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.

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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Man using internet

Researchers to track impact of lockdown on alcohol, gambling and pornography use

12 May 2020

Is the lockdown leading us to drink more alcohol or spend more time gambling online or watching pornography? Researchers today launch a survey aimed...

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How do people in the UK feel about easing the lockdown? Not ready yet?

11 May 2020

Dr Alexandra Freeman runs through the Winton Centre's latest data (8 May), suggesting more than half the UK public still strongly support lockdown.

Repurposing existing drugs for COVID-19 a more rapid alternative to a vaccine, say researchers

07 May 2020

Repurposing existing medicines focused on known drug targets is likely to offer a more rapid hope of tackling COVID-19 than developing and...

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Tackling COVID-19: Dr Freya Jephcott

07 May 2020

“Complex social, political, economic and ecological forces not only drive infectious disease emergence, but increase our susceptibility to epidemics...

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Opinion: Coronavirus has intensified the UK’s digital divide

06 May 2020

The coronavirus lockdown risks turning the problem of digital exclusion into a catastrophe of lost education and opportunity for the UK’s poorest and...

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Science, policy & pandemics: how are children and teenagers coping?

06 May 2020

Listen to psychologist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and education and play expert Paul Ramchandani discuss how the pandemic is affecting learning, wellbeing...


UK public ‘most concerned’ about coronavirus – more than Spain or Italy, study suggests

06 May 2020

“Risk perception” among UK population greater than in nine other countries surveyed for latest research.

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‘Terrible twos’ not inevitable: with engaged parenting, happy babies can become happy toddlers

06 May 2020

Parents should not feel pressured to make their young children undertake structured learning or achieve specific tasks, particularly during lockdown...

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Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil

Bolsonaro’s attitude to coronavirus increases ‘risky behaviour’ in Brazil

05 May 2020

Study suggests that TV appearances by Bolsonaro led to millions more Brazilians ignoring social distancing in the days following broadcast.

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Electric car charging in Birmingham city centre

Green COVID-19 recovery packages can boost economic growth and tackle climate change, researchers say

05 May 2020

Researchers find long-term, climate-friendly stimulus policies are often superior in overall economic impact – not just in slowing global warming.

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“It’s been very humbling”: returning to the clinic during the pandemic

04 May 2020

It’s been decades since Professor Paul Fletcher last donned scrubs, but he now finds himself helping treat psychiatric patients, sometimes in full...

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Food insecurity in the UK – why we need a new normal

01 May 2020

The pandemic is exacerbating problems of food access. We can't return to a reliance on charity food aid to fill the gaps, write CEDAR researchers.

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