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.

The gap between male and female runners is shrinking. What's driving it?

A study of 13,094 performances by 3,611 elite runners across 11 running disciplines found that the performance gap between women and men narrowed from 13.2% in 2001 to 11.9% in 2025. Women improved approximately twice as much as men, with the greatest relative gains in middle- and long-distance races, challenging the longstanding assumption that the gap had stabilized.

10 Nov 2026

Could a common diabetes drug help prevent long COVID?

Metformin use soon after COVID-19 infection is associated with a 53% reduction in long COVID or death risk, reinforcing previous clinical findings.

10 Nov 2026

Tai Chi and exercise may improve sleep in older cancer survivors

There is an hour of the night that belongs to no one. The house has gone still, the furnace has stopped ticking, and a man who beat cancer some years ago lies on his back, counting nothing in particular. He is not alone.

6 Nov 2026

Rising grocery prices linked to higher food anxiety and insufficiency

As grocery prices continue to rise, a study by researchers at Penn State found that in addition to increased spending, the price hikes also are associated with higher risk of food insufficiency and worse mental health conditions.

6 Nov 2026

Autistic children show reading gains through online instruction tool

Despite many obstacles presented by students being at home during COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, the autistic children involved in this research project still showed significant progress through online instruction.

6 Nov 2026

AI-designed vaccine provides complete protection against diverse bird flu variants

A University of Cambridge team has had a third success with their AI-guided technique for designing vaccines against highly infectious viruses that threaten animal and human health.

5 Nov 2026

Early childhood intervention crucial for treating rising eating disorders

Early intervention can significantly improve long-term health outcomes for eating disorders, which have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental health condition.

5 Nov 2026

New debriefing model strengthens nurse empowerment and clinical training

To date, many of the methods used in clinical simulation have focused primarily on assessing technical skills and compliance with medical standards, often from a generic, interprofessional perspective.

3 Nov 2026

Nurses need more visible roles in the modern 'One Health' governance

Nurses may be one of the most important parts of the health care workforce – yet their contribution is overlooked, according to a new paper examining the profession's place in the growing 'One Health' movement to connect human, animal and environmental health.

3 Nov 2026

Ending emergency food benefits linked to higher child maltreatment rates

A new study has found that in US counties that ended COVID-19 pandemic-era Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Emergency Allotments, child maltreatment rates went up.

29 Oct 2026

Circadian desynchronization: The hidden cost of daylight saving time transitions

Turning the clocks back an hour each fall can feel like a gift: an extra hour of sleep. But the tradeoff is less daylight in the evening, and the annual switch continues to earn mixed reviews.

29 Oct 2026

Bagged salad sales plunge as Cyclospora concern grows online

This year, the U.S. saw its highest annual count of confirmed Cyclospora cases, roughly 20,000, according to the CDC.

28 Oct 2026

$1 million grant advances research into RNA-DNA virus evolution

Much remains unknown about the origin of viruses and how they evolve - but hunting for answers has been the focus of Portland State biology professor Ken Stedman's eXtreme Virus Lab for the past 25 years.

27 Oct 2026

Opioid drop drives decline in drug-related heart infection hospitalizations

A new national study found that hospitalizations for serious heart infections associated with drug use are declining after years of increases, driven largely by a decrease in opioid-associated cases.

27 Oct 2026

NEC contributes to AI powered vaccine design through the EU funded PREPAIR VAC pandemic preparedness project

NEC Corporation today announced its participation in PREPAIR VAC, a Horizon Europe–funded research project aimed at strengthening pandemic preparedness through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in vaccine design.

27 Oct 2026

Nearly three in four popular comfort foods have something in common, researchers find

A US study examining 300 distinct comfort foods identified chips, ice cream, pizza, chocolate, and cookies as the most frequently nominated choices among adults. Researchers found that nearly three-quarters of the foods met hyperpalatability criteria, while approximately 43% were entirely ultra-processed under a strict classification, with relatively small nutritional differences across demographic groups.

22 Oct 2026

A study of 802 teens raises questions about school breakfast and blood sugar

A study of 802 U.S. adolescents found that school breakfast participation at least once weekly was associated with a 30% higher prevalence of prediabetes-range glucose markers, while school lunch participation showed no significant association. Higher intakes of vitamins E and B6 and fruit consumption among adolescents with obesity were associated with lower prediabetes prevalence, but none of the reported associations remained statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons.

22 Oct 2026

Obesity impairs key immune cells but bariatric surgery reverses damage

New Maynooth University (MU) research led by the Department of Biology's Dr Ciara Flynn, working within the research group of Prof Andrew Hogan at the Kathleen Lonsdale Institute for Human Health Research has found that obesity can impair key immune cells that help protect the body against infection and cancer.

22 Oct 2026

Global vaccine equity rules could save millions in future pandemics

Beginning the global COVID-19 vaccine roll-out 100 days after the virus was sequenced could have saved more than 8 million lives by the end of 2021, most of them in lower-middle-income countries, according to modelling evidence brought together in a new Policy Brief from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

22 Oct 2026