The word science has never been as present in the media as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if this continues to be the case in the coming months, it is very likely that something will remain even after the coronavirus disappears.
Can an extraterrestrial organism produce a catastrophic pandemic on our planet? Such a question arises every time we consider bringing samples from other worlds in the Solar System, especially now, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
An epidemic like the one we have unfortunately experienced can bring out people's worst fears. Cinema and literature have successfully used fear to write scripts in which an epidemic is the heart of the story or the underlying excuse.
Embracing an evolutionary perspective thus helps to explain why men and women react differently to certain infectious diseases and to understand (and combat) the strategies of viruses in their relentless evolutionary race to infect and spread among us.
Every historical period has had its epidemic executioner, and it has almost always been the ecological changes between human communities and the environment that have caused changes in pathogenicity and epidemic diseases.
Early criticism of COVID-19 rhetoric cautions against the use of war metaphors that can shift us toward authoritarian and nationalistic sentiment, evoking xenophobia and racism.
In addition to protective isolation, enhanced medical capacity, safer sociality and health oriented economic stimulus, we will need to turn our hearts, hands, and minds to reweaving and strengthening the complex and vital social web.
An international study coordinated by Vicent Balanzá, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Valencia, tries to learn more about the impact of confinement measures in the healthy lifestyle behaviours of the citizens, to plan post-pandemic health recommendations in the best possible way.
The biochemist Vicent Pelechano, together with his team in Sweden, has developed a simple, fast, and affordable method to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in patients. He explains in this interview.
Losing sight of climate change in the media could run the risk of strengthening the consensus for a narrative in favour of economic growth that leaves environmental issues in the background.