A study from the CDC's VISION Network, published in JAMA Network Open, has found that updated COVID-19 vaccines reduced the risk of ED and urgent care visits related to COVID-19 by 24 percent, hospitalizations by 29 percent and critical illness (intensive care unit admission or in-hospital death) by 48 percent during the first seven to 299 days after vaccination.

The world has made unprecedented progress in vaccinating children against life-threatening disease since WHO established the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1974. Despite the progress of the past 50 years, the last two decades have also been marked by stagnating childhood vaccination rates and wide variation in vaccine coverage. These challenges have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases and death, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study Vaccine Coverage Collaborators, published in The Lancet. 

Harnessing methods used to successfully predict and understand the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic, a new University of Sheffield project aims to combat the impact of forest diseases that can cost the UK economy billions.

New research has revealed the trauma faced by journalists during the height of the pandemic, caused by exposure to online threats, disturbing information and disrupted work routines that exacerbated an industry already under pressure from the rise of social media and online news.

The COVID-19 pandemic yielded important advances in testing for respiratory viruses, but it also exposed important unmet needs in screening to prevent the spread of infections in high-risk settings.

 

While PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are the gold standard for detecting viral infections, they remain a challenge for screening large numbers of people in places vulnerable to outbreak — such as health care centers and nursing homes — due to high costs and the fact that different tests are required for each virus.

 

A new Yale study, however, finds that an alternate strategy — using a nasal swab to screen for an antiviral protein produced by the body as a defense against infection — can be an effective method for ruling out respiratory infections, limiting PCR testing only to those most likely to be infected, at a fraction of the cost. 

 

The study was published online on June 20 in The Lancet eBiomedicine. 

Published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, a University of Minnesota research team demonstrated that measuring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater continues to accurately predict COVID-19 infections in a community. 

According to a new study, monitoring fungal spores in the outdoor air can predict surges in flu and COVID-19 infections.

In a Policy Forum, Jessica Espey and colleagues argue that waning support for accurate collection and curation of population data worldwide threatens to compromise crucial evidence-based government planning. “We live in an era of seemingly unlimited data, where our digital activities may generate nearly constant information streams, yet some of our most essential infrastructure – demographic information – is deteriorating, introducing known and unknown bias into decision-making,” write the authors. Accurate population data are fundamental to effective governance. Most countries rely on national censuses, which are traditionally conducted every 10 years, to supply this information. But according to Espey et al., fewer nations are completing censuses, and many are undercounting marginalized populations. For example, at the close of the 2020 census cycle, 204 countries or territories – encompassing 85% of the world’s population – had conducted at least one census between 2015 and 2024. Yet by July 2024, 24 of these, representing roughly one-quarter of the global population, had not published their findings. This reflects a significant decline from the 2010 round, when 214 countries conducted and released census data, encompassing 93% of the global population. Moreover, even when censuses are carried out, they increasingly suffer from declining response rates and growing coverage errors – particularly in the undercounting of vulnerable populations such as ethnic minorities and young children. In the United States, for instance, the 2020 census likely missed nearly 3 million Latino individuals and close to 1 million children under the age of five.

 

In this Policy Forum, the authors outline several reasons for this general decline: eroding trust in institutions, COVID-19 disruptions, budget cuts to statistical offices, and collapsing international support for data collection programs. In order to address this “quiet crisis,” Espey et al. suggest adopting register-based systems, harnessing geospatial technologies and AI, and producing small-area population estimates. However, technical innovations alone are not enough, note the authors; governments must also restore public trust by showing how data informs daily life, ensuring strong privacy protections, and promoting collaboration across sectors. “In an era of growing challenges, from climate change to economic inequality, accurate population data are not a luxury – they are essential infrastructure for healthy, resilient, functioning societies,” write the authors.

A new lateral-flow test could one day save lives across the world through early detection of a deadly fungal disease which dramatically spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Key findings

• This study revealed that >70% of workers with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) using changed their work style to telecommuting, resulting in decreased physical activity, and commuters tended to have shorter durations and lower rates of CPAP use compared to teleworkers.

What is known and what is new?

• The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has resulted in many lifestyle changes. However, no studies have reported how these factors affect obstructive sleep apnea patients undergoing CPAP treatment.

• Our study investigated the impact of lifestyle changes on CPAP users during Japan’s first state of emergency. Over 50% of CPAP users who were employed changed their work style, leading to reduced physical activity. Commuters showed shorter durations and lower adherence to CPAP therapy compared to teleworkers.

What is the implication, and what should change now?

• We provided important data on lifestyle changes during the coronary pandemic period for CPAP users. Further randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm these findings.

New research by ESMT Berlin and Politecnico di Milano explores how non-experts assess scientific research proposals and reveals key implications for public participation in science funding. The study shows that while citizens value both social impact and scientific merit, their judgments can be shaped by personal interests, income, and education. The paper, published in Research Policy, is co-authored by Henry Sauermann (ESMT Berlin), Chiara Franzoni, and Diletta Di Marco (both of Politecnico di Milano). It involved more than 2,300 citizen evaluators who assessed four real research proposals using both a recommendation mechanism (advising a funding agency) and a crowdfunding mechanism (donating their own money). The proposals covered a diverse range of topics including COVID-19 drug discovery, Alzheimer’s, otter-human conflict in Florida, and economic preferences across demographic groups.