A German analysis explores what underlies shifts in the timing of seasonal surges of respiratory diseases, as well as shifts in surges of heart-related deaths, that occurred after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Michael Sieber and Arne Traulsen of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health on July 15, 2026.

Schoolchildren in Hong Kong face intense academic demands, with long hours of sedentary study leaving little time for movement. On average, their physical activity falls short of the World Health Organization’s recommendation of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day.  

A research team at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) has addressed this challenge by designing exercise videos and coaching materials in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracking 119 primary school students and their guardians over two years, the study examined how different forms of guidance and interaction influence children’s motivation to exercise. 

Findings revealed that home-based exercise videos boosted MVPA in the short term (by around 6–7 minutes), while parent support strategies grounded in Self-Determination Theory—such as offering choices, giving positive feedback, and encouraging parent-child interaction—helped sustain motivation and meet psychological needs.  

A new brain imaging study led by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), published in eBioMedicine, provides the strongest evidence to date that long COVID is associated with injury to dopamine-releasing neurons in the brain—a finding that may explain symptoms such as lack of motivation due to fatigue, slowed movement, and memory difficulties, and could open the door to new treatment strategies.

To prevent viruses from sickening or killing us — whether it’s an individual case of hepatitis B or a COVID pandemic — it’s crucial to understand how the proteins they make initiate changes in our bodies that allow them to flourish.

A new tool has just vastly broadened the scale at which researchers can study these proteins, promising to speed basic discoveries in virology, inform the development of new vaccines and treatments, and help humanity protect against emerging pathogens.

In K-12 schools across the country, administrators are tasked with keeping everyone safe. New research shows they may be the most in need of protection.

In a study published this week in Psychology of Violence, researchers surveyed school personnel prior to the onset of COVID-19, during the height of COVID restrictions and after most restrictions had been lifted, and their findings surprised them: Administrators were more likely than teachers or school mental health professionals to experience verbal and threatening aggression from parents. After restrictions lifted, 77% of administrators reported such experiences, nearly 3.5 times the rate reported by teachers.

Over-the-counter antihistamines and a prescription anti-inflammatory drug both have a small benefit in reducing long Covid fatigue among people receiving care from specialist long Covid clinics, according to new findings from a large clinical trial led by UCL (University College London) and UCLH.

Solving problems by harnessing the natural adaptive capacity of bacteria. This is the challenge taken up by a research team coordinated by INRAE and involving Grenoble Alpes University Hospital, Université Grenoble Alpes and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). By tracking the growth curves of the bacterium Escherichia coli, the researchers were able to distinguish between mild and severe forms of COVID-19. These results, published in Cell Systems, pave the way for simple and low-cost diagnostic methods.

Years of progress in reducing benzodiazepine prescribing among older Americans stalled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a decade-long national study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.