Medical

WHO released a list of recommendations suggesting the most appropriate types of masks to wear in a variety of settings. This included the use of non-medical masks in crowded places and public transport. Yet, not every place or person has adopted the use of face coverings. In this Special Feature article, we explore four reasons…

Share on PinterestA review of existing studies finds no evidence that vitamin D supplements might treat or prevent COVID-19.Vitamin D is vital for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. There is also some evidence that it may help protect against viral respiratory infections and play a regulatory role in the body’s immune response. This has led…

Share on PinterestIn this Special Feature, we look at how racism impacts community-wide access to formal mental healthcare support.Recently, Fiona Godlee — editor-in-chief at the BMJ — wrote a column in which she called racism “the other pandemic.” “Racism is suddenly and at last everyone’s business, and acting against it is everyone’s responsibility,” she points…

Share on PinterestExploiting a newly discovered opioid receptor might help design safer pain medication.Synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, naloxone, and morphine, are powerful pain relief medications. They can also cause dependence, are highly addictive, and potentially fatal in overdose.According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, every day in the United States, 128 people die…

Share on PinterestA recent paper asks whether the global food system can cope with shocks.In a commentary for the journal One Earth, Franziska Gaupp, Ph.D., a research scholar at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), argues that global food insecurity is increasingly susceptible to shocks because of the interdependence of the parts that…