UCL in the media
Does poverty affect personal responsibility?
The issue with the idea of meritocracy and personal responsibility is that it doesn’t take into account the damaging and limiting effects of poverty on the choices people are able to make, argues Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Epidemiology & Health).
Covid-19 trial should be treated with caution
A trial which will infect healthy, young volunteers with Covid-19 will be useful, but the virus will have a different impact on the sample group than it would on older, more at risk patients, says Dr Jennifer Rohn (UCL Medicine).
Listen: BBC World Service’s ‘The Newsroom’ (from 5 mins 26 secs), More: BBC Radio 2 News (from 2 hours 0 mins 17 secs)
Clues to the UK Covid-19 variant’s increased infectiousness
A small study which suggests the increased infectiousness of the UK coronavirus variant could be because people stay sicker for longer would explain the strain’s infectiousness, but a larger study would be needed to confirm the findings, says Dr Jennifer Rohn (UCL Medicine).
UCL researchers lead £11m projects to investigate Long Covid
Professor Nishi Chaturvedi (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL) and Professor Sir Terence Stephenson (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) are leading two new studies on Long Covid announced by the UK Government today.
Smart materials could change how we live
Smart materials, inspired by living things, could transform how we live in the future and move us to “a more biological view of the stuff we are going to make," says Professor Mark Miodownik (UCL Mechanical Engineering).
Two possible reasons why a Covid-19 variant is more transmissible
Research suggests that Covid-19 variants are more transmissible either due to a higher viral load or due to the virus being transmissible for a longer period of time, explains Professor Deenan Pillay (UCL Infection & Immunity).
How the state can partner with companies for mutual benefit
Professor Mariana Mazzucato (UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose) talks about her new book "Mission Economy" and how the public and private sectors must collaborate to tackle the world's big problems, rather than the public sector simply pumping money into businesses.
Read: Mail Online, More: Politico, Project Syndicate, Project Syndicate (2), Listen: BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today Programme’ (from 2 hours 14 mins 30 secs)
Heart damage in half of Covid-19 patients with raised protein levels
More than 50% of patients hospitalised with Covid-19, who had raised levels of a protein called troponin, have some heart damage, finds a new magnetic resonance imaging study led by Professor Marianna Fontana (UCL Medicine).
Read: Irish Times, More: Mirror, Wales Online, Herald (Scotland), Wales Online (2), US News & World Report, UCL News
Could people be infected with two strains of Covid-19?
While there doesn’t seem to have been a significant number of Covid-19 cases which have resulted from multiple strains of the virus, it would not be surprising if they started to occur, say Dr Lucy Van Dorp and Professor Francois Balloux (Both UCL Genetics Institute).
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reports are ‘excellent’
A report on mask wearing during Covid-19 by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is another example of their “evidence-based, cautious, balanced…technical and yet approachable [reports],” says Professor Francois Balloux (UCL Genetics Institute).