Mind & body, in brief

An ethics committee at the University of Southern Denmark voted this week to let a US-funded vaccine trial go ahead in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa. [1]

Guinea-Bissau's officials have approved it too, although its health minister, Quinhin Nantote, said in January that the trial was suspended. [1][7][8]

The trial plans to enrol 14,000 newborns. Half get the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, and half get no hepatitis B vaccine for their first six weeks. [1][3]

Hepatitis B is a virus that attacks the liver. [7] About 9 in 10 newborns infected at birth carry it for life, at high risk of liver scarring and liver cancer. [4]

Guinea-Bissau does not yet give a birth dose; babies get their first dose at six weeks, and a birth dose for every baby is now planned for 2028. [3][4][1]

The researchers, Christine Stabell Benn and Peter Aaby, say no baby gets fewer vaccines than national policy gives, and they want to test for health effects nobody has measured. [2][5]

The WHO, the UN's health agency, called the plan unethical in February. It says leaving one group untreated is only acceptable when no proven treatment exists. [2][3][4]

Stig Borsen Hansen, who presented the study to the Danish committee, resigned in protest on Friday, and three other members have also resigned. [1]

The plan now tests mothers first and keeps babies of infected mothers out of the trial. In earlier research, half of children who caught hepatitis B got it after birth, from people around them. [1]

The test for mothers misses about 1 in 20 infections, the Guardian reports, and Paul Offit, an infection doctor in Philadelphia, says the virus can spread on shared toothbrushes and washcloths. [1]

The US CDC, the country's public health agency, has reportedly set aside $1.6 million, matched by two private foundations. It awarded the grant without a competition. [1][5][6]

Experts say a five-year trial can count early harms but not the benefit, because liver damage from an infection in infancy shows up decades later. [5][2]

Why it matters. Watch whether the Africa CDC, the African Union's health agency, tries to stop the trial again; an official there said on Thursday that talks with the US were going on. [1]

The US defence department confirmed on Thursday that it will livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood on 3 December. [10][11] Hasan, a former army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 at the base in 2009. [17] It would be the first US military execution since 1961, and the first public execution in the US since the 1930s. [17][16] Mental health experts warned that watching could cause post-traumatic stress, most of all in people with existing mental health problems. [9] The UN human rights office said broadcasting the killing would breach the ban on torture. [11]

Why it matters. Research after other attacks points the same way. After 9/11, how much coverage people watched was linked to stress symptoms for three years, and among 744 Israeli teenagers surveyed after the 7 October attack, heavy news-watchers had more symptoms. [13][12] Distress also drives people to watch more, which brings more distress. [14] Amnesty International counted at least 17 public executions in 2025, 11 in Iran and 6 in Afghanistan. [15]

A study published in the journal Science on Thursday found that people who ran a fever after a Covid vaccine shared features in their gut bacteria. [18] Ruth Ley's team at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tubingen, Germany, tested stool from more than 170 people before and after a second or third dose. [18] Those with worse fevers had more flagellin, the protein in the tiny tails bacteria use to swim, and more inflamed guts. [18] Mice given the fever-linked bacteria reacted strongly, and much less when they could not sense flagellin. [18]

Why it matters. Ley hopes that easing this side effect could one day lead more people to get vaccinated. [18] People who said they were vegetarian had less flagellin, but why is still unknown. [18]

England's care inspector, the Care Quality Commission, said on Friday it will start inspecting private clinics that only diagnose ADHD and autism. [19] Until now they did not have to register with it. [19] It follows a government review led by Professor Peter Fonagy, which warned private firms may be tempted to diagnose people who do not qualify. [19] The NHS Alliance, which represents NHS trusts, confirmed staff are leaving for private clinics. [19] One NHS trust, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, limited under-18s to the most urgent cases after most of its leavers went private. [19]

Why it matters. About 810,000 children and adults in England are waiting for an assessment, 1,298 of them for two years or more at that one trust. [19] Thea Stein of the Nuffield Trust, a health research charity, says people who can pay will be seen faster as NHS teams shrink. [19]

The Trump administration has proposed three changes to the 2030 US census. [20][21] It would count only citizens and lawful permanent residents, count people where they lived most between 3 January and 1 April, and stop asking about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. [20] The plan was published on 10 September, and public pushback got the comment deadline moved from 13 October to 2 November. [20] Nancy Krieger, an epidemiologist at Harvard, notes that a death rate is deaths divided by the number of people counted. [20]

Why it matters. If fewer people are counted and the deaths stay the same, US death and illness rates will jump in 2030 without anyone getting sicker, Krieger writes. [20] Census counts also decide where hospitals and clinics are planned and where federal money goes. [20]

Helena Kopp Kallner, a gynaecologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, told Scientific American about a way to numb the womb before an IUD is fitted. [22] An IUD is a small T-shaped device placed in the womb that prevents pregnancy for years, and fitting it can be very painful. [22] Her team runs a numbing drug called mepivacaine through a soft tube 1.3mm wide, with no needle. [22] Across three trials that let chance decide who got it, with about 600 people, it lowered pain scores and caused no complications. [22]

Why it matters. Ibuprofen taken beforehand is still the most common choice, though many trials show it does not prevent the pain. [22] The pain was long overlooked because it is brief, and because IUDs used to go mainly to women who had given birth, who feel less of it. [22]

Exercise scientists, writing in The Conversation and republished by Scientific American on Saturday, described work showing that cells keep a record of past training. [23] Mice that trained, stopped and trained again grew bigger muscle fibres than mice with no training history. [23] The liver remembered too: in mice and in people who trained, stopped and restarted, it released more of the enzymes that break down fat so muscle can burn it. [23] Mice whose parents exercised for three to four weeks had better blood sugar for a year. [23]

Why it matters. It suggests months off for an injury or a new baby do not wipe out all the gains. [23] The authors say past training cannot replace training now, and most of the evidence so far comes from mice. [23]

A study of 64,743 adults in the UK, average age 62, measured their steps and walking pace with wrist trackers for a week, then followed them for about eight years. [24] During that time 1,697 of them died, 502 from heart and blood vessel disease. [24] People who took fewer than 5,000 steps a day, but briskly, had a death risk similar to people taking 5,000 to 7,500 slower steps. [24] The lowest death rates came at 7,500 to 10,000 steps a day. [24]

Why it matters. The authors suggest about 30 minutes a day at 90 to 100 steps a minute as a target, which helps people who are short of time or cannot walk far. [24] The study watched people rather than assigning them how to walk, so it shows a link, not proof that speed causes the benefit. [24]

Kathleen Holton, a nutrition researcher at American University in Washington, is testing a diet low in glutamate on US veterans with Gulf War Illness. [25] Up to 300,000 service members sent to the Gulf in the early 1990s later reported fatigue, pain, headaches and memory problems, the US veterans' department says. [25] Glutamate is a chemical messenger in the brain, and it is also added to food as MSG. [25] In her 2020 trial of 40 veterans, symptom scores averaged 11.7 after a month, against 18.1 in a group that did not change diet. [25]

Why it matters. Holton says up to 80% of veterans improve, a figure that mixes their own reports with her team's measurements. [25] In 2022 the US defence department gave her $6.4 million to study more than 100 veterans. [25] The US food regulator considers MSG safe, partly because a barrier around the brain keeps most glutamate from food out. [25]

In 2027, 193 US counties will have no private Medicare plan with drug cover open to everyone, up from 123 this year, says KFF, a US health research group. [26] Medicare is the US government's health insurance for people aged 65 and over, and private Medicare Advantage plans are the alternative to it. [26] About 638,000 people live in those counties, and there is no such plan anywhere in Alaska. [26] UnitedHealth Group is leaving 228 counties and entering 9, and Humana is leaving 62 and entering 4. [26]

Why it matters. The average Medicare member can still choose from 28 such plans, so the losses fall on 193 counties in 16 states. [26] UnitedHealth Group and Humana are the two largest private Medicare insurers. [26]

The Royal College of Pharmacy, the professional body for Britain's pharmacists, has dropped Teva UK as a sponsor of its conference next month. [27] Teva UK is the British arm of Teva, an Israeli company that mostly makes generic medicines, which are copies of existing drugs. [27] The college said a review had found Teva activities that did not match its values, without saying which. [27] Last week the Royal College of Nursing, which represents 500,000 nurses, also cut its ties with Teva. [27]

Why it matters. The college's decision followed an open letter from pro-Palestinian health campaigners, who now want the colleges for GPs, psychiatrists and hospital doctors to do the same. [27] Teva said healthcare should not become politicised. [27]

NPR, the US public radio network, named the winners of its Student Podcast Challenge, chosen from about 1,500 entries. [28][29] The high school winner, Amit Biligiri, 16, asked why he forgets last week's lessons but remembers sharing fries with his great-grandfather at age six. [28] His answer was that emotion gives a memory a better chance of sticking, and sleep clears out much of the rest. [28] The middle school winner, Cora Walsh, waited almost five years for a diagnosis of dyslexia, a difficulty reading words, and now reads for fun after two years of tutoring. [29]

Why it matters. Research backs part of Amit's answer: emotional moments are often remembered with high confidence, though reviews find the boost does not show up in every study. [30] Cora hopes her podcast makes dyslexia less frightening for younger students still working out how they learn. [29]

An Oxford study, first published before this week and covered by Euronews on 10 October, used clinic readings from about 1.4 million adults in England in the Our Future Health programme. [31] More than a third had high blood pressure: a reading of 140 over 90 or more, or already taking pills for it. [31] About 59% of them did not know and were not treated, and half of those on pills were still above that line. [31] It affected 15% of people aged 18 to 39 and 71% of those aged 80 and over. [31]

Why it matters. England's NHS health check starts at 40, so most young adults with high blood pressure are never routinely tested, says the lead researcher, Wenyu Liu. [31] The British Heart Foundation says high blood pressure is linked to about half of the UK's heart attacks and strokes. [31]

Scientists in the US and at King's College London studied about 12.4 million immune cells from the blood of over 2,600 adults aged 20 to over 90. [32] Older people's immune systems varied more than younger people's. [32] The team ranked people by the balance between two kinds of white blood cell, one making a protein called granzyme B and one making granzyme K. [32] Among 50,000 UK Biobank volunteers, those leaning towards granzyme B were more likely to die or develop diabetes, high blood pressure or kidney failure within ten years. [32]

Why it matters. It may help explain why two people born the same year face different risks of disease decades later. [32] The team is building a simple blood test, but for the 50,000 volunteers the balance was estimated from blood proteins rather than counted, so it is an early clue. [32]

Dozens of people are suing Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the makers of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, MIT Technology Review reports. [33] They say the drugs damaged the nerves behind their eyes, a rare condition that can bring sudden loss of sight. [33] Both companies dispute the claims. [33] Research on whether the drugs cause the condition is mixed so far. [33]

Why it matters. About 11% of Americans now take one of these drugs to lose weight, so even a rare harm could reach many people. [33] Side effects in children are still little studied. [33]

The US CDC, the national public health agency, reported 4,080 confirmed measles cases this year as of 8 October, 193 more than a week earlier. [34] About 1 in 10 patients, 414 people, needed hospital care, against 244 hospital stays in all of 2025. [34] The CDC counts two measles deaths this year, while Pennsylvania alone has reported five. [34] Pennsylvania's own count has reached 1,136 cases, 219 of them taken to hospital. [34]

Why it matters. Children and teenagers aged 5 to 19 make up 42% of cases, and adults another 40%. [34] Last month the CDC switched to national death records for its measles death count, a change that has drawn criticism. [34]

The Catholic archdiocese of Chicago has dedicated a memorial to people who died by suicide and to their families, at the Queen of Heaven cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. [35] It says this is the first memorial of its kind by any US archdiocese. [35] Until a church law was revised in 1983, people who died by suicide were refused Catholic burial on consecrated ground. [35] The memorial honours the Rev Charles Rubey, who in 1979 founded a support programme for families bereaved by suicide. [35]

Why it matters. Catholic teaching now says mental illness can lead people to suicide, and Pope Leo XIV has given monthly prayers to people with suicidal thoughts. [35] A Vatican meeting on how parishes respond to mental illness is timed for World Mental Health Day, 10 October. [35]

Heather Maurer, head of the National Council on Problem Gambling, the largest US charity against gambling addiction, resigned in late September, as Barron's first reported and Fortune repeated on 9 October. [36] She had accepted $2 million from Kalshi, a prediction market where people bet on events, without asking the board first. [36] Directors asked whether Kalshi would pay for safety measures or promote addiction helplines, and she said it would not. [36] Gambling councils in Washington and Nevada, and gaming regulators in Ohio and Michigan, cut ties with the charity over the gift. [36]

Why it matters. Prediction markets let anyone aged 18 or over bet on almost anything, and advocates say that easy access raises the risk of addiction. [36] Kalshi says its business is not gambling, so the charity created a separate donor category for it. [36]

An Australian patient group wants GLP-1 weight-loss drugs paid for by Australia's government medicine subsidy scheme for women with PMOS. [37] PMOS, the new name for polycystic ovary syndrome, affects about one in eight women and raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer of the womb lining. [37] Doctors already prescribe the drugs for it outside their approved use, at a cost of several hundred dollars a month. [37] Australia's medicines advisory committee meets next month to consider subsidising Wegovy for obesity. [37]

Why it matters. Magdalena Simonis of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians says subsidies for PMOS may never come, because women's conditions are traditionally left out. [37] QENDO, another patient group, says more research is needed on long-term safety for PMOS. [37]