Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

COVID-19 vaccine boosters may help protect against future animal coronaviruses

COVID-19 vaccine boosters not only protect against SARS‑CoV‑2 – the virus behind the most recent pandemic – but may also help protect against some future coronaviruses that risk spreading from animals to humans, Cambridge researchers have shown.

30 Jun 2026

Study links diabetes to worse long COVID health outcomes

People with diabetes who have had COVID-19 tend to recover more slowly, experience more long COVID complications, have a poorer quality of life, and require closer and more prolonged monitoring by medical teams.

29 Jun 2026

One in three adults in England now lives with obesity

Obesity trends show significant disparities among demographics, stressing the importance of targeted prevention to address widening health inequalities.

29 Jun 2026

Fear of growing up declines as adults gain experience

As young adults, many millennials feared growing up more than past generations. But they've come around to it as they age, finds research published by the American Psychological Association.

26 Jun 2026

Spermidine supplement improves COVID 19 vaccine response in older adults

As we age, the immune system gradually declines and becomes less effective at responding to infections and vaccines.

25 Jun 2026

High-dose DHA reaches the brain but fails to protect memory

High-dose DHA effectively increased brain levels in older adults at Alzheimer's risk, but did not lead to cognitive or structural brain health improvements.

25 Jun 2026

England faces widening obesity inequalities across regions and communities

This study is the first to analyse obesity trends from 2019 to 2025, using NHS England electronic health records covering nearly 55 million adults.

24 Jun 2026

Researchers identify control switch protein that starves tuberculosis bacteria

A protein that acts as a 'control switch,' preventing Mycobacterium tuberculosis from accessing the energy sources it needs to survive, has been identified by researchers at the University of Surrey.

23 Jun 2026

50-year review shows global Ebola spread remains rare despite outbreak fears

Researchers reviewed Ebola disease cases outside Africa from 1976 to May 2026 and found only 28 confirmed epidemic-linked cases, most involving medical evacuation or occupational exposure. Only four latent travelers were diagnosed after border screening, suggesting that undetected intercontinental spread remains rare when outbreaks are controlled at source.

23 Jun 2026

Evolution of digital medicine is reshaping healthcare operations

At least 12 percent of Americans now communicate with their healthcare providers about appointments, test results, and ongoing treatments via secure online patient portals and health apps, a new study shows.

22 Jun 2026

Bogotá’s strictest COVID restrictions delivered the clearest air-quality gains

A natural quasi-experiment in Suba, Bogotá, found that more stringent COVID-19 mobility restrictions were associated with larger reductions in PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ air pollution. The findings suggest targeted traffic and emissions controls could improve urban air quality, although ozone responses were more complex, and the results may not generalize beyond this high-traffic district.

21 Jun 2026

New diagnostic tools aim to bridge long Covid knowledge gap

Five years after the first cases, patients with long Covid continue to go through months or years before receiving a diagnosis.

18 Jun 2026

Losing smell and taste may profoundly affect wellbeing

University of East Anglia research reveals that smell loss can affect quality of life as severely as conditions including diabetes, stroke, Parkinson's, and kidney failure.

16 Jun 2026

US adults are taking more supplements as multivitamins lose ground

A 25-year NHANES analysis of 63,442 US adults found that reported dietary supplement use rose from 51% to 60%, with the largest increases among adults aged 65 years and older. Use shifted away from multivitamin-multimineral products and toward vitamins, minerals, botanicals, and nonvitamin nonmineral supplements marketed for immune, anti-inflammatory, gut, skin, and joint health.

16 Jun 2026

Salt-loaded nanoparticles help deliver fragile gene therapies into cells

Researchers at the University of Houston's College of Pharmacy have discovered an unexpected simple strategy to improve the performance of mRNA vaccines and gene therapeutics: adding salt.

16 Jun 2026

Social comparisons may undermine happiness and life satisfaction

New research is shedding light on how comparing ourselves to others affects happiness and life satisfaction.

15 Jun 2026

Tiny genetic change influences coronavirus spillover into humans

Most pandemics start when a pathogen spreads from animals to humans. It's a leading explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic: the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is a cousin to coronaviruses that live in bats.

15 Jun 2026

Wastewater analysis offers novel approach to track HIV burden

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) detection in wastewater offers a novel approach to monitor the virus in communities.

15 Jun 2026

Global study links rising obesity to premature heart disease deaths

Researchers are warning that obesity is reshaping the global cardiovascular disease crisis, as trend data covering 204 countries reveal that heart disease now peaks in people aged 50-54 rather than the elderly and increasingly in South Asia, where rates have grown more than three times faster than global averages, according to a study being presented Monday at ENDO 2026, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

15 Jun 2026

Massive study maps national medicine trends and health inequalities

The team from the BHF Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK and the University of Liverpool say this type of analysis can offer opportunities for smarter and safer prescribing in their study published in the journal Nature Health.

15 Jun 2026