Typhoon Morakot left country with more quakes after changing stress pattern in Earth’s crustEleven years ago, Typhoon Morakot slammed into Taiwan, deluging the country with 3,000 litres of rain per square metre in three days. Catastrophic flooding and landslides followed and more than 600 people died.It is considered one of the worst tropical cyclones in Taiwan’s recorded history. But that...

Jeremy Cushing on the tragic consequences of the pandemic response, Prof W Richard Bowen on the need for more scientifically educated politicians, Joseph Palley on England’s excess deaths, and Betty Cairns on how the dead are being remembered in ItalyI was left confused by Devi Sridhar’s article (The northern lockdown represents government failure. There is a better way, 31 July). She urged...

The carbon economy amplifies racial, social and economic inequities, creating a system that is fundamentally incompatible with a stable futureFrom deep-rooted racism to the Covid-19 pandemic, from extreme inequality to ecological collapse, our world is facing dire and deeply interconnected emergencies. But as much as the present moment painfully underscores the weaknesses of our economic system,...

President again says he is doing ‘incredible job’ fighting pandemic and casts doubt on Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of deathCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump visibly floundered in an interview when pressed on a range of issues, including the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US, his claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and his inaction...

Most experts agree containment of Covid-19 is no longer possible, but what is the threshold for reaching herd immunity?Pandemics typically end in one of two ways: cases are tracked and isolated or a population achieves herd immunity, often with the help of a vaccine. Most experts agree containment of the coronavirus is no longer possible. What about herd immunity?What is herd immunity? Continue...

Like a fire, the virus relentlessly seeks out its fuel, humans, and will keep spreading as long as it has access to thatWe have no previous experience with a worldwide coronavirus pandemic, so when Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, began spreading, public health experts leaned on our experiences with influenza pandemics to inform their predictions. These pandemics are often described in...

Exclusive: experts say decisions apparently being made on ideological groundsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA group of Britain’s leading virus experts say mistakes are being made in the handling of the Covid pandemic, with testing contracts awarded on apparently ideological grounds to private sector companies rather than based on expertise.In a letter to...

If communities feel singled out, discriminated against, left behind and ignored, blame the messenger not themCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAt the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, we heard much talk of “behavioural fatigue”, the idea that people lack the willpower to endure tough restrictions. Though it wasn’t clear where the idea had come from, it was...

Activists accuse company of pushing remdesivir to boost profitGS-441524 has been used to treat a coronavirus in catsCoronavirus – latest global updatesActivists are calling on the pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences to study a drug for the treatment of Covid-19 that showed promise in curing cats of a coronavirus.The drug, called GS-441524, is chemically related to remdesivir, an antiviral also...

Since the beginning of the pandemic, ‘test, test, test’ has been the key message from epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists and healthcare professionals alike. But how does a country know if it’s doing sufficient testing? Or that it’s catching enough of the asymptomatic cases? Nicola Davis speaks to Prof Rowland Kao about the positivity rate, a value that can help to answer some...