The global vaccine rollout is full of glitches, shortages, and problems, but not every country faces the same challenges. Evening out those inequalities to make sure poorer countries are included in the vaccination race isn’t just the ethical thing to do: it’s …Continue reading
Without leadership on vaccine rollout, scams are inevitable
To say the first few weeks of vaccine delivery have been turbulent would be an understatement. States across the US have found themselves struggling with underdeveloped logistics that have caused problems in delivery and made rollout slower than promised. Meanwhile, the debacle at Stanford …Continue reading
Vaccines are the latest battleground for doctors on social media
Valerie Fitzhugh has watched the news a lot more over the past four years, certainly more than she remembers doing at any other point in her life. In the first months of the pandemic, she kept hearing one message, from news outlet …Continue reading
Singapore’s police now have access to contact tracing data
The news: Police will be able to access data collected by Singapore’s covid-19 contact tracing system for use in criminal investigations, a senior official said on Monday. The announcement contradicts the privacy policy originally outlined when the government launched its TraceTogether app …Continue reading
Biden’s first steps as president: Action on covid and climate
A flurry of executive orders is expected to take place over the next few days from the new US president as he takes residence in the White House. Here are the highlights of those he has signed so far. The “100 day …Continue reading
You can’t just give people more data and expect them to act differently
Digital contact tracing apps first emerged early in the pandemic. They’d let you know if you’d been around anyone who had tested positive, and they worked on a regular personal smartphone. So far, they haven’t been a silver bullet, and they’ve faced …Continue reading
The UK is spooking everyone with its new covid-19 strain. Here’s what scientists know.
A rising wave of covid-19 cases in the south of England has been blamed on a new variant of the coronavirus. The new version, which appeared by September, is now behind half the cases in the region. Genomic researchers have found that not …Continue reading
How the US, UK, and China are planning to roll out vaccines
The vaccines are coming. The UK became the first country in the West to approve a covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on December 2, specifically the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which has completed phase 3 trials. But the US, the EU, and …Continue reading
A UK woman aged 90 was the first in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine today
The news: The UK started vaccinating its population against covid-19 today, becoming the first country to start distributing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, less than a week after its approval. It is being given to elder-care home workers and people over 80 first, with a 90-year-old …Continue reading
Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic coincide with a heavy mental health burden
The covid-19 pandemic is taking a heavy mental health toll even on people who are not directly impacted by the disease, shows a new study in Frontiers in Psychiatry. In a first-of-its-kind Australian mental health survey, researchers found that people in countries …Continue reading