Research Highlight |
Featured
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News |
How well can Omicron evade immunity from COVID vaccines?
New findings pinpoint the likelihood that people who get a breakthrough infection have Omicron rather than Delta.
- Sara Reardon
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Perspective |
An open science study of ageing in companion dogs
The Dog Aging Project is an open-data, community science study to identify genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors associated with canine healthy lifespan, generating knowledge that could readily translate to human ageing.
- Kate E. Creevy
- , Joshua M. Akey
- & Benjamin S. Wilfond
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News |
How does Omicron spread so fast? A high viral load isn’t the answer
Data on viral levels point to immune evasion as a cause of the variant’s transmissibility.
- Max Kozlov
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News Feature |
The pandemic’s true death toll: millions more than official counts
Countries have reported some five million COVID-19 deaths in two years, but global excess deaths are estimated at double or even quadruple that figure.
- David Adam
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Editorial |
COVID is here to stay: countries must decide how to adapt
The Omicron variant has laid bare the need to live with a disease that throws up an ever-changing set of challenges.
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Article
| Open AccessRapid epidemic expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in southern Africa
The genomic profile and early transmission dynamics of the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2.
- Raquel Viana
- , Sikhulile Moyo
- & Tulio de Oliveira
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News |
How COVID vaccines shaped 2021 in eight powerful charts
The extraordinary vaccination of more than four billion people, and the lack of access for many others, were major forces this year — while Omicron’s arrival complicated things further.
- Smriti Mallapaty
- , Ewen Callaway
- & Richard Van Noorden
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Outlook |
Clarifying the burden of ovarian cancer
Standardizing medical data collection across the globe could yield valuable insights into the distribution of this often-fatal disease.
- Andrada Fiscutean
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News Feature |
Nature’s 10: ten people who helped shape science in 2021
An Omicron investigator, a Mars explorer and an AI ethics pioneer are some of the people behind the year’s big research stories.
- Ewen Callaway
- , Holly Else
- & Richard Van Noorden
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News |
Omicron-variant border bans ignore the evidence, say scientists
Researchers say travel restrictions in response to the newly detected coronavirus variant come too late and could even slow studies of Omicron.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Where I Work |
All-nighter: staying up to fight malaria
Victor Chaumeau collects mosquitoes in Myanmar to better understand how to control malaria.
- Brendan Maher
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News |
Europe’s COVID death toll could rise by hundreds of thousands
In a worst-case scenario, the pandemic could cause a further 300,000 deaths if anti-contagion policies are lifted and people revert to their old habits.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
When are masks most useful? COVID cases offer hints
Masks offer the greatest protection indoors and during long exposures to people infected with the coronavirus — but other public-health measures matter, too.
- Ariana Remmel
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News Explainer |
Why scientists worldwide are watching UK COVID infections
The country’s relaxation of measures such as masking — especially in England — is showing the limits of relying on vaccines alone.
- Luke Taylor
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News & Views |
A reconstruction of early cryptic COVID spread
To respond better to future pandemics, we must understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus dispersed so rapidly. A model of COVID-19 spread sheds light on cryptic transmission, undetected by surveillance efforts, in early 2020.
- Simon Cauchemez
- & Paolo Bosetti
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News |
Mix-and-match COVID vaccines ace the effectiveness test
Combining two different COVID-19 vaccines provides protection on par with that of mRNA vaccines — including protection against the Delta variant.
- Ewen Callaway
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Career Q&A |
The virologist preparing Africa for the next pandemic
Kariuki Njenga talks about his work building a pan-African study to find emerging diseases quickly.
- Abdullahi Tsanni
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Article
| Open AccessGenomic reconstruction of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in England
A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.
- Harald S. Vöhringer
- , Theo Sanderson
- & Moritz Gerstung
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News |
Why easing COVID restrictions could prompt a fierce flu rebound
As pandemic restrictions ease, other respiratory viruses are returning in unexpected ways.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Real-world data show that filters clean COVID-causing virus from air
An inexpensive type of portable filter efficiently screened SARS-CoV-2 and other disease-causing organisms from hospital air.
- Tosin Thompson
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News |
COVID vaccines cut the risk of transmitting Delta — but not for long
People who receive two COVID-19 jabs and later contract the Delta variant are less likely to infect their close contacts than are unvaccinated people with Delta.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Editorial |
Greece used AI to curb COVID: what other nations can learn
Governments are hungry to deploy big data in health emergencies. Scientists must help to lay the legal, ethical and logistical groundwork.
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News & Views |
A machine-learning algorithm to target COVID testing of travellers
Optimizing the testing of incoming travellers for COVID-19 involves predicting those who are most likely to test positive. A machine-learning algorithm for targeted testing has been implemented at the Greek border.
- Ziad Obermeyer
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News Feature |
How far will global population rise? Researchers can’t agree
The United Nations forecasts that nearly 11 billion people will be living on Earth at the end of the century, but other demographic research groups project that population will peak earlier and at a much lower level.
- David Adam
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News |
COVID-vaccine booster shot shows promise in Israeli study
Risk of severe disease drops by factor of almost 20 in people over 60 — but some dispute the benefits of offering a third dose.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Did the coronavirus jump from animals to people twice?
A preliminary analysis of viral genomes suggests the COVID-19 pandemic might have multiple animal origins — but the findings still have to be peer reviewed.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Article |
Resurgence of Ebola virus in 2021 in Guinea suggests a new paradigm for outbreaks
The viral lineage responsible for the February 2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea is nested within a clade that predominantly consists of genomes sampled during the 2013–2016 epidemic, suggesting that the virus might have re-emerged after a long period of latency within a previously infected individual.
- Alpha Kabinet Keita
- , Fara R. Koundouno
- & N’. Faly Magassouba
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News |
Face masks for COVID pass their largest test yet
A rigorous study finds that surgical masks are highly protective, but cloth masks fall short.
- Lynne Peeples
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News |
Delta’s rise is fuelled by rampant spread from people who feel fine
People infected with the Delta variant generally do not have COVID-19 symptoms until two days after they start shedding the coronavirus.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News Feature |
Has COVID taught us anything about pandemic preparedness?
Researchers warn that plans to prevent the next global outbreak don’t consider the failures that have fuelled our current predicament.
- Amy Maxmen
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News |
How do vaccinated people spread Delta? What the science says
Emerging data suggest that Delta could spread more readily than other coronavirus variants among people vaccinated against COVID-19. But key questions remain.
- Nidhi Subbaraman
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News |
Delta threatens rural regions that dodged earlier COVID waves
Data on the variant’s spread in India make researchers fearful for areas in developing nations that lack health care and vaccines.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
Surprise dip in UK COVID cases baffles researchers
Daily recorded infections have more than halved since mid-July. Few researchers anticipated such a sharp decline, and they are now struggling to interpret it.
- Philip Ball
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News |
A blood marker predicts who gets ‘breakthrough’ COVID
Real-world evidence from a medical centre links high levels of potent antibodies after vaccination to a reduced risk of infection.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
COVID vaccines have higher approval in less-affluent countries
Surveys show that people in ten low- and middle-income nations are generally more eager to receive the COVID-19 jab than are people in two wealthier nations where vaccine is plentiful.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
How the Delta variant achieves its ultrafast spread
Viral load is roughly 1,000 times higher in people infected with the Delta variant than those infected with the original coronavirus strain, according to a study in China.
- Sara Reardon
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Outlook |
Research round-up: autoimmune disease
Links between COVID-19 and autoimmunity, a better model of coeliac disease, and other highlights from clinical trials and laboratory studies.
- Laura Vargas-Parada
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Outlook |
How pandemics strengthen links between viruses and autoimmunity
The body’s immune response to viruses has long been thought to spark autoimmune disease. A virus affecting millions of people could help researchers to finally know for sure.
- Anthony King
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News |
Long COVID and kids: scientists race to find answers
Children get long COVID too, but researchers are still working to determine how frequently and how severely.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
Why England’s COVID ‘freedom day’ alarms researchers
Easing restrictions amid rising infections raises the risk of new variants emerging and risks the health of those who are not vaccinated, say researchers around the world.
- Philip Ball
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News |
Will COVID become a disease of the young?
A growing share of infections among unvaccinated youths in countries with high vaccination rates is putting the spotlight on the role of young people in the pandemic.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News Feature |
COVID and schools: the evidence for reopening safely
After a school term filled with anxiety and vitriol, researchers assess the spread of coronavirus and the prospects for a return to normal.
- Cassandra Willyard
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News |
Mounting evidence suggests Sputnik COVID vaccine is safe and effective
Russia’s vaccine is in use in nearly 70 nations, but its adoption has been slowed by controversies and questions over rare side effects, and it has yet to garner World Health Organization approval.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Article |
Untangling introductions and persistence in COVID-19 resurgence in Europe
In many European countries, more than half of the SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in late summer 2020 resulted from new introductions, highlighting the threat of viral dissemination when restrictions are lifted.
- Philippe Lemey
- , Nick Ruktanonchai
- & Simon Dellicour
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News Feature |
COVID vaccines and breastfeeding: what the data say
The vaccines do not pass through breast milk, but antibodies do — providing hope that breastfed babies might have some level of protection.
- Shannon Hall
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News Explainer |
The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know
Nature examines arguments that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China, and the science behind them.
- Amy Maxmen
- & Smriti Mallapaty
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News Feature |
Six months of COVID vaccines: what 1.7 billion doses have taught scientists
At a pivotal moment in the pandemic, Nature explores key questions about the vaccines that countries are racing to deliver while viral variants spread around the globe.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
‘The perfect storm’: lax social distancing fuelled a coronavirus variant’s Brazilian surge
Genomic analysis draws a link between a devastating second COVID wave in Brazil and increased travel and contact.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
Contact-tracing app curbed the spread of COVID in England and Wales
Digital contact tracing has the potential to limit the spread of COVID-19. A contact-tracing smartphone app that has been readily adopted by people in England and Wales has shown efficacy in reducing disease spread.
- C. Jason Wang