During World War II the US military forged partnerships with industry and academia that translated laboratory findings into working products at an unprecedented pace.
Exposing people to weak forms of anti-science arguments can help them respond when they are hit by the real thing.
NIAID/Flickr
Understanding public opinion can help officials target messages during a health crisis. But current survey methods aren’t good at generating representative samples. Can Twitter fill in the gaps?
For certain members of the community, catching flu can lead to severe illness or death.
Piotr Marcinski
Aeron Hurt, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
It’s that time of year again when scientists and doctors make predictions about the impending flu season and we must decide whether to go out and get the flu vaccine.
Studies have shown that mentioning misinformation – even in the process of combating it – can cause it to stick in listeners’ minds.
from www.shutterstock.com
Norbert Schwarz, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Eryn Newman, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Studies show that the more familiar we become with false information, the more likely we are to later remember it as fact.
New innovations and technologies, such as the Nanopatch developed by Australian biotech Vaxxas, are instrumental to Australia’s future prosperity, and many benefit from NCRIS facilities, which are now under threat from government cuts.
AIBN
The government believes innovation will be crucial to our future productivity, yet it is threatening cuts to research infrastructure that is instrumental to promoting innovation and new technologies.
Helping parents decide to immunize their children may be a matter of communication.
frankieleon
Research shows that what’s most effective is when health-care providers tailor the conversation to address parents’ particular concerns.
A volunteer receives a trial Ebola vaccine at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine in Oxford, southern England January 16, 2015.
Eddie Keogh/Reuters
Prior to the 1970s, almost all Phase I and II drug trials were conducted on prisoners. Our standards have gotten better since then, but still need revision.
A student contributing to community immunity by getting immunized with the nasal spray vaccine.
Cuc Tran
Before the vaccine, we thought measles was a ‘mild’ illness. This is because vaccines drive down the number of people getting the disease while increasing our awareness of the risks.
The bacteria living in your gut have more to do with your immune system than you might think.
Knorre/Shutterstock
Your intestines are home to many different kinds of bacteria (and some non-bacterial organisms as well). Together they’re called the “gut microbiome.” They come from the food you eat – and whatever else…
Do more non-medical vaccine exemptions mean a higher incidence of disease?
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As of January 30, 102 people in 14 states were reported to have measles, and most of these cases are tied to the outbreak that began at Disneyland in December. Public health officials are citing an increase…
How many of them are vaccinated?
Henrik Winther Andersen/Shutterstock
The measles outbreak traced back to Disneyland has spread to eight states, with as many as 95 cases reported by January 28. Media outlets are highlighting the rise of anti-vaccination sentiments. Scientists…
When people look back on 2014, it may be best remembered as the year of Ebola. Two previous assumptions – that the virus was confined to remote regions of central Africa, and that the notorious virulence…
The world has been warned that the current Ebola epidemic may not end without the use of a vaccine – and no licensed vaccines exist yet. That may soon change, because scientists are making swift progress…
Bats can harbour viruses such as Ebola and don’t display clinical signs of disease.
Janelle Lugge
Bats are the natural host species for Ebola and a variety of viruses, many of which can be fatal when transmitted to humans. More than 100 viruses have been identified in bats and this number is rising…
Chacha, a farmer and businessman from northern Tanzania, returned home from market one afternoon to find that his family’s newly adopted puppy had bitten five of his children. The puppy had been playful…
A Liberian nurse disinfects a looted mattress taken from an elementary school that was used as an Ebola isolation unit in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia.
AHMED JALLANZO/EPA
The extent of the current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has belatedly focused the attention of non-governmental organisations, local and Western governments, and international media. What we haven’t…
One of the most effective methods used by HIV to evade control is to hide from the immune system. We’re getting to know much more about how the virus does this and research has revealed how normal bacteria…
The treatment of the two Americans with an experimental drug after catching Ebola in West Africa has raised all sorts of ethical implications that will be addressed by a meeting of experts convened by…
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand