Signal Threat of a Human Pandemic?

    A bird flu outbreak on a Spanish mink farm has alarmed scientists. The virus may be spreading for the first time from mammal to mammal — and could become a danger for humans.

  • Disease X: How to End Pandemics

    A new book tracks how the world can stop future pandemics. It offers a perspective on the COVID-19 response and lays out a roadmap to prepare to beat the next Disease X. The book challenges us to understand continual and growing infectious disease threats, but also offers hope and looks ahead to a pandemic-free future.

  • Why Did So Many Buy COVID Misinformation? It Works Like Magic.

    Misinformation and disinformation about COVID and government-led health measures to combat the pandemic hampered efforts to form a unified national response to the disease. Public health officials, who struggled to convince doubters and skeptics, are still working through how and why it happened. Harvard Law panelists say both misinformation and magic exploit how brains process information.

  • Doomsday Clock Set at 90 Seconds to Midnight

    The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight, due largely but not exclusively to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The new Clock time was also influenced by continuing threats posed by the climate crisis and the breakdown of global norms and institutions needed to mitigate risks associated with advancing technologies and biological threats.

  • The Last of Us: Fungal Infections Really Can Kill – and They’re Getting More Dangerous

    Millions have been tuning in every week to watch the highly anticipated TV adaptation of “The Last of Us.” The show depicts a post-apocalyptic world where society has collapsed due to the outbreak of a dangerous, brain-controlling fungal infection that turns humans into hostile, cannibalistic “zombies.” Fortunately for us, a fast-spreading fungal pandemic is pretty unlikely – but this doesn’t mean fungi aren’t still a concern.

  • COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories That Spread Fastest Focused on Evil, Secrecy

    In the early pandemic, conspiracy theories that were shared the most on Twitter highlighted malicious purposes and secretive actions of supposed bad actors behind the crisis, according to an analysis of nearly 400,000 posts.

  • How Countries Responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic

    Researchers offer new insights into how countries respond to systemic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A new, data-driven approach quantifies pandemic resiliency in multiple dimensions.

  • Can ‘Digital Traces’ from Internet Searches and Social Media Predict Outbreaks of COVID-19?

    Your Google searches and Twitter accounts alert marketers about what items you might like to  purchase—could they also serve as an early warning system when COVID-19 levels are about to take off?

  • Tackling Crowd Management in Subways During Pandemics

    Mass transit, and subways in particular, are essential to the economic viability and environmental sustainability of cities across the globe. Researchers are working with NYC’s MTA to develop machine learning and traffic models to optimize traffic flow during pandemics.

  • Pathogen Early Warning

    When COVID-19 struck in late 2019 and early 2020, governments worldwide were caught off guard. The systems that countries and international institutions established, particularly those designed to spot novel threats before they metastasized into something more dangerous, proved insufficient to halt COVID-19’s spread. Since then, the importance of effective early warning systems has only increased.

  • House Intelligence Panel Releases COVID-19 Reports

    The House Intelligence Committee released a declassified report examining the Intelligence Community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic following a two-year investigation. The report examines the IC’s posture to support global health security policymakers, the IC’s performance in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the steps the IC must take to strengthen any future pandemic response.

  • WHO Urges China to Share Data on Origin of COVID-19 Pandemic

    The World Health Organization has urged China to share data on the origin of the coronavirus that caused the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

  • COVID Vaccine More Effective Than Infection Against Death, Hospital Care, Study Finds

    One of the first large studies to compare deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits among COVID-19 vaccine recipients versus those who were infected shows the vaccines were more effective in preventing negative outcomes, especially for adults aged 60 years and older.

  • Software Tracking Pandemics

    DHS has awarded $5 million to create tools to increase the nation’s level of preparedness for biological threats — including an infection rate tracking program for COVID-19 developed by a Sandia National Laboratories team in 2020.