Some experts were concerned about the creation of unrealistic expectations, links with gender-based violence, and the potential for addiction. Others said education might help to offset these harms.
The purveyors of these myths aren’t doing the country any favors.
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Putting a dollar value on human lives to compare the costs and benefits of stay-at-home orders can have unintended consequences. These researchers found a different way.
The same stay-at-home recommendations meant to protect older adults from COVID-19 can also leave them feeling isolated and lonely.
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With most therapy sessions now online, a psychologist explores whether more self-disclosure by therapists – sharing more about their own lives – might help their patients.
Healthy working life expectancy is the average number of years people in a population are likely to be healthy and in paid work from age 50.
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For people who worked manual jobs (such as electricians or carers), this number was even lower.
On June 26, Texas’ governor ordered bars to close as COVID-19 case numbers spiked, particularly among younger adults. This Houston bar, photographed in late May, voluntarily shut down shortly before the order after two staff members tested positive for the coronavirus.
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Whether it’s cars passing nearby, a neighbour’s blaring music or the constant drone of a lawnmower, the trouble with sound is that – unlike light – it can be hard to block out completely.
The neighbourhood a child grows up in may influence their health for years to come by changing the activity of their genes.
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Yellow fever, malaria and Ebola all spilled over from animals to humans at the edges of tropical forests. The new coronavirus is the latest zoonosis.
Much of India experiences both extreme heat and extreme air pollution, as seen in this photo of the Akshardham Hindu temple. Days with both are going to increase.
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In South Asia, days with both extreme heat and extreme pollution are expected to increase 175% by 2050. Separately, the health effects are bad; together they will likely be worse.
Geoffrey McKillop (front) with his partner Nicola Dallet McConaghie as they left the hospital where he was discharged after surviving coronavirus.
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Is it possible that people who recover from COVID-19 will be plagued with long term side effects from the infection? An infectious disease physician reviews the evidence so far.
Many white health students - our future doctors, nurses and health workers - find learning about the ongoing health impacts of colonisation on Indigenous Australians confronting. But it’s vital.
Workers wait to enter a Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Logansport, Indiana. The plant had been closed after nearly 900 employees tested positive for the coronavirus.
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Being able to identify communities that are susceptible to the pandemic ahead of time would allow officials to target public health interventions to slow the spread of the infection and avoid deaths.
Quaranteams offer a way to limit the risk of infection while also maintaining social contacts and mental health.
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People are turning to quarantine bubbles as a way to see friends and family while limiting the risk from the coronavirus. Research shows that this can work, but it’s not easy to be in a quaranteam.
US soldiers with influenza at Aix-Les-Bains in France in 1918.
U.S. Army photographer via Wikimedia Commons
PODCAST: The third part of a series from The Anthill Podcast on how the world recovered from major crises throughout history focuses on the recovery after 1918.
Coughing, sneezing, talking and even just breathing can produce airborne particles that can spread SARS-CoV-2.
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SARS-CoV-2 can be spread through the air. But just how much of a factor that is has been hard to determine. Recent evidence suggests it is common, posing problems as public places begin to reopen.
Without a vaccine, getting to herd immunity would mean many more illnesses and deaths.
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Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne