Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response

Story of the UK’s COVID-19 Delta variant epidemic revealed by genome tracing

A team of researchers led by Oxford and Edinburgh have today revealed how the Delta variant of COVID-19 became the dominant variant across the UK in 2021.

Can news help? New evidence on the links between news use and misinformation

"Our findings challenge the notion that, by drawing attention to false content, news leave people more misinformed," writes Rasmus Nielsen

How can governments end the COVID-19 pandemic?

We are now into the second year of life with COVID-19. Although we have overcome the first enormous challenge of swiftly developing and approving several effective vaccines, we are far from ending the pandemic.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Older Adults: Institutionalised Ageism or Pragmatic Policy?

The Covid pandemic has produced a plethora of editorials and commentaries by professional bodies on the specific impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and resultant disease COVID-19 on older adults. Threading throughout these is a fundamental framing of the discourse around ageism, age discrimination and the use of chronological age as a homogeneous determinant of societies’ acceptable response to the challenge of the vulnerability of older people to the disease.

Our World in Data awarded Covid Innovation Heroes Award

Our World in Data has been celebrated for its work on the global COVID-19 pandemic, receiving one of The Oxford Trust’s Covid Innovation Heroes Awards for­ 2021, part of the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire’s Covid Heroes programme.

Vaccinate the world, say Oxford vaccine trial participants

National pride in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine does not outweigh desire for global greater good, suggests study with trial participants

Alpha variant spread via ‘super-seeding’ event within UK

The rapid spread of the Alpha variant of COVID-19 resulted from biological changes in the virus and was enhanced by large numbers of infected people ‘exporting’ the variant to multiple parts of the UK, in what the researchers call a ‘super-seeding’ event.

Cities could be MORE important post-pandemic, not less

Paradoxically, more in-person work environments and the concentration of jobs in cities could be a medium- to long-term impact of the pandemic’s shift to remote working, suggests Citi GPS Technology at Work v6.0: The Coming of the Post-Production Society.

Team behind SARS-CoV-2 naming system formalised as the Pango Network

Researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh have announced the formalisation of the Pango Network, an international team of experts to oversee the identification and naming of different lineages of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

COVID-19 elimination, not mitigation, creates best outcome for health, economy, and civil liberties

Countries that aimed for COVID-19 elimination registered fewer deaths, better economic performance, and less restrictions and lockdowns, shows a paper published today in The Lancet.

Four new initiatives launched to support ‘Building Back Better’ from COVID-19

The Oxford Martin School has launched four new solutions-focused research initiatives, designed to make an immediate difference in helping the world ‘build back better’ from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climate change imperils countries’ ability to repay COVID debts

Most governments’ borrowing during the pandemic pays scant attention to the effects that climate change could have on their ability to repay the debt, researchers at Oxford University find.

It is the debt which kills the person: Mobile livelihoods in Delhi

To understand the impacts of the pandemic on different groups it is important to engage with the experience at the margins of society and to examine the socially and long-lasting effects of the virus.

Research consortium including Oxford University and Google.org announce new platform to track COVID-19 data

Google.org, the charitable arm of Google, the University of Oxford and other leading institutions including Boston Children’s Hospital and Northeastern University, today launched Global.health.

Banning wild meat could increase biodiversity loss, reveals study

A blanket ban on the trade of wild meat could create risks for nature and for human health, finds a first of its kind study from an international group of researchers.

COVID-19 transmission chains in the UK traced through time and space

A team of scientists, led by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, has analysed the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK and produced the most fine-scaled and comprehensive genomic analysis of transmission of any epidemic to date.

The need for open data sharing in the era of global pandemics

Research emphasises need for COVID-19 vigilance in tight-knit communities

Small, close-knit communities are at high risk for rapid, intense COVID outbreaks, especially if they haven’t yet experienced outbreaks of COVID-19, shows a new study by the University of Oxford and Northeastern University, Boston.

We still don’t know if warmer weather slows down the spread of COVID-19

The arrival of summer in the Northern Hemisphere has caused increased interest, from both the research community and the public at large, about the possibility that warmer weather might slow the spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19, intellectual property and access

Will the current system of drug innovation and access to medicines meet global expectations?

Researchers providing vital public information in the fight against COVID-19

Oxford Martin School researchers played a key role in contributing scientific research for ‘Coronavirus: The Science Explained’, a website created by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI).

Experts defend safety of reusables during COVID-19 pandemic

Academics including Professor Charlotte Williams, one of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Plastics’ lead researchers, have sought to reassure the public that reusable containers are safe to use during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

New report shows that COVID-19 has accelerated the shift to remote working

The fifth edition in the Citi GPS Technology at Work series, A New World of Remote Work, looks at how COVID 19 fast-forwarded existing trends and quantifies the possible impact of these trends on the future of work.

Challenging Circumstances: we need international guidelines for human infection studies

Would you be willing to infect yourself with coronavirus to test a vaccine?

Democracies have responded more effectively to COVID-19 than autocracies, study shows

Autocracies imposed harsher lockdowns but democracies have responded more effectively to COVID-19.

Researchers use virus genomic tracking to reveal the rise and fall of the COVID-19 epidemic in Guangdong Province

COVID-19 US employment shocks 'likely larger than Great Depression'

The U.S. is likely to see a near-term 24% drop in employment, 17% percent drop in wages, and 22% drop in economic activity as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, according to a new study from the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School.

Coronavirus: why a blanket ban on wildlife trade would not be the right response

The COVID-19 ‘infodemic’: what does the misinformation landscape look like and how can we respond?

Navigating the COVID-19 'infodemic' - how are people accessing news and information?

A new report from the Oxford Martin School's Misinformation, Science and Media programme analyses how people in six countries - Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the US) - accessed news and information about COVID-19 in the early stages of the global pandemic.

Why vaccines should be compulsory

China’s control measures may have prevented 700,000 COVID-19 cases

The world before this coronavirus and after cannot be the same

COVID-19: Study shows that travel restrictions are most useful in the early and late phase of an epidemic

Analysis of human mobility and epidemiological data by a global consortium of researchers, led by the University of Oxford and Northeastern University, shows that human mobility was predictive of the spread of the epidemic in China.

Open data is a leap forward in how we tackle global disease outbreaks

The scope of COVID-19 transmission is global, but we have in place a global understanding that enables a better-informed global response than has ever been possible before.

COVID–19 has intensified concerns about misinformation. Here's what our past research says about these issues

The production and the spread of misinformation have become major concerns for scholars, policy makers, and commentators across the world.

China's Announcement on Wildlife Trade - What’s New and What Does It Mean?

Contagion: the systemic risks of globalisation

The spread of COVID-19 is alarming. But not surprising. Globalisation creates systemic risks. More flows between countries make risks more contagious.

Coronavirus: Egypt, Algeria and South Africa are the main gates for importation in Africa

Egypt, Algeria and Republic of South Africa are the African countries most at risk for coronavirus COVID-19 importation in the continent, due to high air traffic with the contaminated Chinese provinces. But these countries are also among the best equipped on the continent to quickly detect and deal with new cases.

Air travel could spread Wuhan pneumonia to further international locations

There is currently an outbreak of a pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China.