PhD students’ mental health is poor and the pandemic made it worse – but there are coping strategies that can help: ESB Professional/Shutterstock A pre-pandemic study on PhD students’ mental health showed that they often struggle with such issues. Financial insecurity and feelings of isolation can be among the factors affecting students’ wellbeing. The pandemic …
Some believe the 1889 Russian flu pandemic was actually caused by a coronavirus – here’s why that’s unlikely: COVID-19 was the first coronavirus pandemic. The original Sars virus from 2003 and the Mers virus that created a health emergency in South Korea in 2015 were both coronaviruses, but fortunately failed to turn into pandemics in …
Young people took up smoking during the pandemic – how tobacco has been used for stress relief for more than a century: Lomb/Shutterstock In the UK and much of the west, smoking rates have consistently declined since the turn of the millennium. But during some of the most anxiety-ridden months of the COVID pandemic in …
The pandemic limited children’s ability to socialise: here’s how to encourage your child’s friendships: Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock As many parents and teachers know, friendships can be the most important thing in the world to children and young people. And this is for good reason. Friendships are integral to children’s healthy development and learning. Friendships help children …
It’s not a cost of living crisis – it’s a poverty pandemic: fizkes/Shutterstock There is a poverty crisis in the UK. But when outlining his 110 growth measures aimed at getting “the British economy working” during his autumn statement, the chancellor’s measures to tackle the cost of living crisis were limited to economic support payments …
Government’s pandemic catch-up tutoring programme is still failing to meet the mark: Joyseulay/Shutterstock A government scheme to help children catch up with schooling they missed during the pandemic is still struggling to help those most in need. A recent independent evaluation of the National Tutoring Programme has assessed the impact of the catch-up strategy in …
GCSE and Higher results show worsening gap between richer and poorer pupils: pandemic assessment shows we should reconsider exams: DGLimages/Shutterstock The difference in average GCSE English and maths results between poorer and richer pupils – the so-called “attainment gap” – is the largest in England in over a decade, according to a recent government analysis. …
Who tracked UK COVID infections the best at the height of the pandemic? A new study provides the answer: At the height of the COVID pandemic everybody, from health ministers to Joe public, wanted to know two things: how many infected people are there in the country? And is this number going up or down? …
Violence against workers increased during the pandemic – our research shows how it affected them: pixfly/Shutterstock For weeks of lockdown in the UK and beyond, people took part in nightly applause for healthcare staff and carers. Many expressed gratitude for other frontline workers: waste management workers, bus drivers, retail employees and others performing services that …
Breastfeeding increased during the pandemic but what does that tell us about how to improve rates?: SeventyFour/Shutterstock During the pandemic, there had been concerns from healthcare professionals that the restrictions placed on daily life would lead to a disruption in breastfeeding. But our new research shows that the number of women who continued to exclusively …
Eye of the Storm: Netflix’s pandemic melodrama highlights the humanity of healthcare workers: Netflix’s Taiwanese drama, Eye of the Storm, is the latest cinematic depiction of a pandemic. But rather than focus on COVID, it tells the story of the 2003 Sars epidemic through Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch. This real event, where a devastating …
How citizens could help government with emergency decisions in the next pandemic: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock The UK’s COVID inquiry is putting pandemic policymaking under the microscope. One of the key questions is who should make decisions in an emergency, and how. In a government committee hearing before the inquiry began, Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris …
Pandemic healthcare disruptions led to more preventable hospital admissions – new research: Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock It’s well known that the COVID pandemic created unprecedented disruption in how healthcare was provided and delivered globally. With the emergency phase of the pandemic now behind us, it’s important to understand if and how these disruptions affected people’s health. In …
A pneumonia-causing bug disappeared during the pandemic – but a surge may come this winter: M pneumoniae can cause flu-like symptoms. Chanintorn.v/ Shutterstock After pandemic restrictions eased, cases of respiratory infections surged worldwide. There were record numbers of people infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), flu and even strep A. Yet one bacterium also known …
Pandemic babies behind on communication at age two – but other developmental areas remain unaffected: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock The world changed for all of us when we were suddenly plunged into a pandemic in 2020. COVID sent us into a series of lockdowns in a bid to control the spread of the virus until a vaccine could …
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest threats to global health – and the pandemic has made it worse: stockpexel/Shutterstock The COVID pandemic has disrupted many areas of routine healthcare including, importantly, childhood vaccination. The pandemic saw levels of essential childhood immunisations decline in more than 100 countries around the world, leading to outbreaks of …
COVID: how incorrect assumptions and poor foresight hampered the UK’s pandemic preparedness: Loveandrock/Shutterstock Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has told the recently opened COVID-19 Inquiry that the UK’s pandemic planning was “completely wrong”. According to Hancock, the doctrine was “to plan for the consequences of a disaster” rather than stopping or containing the virus …
Eating disorders and self-harm rose among teenage girls during the pandemic – new UK study: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock Evidence tells us the COVID pandemic and measures put in place to contain the virus negatively affected the mental health of adolescents and young people in the UK and elsewhere. One review study published in August 2021 estimated that …