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Pandemic

9 GoKawiil briefs on this topic

Study finds job hopping still carries hiring risks for workers and employers alike

A new study finds that frequent job changers continue to face penalties when applying for new roles, and companies that hire them can also suffer consequences. The research pushes back against the post-pandemic narrative that job hopping had become stigma-free as workers gained leverage in a tight labor market.

Red Queen Bio Develops AI Antibody Drugs to Preempt Engineered Pathogens

Startup Red Queen Bio is applying artificial intelligence to design antibody treatments aimed at novel pathogens. The company frames its work as preparation against future biological threats that could themselves be engineered using AI tools.

AlphaFold database adds 8,000+ viral protein complex structures

EMBL-EBI's AlphaFold Protein Structure Database has been expanded with more than 8,000 predicted structures of interacting protein pairs from viruses spanning 23 families that infect humans, including monkeypox virus. The addition, part of a new 'pandemic preparedness portal', builds on an earlier 2024 update that added 1.7 million interacting protein pairs from 20 organisms such as humans and tuberculosis bacteria.

Report urges employers to formalize remote-work decision processes, not just outcomes

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.

Global mortality data shows governments undercounted COVID deaths by millions

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.

Study finds phone-based tutoring curbs learning loss during school closures

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.

NIH signs 10-year deal to fund Pentagon biodefense research from NIAID budget

The NIH and Department of Defense have quietly confirmed a signed agreement, disclosed the Friday before a US holiday, that redirects part of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases budget toward Pentagon research on pandemic flu, CBRN threats and emerging infectious diseases. The deal runs a decade, and while the exact dollar amount is unspecified, reports indicate the Pentagon sought roughly a third of relevant funding but was steered toward about 10 percent instead.

Uber cuts 3,300 jobs, largest layoffs since pandemic, targeting middle managers

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the company will shrink its workforce by about 10%, or roughly 3,300 employees, marking its biggest round of job cuts since the pandemic. The move focuses heavily on middle management roles, part of a broader corporate trend of flattening organizational structures.

Survey: One-Third of Recent Grads Had Accepted Job Offers Rescinded

A June 2026 Resume Builder survey of 1,000 recent bachelor's degree graduates found that 34% had a job offer pulled back after accepting it, with 13% saying it happened more than once. Separately, 68% reported being ghosted by employers after interviews, and 65% believe AI is reducing entry-level openings in their field.