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Modellers predict that vaccinating children against COVID-19 could significantly curtail the spread of any new coronavirus variants of concern.Credit: Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty
COVID vaccines for young kids welcome
Researchers are looking at how immunizing 5- to 11-year-olds — the largest group of people in the United States not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines — will change the course of the pandemic there, after Food and Drug Administration advisers recommended authorizing shots for children. Modellers predict that vaccinating children against COVID-19 could significantly curtail the spread of any new coronavirus variants of concern. “For every child’s life you save, you may well save many, many more adult lives,” says infectious-diseases researcher Emma McBryde.
Source: COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub
UK funding boost less than hoped
The United Kingdom has postponed an ambitious science spending target by two years, chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak revealed in yesterday’s budget announcement. The government will increase research and development (R&D) spending to £22 billion (US$30.3 billion) per year by 2026 — and not by 2024 as originally planned. This means “the government will need to re-double its efforts” if it wants to meet an earlier target of increasing R&D spending to 2.4% of its gross domestic product by 2027, says Daniel Rathbone, assistant director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering.
Still no evidence of ‘sterile neutrino’
Researchers have, once again, failed to find any signs that hypothesized particles called sterile neutrinos exist. Neutrinos are some of the most abundant elementary particles in the Universe. There are three known types, but scientists have been searching for a fourth kind of neutrino for decades. If found, it could help to solve pressing problems in particle physics. Now, an experiment called MicroBooNE at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory did not turn up evidence of sterile neutrinos. Does this mean that the search for this mysterious particle is over? “I think that depends who you ask,” says MicroBooNE spokesperson Justin Evans.
Features & opinion
Pandemic must lead to TB vaccines
The coronavirus crisis has halted decades of progress on tuberculosis (TB). Not only are more people dying of the disease, but a target to reduce deaths by 90% from 2015 levels by 2030 is now in peril. Researchers are urging decision-makers to revive diagnosis, treatment and research programmes for TB and other infectious diseases, such as malaria. Lessons can be learnt from how COVID-19 has been handled — from extraordinary resource mobilization to the use of emerging technologies.
Predatory publishers’ latest scam
An analysis of predatory publishers — those that take publication fees without performing services such as rigorous peer review or quality control — reveals more of their tactics for deceiving researchers. Some re-publish bootlegged copies of papers from legitimate journals to give the illusion of credibility, making self-plagiarists of unwitting scientists. The authors of the analysis find that OMICS, a publisher fined in the United States for deceptive business practices, has since removed or changed the branding on hundreds of journals and webpages; some of these include papers backdated to before their launch or acquisition.
Source: K. SIler et al.
