EurekAlert! COVID-19 Online Newsroom - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Apr-2025 08:08 ET (26-Apr-2025 12:08 GMT/UTC)

Firearm-related hospitalizations had dropped before the pandemic, then shot up, study finds

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Firearm injuries that sent victims to the hospital had gone down steadily over the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, but reversed course sharply over the next two years, a new University of Michigan study finds.

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Association for Academic Surgery Foundation

Sudden unexpected infant death and disparities in infant mortality in the US

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This study found that infant mortality from sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) has increased significantly. Previous data through 2020 showed that SUID increased among Black infants. The current analysis, which included 2021 and 2022 data, showed a more generalized increase. Possible explanations include COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses, maternal opioid use, and social media’s influence on infant sleeping practices.

Journal: JAMA Pediatrics

Doctors test a new way to help people quit fentanyl 

University of California - San Francisco
Peer-Reviewed Publication

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when fentanyl overdoses surged, doctors were desperate to find ways of helping their patients. 

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse

COVID-19 pandemic and racial and ethnic disparities in long-term nursing home stay or death following hospital discharge

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Older adults hospitalized with sepsis experienced an approximately 50% reduction in long-term nursing home stay or death over a 5-year period before the pandemic in this cross-sectional study. These results suggest that during the pandemic, all individuals, regardless of race and ethnicity, experienced increased long-term nursing home stay or death compared with before the pandemic.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Long COVID, Italian scientists discovered the molecular ‘fingerprint’ of the condition in children's blood

Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study by the Università Cattolica, Rome campus - Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS and the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù IRCCS, published in the Nature Group journal ‘Pediatric Research’, identifies the ‘protein signature’ of the condition in plasma, a group of pro-inflammatory molecules present at high concentrations in young patients with the condition. An Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool makes the diagnosis based on the results of the blood sample.

Journal: Pediatric Research

Mental well-being and physical activity can form a positive cycle

University of Jyväskylä - Jyväskylän yliopisto
Peer-Reviewed Publication

According to a recent study, the tendency to experience positive affectivity contributed to people being physically active or even increasing their activity during the COVID-19 restrictions. In contrast, depressive feelings were linked to lower physical activity. The results suggest that mental well-being can help maintain a physically active lifestyle. Mental well-being and physical activity may thus form a positive cycle.

Journal: BMC Public Health

New USF study: Surprisingly, pulmonary fibrosis patients with COVID-19 improve

University of South Florida
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pulmonary fibrosis in patients with COVID-19 tends to resolve, while idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis always progresses. Scientists believe key immune elements – cells and genes – may explain resolution versus progression of the disease.

Study tracks physical and cognitive impairments associated with long COVID

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two-thirds of people with post-COVID-19 syndrome have persistent, objective symptoms – including reduced physical exercise capacity and reduced cognitive test performances – for a year or more, with no major changes in symptom clusters during the second year of their illness, according to a new study published January 23^rd in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Winfried Kern of Freiburg University, Germany, and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS Medicine

Child mortality has risen since pandemic, new study shows

University of Bristol
Peer-Reviewed Publication

While child deaths in England fell temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have now risen to new heights, a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol and based on unique National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) data has found.

Journal: PLOS Medicine
Funder: National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) Programme, National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West)

A new vaccine approach could help combat future coronavirus pandemics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new experimental vaccine could offer protection not only against many variants of SARS-CoV-2, but also other sarbecoviruses that could spill over from animals to humans.

Journal: Cell
Funder: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Leap, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Caltech Merkin Institute for Translational Research

Three out of four Spaniards believe that there should be external control to guarantee the quality of journalism on health issues

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has carried out a study which shows the desire of Spanish society to have mechanisms to ensure the veracity of the news they receive through the media on health issues. This demand, moreover, has proven to be a shared concern of the public, since neither age, gender nor social class is a determining factor in the public's response.

Ultrasensitive test detects, serially monitors intact virus levels in patients with COVID-19

Mass General Brigham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Investigators from Mass General Brigham have found that a method originally designed for cancer detection can also identify and monitor even tiny amounts of SARS-CoV-2 intact viral particles in blood and other fluids from patients with acute COVID-19 infections, creating the potential for guiding future treatment of patients. The research is published in Science Advances.

Journal: Science

Who to vaccinate first? Penn engineers answer a life-or-death question with network theory

University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Engineering and medical researchers at Penn have developed a groundbreaking framework that can determine the best and most computationally optimized distribution strategy for COVID-19 vaccinations in any given community. Published in PLOS One, this study addresses one of the most critical challenges in pandemic response — how to prioritize vaccination efforts in communities with individuals of different risk levels when supplies are scarce and the stakes are high.

Journal: PLOS One
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Females have a 31% higher associated risk of developing long COVID, UT Health San Antonio-led RECOVER study shows

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A nationwide RECOVER study led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, funded by the National Institutes of Health, finds that females are at 31% more risk for long COVID.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Sex differences in long COVID

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This study found that female sex was associated with an increased risk of long COVID compared with male sex, and this association was age, pregnancy, and menopausal status dependent. These findings highlight the need to identify biological mechanisms contributing to sex specificity to facilitate risk stratification, targeted drug development, and improved management of long COVID.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

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