With vast technological advances over the last few years, and now the dramatic changes brought on by COVID-19, it has never been so clear that digital transformation is essential to organisational success.

Coronavirus deaths shocked us with how rapidly they rose from a base of none at the start of the year, to many thousands within the space of mere weeks. At the peak for England and Wales on April 8, more than 1,300 people died in a single day (as revealed later when all death registrations were reported).

British cancer doctor Prof Karol Sikora recently claimed that the current COVID-19 pandemic would “burn itself out”. His thinking is that if there are more infections than we realise, and that those milder, unrecorded infections result in robust immunity, then this would quickly lead to “herd immunity”, leaving the virus nowhere to go but extinct. Extend this to the world’s population and the virus eradicates itself.

In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, the haughty supercomputer Deep Thought is asked whether he can find the answer to the ultimate question concerning life, the universe and everything. He replies that, yes, he can do it, but it’s tricky and he’ll have to think about it. When asked how long it will take him he replies, “Seven-and-a-half million years. I told you I’d have to think about it.”

Many people will be familiar with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a historical treatment for “mental illness”, in which an electrical current is passed through the brain to trigger seizures, with the aim of somehow treating the illness. In fact, ECT is still being administered to about a million people each year to treat severe depression, including about 2,500 in England, under anaesthetic. The majority are women, and over 60 years of age.

In March 2020, Google searches for phrases like “can’t taste food” or “why can’t I smell” spiked around the world, particularly in areas where COVID-19 hit hardest. Still, many of us have experienced a temporary change in the flavor of our food with a common cold or the flu (influenza). So, is COVID-19 – the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus – somehow special in the way it affects smell and taste?

Her symptoms started quickly: neck pain, extreme fatigue and intermittent fever and chills. The woman had been healthy until then, and since she enjoyed gardening and landscaping at her rural Maryland home, she wondered if a tick bite might have given her Lyme disease although she had not noticed the telltale bull’s-eye skin lesion.

In late February, I fell ill with a fever and a cough. As a biochemist who teaches a class on viruses, I’d been tracking the outbreak of COVID-19 in China. Inevitably I wondered: Did I have COVID-19, or did I have the flu?

In social psychology, ‘proxemics’ is the study of the distance that separates us from others according to our culture and degree of affinity. I accept my partner entering my personal space (less than 40cm) but when I give a lecture I need at least 3.70m (the measure of social distance) to be respected. During lockdown, it is very likely that living in close quarters with others violates traditional proxemics.

Today’s exercise is around nurturing the ties that connect you with others. In positive psychology we often talk about the benefits of gratitude, so here is a ‘gratitude letter’ exercise to try today. Find a quiet place where you feel comfortable. Select one person from your past who has made a positive impact in your life to whom you have never fully expressed your gratitude. Write a heartfelt testimonial

Today I’m helping you understand what happens when you’re anxious. The coronavirus causes fear of respiratory problems and stress. The brain then creates “selective hyper-vigilance”, which means that it “scans” us very or even too regularly in search of the slightest problem and focuses only on the things that are wrong: that strange sensation in our chest, the muscle tension in our back, our itchy eyes. Then the second

For today, here’s a positive psychology exercise that will increase your level of well-being in the short, medium, and long term. It’s about identifying your character strengths and using one per day in a specific activity. Here’s an example: one strength of mine is my love of study and learning. So from now on, I’m devoting every Monday afternoon to writing a chapter of my book, reading a scientific

If physical health is to remain a top priority during this pandemic, then mental health is our best ally along the way. The psychological impacts of pandemics and confinement—stress, anxiety, PTSD, anger and for some, emotional exhaustion—are now well documented (see meta-analysis: https://lnkd.in/einFiqi). Once you’ve taken care of the basic precautionary measures, I invite you to: Up the attention you give your spouse and children by putting your smartphone

For some people, the days feel a little long, and boredom is a great friend of anxiety. So for the duration of lockdown, I would like to offer a daily “shrink’s tip” that I find useful and that will help you to cultivate “salutogenesis.” Have you ever heard of that concept? It’s basically about promoting things that improve health rather than mitigating things that damage it. For today, here’s

Although it has now been some time since COVID-19 swept the planet, most countries are still reporting a significant number of new cases each day. Despite the gradual easing of restrictions, businesses must still manage the effects of the virus on the wellbeing of their people and find new ways of functioning throughout this difficult period. To do our part in this collective effort, over the coming weeks we’ll

In early 2020, it seemed like people with diabetes were disproportionately dying with COVID-19, but the data provided more questions than answers. What type of diabetes did people have? Were people dying because the condition itself put them at greater risk, or because those with it tend to be older and have other illnesses? And what should people with diabetes do to protect themselves?

Many countries are moving to exit a lockdown triggered by COVID-19, but the virus has not gone away and there are real concerns that a second wave of infection could happen. We urgently need to understand more about how the body deals with this infection and what we can do to tackle it. Immunology has taken centre stage here in revealing what happens when our body fights this virus, and brings us the possibility of treatments and vaccines.

Some people question why the current coronavirus has brought the world to standstill while a previous deadly coronavirus, SARS, did not. Others have questioned why a vaccine is so urgently needed now to stop the spread of the current coronavirus when a vaccine was never developed for SARS.

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce University of Oxford Departmental Lecturer and Deputy Director of Evidence-Based Healthcare DPhil programme I work in the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, where I am involved in research and teaching, and serve as the deputy director of the part-time Evidence-Based Healthcare DPhil programme. My particular interests lie in evidence synthesis (both quantitative and qualitative) and the communication of complex information and data to inform policy and public action. I am

Sheena Cruickshank University of Manchester Professor in Biomedical Sciences Immunology is the science of the immune system, the body’s defence against infection. From birth to death, we are bombarded with potential infectious threats that are immune system must recognise and respond to by killing or containing the threat. Yet, the immune system can be harmful too to us too when it isn’t properly controlled as is seen in allergies

Daniel M Davis University of Manchester Professor of Immunology Daniel M Davis is a Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester, UK. He helped pioneer the use of microscopy to show how immune cells communicate with each other and detect disease in other cells. He co-discovered the Natural Killer cell immune synapse and membrane nanotubes. He is also the author of ‘The Compatibility Gene’ and ‘The Beautiful Cure’,

Scientists are constantly revealing newly discovered benefits of exercise. In experiments over the past 10 years, my research has found that exercise can help with a respiratory problem known as ARDS.

Zhen Yan University of Virginia Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine Non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, cause > 60% of the death in the USA and account for > 75% of health care costs. Regular exercise has profound health benefits and is the most powerful intervention in disease prevention and treatment. We employ the state-of-the-art molecular genetics and imaging technologies in a variety of animal

Wladislaw Rivkin Aston University Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology Dr Wladislaw Rivkin is a Senior Lecturer in the Work and Organisational Psychology Department at Aston Business School. His research focuses on the interplay of stressors, leadership and other resources in predicting employees’ health well-being and performance in organisations, which has been published in high impact academic journals. Wladislaw works as a practitioner with businesses and organisations in

Marilyn J. Roossinck Pennsylvania State University Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology Our focus in the Roossinck lab is on virus-plant and virus-fungus-plant interactions in virus evolution and ecology. We use Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) as a model virus for experimental evolution studies, including generation and maintenance of quasispecies, rates of recombination, and polymerase fidelity. We are interested in how plants use viruses in adaptation to extreme environments. Fungal viruses

As an academic who regularly worked from home in the days before coronavirus, my friends often joked about what they imagined my daily routine might be (such as enjoying a morning gin and not changing out of my pyjamas). But as many people now realise, the reality is quite different. Working from home can be quite a challenge.

Taking a holistic view in managing their global employee benefit programs is the chosen way forward for an increasing number of multinationals that want a better overview and cost control of these programs. Many companies find that outsourcing the day-to-day handling and reporting of the insured benefits to local experts coordinated by a central team with one of the global consulting / brokerage firms is the preferred approach.