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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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Competition and Collaboration: Understanding Interacting Epidemics Can Unlock Better Disease Forecasts
A new algorithm increases scientists’ abilities to accurately model mutually dependent spreading processes, from virus outbreaks to disinformation on social media.
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Antimicrobial Resistance Far Deadlier Than Thought
In the largest and most comprehensive study to date on the global burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), an international team of researchers estimates that more than 1.2 million people died from drug-resistant infections in 2019.
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Urban Britain’s Potential as a “Grow Your Own” Nation
Britain’s towns and cities have the potential to support an urban agricultural revolution that would help meet the dietary needs of a growing population, boost the nation’s health and wellbeing, as well as reduce reliance on imports.Britain’s towns and cities have the potential to support an urban agricultural revolution that would help meet the dietary needs of a growing population, boost the nation’s health and wellbeing, as well as reduce reliance on imports.
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Lockdowns During Early Pandemic Saved Lives, but Not a Go-To Strategy Moving Forward: Study
The U.S. pandemic lockdown in 2020 caused a $2.3 trillion economic downturn and split the nation politically, and now some European nations are locking down again as Omicron surges through the global population. But do these drastic measures save lives? Are they worth massive job and income losses?
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The long view
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Combatting the Measles Threat Means Examining the Reasons for Declining Vaccination Rates
Measles was supposedly eradicated in Canada more than a quarter century ago. But today, measles is surging. The cause of this resurgence is declining vaccination rates.
Social Networks Are Not Effective at Mobilizing Vaccination Uptake
The persuasive power of social networks is immense, but not limitless. Vaccine preferences, based on the COVID experience in the United States, proved quite insensitive to persuasion, even through friendship networks.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
“Tulsi Gabbard as US Intelligence Chief Would Undermine Efforts Against the Spread of Chemical and Biological Weapons”: Expert
The Senate, along party lines, last week confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National intelligence. One expert on biological and chemical weapons says that Gabbard’s “longstanding history of parroting Russian propaganda talking points, unfounded claims about Syria’s use of chemical weapons, and conspiracy theories all in efforts to undermine the quality of the community she now leads” make her confirmation a “national security malpractice.”