The year 2025 was among the top three warmest years on record, according to the latest update from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Depending on the data set being used, the year was either the second or third warmest year on record. The UN agency for monitoring the atmosphere also confirmed that the past 11 […] Continue reading ->
Fears over the side effects of COVID-19 jabs, which led to initial vaccine hesitancy, mostly gave way to acceptance in the course of the pandemic, with only a small minority remaining unvaccinated due to deep-seated mistrust, a new major study published in The Lancet finds. For the first time, the study “Profiling vaccine attitudes and […] Continue reading ->
While the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will still consider the health benefits of emissions regulations, it will no longer publish estimates of the economic costs of deaths, illness and disability from unsafe air pollution levels. The US EPA, whose path-finding work on air pollution’s health impacts helped set standards internationally, will no longer put […] Continue reading ->
Governments should “significantly strengthen” taxes on alcoholic and sugary drinks as these products are getting cheaper, fueling obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers and injuries. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which issued two reports on taxing sugary drinks and alcohol on Tuesday, including how countries are implementing these. “In most countries, these […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Along the winding road to Babusar Top, a favourite summer tourist spot in northern Pakistan, there was once a thick forest that shielded the slopes and cooled the air. Today, these hillsides are bare, stripped of trees that took a century to mature. So when torrential rains arrived in August, torrents of […] Continue reading ->
As the magnitude of the global crisis surrounding youth mental health continues to unfold, increased attention has been placed on developing strategies to prevent young people’s mental health from deteriorating and promote mental wellbeing at scale. With global stressors accelerating and services failing to keep pace, the need for system-level solutions has never been more […] Continue reading ->
Over December, the United States signed bilateral health co-operation agreements with 14 African countries, setting out the parameters for aid in exchange for speedy information about new disease outbreaks – and, in some instances, clinched alongside trade deals profitable to US companies. The fourteen countries, in order of when the agreements were signed, are: Kenya, […] Continue reading ->
The German government is set to halve its funding for the Berlin-based WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence this year as part of a broader retreat from global health and aid financing under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Funding for the pandemic surveillance hub will be reduced from €30 million yearly to €15 million, with only […] Continue reading ->
A US government-funded trial on the timing of hepatitis B vaccinations, which will delay vaccination for up to 7,000 newborns in Guinea-Bissau, is due to start this week. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded a controversial Danish research group a $1,6 million five-year grant to study the “optimal timing and […] Continue reading ->
The last 12 months have been an unpredictable rollercoaster for those of us working in global health, climate change and development: trade wars, real wars, job and finance cuts, cost of living pressures, attacks on science, the rise of far-right extremism, and the increasingly deadly impacts of climate change, to name but a few of […] Continue reading ->