Public health

Early Warning Tool Will Help Control Huge Locust Swarms
The migratory locust can reach plague proportions, and a swarm covering one square kilometer can consume enough food in one day to feed 35,000 people. A new tool that predicts the behavior of desert locust populations will help national agencies to manage huge swarms before they devastate food crops.
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Which Infectious Disease Is Likely to Be the Biggest Emerging Problem in 2025?
With COVID in retreat (thanks to highly effective vaccines), the three infectious diseases causing public health officials the greatest concern are malaria (a parasite), HIV (a virus) and tuberculosis (a bacterium). Between them, they kill around 2 million people each year. And then there are the watchlists of priority pathogens –especially those that have become resistant to the drugs usually used to treat them.
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How Should We Look to History to Make Sense of Luigi Mangione’s Alleged Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?
When I and most other historians talk about parallels between the Gilded Age and today, the comparisons are structural. They reflect broad conditions affecting millions of people. It’s when pundits pull particular examples from the past to explain the actions of individuals today that trouble arises.
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Vaccine Misinformation Distorts Science – a Biochemist Explains How RFK Jr. and His Lawyer’s Claims Threaten Public Health
Vaccinations provide significant protection for the public against infectious diseases and substantially reduce health care costs, but it’s easy to forget why many infectious diseases are rarely encountered today: The success of vaccines does not always tell its own story. RFK Jr.’s potential ascent to the role of secretary of Health and Human Services will offer up ample opportunities to retell this story and counter misinformation.
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Vaccination Gaps Widen in English Kids, with Those in Poorest Areas 20 Times More Vulnerable to Measles
Childhood vaccination disparities are worsening in England, with coverage of five important vaccines lower in young children living in low-income areas and 20 times more children vulnerable to measles in the poorest areas.
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House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Releases Final Report
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recently published its final report. The more than 500-page document covers a variety of topics, including vaccines, use of pandemic relief funds, and public health guidance.
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Mathematical Models Tackle Covid Infection Dynamics
Even years after the emergence of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the workings of SARS-CoV-2 infection inside the human body, including the early activity of the virus and the role of the body’s immune response, has proved difficult to precisely ascertain.
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AI, Bioterrorism and the Urgent Need for Australian Action
Experts worry that, within a few years, AI will put that capability into the hands of tens of thousands of people. Without a new approach to regulation, the risk of bioterrorism and lab leaks will soar.
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Collaborative Planning for Australian Food Security Preparedness
Australia’s food security, commonly assumed safe thanks to our being a net food exporter, is increasingly vulnerable in a world marked by geopolitical and environmental instability.
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An Idea Whose Time Should Never Come: Using Special Forces Against the Cartels Would Be a Colossal Mistake
While this idea is not new, it has become hazardous now given the Mexican drug cartels’ increased military capacity and tactical competence.
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Bipartisan Effort to Make Plum Island a National Monument Advances in Congress
Plum Island, off the north-eastern coast of Long Island, has been, since 1954, home to a high-security biolab researching pathogens threatening humans and animals. The lab has been relocated to Manhattan, Kansas. A bill calling on the Department of the Interior to consider adding Plum Island to the National Park system is advancing in Congress.
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In 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field
A Trace analysis of federal data found that the amount of money going to gun violence studies has soared since lawmakers lifted a de facto federal funding ban.
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Senator Slams Gun Industry’s “Invasive and Dangerous” Sharing of Customer Data with Political Operatives
In response to a ProPublica investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanded answers from the gun industry about its “covert program” to collect information on gun owners for political purposes.
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Can We Live on Our Planet without Destroying It?
With eight billion people, we use a lot of the Earth’s resources in ways that are likely unsustainable. How can we adapt our lifestyle to stay within the limits of what the Earth can give? Klaus Hubacek investigates planetary boundaries.
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High-Tech Methods to Stem the Flow of Fentanyl
Keeping up with illicit labs churning out new forms of fentanyl, nitazenes is the goal.
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