Nicola Jones

My review of the year, as seen through the eyes of anthropology, for SAPIENS magazine. https://www.sapiens.org/news/anthropology-2020/ At the start of 2020, the Doomsday Clock was set at just 100 seconds to midnight (the closest to “doom” it has ever been) thanks to the twin threats of nuclear war and climate change, compounded by eroding international political infrastructure and the use of communication technologies to misinform the public. I t remains to be seen if humanity will harness these moments of turmoil—along with the global upheaval created by the pandemic—to carve out a better world.

As soon as the kids went back to school in my small town, the lineup at the healthcare centre for COVID-19 testing grew exponentially. As per usual for September, many kids had the sniffles--thankfully, none of it turned out to be COVID-19. This made me wonder: why are colds spreading so rampantly?? Does this mean the procedures for preventing disease transmission are failing? Should I be worried? My answers in Nature today: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03519-3 It turns out that pandemic response measures (masks, social distancing and increased handwashing) are quite good at clamping down on flu, covid, and other respiratory diseases--but not some common colds. Common colds are in the majority caused by 4 common coronaviruses (the same family as the novel coronavirus) and/or hundreds of known rhinoviruses. Rhinoviruses are different beasts. They don't rely on external lipid envelope for protection like coronaviruses do, and that envelope is what soaps and sanitizers b...