Category: Psychological and Sociological Impact
The story of a scientist who tried to stand for the truth and avoid Covid politics
NPR A scientist tried to stand up for the truth during a pandemic when political rhetoric and conspiracies were clouding everyone’s world. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the truth has often felt elusive. As conspiracy theories, misinformation and political rhetoric took hold early on, many people found themselves unsure of what to believe. Rund Abdelfatah and […]
Sep 25, 2024
Teen Girls’ Brains Aged Rapidly During Pandemic, Study Finds
NYT Neuroimaging found girls experienced cortical thinning far faster than boys did during the first year of Covid lockdowns. A study of adolescent brain development that tested children before and after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in the United States found that girls’ brains aged far faster than expected, something the researchers attributed to social isolation. The […]
Sep 10, 2024
How did the pandemic impact babies starting school as children now?
BBC On 25 March 2020, Fiona and Ben Young drove to their local maternity unit through London’s empty streets. When they arrived, security guards sent them to the back entrance. It was day three of England’s first lockdown and the front was surrounded by patients being treated by doctors in hazmat suits. Two days later, […]
Sep 3, 2024
An Olympic-Sized Miss in Managing COVID-19
MedPageToday Noah Lyles’ stunning comeback to win the men’s 100-meter dash and subsequent crowning as the “world’s fastest man” at the 2024 Olympics was meant to be the crowning moment of this Games. With an anticipated triumph in his signature event — the 200 meters — the American sprinter was poised to complete an extraordinary […]
Aug 27, 2024
Well-being among university students in the post-COVID-19 era: a cross-country survey
Nature University students have to handle crucial challenges for their future lives, such as succeeding in academic studies and finding attachment figures. These processes could potentially involve their well-being and mental health, with possible sociocultural differences based on the country of study. In order to explore such potential differences, a cross-sectional, multi-center survey was performed […]
Aug 7, 2024
Our Desire for Inexpensive Food Is Putting Us in Danger
NYT/Opinion A dairy worker in Texas contracts H5N1 bird flu after contact with infected cows, and suffers eye inflammation. Weeks later, a dairy worker in Michigan begins to cough and then tests positive for the virus. A ferret in a cage (ferrets are often used as study proxies for humans) becomes infected with the virus by airborne […]
Jun 12, 2024
‘Uncertainty’ Is Indeed a Bad Word: A Second Opinion on Pandemic Communication
MedPageToday In a MedPage Today op-ed earlier this week, the authors made a plea for the government to “communicate about [H5N1] more efficiently and effectively.” Who could disagree? But their title opens with a dogmatic statement, “Uncertainty Isn’t a Bad Word,” and the piece calls for our federal agencies to “communicate what they don’t know as clearly as […]
Jun 12, 2024
Raw milk is the latest health fad. Experts worry it may spread bird flu.
Washington Post On her farm in Utah, Hannah Neeleman makes herself a turmeric latte with a special ingredient: raw milk, fresh and frothy from the udder of a cow. Her young daughter squeezes some into her cup, too. The video of Neeleman’s raw milk latte has been viewed 8 million times on her Instagram and TikTok accounts, Ballerina Farm, since it […]
May 28, 2024
Despite Bird Flu Risk, Raw-Milk Drinkers Are Undaunted
Wired As H5N1 continues its spread among US cow herds, raw milk enthusiasts remain utterly unfazed. To drink raw milk at any time is to flirt with dangerous germs. But, amid an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in US dairy cows, the risks have ratcheted up considerably. Health experts have stepped up warnings against drinking raw […]
May 15, 2024
Study describes more severe pediatric mental health crises during pandemic
CIDRAP Children visiting the emergency department (ED) for mental health crises during the pandemic had longer stays and more severe diagnoses, according to a new study in Academic Emergency Medicine. The study was based on ED visits to nine US hospitals participating in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Registry from 2017 to 2022. The authors […]
Apr 2, 2024