Contagions Worse Than COVID Will Prevail If Neglect of Global Public Health Continues

After Omicron comes pi in the Greek alphabet. And then rho, sigma, tau…. Before SARS-CoV-2 finishes its grand tour through the Greek alphabet, the global public health establishment should do what it should have done long before this coronavirus emerged. It must put in place the basic health systems needed to detect new outbreaks and … Read more

COVID Has Made Global Inequality Much Worse

The coronavirus exposed and exacerbated the fragility and inequity of the global economic system. Many countries, including the U.S., proved unable to manufacture simple products such as face masks, let alone more complicated ones such as ventilators. Multiple supply chains broke. The resulting ordeal will almost surely lead to the creation of more onshore production … Read more

Large Review Identifies Common Household Things That Can Make Your Asthma Worse

One in every nine people in Australia has asthma. It is a health burden for many children, and expensive for families because of medication, hospital and out-of-hospital expenses.   The pandemic has added further stress and extra testing measures to check respiratory symptoms. COVID infection can co-exist with asthma and, although research shows allergic asthma … Read more

‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Chapter 6 is full or surprises, for better or for worse

Warning: Spoilers ahead for “The Book of Boba Fett” episode 6 Last week’s impressive information-overload-of-an-episode was always going to be a tough act to follow and executive producer, and co-creator of “The Mandalorian” Dave Filoni stepped up to the challenge this week.  However, for reasons that will soon become clear, it is now obvious that … Read more

SpaceX Satellites Have Invaded Astronomers’ Views of The Sky, And It’s Getting Worse

With the rapid expansion of commercial space, there is a growing number of satellites in orbit around our planet. Most of these are in low-Earth orbit, which is becoming increasingly crowded.   This has led some to be concerned about a catastrophic rise of space debris, as well as a growing frustration by astronomers due … Read more

Black Children, as Well as Other Minority Kids, Fare Worse Than White Children in Common Surgeries

A pandemic is a stress test for society, revealing not only hidden cracks in health systems but also broader social failings. A deep fissure further exposed by COVID is the long-standing inequity in the health and medical care of racial and ethnic minorities. The outbreak has shown that Black, brown and Indigenous adults in the … Read more

Methane is much worse than CO2 – here’s what we should do about it

Methane is an underappreciated but potent greenhouse gas. How we deal with it will have a massive impact on averting the worst consequences of climate change Environment 1 December 2021 By Graham Lawton The biggest source of methane is agriculture, mainly from livestock Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash After a year of weather extremes, there can … Read more