A number of officials have expressed optimism that the world will have a Covid-19 vaccine in record time. By some estimations, it could be as soon as the end of the year. I asked several researchers whether this optimism is warranted and what could still derail the effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
Unintended Consequences
India’s capital region has some of the worst air pollution in the world, and it gets especially bad in November. Farmers outside the city often burn crop stubble to clear their fields for the next planting, sending choking smoke over millions of people. But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, the spike in air pollution can be traced back to a water conservation law implemented more than a decade ago.
Radiation keeps you warm
In one of the more controversial articles I've written, I report on the idea that the way we model the health effects of radiation at low levels may be wrong. This has huge implications for the nuclear energy industry, since they spend so much money trying to get radiation exposures down to zero.
Many environmental groups oppose revising this standard (and have sent me some angry letters about it).
One step forward, two steps back
Human health has drastically improved over the last century, with average life expectancies rising and infant mortality dropping worldwide. The industrial development that enabled these gains has consequences for the environment. A new report in the medical journal The Lancet finds that the changing climate threatens to undo a half-century of health progress. Rising seas, declining crop yields and spreading infections pose increasing risks to global health.
Catch your breath
President Obama has repeatedly invoked health, including his daughter's asthma, as a reason to mitigate climate change. However, the health effects of CO2 are further removed than those of pollutants like ozone. This may be a vulnerability in the President's case for climate action.
An Infectious climate
New diseases are likely to emerge as the climate warms. As organisms move in response to rising temperatures, it increases the likelihood that a previously unknown pathogen jumps from one species to another.
Hold Your Breath
When temperatures rise, air pollution gets worse. Ozone and volatile organic compounds tend to form on hotter days in urban environments, sending the vulnerable to emergency rooms for heart and lung problems. German researchers found that under a changing climate, these factors converge to form a lethal threat.
Clear skies over Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany