Salt reduction will prevent nearly 200,000 cases of heart disease and save £1.64bn

England’s salt reduction programme will have led to nearly 200,000 fewer adults developing heart disease and £1.64 billion of healthcare cost savings by 2050, according to research by Queen Mary University of London. However, the researchers warn that the recent stalling of salt reduction programmes is endangering the potential health gains, as salt intake remains…

CovMT: Tracking virus mutations across the world

A SARS-CoV-2 tracker uses publicly available sequencing data to show how the virus is changing and spreading over time. The tracker, called CovMT, was developed at KAUST and is expected to help researchers and policymakers understand the evolution of the virus’s mutations. This could have implications for vaccine development, patient treatment and the implementation of…

Who Will Be the Next F.D.A. Chief?

Early in the coronavirus outbreak, Dr. Sharfstein urged public health officials to focus on protecting racial and ethnic minorities, poor people and others who face social inequities. He has called for expanding housing to hold people with mild symptoms in quarantine; protecting tenants from eviction and offering incentives to food providers to deliver food to…