The legal restrictions that ruled our lives for two long years are slowly going away. We've moved from being "under the thumb" of COVID to "living with" the virus.However, the pandemic is far from over – COVID is here for the long term and some scientists think we are relaxing too early.So, what do we need to keep an eye out for in the months and years ahead? New VariantsWhat's the issue?

The United Kingdom’s (UK) pledge to scrap legally enforced isolation for people in England with COVID-19 flies in the face of basic infectious disease management, which tells us to avoid infecting other people when you are infectious. It is a basic public health protection, like others we have in daily life: speed limits on roads, the banning of smoking indoors, and laws against drink driving.

Could delivering COVID-19 immunity directly to the nose – the area of the body via which it is most likely to be transmitted – help conquer the pandemic? The World Health Organization (WHO) says clinical trials are underway to evaluate eight nasal spray vaccines that target COVID-19.

The idea of breakthrough cases is not a new concept.

The Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, United Kingdom (UK), performed a large jump in its ability to transmit. Now the Delta variant, seen first in India, has leapt further still.This is evolution in action.So, are we doomed to a never-ending parade of new and improved variants that get harder and harder to contain? Or is there a limit to how much worse the coronavirus can become?It's worth remembering the journey this virus is on.

President Donald Trump has been censored on Facebook and Twitter after saying children are "almost immune" from COVID-19.

The global toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is enormous: more than a half-million lives lost, hundreds of millions out of work, and trillions of dollars of wealth destroyed. And the disease has by no means run its course; hundreds of thousands more could well die from it.Not surprisingly, there is tremendous interest in the development of a vaccine, with more than a hundred efforts under way around the world.

Even people with minor illness from the coronavirus can develop antibodies that could leave them immunised for several weeks or more, according to an early French study that tested hospital staff with mild infections.Researchers said the results, which have not yet been peer reviewed, were "encouraging" since little is known about the mechanisms of immunity against the novel coronavirus, especially in people with minor forms of the disease."We knew that people with severe forms

Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam; hospitals overrun in Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia – dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low immunity to new strains.But one group of scientists is rolling out trials to breed dengue-resistant bugs in a bid to tackle one of the world’s leading mosquito-borne illnesses, raising hopes the untreatable disease can finally be beaten.The World Mosquito Program (WMP) has pionee