During the autumn and winter months, we tend to spend less time outdoors than at other times of the year. The colder weather and fewer hours of sunlight mean that families often spend more time at each other's homes, places where children can enjoy the company of elderly relatives, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but also where viruses that cause colds and flu circulate more freely, often increasing the risk of infection. It is no coincidence, therefore, that year after year around this time there is a peak in viral infections such as the common cold, the flu, COVID-19, and bronchiolitis.

Philip Ball (Newport, UK, 1962) has everything those of us who explain science aspire to: an unparalleled ability to communicate complex ideas in an accessible and highly creative way, masterfully weaving together scientific, philosophical, historical, and cultural concepts. His stories are always original, unique, and captivating, regardless of the subject. He's one of those writers who grabs your hand from the first line and doesn't let go until the very end. And on top of that, he tackles everything! Because, being a physicist and chemist, while he has delved into explaining how color was invented or what quantum physics is, he has also ventured into the history of China or the construction of cathedrals.

Every day, an additional 7,000 people are choosing to get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 compared to last year, since the vaccination campaign began. This was explained on Thursday by the Secretary of Public Health, Esteve Fernández, who believes this will have "a very significant impact" on preventing severe illness and its complications. This, in theory, suggests a calmer winter in healthcare facilities, since higher vaccination rates mean fewer severe cases will require hospitalization, thus reducing the strain on the healthcare system. Immunization is especially important for vulnerable individuals, the elderly, and those living in care homes, as they account for the highest rates of hospitalizations and deaths each year when the cold weather arrives due to respiratory viruses.

The hotel chain Hotusa has fully repaid the loan it received from the State, through the public company SEPI, to address the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The company chaired by Amancio López Seijas has repaid the last 56 million of the total 241 million it received in 2021.

The circulation of respiratory viruses such as influenza and COVID-19 increases during the fall and winter, and the Department of Health has launched its annual vaccination campaign to protect people at risk of complications if infected. Given that the forecast for the coming months is that the flu season could be two to four weeks earlier—as reported this Wednesday by the Deputy Director General of Surveillance and Response to Public Health Emergencies of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Jacobo Mendioroz—the vaccination campaign will also begin earlier than usual, in mid-September.

IB-Salut, the public health service of the Balearic Islands, has refused to reinstate Dr. Nadiya Popel, who worked in the Emergency Department of the Mateu Orfila Hospital in Mahón until she was expelled in September 2023. She will now serve two years. The news was announced on Menorca Diary.

It's been a little less than three months since a pioneering ruling issued in Barcelona recognized the blood clots suffered by a teacher after being vaccinated against COVID with AstraZeneca doses as an occupational accident. Now, the Social Court No. 3 of Burgos has issued a very similar ruling, but with one relevant difference: in this case, the affected woman had received a first dose of AstraZeneca and two of Pfizer.

It's been five years since the worst health crisis of the 21st century. COVID-19 turned the world upside down, with millions of infected people and deaths overwhelming healthcare systems and nearly collapsing in many countries. The arrival of vaccines, on the one hand, and the constant mutations of the virus, on the other, have allowed it to become another disease in the season of respiratory viruses, such as the flu. This is due to a new mutation called NB.1.8.1, which has already been placed under surveillance. However, for the moment, the risk is low, both in mild and severe symptomatic cases. As of mid-May, 518 positive samples of NB.1.8.1 have been identified from 22 countries, that is, one in ten samples sequenced worldwide. "significant" compared to recent weeks. In Catalonia, the predominant variant It is still the JN.1, although cases have been increasing in recent weeks, going from fewer than 300 at the end of April to more than 700 in mid-May, according to data from the Information System for Infection Surveillance in Catalonia.

Walking through the streets of Japan, one can notice that there are generally few trash cans. This fact is surprising to tourists given the cleanliness of most streets. He replied, "It doesn't just bother tourists, it bothers the Japanese themselves." The question we should ask, then, is another: why are there so few trash cans in Japan? Japanese means "supreme truth." Five members of the sect spread across three different lines of the Tokyo subway during rush hour in the morning. They inhaled the gas, as it is toxic. The criminals punctured the bags so the gas would spread into the atmosphere. Some of the plastic bags were strategically placed in trash cans. The Japanese government's security policies. And one of the measures they decreed was the elimination of trash cans, urging the population to try to throw away all the garbage in their private homes or other buildings, even if that meant taking it along the street

Among the various complaints from those affected by the after-effects of the COVID vaccination, one has resulted in a groundbreaking ruling made public this Friday. A Barcelona court was the first to recognize the blood clots suffered by a high school teacher after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine as an occupational accident. Side effects that, just a year ago, the same pharmaceutical company admitted within the framework of a judicial process before the English Supreme Court.

Alicia Andrés He remembers the "tension" and "fear" that were experienced in the hospital. On March 12, 2020, she gave birth to her first child, Liam. A nurse entered the room in tears and told her and her partner that no one was to touch the baby and that they should hurry home. Alicia's parents had driven from Málaga, where they live, to meet their first grandchild. The next day, they were retracing their steps to return before the roads were closed. On March 14, 2020, a state of emergency was declared due to the COVID pandemic. Gemma was separated from her daughter She was only born because she tested positive for COVID. I could only pick her up to breastfeed her. According to the restrictive protocol that was then in place and later relaxed, babies had to be separated from COVID-positive mothers, skin-to-skin contact was not allowed, they were forced to maintain a distance of two meters between the bed and the crib, and the umbilical cord was cut early. Laura gave birth alone, was strapped down during the C-section, was not allowed to hold her daughter, and found no help with the difficult breastfeeding process.

There are generations who remember where they were when man set foot on the moon, when JFK was killed, when television arrived, or when they had access to the first computer and the first cell phone. Our parents and grandparents have memories especially of the outbreak of the war that marked them forever and the death of the dictator. All of us alive today will remember where we were when the government decided that the collective interest recommended staying isolated at home and what we did during the lockdown due to the COVID pandemic.

Developed in record time, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines changed the course of the Covid pandemic that ravaged the world five years ago. In the first year of administration alone, they prevented 14.4 million deaths in 185 countries and regions, according to a study by Imperial College London published in The Lancet. This data was added to another later work by the WHO which estimated that these prophylactic drugs had prevented half of the hospitalizations due to covid in Europe, as well as 50% of the serious cases of the disease and deaths.

The Covid-19 pandemic turned everything upside down five years ago. The worst health crisis of modern times impacted every sphere of life, shook the world economy and forced us to rethink important areas such as care homes and schools. Five years later, some of these sectors have changed radically, while others have not learned any of the lessons from Covid in 2020.

This month marks our birthday, as it's been five years since the lockdown due to Covid. It seems a long time ago, but there are people who were infected in the first wave and still have Covid today. They are the forgotten victims of persistent Covid, some of whom were nurses and healthcare workers who now see themselves left by the wayside. We also review what has changed after the pandemic in various areas, we see how the vaccine revolution has turned out and we talk to epidemiologist Fernando García López about what was done well and what was done badly, with Madrid in the spotlight.

October is the new date set by the Girona-based company Hipra to obtain authorisation for its vaccine against covid-19. The company's R&D director, Èlia Torroella, had said that they expected to receive the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) approval between June and July, but they have now been asked for more data. "The situation has been changing and different requirements have been made at different times, and in our case they have asked us to provide more information. We know what they want, we will provide it, and we are convinced that the vaccine will be part of vaccination plans in the autumn," Torroella emphasised, in reference to the Ministry of Health's plans to start administering the fourth dose to the over 60 and to healthcare personnel after the summer.

The second anniversary of the great lockdown of March 2020 is approaching and the emotional wounds it caused have not yet closed for the children and grandchildren of those thousands of people, the vast majority of them elderly, who had to die alone. Sandra Ortega Sánchez (Sant Quirze del Vallès, 1979), a haematologist at the Blood and Tissue Bank of Bellvitge Hospital, has not been able to overcome her grief and the scene of the last day she saw her parents alive and the words she used the last time she was able to speak to them are still etched in her mind. It still hurts her to have had to bury them a few weeks later and without having been able to share the pain and receive the comfort of a hug from relatives and friends. In this interview there is a lot of unresolved pain, a suggestion to resolve it and a vital approach to the future because life goes on, as Sandra, who became pregnant in the midst of so much grief, knows well.

Omicron is making it very difficult for schools, which have once again seen their necessary routine disrupted. The explosion in cases in the educational environment, both children and teachers, has become a real problem that is greatly complicating normal running of schools after the holidays. The latest data are worrying: in just one day, 15,000 students have been infected; in the 10 days since the start of the term there have been 99,459 positive cases among students and teaching staff, more than in the whole of last year, when from September to June there were 85,666 cases. It is clear that the contagiousness of the omicron variant makes it spread much faster than previous variants. The fact that it is less dangerous to health does not avoid the feeling of vulnerability that schools across the country have right now, and above all the concern that it generates in educational terms. The reality is that teachers and management teams are currently more concerned about covid than about their work, which inevitably has repercussions on children's learning and, at the same time, on the relationship with families.