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Tech News
A new analysis argues that how companies decide where employees work matters as much as the final policy itself. It notes that more than six years after COVID-19 began, over one in five U.S. workers able to work remotely still do so full-time or part-time.
A letter in Nature responds to a feature on AI-enabled biological threats by arguing that biosecurity thinking is too narrowly focused on mortality. The author points to severe ME/CFS and post-COVID disability as evidence that a biological event can devastate a population's functional capacity without killing large numbers of people.
A newly compiled dataset tracking all-cause mortality across 134 countries indicates that official COVID-19 death tolls were vastly understated, with excess deaths pointing to more than 6 million uncounted fatalities worldwide. The analysis suggests roughly half of governments either failed to accurately measure or deliberately concealed the true scale of pandemic deaths.
Despite chaos at the CDC's vaccine advisory panel and RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine actions as health secretary, updated flu and COVID-19 vaccines have been FDA-approved and are already shipping to pharmacies for the fall season. Major insurers have agreed to keep covering previously recommended vaccines at no cost through at least 2027, and state health officials expect a mostly normal rollout.
A study spanning randomized trials in India, Kenya, Nepal, the Philippines and Uganda found that 20-minute weekly tutoring calls to primary-school children produced substantial learning gains during COVID-19-related school closures. The approach paired widely available mobile phones with tutoring tailored to each child's current skill level, costing about $11 per child, and worked whether delivered by government teachers or NGO staff.
A new Nature study by Angrist and colleagues examined how remote phone-based tutoring affected children's learning during periods when schools were shut, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research found strong evidence that this low-tech approach helped students keep learning despite the disruption, offering a rare data-backed solution to an otherwise poorly understood problem.
New York's subway system is swapping traditional underground newsstands for automated vending machines that dispense grab-and-go items like snacks and drinks. The shift comes as many of these kiosks, once staples for commuters, have sat unused or fallen into disrepair since the pandemic reduced foot traffic and demand for print media.
A startup called Generation claims a combination of two generic drugs can reverse aging effects, citing informal reports from a small group of participants describing benefits like improved vision, better grip strength, and increased libido. The company plans a larger trial of 100+ people, but is already distributing the drug to others before any rigorous evidence confirms its effectiveness. The trial will be overseen by alternative-medicine practitioners, including a doctor previously linked to promoting FDA-discredited covid-19 treatments.
Researchers sequenced high-quality genomes from several Myotis bat species, including M. lucifugus and M. velifer, using field-collected tissue and cell lines to capture full sex-chromosome data. They combined this genomic data with lab experiments on PKR antiviral proteins in engineered human cells to study how bats' immune genes evolved under viral pressure.