Ladders for us, snakes for you. Ratthaphong Ekariyasap When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, it seemed like the day of reckoning for over-stretched corporate borrowers was finally at hand. For years, pundits and policymakers had been warning about a dangerous build-up of the debt of “non-financial firms”, meaning all thoseContinue Reading
With families back in lockdown around the UK, it has immediately become apparent that the popular response to coronavirus restrictions in 2021 is very different to that of March 2020. During the first lockdown, schools were attended by a very small number of vulnerable children and those of key workers.Continue Reading
Ladders for us, snakes for you. Ratthaphong Ekariyasap When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, it seemed like the day of reckoning for over-stretched corporate borrowers was finally at hand. For years, pundits and policymakers had been warning about a dangerous build-up of the debt of “non-financial firms”, meaning all thoseContinue Reading
Regular testing in return for a wristband. Andrii Zastrozhnov/Shutterstock An escalation of coronavirus cases and the discovery of two new variants in the UK has led to increasing restrictions and a new national lockdown. But could freedom passes based on negative test results – in the form of wristbands orContinue Reading
fizkes/Shutterstock For most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are still researching long COVID.Continue Reading
It’s been an interesting year on The Conversation Insights desk. We’ve produced a raft of compelling stories from academics carrying out research all over the world in an attempt to answer some of life’s most important questions. Whether it’s a millionaire bunker builder living in a revamped intercontinental ballistic missileContinue Reading
Maridav/Shutterstock Vaccines for COVID-19 are now being rolled out, but in the UK, this good news has been tempered by the emergence of a new, potentially more infectious strain of the virus. Exactly how the pandemic will evolve has become more uncertain. Certainly, the next three or so months willContinue Reading
Say hello to Spike. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, CC BY-SA The emergence of a new variant of coronavirus has sparked renewed interest in the part of the virus known as the spike protein. The new variant carries several peculiar changes to the spike protein when compared toContinue Reading
The first people have begun to receive vaccines in the UK and US as part of mass vaccination campaigns to immunise people against COVID-19. Excitement is building – finally, the end of the coronavirus crisis is in sight. Since early December, elderly patients and health workers in 50 hospitals acrossContinue Reading
Andrii Vodolazhskyi/Shutterstock Whether or not a person with COVID-19 develops severe disease depends a lot on how their immune system reacts to the coronavirus. But scientists still don’t know why some people develop severe disease while others suffer only mild symptoms – or no symptoms at all. Now, a newContinue Reading
