Latest news with #pandemic
Bloomberg
13 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Job-Cut Plans Jump Due to AI and Tariffs, Challenger Data Show
Plans to reduce staff spiked in July to a level that was well above the average for the month since the pandemic, with technology firms leading sectors trimming their workforce, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. US-based companies announced 62,075 job cuts this month, compared with almost 25,900 a year earlier. The 2025 number is the second-highest for a July in the past decade, only trailing 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, the report released Thursday showed.
CNN
13 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
How conspiracy theories about COVID's origins are hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic
Editor's note: The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writers. CNN is showcasing the work of The Conversation, a collaboration between journalists and academics to provide news analysis and commentary. The content is produced solely by The Conversation. In late June, the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a group of independent experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), published an assessment of the origins of COVID. The report concluded that although we don't know conclusively where the virus that caused the pandemic came from 'a zoonotic origin with spillover from animals to humans is currently considered the best supported hypothesis.' SAGO did not find scientific evidence to support 'a deliberate manipulation of the virus in a laboratory and subsequent biosafety breach'. This follows a series of reports and research papers since the early days of the pandemic that have reached similar conclusions: COVID most likely emerged from an infected animal at the Huanan market in Wuhan, and was not the result of a lab leak. But conspiracy theories about COVID's origins persist. And this is hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic. As experts in the emergence of viruses, we published a peer-reviewed paper in Nature Medicine in 2020 on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. Like SAGO, we evaluated several hypotheses for how a novel coronavirus could have emerged in Wuhan in late 2019. We concluded the virus very likely emerged through a natural spillover from animals – a 'zoonosis' – caused by the unregulated wildlife trade in China. Since then, our paper has become a focal point of conspiracy theories and political attacks. The idea SARS-CoV-2 might have originated in a laboratory is not, in itself, a conspiracy theory. Like many scientists, we considered that possibility seriously. And we still do, although evidence hasn't emerged to support it. But the public discourse around the origin of the pandemic has increasingly been shaped by political agendas and conspiratorial narratives. Some of this has targeted our work and vilified experts who have studied this question in a data-driven manner. A common conspiracy theory claims senior officials pressured us to promote the 'preferred' hypothesis of a natural origin, while silencing the possibility of a lab leak. Some conspiracy theories even propose we were rewarded with grant funding in exchange. These narratives are false. They ignore, dismiss or misrepresent the extensive body of evidence on the origin of the pandemic. Instead, they rely on selective quoting from private discussions and a distorted portrayal of the scientific process and the motivations of scientists. Read more: Misinformation lends itself to social contagion – here's how to recognize and combat it In the five years since our Nature Medicine paper, a substantial body of new evidence has emerged that has deepened our understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 most likely emerged through a natural spillover. In early 2020, the case for a zoonotic origin was already compelling. Much-discussed features of the virus are found in related coronaviruses and carry signatures of natural evolution. The genome of SARS-CoV-2 showed no signs of laboratory manipulation. The multi-billion-dollar wildlife trade and fur farming industry in China regularly moves high-risk animals, frequently infected with viruses, into dense urban centres. It's believed that SARS-CoV-1, the virus responsible for the SARS outbreak, emerged this way in 2002 in China's Guangdong province. Similarly, detailed analyses of epidemiological data show the earliest known COVID cases clustered around the Huanan live-animal market in Wuhan, in the Hubei province, in December 2019. Multiple independent data sources, including early hospitalisations, excess pneumonia deaths, antibody studies and infections among health-care workers indicate COVID first spread in the district where the market is located. In a 2022 study we and other experts showed that environmental samples positive for SARS-CoV-2 clustered in the section of the market where wildlife was sold. In a 2024 follow-up study we demonstrated those same samples contained genetic material from susceptible animals – including raccoon dogs and civets – on cages, carts, and other surfaces used to hold and transport them. This doesn't prove infected animals were the source. But it's precisely what we would expect if the market was where the virus first spilled over. And it's contrary to what would be expected from a lab leak. These and all other independent lines of evidence point to the Huanan market as the early epicentre of the COVID pandemic. Read more: Game theory explains why reasonable parents make vaccine choices that fuel outbreaks Speculation and conspiracy theories around the origin of COVID have undermined trust in science. The false balance between lab leak and zoonotic origin theories assigned by some commentators has added fuel to the conspiracy fire. This anti-science agenda, stemming in part from COVID origin conspiracy theories, is being used to help justify deep cuts to funding for biomedical research, public health and global aid. These areas are essential for pandemic preparedness. In the United States this has meant major cuts to the US Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, the closure of the US Agency for International Development, and withdrawal from the WHO. Undermining trust in science and public health institutions also hinders the development and uptake of life-saving vaccines and other medical interventions. This leaves us more vulnerable to future pandemics. The amplification of conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID has promoted a dangerously flawed understanding of pandemic risk. The idea that a researcher discovered or engineered a pandemic virus, accidentally infected themselves, and unknowingly sparked a global outbreak (in exactly the type of setting where natural spillovers are known to occur) defies logic. It also detracts from the significant risk posed by the wildlife trade. In contrast, the evidence-based conclusion that the COVID pandemic most likely began with a virus jumping from animals to humans highlights the very real risk we increasingly face. This is how pandemics start, and it will happen again. But we're dismantling our ability to stop it or prepare for it.
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- General
- Irish Times
Making fatherhood work: ‘The feeling you get from caring for your child, I'd swap it for a few zeros'
The clueless dad, the silly dad, the dad who always forgets, messy dad, sport-obsessed dad, handy dad, reckless dad. Then there are the bad dad jokes, the shrunken laundry memes, the burnt dinners and the honey-I-don't-know-how-to-use-the-dishwasher trope. A dad at home with the kids is a fish out of water, according to the media, advertising and film worlds. These same industries tend to depict men as confident leaders, entrepreneurs and experts whereas women are overwhelmingly represented as celebrities, victims or carers. The stereotypical world dads inhabit is firmly in the public realm – at work or on the sports field – not in the private realm of the family. Back in the real world, economic necessity and the Covid pandemic have forced changes in the way all parents navigate the balance between the workplace and their caring responsibilities. Some dads not only capably embrace the role but also encourage other men – and workplaces – to see the benefits of a more involved fatherhood. As more dads challenge the status quo by demanding better parenting policies and flexibility, or by creating their own family-friendly employment, they are inadvertently driving change for everyone. Changing attitudes to fatherhood are shaping the workplace and men's careers, too. The pandemic created more flexibility for dads to manage work and childcare responsibilities and empowered working parents to use their time differently. Many parents found it significantly changed their relationship to work, to their partners and to their community and they are refusing to return to outdated ways of working. In addition, younger men expect to be actively involved fathers and partners and this is shaping their ideas about life at work and at home. Evolving Manhood, an Irish study of 500 men carried out by Women's Aid and Core Media, finds that although younger men are more traditionalist than older men, an increasing number of men do not see their role solely as that of the main breadwinner. A third feel the role of a man is being an economic provider whereas two-thirds don't feel that defines them as men. Finian Murphy, a communication strategist and researcher living and working in Dublin who is also a father, says, 'As a researcher, I'm seeing a generation that's critiquing how much time they're dedicating to things in their life from exercise and work to time spent with family'. [ A 9-5 work schedule operates on the assumption someone else is looking after your house and kids all day Opens in new window ] Men don't really think about the impact of parenthood on their careers or career choices because it is not something they have needed to in the past. 'When boys are asked 'What do you want to be when you're older?', most say a profession. Very rarely would they say 'A dad',' says Murphy. 'There's an image of just being a dad at weekends and in the evenings. 'The level of care hours between women and men we see this in the research stats are completely out of balance. Before kids, I was totally ignorant about the investment of time needed when it comes to parenting. I understood the concept but not the practicalities of dividing out the week in terms of who does what.' Becoming a dad didn't impact negatively on his career but it did change his conversations and choices. 'Normalising working dads and fatherhood has been the unlock for me. I had a mentor and leaders who would talk about their kids, the drop-offs, school holidays and they encouraged paternity leave. Dads in the office now have more conversations about the boring stresses of being a parent and all the navigation that goes along with that.' Being with the kids was fabulous. I loved it. At work I wasn't treated any differently because I was a dad Structural engineer Thomas Boyle, an Irish man who has been based in Switzerland since marrying a German academic three decades ago, found parenthood easy to navigate abroad. Both he and his wife chose to work 80 per cent work schedules with 80 per cent pay when the kids were young. There was no issue at all for his firm or his wife's employer with this arrangement and his career did not suffer. Childcare options included places in private creches, which were easy to find, and reasonably priced childminders. Before the children were school age, they were in childcare arrangements three days a week from 8am to 6pm. Once in school, a childcare facility was provided in the afternoon. 'Your spot is guaranteed in a city-run childcare facility that picked them up from school. The kids go there and have lunch, do homework and sometimes there was a trip to the zoo or the pool. We had to pick them up at 6pm on the dot. 'Being with the kids was fabulous. I loved it,' says Boyle. 'At work I wasn't treated any differently because I was a dad. I worked in a bog-standard office and they simply accepted it and I even had some career advancement before I left to set up on my own.' 'Men probably think they have to do the career thing a little more than women do but we shared everything 50-50. 'I don't understand men who take paternity leave and say yes to the childcare but no to cooking or cleaning. Men need to take up 50 per cent of the burden of the household to 'man up' and do this boring rubbish. 'Women need to put the boot down and say, 'Listen sunshine, if you want kids then it's 50-50 and we're cleaning and cooking and minding together'. That's the most urgent thing that needs to happen all over the world. It's sad and unbelievable to hear men still not willing to do that. I just shake my head. It needs to be equally shared. There's really nothing to it.' [ Why do only half of Irish fathers take paternity leave? Opens in new window ] Amit Wadhwa, a website designer based in north Co Dublin, and his wife care equally for their son, who has cerebral palsy. Now that their child is school age and his wife needs to work from the office, Amit is the main carer but he wouldn't change a thing. 'It's had such a positive impact on me as a man as I've been able to work from home and spend so much time with my son. It's very rare and I'm very blessed. Once these years are over, you don't get them back. I get to see him hit all those important milestones.' Physical and verbal milestones that were typical for other kids were not necessarily expected for their son due to his condition. Both parents have put in many hours of physio and language work with their son and his medical providers to give him the best possible quality of life. 'He's not that little child any more. He can't be running around in the back garden himself; that has to be done with help because of his CP. When you do this every day with him, you see the return. He can walk, he's a little chatterbox. I get all that emotional input from him. 'You hear men say, 'My business is turning over €1 million' and they feel that sense of pride; well, the feeling I get is well beyond that. The feeling you get from caring for your child, I'd swap it for a few zeros in the monthly income any time.' Margaret E Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@
Fox News
a day ago
- Health
- Fox News
Australian pediatrician spotlights the need to combat vaccine hesitancy
Professor Margie Danchin from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute is committed to helping parents overcome fear of vaccines, which has lingered since the COVID pandemic.
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
Covid Inquiry: NI family never saw dad again after lockdown
A County Antrim man whose father died during the Covid-19 pandemic has told the Covid-19 Inquiry that he never saw his dad again after lockdown as the care home his father was in closed without notice to McQuitty, 84, died in May 2020 in hospital from Covid. He also had dementia and was profoundly deaf in both publicly for the first time about his father's death, Gregory McQuitty described his father as the most honest, hardworking and best man whom he models his life five weeks, The Covid-19 Inquiry, sitting in London, has been hearing testimony from the care sector, including residents and families, about how they were supported during the pandemic. Counsel for the NI Covid Bereaved Families Group said the "removal of contact with loved ones is for many a price too great to pay, it was too cruel, painful and must never be repeated".Mr McQuitty said after lockdown the care home didn't contact the family to provide an update on their father and any contact was triggered by Mr McQuitty's McQuitty said his father's death certificate said he died from Covid and secondly by heart failure."There are so many unanswered questions around my father's death... we just don't know what happened," he told the inquiry. Emotional evidence Before his father passed away a ward sister used an iPad to allow the family to communicate with their dad but as he was profoundly deaf, Gregory said it was "too distressing". He told the inquiry his father's funeral was clinical and "nothing about it was near normal" with only 11 people allowed to attend."We were able to carry the coffin about 10 metres, there was no wake no stories for the grandchildren no handshakes. The open book has not been closed."After his father's death, medical records revealed he had attended hospital 19 times due to falls but the family was only notified on four of those McQuitty said he wrote to the health minister at the time, Robin Swann, three times following his father's death but didn't receive a reply. Mr McQuitty, who was emotional throughout his evidence, said while he was extremely nervous it was important that he spoke up for his moved by the evidence, The Chair of the Inquiry Baroness Hallett told Mr mcQuitty: "Think how your father benefited from such a close and loving family." She went on to thank him for travelling to 18 days of evidence, in its closing submissions, counsel for the bereaved families in the UK said while the fragility of the care sector was widely known before the pandemic the inquiry has uncovered that the situation is no added that the lack of parity between health and social care continues to manifest itself in poorer wages among social care staff and the recognition of their work and expertise. Call for care home system reform The NI bereaved families for justice (NIBFFJ) said reform of the system needs to start now and recommendations for the social care sector should be robust and applied as soon as also said care homes were not a government priority during the pandemic with "residents' rights undermined and oversight mechanisms withdrawn at a time of urgent need".According to NICBFG withdrawing regulatory inspection by the RQIA "removed critical oversight from care homes during a time of crisis". Brenda Campbell KC asked why "so many in social care had to endure so much suffering, for so long" and who so many had to die along?She added that the fragility of the social care sector before the pandemic was well-documented, and she said governments and civil servants had been told before and during the pandemic that those reliant on the social care service required special Campbell said too often during the inquiry they heard the refrain accompanied by "a shrug of the shoulders" as though it was the answer and not the problem that the social care sector was "the Cinderella service".She said when it comes to bolstering the care sector for the future there is a need to "collaborate and consult" and a need for "parity" between health and social care so that each receives the necessary respect and investment.
