TRACKING EMERGING VIRUSES – August 1, 2025 – COVID
“More than five years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are still discovering the after-effects of not only the virus but also the prolonged period of stress, isolation, loss, and uncertainty that the pandemic caused. A new scientific study, published this month in Nature Communications, has revealed that the pandemic may have accelerated brain aging in people even if they were never infected with the coronavirus.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the UK analyzed brain images captured before and after the onset of the health crisis. The scientists found that the brains of those who lived through the pandemic appeared to age faster over its duration compared to those whose brains were only scanned prior to March 2020.
“What surprised me most was that even people who hadn’t had Covid showed significant increases in brain aging rates,” said Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a coauthor of the study, in a statement on the university’s website. “It really shows how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health.”” (1)
“Respiratory viruses, such as the flu and COVID-19, may be able to “wake up” dormant cancer cells in patients who have a history of cancer, according to a new study.
Researchers tested this hypothesis in mice that contained disseminated cancer cells, which are cells that have broken away from the primary tumor and spread to other organs, where they remain dormant.
They exposed the mice to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, or the influenza viruses. In both cases, the infections triggered inflammation that awakened the dormant cells located in the lungs, according to the study published July 30 in Nature.
“Dormant cancer cells are like the embers left in an abandoned campfire, and respiratory viruses are like a strong wind that reignites the flames,” said James DeGregori, study senior author and deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center.” (2)
“During the pandemic, GAO was tasked by Congress to provide regular updates on the pandemic impacts, as well as audit the ongoing federal response. GAO issued more than 200 reports and other products about COVID-19 as part of a requirement under the CARES Act.
“During the pandemic, GAO was tasked by Congress to provide regular updates on the pandemic impacts, as well as audit the ongoing federal response. GAO issued more than 200 reports and other products about COVID-19 as part of a requirement under the CARES Act.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our final comprehensive report under this requirement. In this report, we looked at the continuing effects on public health and the economy, as well as the work left to do by the federal government.
The public health emergency ended in May 2023. But Americans are still losing their lives to COVID or feeling its economic impacts.
Recent impacts on health. As recently as March, about 450 deaths were linked to COVID and many more people were hospitalized with symptoms. This marks a steep decrease from COVID’s peak—where in January 2021, about 26,000 Americans were dying each week.
For many of us, catching COVID-19 might have been similar to getting the flu. But many Americans are still struggling with “Long COVID.” About 18% of adults in the U.S. have experienced this condition—suffering from long-term effects of COVID, like those shown below. About 5% still experienced ongoing Long COVID as of the end of last year.” (3)
As Covid-19 has receded from everyday life, New Yorkers — and Americans more generally — haven’t shown much interest in poring over their governments’ pandemic-era performance. In 2024, congressional Republicans released a deeply partisan Covid-19 report, focused on issues like the lab-leak origin theory. But there has been little neutral analysis of real-time policy decisions aimed at truly learning what worked, what didn’t, and what if. The U.K., by contrast, set up a Covid inquiry in June 2022 so that, as a nation, it is better prepared next time.” (4)
“At a time when federal officials are calling into question the safety and necessity of COVID-19 vaccines, the mRNA COVID vaccine version used this past season showed no elevated risk of any of the 29 serious adverse events that researchers in Denmark assessed” (5)
“More than 2.5 million deaths were prevented worldwide by the cutting-edge vaccines developed for COVID-19, mainly among seniors, a new analysis says.
Essentially, one death was averted for every 5,400 doses administered between the introduction of the vaccines up to October 2024, researchers reported July 25 in JAMA Health Forum.” (6)
“In late June, the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a group of independent experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), published an assessment of the origins of COVID.
The report concluded that although we don’t know conclusively where the virus that caused the pandemic came from “a zoonotic origin with spillover from animals to humans is currently considered the best supported hypothesis.”
SAGO did not find scientific evidence to support “a deliberate manipulation of the virus in a laboratory and subsequent biosafety breach”.
This follows a series of reports and research papers since the early days of the pandemic that have reached similar conclusions: COVID most likely emerged from an infected animal at the Huanan market in Wuhan, and was not the result of a lab leak.
But conspiracy theories about COVID’s origins persist. And this is hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic.” (7)
“Vaccines given via dental floss could one day allow people to immunize themselves from COVID in the comfort of their own homes without having to use needles.
This is the finding of North Carolina (NC) State University researchers who have demonstrated the new delivery method in an animal model—introducing a flu vaccine via the tissue between the teeth and gums.
The novel approach has potential for broad application, the team says.” (8)
1.The Pandemic Appears to Have Accelerated Brain Aging, Even in People Who Never Got Covid, by Javier Carbajal, https://www.wired.com/story/the-pandemic-accelerated-brain-aging-even-in-people-who-never-got-covid/
2.Flu, COVID may ‘wake up’ dormant cancer cells, new study finds, by Adrianna Rodriguez, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/07/30/flu-covid-sleeping-can
3.Our Final CARES Act Report About the Federal Response to COVID-19, GAO, https://www.gao.gov/blog/our-final-cares-act-report-about-federal-response-covid-19cer-cells/85418692007/
4.The lessons New York still has not learned from the Covid vaccine rollout, By Nina Schwalbe, https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/28/new-york-city-mayor-race-andrew-cuomo-covid-vaccine-rollout-study/
5.Study finds no safety issues with most recent mRNA COVID vaccines, by Jim Wappes, https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-wastewater-surveillance-covid-term-effective.html
6.COVID Vaccines Saved More Than 2.5 Million Lives, Mostly Seniors, By Dennis Thompson,https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-07-28/covid-vaccines-saved-more-than-2-5-million-lives-mostly-seniors
7.How conspiracy theories about COVID’s origins are hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic, By Edward C. Holmes, https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/health/covid-origi
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai