Topic description and stories

Cambridge researchers have played a vital role in the fight back against COVID-19, from the use of genomics to track its spread and mathematic modelling to understand infection rates through to innovative screening programmes to keep its students and staff safe.

Intensive care unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital

Underactive immune response may explain obesity link to COVID-19 severity

20 March 2023

Individuals who are obese may be more susceptible to severe COVID-19 because of a poorer inflammatory immune response, say Cambridge scientists.

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Audience at Royal Institution Christmas Lecture

Cambridge scientists to take part in Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

04 Nov 2021

Three Cambridge researchers are among six leading UK scientists who will share the presenting duties with Professor Jonathan Van-Tam during this year...

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Child and mother during lockdown

Study reveals ‘drastic changes’ to daily routines during UK lockdowns

03 Nov 2021

Some spent an extra hour a day on chores and childcare during lockdowns, while others got an added daily hour of solo leisure time – and most of us...

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Student talking a COVID-19 test

Cambridge students urged to take part in innovative COVID-19 screening programme

28 Oct 2021

An estimated 7,000 students are already taking part each week in the University of Cambridge’s Asymptomatic COVID-19 Screening Programme, but the...

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‘Generation lockdown’ needs targeted help-to-work policies – global report

21 Oct 2021

Nations the world over are guilty of “policy inertia” when it comes to supporting young people who lost work or will struggle to enter the labour...

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Health care workers administering covid-19 vaccination in New Delhi

Delhi outbreak highlights challenge of herd immunity in the face of Delta variant

14 Oct 2021

The severe outbreak of COVID-19 in Delhi, India, in 2021 showed not only that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV2 is extremely transmissible but that it...

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Queen Elizabeth I by unknown continental artist (c.1575), NPG 2082. Image: The National Portrait Gallery, London

Queen Elizabeth I would tell Boris to tax the rich rather than cut universal credit, a new book argues

11 Oct 2021

A new book about how Covid-19 rocked the world argues that Elizabeth I would have supported the poor in the aftermath of the pandemic.

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People in office sitting in front of computers

Scientists develop model to assess COVID-19 infection risk in offices and schools

06 Oct 2021

As more UK workers and students return to offices and schools, a new model has been developed to predict the risk of airborne COVID-19 infection in...

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Film: the race to sequence COVID-19

04 Oct 2021

The variant hunters are helping us to understand how and why the COVID-19 virus is spreading, allowing us to fight back against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Teenager leaning on a wall

Rate of mental disorders among children remained stable in 2021 after previous rise

30 Sep 2021

One in six children in England had a probable mental disorder in 2021 – a similar rate to 2020 but an increase from one in nine in 2017 - according...

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Track and trace in Sierra Leone

30 Sep 2021

Professor Ian Goodfellow played a crucial role in helping to bring the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone to a close in 2014. His team's work helped...

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Covid-19 vaccine

Study suggests R rate for tracking pandemic should be dropped in favour of ‘nowcasts’

29 Sep 2021

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in 2020, the R rate became well-known shorthand for the reproduction of the disease. Yet a new study suggests it’s...

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A protester holds a sign comparing President Trump to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Rates of infectious disease linked to authoritarian attitudes and governance

21 Sep 2021

Researchers argue that a desire for “conformity and obedience” as a result of COVID-19 could boost authoritarianism in the wake of the pandemic.

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