News & Comment

Pfizer had successes during COVID-19 by streamlining decisions and running several steps in parallel, a lightspeed approach that can be applied to other diseases.

Online access during the pandemic widened participation in scientific conferences for women, young scientists and those from low- and middle-income countries, and should be continued

Rapid communication of clinical trial results has likely saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and should become the new norm.

The development of pediatric cancer drugs is vastly underfunded compared with that for adults, but legislation can correct market failures.

Evidence from recent armed conflicts shows that a long-term approach is needed to support health infrastructure and protect the vulnerable.

The poor health outcomes of people in the Brazilian Amazon have been exacerbated by COVID-19, and can only be improved with a health equity approach that involves local people.

Pervasive inequality in the Americas has fueled the COVID-19 pandemic and must be tackled.

Parents give consent for their children’s health data to be used in research, but what happens when the children reach adulthood, and how can researchers keep families involved in the meantime?

Vaccine inequity, inconsistent public health measures and new variants such as Omicron are prolonging the COVID-19 pandemic, but controlling the virus remains possible.

Greater convergence between national regulators will help prepare for the next pandemic

Young people must be involved in setting the global health agenda.

Lack of rigor in approving aducanumab for Alzheimer’s disease may lead to serious harm.

Approval of aducanumab will herald a new era in Alzheimer’s disease care and research.

AI algorithms used for diagnosis and prognosis must be explainable and must not rely on a black box.

Asian healthcare workers have experienced racism during the COVID-19 pandemic, including from the medical community, with potentially long-term consequences for those affected.

Oligonucleotides offer therapeutic potential for patients with genetic disorders carrying unique mutations, but developing individualized therapies is not supported by the current process for drug development.

Revisiting the challenges of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when doctors and patients had to make treatment decisions without the support of scientific evidence, can provide valuable clues on how to prepare for future pandemics.

The COVID-19 pandemic should revive a shared understanding of humanitarian emergencies and crisis resolution, opening the door to transformative change in humanitarian responses. But it has also revealed political opportunism and poor data-reporting structures.

Investigations show that those spreading misinformation that undermines the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 are well financed, determined and disciplined. To counter their activities, we need to understand them as an industry actively working to sow doubts about the deadliness of COVID-19, vaccines and medical professionals’ integrity.

Former WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has learned some tenets at the heart of resolving every global health crisis. However, in the COVID-19 pandemic, pervasive complacency in the face of this learning kills.