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. 

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. 

Vaccinated patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who developed acute kidney injury had better outcomes than unvaccinated patients with the same condition. Vaccinated patients were less likely to stay on dialysis after discharge, and more likely to survive, than unvaccinated patients.

In a new study from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, researchers have identified a protein called non-structural protein 15 (nsp15) that plays a key role in helping SARS-CoV-2 hide from the body’s defenses by suppressing the production of viral double-stranded (dsRNA), leading to increased viral replication while limiting the body’s immune response.

By creating a cohesive AI-enabled and physics-based molecular modeling and drug discovery pipeline built around film industry animation software, researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University identified the orally available, FDA-approved drug bemcentinib, as a potential antiviral agent. They then used this chemical compound as a launch pad for developing a more specific and effective antiviral drug with efficacy against a broad range of coronaviruses, which has great potential for fighting future respiratory pandemics. 

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has remained fairly steady across Europe over the past decade. However, significant disparities exist between countries.

Contrary to expectations, the Covid pandemic did not cause a spike in the overall use of CAM in Europe: the growth was modest, from 27% in 2014 to 28% in 2023. These University of Helsinki findings are reported in an article published in the Journal of Public Health.

UK-ROX, the largest ever clinical trial of oxygen use in UK intensive care units (ICUs), has shown that reducing supplementary oxygen does not deliver any clear and obvious health benefits or harm a patient's chances of survival. Each year, around 184,000 patients are admitted to ICUs, but there is insufficient evidence to guide the use of oxygen, with the possibility that administering too much - or too little - may not deliver the intended benefits and actually end up causing patients additional harm. UK-ROX, led by the University of Plymouth and the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre, set out to fill that evidence gap and the results have been presented to delegates at the Critical Care Reviews Meeting 2025 in Belfast this morning, and published in the JAMA journal.