• Unifying U.S. Atmospheric Biology Research to Prevent Risks to National Security

    Global circulating winds can carry bacteria, fungal spores, viruses and pollen over long distances and across national borders, but the United States is ill-prepared to confront future disease outbreaks or food-supply threats caused by airborne organisms. In the United States, research and monitoring of airborne organisms is split between an array of federal agencies. The lack of coordination and information-sharing can effectively cripple the U.S. response to national security threats, such as pandemics.

  • 63,000 Extra Deaths and a Year Off Life Expectancy: COVID in 2020 in England and Wales

    An estimated 62,750 excess deaths resulted in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in England and Wales, according to demographic experts at Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science - who reveal life expectancy was cut for men and women by -1.3 and -1.0 years, respectively.

  • Biden Unveils National COVID-19 Strategy, Saying: “Help Is on the Way”

    “Help is on the way,” said President Joe Biden yesterday as he unveiled his 200-page national COVID-19 strategy and signed 10 executive actions aimed at tackling the pandemic, including ensuring the safe opening of schools, new guidance for foreign travel, and ensuring the National Guard in all 50 states is involved in the pandemic response.

  • Taking Proven Measures Now to Mitigate COVID-19 Pandemic

    The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response is urging all countries to ensure implementation of critical public health measures known to decrease virus transmission in order to curb the spread of COVID-19. It has also expressed grave concern at the prospect of inequitable vaccine rollout around the world.

  • Artificial Intelligence for Food Security

    With a global population of around 7.8 billion people in 2021, there are at least a billion people who suffer chronic hunger and malnutrition. This crisis is a result of inefficient food production and distribution systems. AI, or artificial intelligence, is attracting great attention across many industries, even food production, according to new research.

  • Hackers “Manipulated” Stolen COVID Vaccine Papers, Says EU Agency

    Documents and emails about the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna jabs were taken in a cyberattack late last year. The EU’s drug regulator thinks hackers are trying to damage public trust in the COVID vaccines.

  • Global COVID Rise Continues; 50 Nations Report B117 Variant

    In its weekly snapshot of global COVID-19 trends, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that after lower reporting over the 2-week holiday period, cases and deaths are on the rise again in all but one of its regions and that 50 countries have now detected the more transmissible B117 variant first detected in the United Kingdom.

  • Seeking to ‘Flush’ out COVID-19 in Wastewater

    Though it may seem a bit unsavory, studying human waste can tell us a lot about COVID-19 and give governments a leg up on containing the spread of the virus. Researchers can predict if the coronavirus might attack a community by checking sewers for viral fragments in the community’s poop.

  • As the Vaccines Arrive, So Do the Questions

    As the first COVID-19 vaccines are being administered across the United States—developed, tested, and approved with historic speed—countless questions have arisen about what comes next. Is one vaccine better than another? Can the United States both speed up inoculation and overcome some people’s hesitance to get the shot?

  • Finding Toxic Chemicals in Drinking Water

    Most consumers of drinking water in the United States know that chemicals are used in the treatment processes to ensure the water is safe to drink. But they might not know that the use of some of these chemicals, such as chlorine, can also lead to the formation of unregulated toxic byproducts.

  • Beating the “Billion-Dollar Bug” Is a Shared Burden

    A lurking threat that has stymied US corn growers for decades is now returning to the forefront: western corn rootworm. Sometimes referred to as the “billion-dollar bug,” the species’ tiny larvae chew through the roots of corn plants, causing devastating yield losses. In 2003, farmers began planting a genetically engineered variety of corn known as “Bt,” which produces a protein toxic to the pest species – but by 2009, the billion-dollar bug had already evolved adaptations for resistance to the toxin. Study shows how individual farming practices associated with greater corn rootworm damage can have farther-reaching effects.

  • Secure Food Supply Chain

    As the world grows increasingly globalized, one of the ways that countries have come to rely on one another is through a more intricate and interconnected food supply chain. This interconnectedness has its benefits. But, as the coronavirus COVID-19 global pandemic has made abundantly clear, it also leaves the food supply chain — all the steps involved in bringing food from farms to people’s tables across the world — exposed to potential shocks to the system.

  • Racist, Extremist, Anti-Semitic Conspiracies Surround Coronavirus Vaccine Rollout

    Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, extremists across the ideological spectrum have used the virus as a platform for elaborate and alarming conspiracy theories. Purveyors of these theories suggest that the vaccine is a new form of population control or elevate debunked fears about the vaccine’s side effects. Some are peddling anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish control of the virus and vaccine, while arguing that Black Americans should be used to test the vaccine’s safety.

  • Model Used to Evaluate Lockdowns Was Flawed

    In a recent study, researchers from Imperial College London developed a model to assess the effect of different measures used to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A new study, published in Nature, however, claims that the model had fundamental shortcomings and cannot be used to draw the published conclusions.

  • There Is No Medical Justification for Police Use of Neck Restraints: Neurologists

    Some police departments in the United States continue to teach officers that neck restraints are a safe method for controlling agitated or aggressive people, but that’s a dangerous myth, according to just published article written by three neurologists.