Featured
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News Feature |
Indoor air is full of flu and COVID viruses. Will countries clean it up?
The current pandemic has focused attention to the importance of healthy indoor air and could spur lasting improvements to the air we breathe.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
Should COVID vaccines be given yearly? Proposal divides US scientists
Some say the US Food and Drug Administration’s suggestion of updating COVID-19 vaccines each year, as happens with influenza jabs, could boost uptake.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Coronavirus variant XBB.1.5 rises in the United States — is it a global threat?
Prevalence of a new subvariant of Omicron is increasing, but whether it will cause a big surge in infections or hospitalizations isn’t clear.
- Ewen Callaway
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Nature Podcast |
The Nature Podcast’s highlights of 2022
The team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Shamini Bundell
- & Noah Baker
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Editorial |
There’s no room for COVID complacency in 2023
Stark scenes from China show the pandemic is far from over. One solution is a laser-like focus on strengthening public-health systems.
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Editorial |
Missing data mean we’ll probably never know how many people died of COVID
Huge discrepancies in estimates of excess mortality reveal not just how difficult the calculations are, but how far the world has to go in recording how people die.
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News & Views |
Global estimates of excess deaths from COVID-19
Estimating the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 around the world is a complex task — as highlighted by one attempt to measure global excess mortality in 2020 and 2021.
- Enrique Acosta
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Nature Podcast |
COVID deaths: three times the official toll
An estimate of the deaths associated with COVID-19, and the lack of ethnic diversity in UK academia.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Analysis
| Open AccessThe WHO estimates of excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic
Msemburi et al. describe how the World Health Organization has estimated the excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, by month and for 2020 and 2021, and analyse their estimates across the WHO member states, with 14.83 million global excess deaths estimated.
- William Msemburi
- , Ariel Karlinsky
- & Jon Wakefield
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News |
Flu causes huge spike in child hospitalizations in Canada
Seasonal influenza is hitting North America hard owing to a lack of exposure and dominance of the virulent strain H3N2.
- Nicola Jones
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News Explainer |
Can China avoid a wave of deaths if it lifts strict zero COVID policy?
Vaccinating more older people, stocking up on antiviral drugs and expanding hospital facilities would help to ease the transition away from zero COVID.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News Feature |
These monkeypox researchers warned that the disease would go global
A Nigerian disease-surveillance expert and a US epidemiologist have been tracking monkeypox for years. Can their insights help to stop its spread and prevent future outbreaks?
- Paul Adepoju
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Article |
Common and rare variant associations with clonal haematopoiesis phenotypes
Exome sequence data from 628,388 individuals was used to identify 24 risk loci in 40,208 carriers of clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential and link them to other conditions including COVID-19, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
- Michael D. Kessler
- , Amy Damask
- & Eric Jorgenson
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World View |
To beat Ebola in Uganda, fund what worked in Liberia
Enlist community members to find and support cases — trust is crucial to containment.
- Mosoka P. Fallah
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News |
COVID vaccine hoarding might have cost more than a million lives
Low- and middle-income nations would have had lower death rates if vaccines had been shared more equitably.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
100,000 coronavirus genomes reveal COVID’s evolution in Africa
Massive SARS-CoV-2 sequencing project in Africa brings global benefits.
- Diana Kwon
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News |
COVID deaths: more than 10 million children lost a parent or carer
The consequences of losing a parent can be profound, but the right support can reduce the impact.
- Jude Coleman
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World View |
Don’t lose sight of monkeypox containment
Although case counts might be dropping, the public-health community must focus on containing the epidemic completely.
- Caitlin Rivers
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World View |
Fragmented outbreak data will lead to a repeat of COVID-19
To break the vicious cycle of patchy understanding and poor virus control, we need to talk about privacy.
- Adam Kucharski
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News Feature |
Heart disease after COVID: what the data say
Some studies suggest that the risk of cardiovascular problems, such as a heart attack or stroke, remains high even many months after a SARS-CoV-2 infection clears up. Researchers are starting to pin down the frequency of these issues and what is causing the damage.
- Saima May Sidik
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News |
Dust-up over dust storm link to ‘Valley Fever’ disease
Researchers are divided over whether rising cases of the fungal infection in the United States can be linked to dust storms.
- Virginia Gewin
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News |
How long is COVID infectious? What scientists know so far
Those with SARS-CoV-2 are often advised to isolate for only a few days. But evidence is mounting that some people can continue to pass on the virus for much longer.
- David Adam
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News |
Prior Omicron infection protects against BA.4 and BA.5 variants
Catching an earlier version of SARS-CoV-2 — particularly Omicron — provides some immunity against the two fast-spreading lineages.
- McKenzie Prillaman
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News |
One coronavirus infection wards off another — but only if it’s a similar variant
Infection with a pre-Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant protects against reinfection with a second, although the effect fades almost completely after three years.
- McKenzie Prillaman
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Comment |
Who to vaccinate first? A peek at decision-making in a pandemic
Faced with the challenge of advising the World Health Organization on who should be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines, an advisory group used an approach it hadn’t tried before.
- Ruth Faden
- , Alejandro Cravioto
- & Saad B. Omer
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News |
Delta reinfection risk low among unvaccinated children
But scientists warn that the findings do not mean that children should not be vaccinated against COVID-19.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
Mysterious child hepatitis continues to vex researchers
US cases of liver inflammation among children have remained flat, but UK cases seem to have risen, leading some to suggest a coronavirus contribution.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
How common is long COVID? Why studies give different answers
Enormous databases do not necessarily allow scientists to solve long COVID mysteries, such as how well vaccination protects against the condition.
- Heidi Ledford
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News Feature |
COVID death tolls: scientists acknowledge errors in WHO estimates
Researchers with the World Health Organization explain mistakes in high-profile mortality estimates for Germany and Sweden.
- Richard Van Noorden
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Article
| Open AccessCommunicating doctors’ consensus persistently increases COVID-19 vaccinations
Correcting public misperceptions about the views of doctors on the COVID-19 vaccines can have lasting impacts on public uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines.
- Vojtěch Bartoš
- , Michal Bauer
- & Julie Chytilová
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News |
Long COVID risk falls only slightly after vaccination, huge study shows
Results suggest that vaccines offer less protection against lingering symptoms than expected.
- Sara Reardon
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Research Highlight |
The stark disparity in a virus’s deadly toll on kids
More than 95% of the 101,000 children who died in 2019 of respiratory syncytial virus lived in less wealthy countries.
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News Feature |
The pandemic’s true health cost: how much of our lives has COVID stolen?
Researchers are trying to calculate how many years have been lost to disability and death.
- Holly Else
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News |
Flu vaccine could cut COVID risk
Health-care workers who got the influenza vaccine were also protected from COVID-19 — but the effect might not last long.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
15 million people have died in the pandemic, WHO says
The World Health Organization’s long-awaited estimate of excess COVID deaths is in line with other studies.
- David Adam
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News Feature |
COVID is spreading in deer. What does that mean for the pandemic?
Hundreds of white-tailed deer in North America have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Here’s why scientists aren’t panicking, yet.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
COVID vaccine plus infection can lead to months of immunity
Findings from Brazil, Sweden and the United Kingdom show that before the advent of Omicron, vaccination benefited even those who had had a bout of COVID-19.
- Saima May Sidik
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Matters Arising |
Evidence from a statewide vaccination RCT shows the limits of nudges
- Nathaniel Rabb
- , Megan Swindal
- & David Yokum
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Editorial |
This is no time to stop tracking COVID-19
To live with the coronavirus, we cannot be blind to its movements.
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News Feature |
Lessons from the COVID data wizards
Data dashboards have been an important part of pandemic response and planning. What have their developers learnt about communicating science in a crisis?
- Lynne Peeples
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News |
Morgue data hint at COVID’s true toll in Africa
Around 90% of deceased people tested at a Lusaka facility during coronavirus surges were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting flaws in the idea of an ‘African paradox’.
- Freda Kreier
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News |
Vaccines protect against infection from Omicron subvariant — but not for long
Two doses of COVID vaccine cut the risk of infection and mild illness from the rising BA.2 subvariant, although protection wanes quickly.
- Saima May Sidik
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News |
COVID’s true death toll: much higher than official records
Modelling suggests that by the end of 2021, some 18 million people had died because of the pandemic.
- David Adam
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News |
Had Omicron? You're unlikely to catch its rising variant
Infection with the first widely circulating version of Omicron protects against the emerging BA.2 subvariant — as does vaccination.
- Saima May Sidik
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News |
Fourth dose of COVID vaccine offers only slight boost against Omicron infection
Israeli trial shows a fourth vaccination raises antibody levels but provides little extra protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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World View |
Commit to transparent COVID data until the WHO declares the pandemic is over
Governments and organizations responsible for crucial COVID data must do more not less.
- Edouard Mathieu
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News |
Just 14 cases: Guinea worm disease nears eradication
A scourge that once infected millions of the world’s poorest people is close to being wiped out in humans — but infections in animals complicates the picture.
- Freda Kreier
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News |
Heart-disease risk soars after COVID — even with a mild case
Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- Saima May Sidik
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World View |
Tracking COVID-19 infections: time for change
We need better numbers if we are to manage the pandemic.
- Natalie Dean