Three papers in Nature identify ZBP1 as a key effector of cell death and inflammation downstream of ADAR mutation, as occurs in patients with Aicardi-Goutières syndrome.

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-vaccine activism in the USA accelerated, amplified and formed an alliance with political groups and even extremists. An organized, well-funded and empowered anti-science movement now threatens to spill over and threaten all childhood immunizations in the USA and globally.

Established models of behavioural science can help to explain the suboptimal COVID-19 vaccine uptake even in countries with a plentiful supply, showing that increasing vaccination is not just about increasing knowledge and motivation, but also about increasing the opportunity for vaccination.

A preprint by Buquicchio et al. looks at the chromatin landscape of memory CD8⁺ T cells over the course of their development during acute and chronic viral infections.

A preprint by Cheng et al. describes how differential expression of the X-chromosome-encoded epigenetic regulator UTX contributes to sex-based differences in natural killer cell frequency and function.

Vitamin D has received much interest during the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential prophylactic or therapeutic agent — but do the available data support its use?