Tag: epidemic

  • Health

    Epidemiologist says COVID-19 may be more infectious than thought

    Efforts to protect nursing home patients should include moving residents from facilities and increased testing, said Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina.

    Mobility aids lined up.
  • Health

    On-again, off-again looks to be best social-distancing option

    Social distancing could allow a level of infection that can be handled by the health care system, but would build enough immunity to strangle the epidemic.

    empty subway.
  • Nation & World

    Will inequality worsen the toll of the pandemic in the U.S.?

    America’s ragged social safety net and large inequity between rich and poor may set it up for a rough road ahead as it deals with the coronavirus epidemic, a Harvard Chan School professor said Tuesday.

    People standing in line but keeping their distance.
  • Health

    ‘Worry about 4 weeks from now,’ epidemiologist warns

    Harvard epidemiologist says U.S. needs to dramatically increase testing and social distancing, adding to the closings, cancellations, and shifts online.

    An empty Quincy Market in Boston.
  • Health

    A big coronavirus mystery: What about the children?

    A key unanswered question in the coronavirus epidemic concerns why children seem to be getting fewer or less-serious infections from the new contagion.

    Adult and child wearing flu masks.
  • Health

    Coronavirus likely now ‘gathering steam’

    Harvard’s Marc Lipsitch said evidence indicates that the international cordon keeping coronavirus cases bottled up in China is a leaky one, and it’s likely that the relative handful of global cases reported so far are undercounted. If true, that will lead to widespread illness internationally, including in the U.S.

    Patients in a makeshift hospital in China.
  • Health

    Coronavirus cases hit 17,400 and are likely to surge

    Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina said as many as 100,000 people are likely already infected with the new coronavirus, with many more likely to come.

    Coronavirus magnified.
  • Health

    As measles cases crack 1,000, a look at what to do

    Harvard public health and public safety experts recommended public education, elimination of nonmedical vaccination exemptions for schoolkids, and potentially more severe penalties as a way to get parents to comply with measles vaccination guidelines.

    Juliette Kayyem and Barry Bloom.
  • Health

    Inoculating against misinformation

    A new survey by Harvard researchers shows that trust in leaders and institutions are at a low ebb in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, highlighting the importance of gaining trust as part of the response to the growing Ebola epidemic there.

  • Health

    Hitting diabetes where we eat

    Experts gathered at the Harvard Chan School to discuss recent developments in the fight against the country’s diabetes epidemic.

  • Health

    Confronting Ebola

    Three nonprofits with strong Harvard ties have joined forces at the front lines of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

  • Health

    Understanding Ebola

    Though the threat to the U.S. population from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is low, the need in epidemic countries is great, says Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

  • Health

    New views on deadly diseases

    Harvard researchers are challenging the popular portrayal of Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers. In a new paper in Science, researchers present evidence that the diseases may be more common — and much older — than previously thought.

  • Health

    Obesity rate will reach at least 42%

    Researchers at Harvard University say America’s obesity epidemic won’t plateau until at least 42 percent of adults are obese, an estimate derived by applying mathematical modeling to 40 years of Framingham Heart Study data.

  • Health

    Search for new tuberculosis drugs outlined

    A new drug candidate that attacks the cell walls of tuberculosis bacteria offers a promising alternative in the fight against a disease that has been resurgent in the global age of AIDS, according to findings highlighted by a key researcher Friday (June 12) at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.