Worldcrunch
Researchers say “sickness behavior” mimics mild depression as immune cytokines signal the brain to conserve energy, making people listless and withdrawn. Yet it differs from true depression and varies widely depending on mindset, stress and loneliness.
Tobacco farming in Uganda has resulted in the loss of trees key to the diets of chimpanzees and baboons, increasing human-primate interactions — and the risk for disease spillover.
A terrorist attack, a global health crisis, and a natural disaster.
Life has resumed its course in the large industrial city in central China, where the virus first appeared at the end of 2019. Five years after confinement, the 14 million people of Wuhan are drowning in economic difficulties. Meanwhile, China has erased this period from its history.
Millions of people could die from antibiotic-resistant germs in the near future. But there are very few new antibiotics in the research pipelines of the big pharmaceutical companies, which are focused on developing more profitable drugs. What is behind this blatant injustice — and what can be done about it?
A new generation of coca leaf growers and pickers is posting video content on social media. They show their life in the fields, how the crops grow, the laboratories where they create the coca paste, and even the exit routes for drug trafficking. And while they used to be stigmatized, and threatened by armed groups, their content is escaping censorship and violence.
Former inmates of the Miraflores Women’s Penitentiary Center — where former Interim President Jeanine Anez is now serving her sentence — share their stories of solidarity and support among the women there, but they also call for changes within the prison system and society.
Milk shortages are not new in Cuba, where the state pays producers less for their milk than what they can make by selling it on the black market.
The surge in toy sales sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has tailed off, and the industry is now in a serious crisis. LEGO, Mattel and others see a potential lifeline in a new target: adults who play. The “escape into the inner child” could become a market worth billions.
French researchers have recovered a pair of viruses that were long frozen below the Siberian tundra. In this case, the microorganisms are harmless, but others may not be.
The pandemic brought a massive effort to limit the spread of bad health information. Did it do more harm than good?
The pandemic brought attention to an overlooked condition. But researchers are still fighting to show smell matters.
The 157-year-old cosmetics firm is banking on the “personal touch” and enterprise of its familiar women sales representatives to see it through the multiple threats of online retailing, changing tastes and global economic tumult.
On this day in 2020, the worldwide death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic reached one million. What was the initial global response to the COVID-19 pandemic? In the early stages of the pandemic, countries implemented various measures such as travel restrictions, quarantine protocols, and public health campaigns to raise awareness about the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. WHO facilitated information sharing, provided guidelines, and coordinated efforts to ensure equitable access to medical supplies and vaccines. Initiatives like COVAX were launched to ensure fair distribution of vaccines to lower-income countries. Were […]
Corporations are racing to adopt the language of the mental health movement. But is this anything more than a veil to cover up the deeper problems within the modern workplace?
China’s economy is struggling, partly driven by a deepening economic rift with the U.S. That does not bode well for the rest of the world, particularly countries in the Global South, writes Argentine daily Clarín.
There are currently supply bottlenecks for around 500 medicines, including the antibiotic penicillin. Every second box of the active ingredient in Europe comes directly or indirectly from one place: a factory in the Tyrolean town of Kundl, Austria. Die Welt takes a look at the factory and what’s causing the supply problems.
Along with mass tourism, large investors have arrived in the Tuscan Valley — investors with no ties to the traditions and agriculture of the place. If the residents leave, the landscape of this countryside will disappear forever.
After living in a campervan for more than a year, the author reflects on the limits of both settling down and rolling on forever.
Hit the pause button and rewind to a world grappling with the COVID-19, not that long ago. The world of work, like virtually all aspects of our daily lives, is bearing the brunt of the pandemic, with a particular emphasis on female-dominated sectors of the economy. Millions of women across the globe are forced to […]
To head-off a new spillover, scientists are combining a menagerie of animals, AI-driven models, and open communication.
The Chinese pet market is booming, driven by young city dwellers who are increasingly reluctant to have babies. Care, food, yoga classes, strollers, specialized detectives and pet-cloning are all part of a 35 billion-euro industry.
Poland is known for having the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. As political debates about the issue rage on, a Gazeta Wyborcza investigation finds that women are dying in medical facilities — notably in John Paul II Hospital — because doctors refuse to perform life-saving abortions.
Over the past two years, the United States has lost more than two years of life expectancy, wiping out 26 years of progress. French daily Les Echos investigates the myriad of causes, which are mostly resulting in the premature deaths of young people.
Anger depletes and debilitates; grief, on the other hand, creates a new strength and resolve. What is centrally at stake for me, three years after I lost my husband, is a stubborn refusal to forget the disease that took him away.
It has long been assumed that psychotherapy can do no harm at worst. But new research makes clear that for some people, it can have very serious, even life-threatening, consequences.
The TV series “The Last of Us,” where a fungal infection creates a pandemic that turns people into violent zombies offers hints of what could become more possible as global warming creates the conditions for the spreading of killer fungi.
We know more about COVID than ever before, but that doesn’t make it easier to predict what will happen this year. It also remains to be seen if we’ll put the lessons we learned into practice.
Protests that engulfed China quickly faded as the government made a U-turn on its strict Zero-COVID policies, even as police sweeps of demonstrators have left families where their vanished loved ones are. Still, the “Blank Paper Revolution”‘s cry for democracy may have quietly left its mark.
The public sector has seen a revival in response to COVID-19. This can be a good thing, but must be checked carefully because history tells us of the risks of too much control in the government’s hands.
Even if COVID cases are rising again, the author isn’t ready to mask up again. But she’s also not quite ready to say goodbye forever…
Around China, Zero COVID policy has shut down entire towns and workplaces. But in the high-tech Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, famous for cranking out iPhones, employees were forced to work even if they tested positive. Exclusive testimony from some of those who fled Foxconn premises last week.
“Dottoré, if today is to be my last lunch …”
Too much has been put in to the state-sponsored truth that minimal spread of the virus is the at-all-cost objective. Xi Jinping may eventually have no choice but to renounce the harsh measures, but at this week’s Communist Party Congress, the Chinese President was giving no ground.
In one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, thousands of Italian minors lost a parent or caregiver to COVID. However, unlike other places, Italy has yet to set out a clear plan to support them, leaving them more vulnerable to mental health issues, and even abuse.
The U.S. will stop funding vaccines but says it wants equitable access. That’s not possible in a predatory system.
A relative loss of power by sovereign states to non-state actors, as well as China’s ascent, are part of a wider reshaping of power structures that is tense, “anarchic” and far from complete.
During the pandemic, the world watched as Sweden carried out a unique approach to combat the COVID-19 virus, relying on social distancing instead of lockdowns. Although labeled a “disaster” at the time, the strategy worked well for all — except one key group.
Too many people no longer follow basic protocol: mask wearing, physical distancing and avoiding crowded events. The consequences are an increase in both daily case numbers and long COVID.
The pandemic has accelerated generational shifts as more women in Zimbabwe join the once male-dominated construction industry.