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Was the Late 19th Century’s “Russian Flu” Actually a Coronavirus?
Scientists are increasingly speculating the famous Russia flu that emerged in 1889 may have actually been driven by a coronavirus. They note, among other things, that as with COVID-19 but unlike with influenza, the elderly were severely impacted while children fared much better during the Russian flu.
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COVID Vaccines Offer Lasting Protection against Reinfection: Studies
Two new studies suggest good, durable protection of COVID-19 vaccines against recurrent infection. NEJM editor-in-chief said that COVID-19 survivors can still benefit from subsequent vaccination, although the ideal time to vaccinate is yet unknown: “There is an advantage, and although the absolute risk difference may be small, it’s real. Also, there doesn’t appear to be a safety issue with getting boosted.”
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How a Two-century Megadrought Gap Set Up the West for Its Water and Climate Crisis
Since the turn of the 21st century, researchers probing evidence locked in tree rings and other clues to past climate conditions have been building an increasingly unnerving picture of southwestern North America as prone to deep, prolonged droughts. Megadrought is the emerging term for the worst of these extreme dry spells — those lasting two decades or more.
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Speed and Surprises: Decline and Recovery of Global Electricity Use in COVID’s First Seven Months
The unprecedented plunge in electricity use around the world at the beginning of the global pandemic was tied to shut-down policies and other factors. Surprisingly, the recovery to pre-COVID levels was quite fast and not linked to those same factors.
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It Costs Far Less to Prevent Pandemics than Control Them
Investing tens of billions of dollars now in programs that enhance environmental protection and boost early-stage wildlife disease surveillance could reduce the risk of future animal-to-human pandemics by up to half and save millions of lives and trillions of dollars in losses annually.
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COVID Tests May Leak Personal Data
In Sweden, when you take a PCR test to have a certificate issued – and last year, 14 million PCR tests were performed — your personal data are handled by private companies. Researchers have discovered a critical security weakness at such a company that handles these certificates in all major cities in Sweden.
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Co-Occurring Droughts May Threaten Global Food Security
Droughts occurring at the same time across different regions of the planet could place an unprecedented strain on the global agricultural system and threaten the water security of millions of people, according to a new study.
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Pandemic-Related School Closings Likely to Have Far-Reaching Effects on Child Well-Being
A global analysis has found that kids whose schools closed to stop the spread of various waves of the coronavirus lost educational progress and are at increased risk of dropping out of school. As a result, the study says, they will earn less money from work over their lifetimes than they would have if schools had remained open.
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Survivors of Weather-Related Disasters May Suffer Accelerated Aging
What is the toll on the long-term health of the population of the stress caused by major natural disasters? And could exposure to extreme weather events accelerate the aging process? A new study offers sobering insights.
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Disaster News on TV and Social Media Can Trigger Post-Traumatic Stress in Kids Thousands of Miles Away – Here’s Why Some Are More Vulnerable
Natural disasters are typically accompanied by a flood of gruesome images on TV and social media. These images can have a powerful psychological impact on children – whether those children are physically in the line of danger or watching from thousands of miles away.
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An Estimated 1.2 Million People Died in 2019 from Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Infections
First comprehensive analysis of global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) estimates resistance itself caused 1.27 million deaths in 2019 - more deaths than HIV/AIDS or malaria - and that antimicrobial-resistant infections played a role in 4.95 million deaths.
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Why Homicide Rates Spiked 30% During the Pandemic
The number of homicides in the United States spiked almost 30% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenon seen in both cities and rural areas, and in Republican and Democratic-leaning states. While there have been calls from some quarters to abolish or defund the police, the vast majority of Americans oppose getting rid of police departments.
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Disaster Expert Testifies in Congress Regarding Future Pandemics
“The severity, the disruptions, the politicization of the response, the inequities, and the pandemics’ persistence were all predicted in various reports, studies, and historical records of prior pandemics. The shortage of ventilators, personal protective equipment, and healthcare system capacity was the subject of numerous reports, including from the federal government…. We didn’t want to spend the money on what was needed, so we are dealing with the consequences now. And our response is a lot more expensive and a lot less effective as a result”: Colombia University’s Jeffrey Schlegelmilch.
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Low-Cost Radio System Could Help Trace Disease Spread
In efforts to limit the spread of disease while preserving privacy, an interdisciplinary research team at NIST has designed and tested low-cost devices and methods that can detect when people or animals come into close contact with each other.
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Support for Populist Politics “Collapsed” During the Pandemic: Report
Support for populist parties and politicians, and agreement with populist sentiment, has fallen amid the pandemic, according to a “mega-dataset” taking in the attitudes of over half a million people across 109 countries.
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The long view
Huge Areas May Face Possibly Fatal Heat Waves if Warming Continues
A new assessment warns that if Earth’s average temperature reaches 2 degrees C over the preindustrial average, widespread areas may become too hot during extreme heat events for many people to survive without artificial cooling.