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If there’s one thing that’s become very clear during this pandemic, it’s the importance of good public health data. Without reliable information on a variety of measures, whether it’s test positivity percentages or hospitalization rates, a country or state’s response to an infectious pathogen is severely hampered.
Current data shows that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is dominating in the U.S., accounting for nearly all new cases. But how do public health authorities know that? Epidemiologists Alexander Sundermann and Lee Harrison from University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences explain how the U.S. genomic surveillance system works, how it compares with those in other countries, and why you won’t find out which variant you got if you test positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Last week we launched a series looking at the health and cultural impacts of sugar, a subject many of us may be more attuned to following the holiday season. In this story, nutrition scientist Lina Begdache from Binghamton University explains how processed sugar affects children’s development. Surveying the research, she warns that “too much sugar can actually be detrimental to the normal growth of the brain.”
Since 2009, the cost of producing power from wind or solar photovoltaics has dropped precipitously. But the U.S. has a very long way to go to meet the Biden administration’s goal of a carbon emissions-free grid by 2035. Researchers Charles F. Kutscher and Jeffrey Logan from the University of Colorado Boulder describe how to reinvent the grid for the 21st century.
In other research and science news this week:
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