The Conversation

A mysterious illness is striking children amid the coronavirus pandemic – but don't be too quick to tie it to Kawasaki disease

Written by Mark Hicar, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

A number of young COVID-19 patients have developed inflammation in multiple organs.Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Critically ill children have been ending up in intensive care units with shock-like symptoms in recent weeks, adding yet another mysterious layer to the coronavirus pandemic.

New York health officials issued an alert on May 4, describing 15...

A mysterious illness is striking children amid the coronavirus pandemic – but is it Kawasaki disease?

Written by Mark Hicar, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

A number of young COVID-19 patients have developed inflammation in multiple organs.Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Critically ill children have been ending up in intensive care units with shock-like symptoms in recent weeks, adding yet another mysterious layer to the coronavirus pandemic.

New York health officials began issuing alerts on May 4, describing...

Qué es el R0, el número que siguen los científicos para ver la intensidad del coronavirus

Written by Joseph Eisenberg, Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, University of Michigan

¿A cuántas personas puede contagiar un solo infectado? Bim/E+ via Getty Images

Si viste la película “Contagio” (“Contagion” en inglés), estrenada en 2011, sobre una pandemia mundial causada por un nuevo virus, entonces escuchaste hablar sobre el factor R0.

No es un término inventado por...

Typefaces have personality – and can be political

Written by Daniel Tamul, Assistant Professor in Communications, Virginia Tech

Barack Obama's 2008 campaign logo inspired scholars to study the role of typeface in political communication.Getty/Sebastian Willnow/DDP/AFP

Any graphic designer worth their salt can tell you the best typeface for a new law practice in town is going to be drastically different than the typeface used for the local tattoo parlor.

You probably know...

Why do kids call their parents 'Mom' and 'Dad'?

Written by Bethany Van Vleet, Senior Lecturer in Family and Human Development, Arizona State University

Every known culture on Earth has special words for kids to call their parents.XiXinXing via Getty Images

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why do most kids call their parents “Mom” and “Dad”? –...

To understand the danger of COVID-19 outbreaks in meatpacking plants, look at the industry's history

Written by Michael Haedicke, Associate Professor of Sociology, Drake University

Workers in a pork processing plant, 2016.USGAO/Wikipedia

Large meatpacking plants have become hotspots for coronavirus infection, along with jails and nursing homes. As of May 1, nearly 5,000 packing plant workers in 19 states had fallen ill, and 20 had died.

Packing plants from Washington state to Iowa to Georgia have temporarily suspended...

Essential US workers often lack sick leave and health care – benefits taken for granted in most other countries

Written by Paul F. Clark, School Director and Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Pennsylvania State University

Many nurses lack paid sick leave. AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the degree to which we depend on the work of others. This is particularly true of essential workers like truck drivers, grocery store employees and hospital nurses who are ensuring the rest of us stay safe and are able to get the supplies, food and health...

Out with the old: Coronavirus highlights why we need new names for aging

Written by Caroline Cicero, Instructional Associate Professor of Gerontology , University of Southern California

Mary-Lou McCullagh, 83, inside her Ventura, California home, in isolation because of COVID-19. She and her husband Bob, 84, greet the little boy who lives across the street. Getty Images / Brent Stirton

Although largely unnoticed by mainstream media, something significant has happened with the rise of COVID-19: the marginalization of older...

The puzzling questions of the coronavirus: A doctor addresses 6 questions that are stumping physicians

Written by William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia

The typically crowded Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, now nearly desolate in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. Getty Images / Victor J. Blue

Editor’s Note: As researchers try to find treatments and create a vaccine for COVID-19, doctors and others on the front lines continue to find perplexing symptoms. And the disease itself has...

Remdesivir explained – what makes this drug work against viruses?

Written by Katherine Seley-Radtke, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and President-Elect of the International Society for Antiviral Research, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Remdesivir is an experimental medicine that is showing promise in clinical trials for COVID-19. Photo by ULRIC PERREY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

With the FDA approving Gilead’s Remdesivir as an emergency use treatment for the most acute cases of COVID-19, many people are wondering what type of a drug it is.

Remdesivir is a member of one of the...