Many of us believe that we are great drinkers and that alcohol does not affect us as much. People who are able to drink without showing any sign of inebriation are known as social drinkers. In short, they are not addicted to alcohol but will not turn down the opportunity to have a good time! While it may seem like it doesn’t affect you, new studies suggest that it is just an illusion, even if you have high tolerance, alcohol affects your cognitive and motor functions more than you think.

The study reveals the below implications and techniques:

• Researchers used a new MRI technique to precisely measure brain electrical activity.
• By comparing brain scans before and after drinking, scientists identified specific areas affected by alcohol and how much brain activity slowed down.
• Participants were chosen to be regular social drinkers without alcohol addiction, ensuring the study focused on the effects of alcohol alone.
• MRI technology provided reliable data on brain activity changes caused by alcohol consumption.

How does the brain react to alcohol?

Think of it as the foundation for your brain's performance. When brain conductivity is high, information flows smoothly, and that helps your brain in rapid processing and response. On the other hand, low conductivity can hinder cognitive function, leading to slower thinking, impaired memory, and difficulties with coordination.

A study conducted at the Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and UNSW Science unveiled a startling connection between alcohol consumption and brain conductivity.

What is the connection between alcohol consumption and brain activity?

While many people brush off the effects of alcohol as temporary changes in behaviour, the reality is much more complex. Beyond the obvious impacts on coordination and judgment, alcohol significantly alters brain function. Alcohol dramatically slowed down brain activity, especially in areas responsible for decision-making, planning, and physical coordination. This decline was so significant that it resembled the brain changes seen in normal ageing. This means even one drink could temporarily accelerate the ageing process of your brain.

Alcohol and Brain activity: What does the study Imply?

The implications of this research are far-reaching. It provides compelling evidence that alcohol consumption has a direct and measurable impact on brain function. The discovery that alcohol can significantly reduce brain conductivity opens new avenues for understanding the neurocognitive effects of alcohol abuse and dependence. While you may not feel like alcohol is affecting you and you have a high tolerance, it most definitely changes and affects your decision-making abilities and impulse control.

Furthermore, the MRI technique employed in the study could be a valuable tool for assessing the impact of other substances on the brain and for developing interventions to mitigate alcohol-related brain damage.

Long working hours, job insecurity, and workplace harassment claim more than 840,000 lives each year, according to a new global report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The report noted that the work-related psychosocial risks—including long working hours, job insecurity, high demands with low control, and workplace bullying and harassment—are surging heart diseases and mental disorders, including suicide.

In addition to deaths, these risks account for nearly 45 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually, reflecting years of healthy life lost due to illness, disability, or premature death, and are estimated to result in economic losses equivalent to 1.37 per cent of global GDP each year.

“Psychosocial risks are becoming one of the most significant challenges for occupational safety and health in the modern world of work,” said Manal Azzi, Team Lead on OSH Policy and Systems at the ILO.

“Improving the psychosocial working environment is essential not only for protecting workers’ mental and physical health, but also for strengthening productivity, organizational performance, and sustainable economic development,” Azzi added.

The report highlights the growing impact of how work is designed, organized, and managed on workers’ safety and health.

How Psychosocial Risks Can Be Prevented in Workplaces?

Read: Not Diabetes or Obesity: Expert Says Chronic Stress Is The New Lifestyle Disease

There is a broad body of evidence showing that psychosocial risks are linked to a wide range of mental and physical health conditions among workers, including depression and anxiety, as well as metabolic diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, and sleep disturbances.

The report identified five major psychosocial risk factors at work:

• job strain (high demands combined with low control),
• effort–reward imbalance,
• job insecurity,
• long working hours,
• workplace bullying and harassment.

The report emphasized the need for organizational approaches that address their root causes. It also highlighted the importance of integrating psychosocial risk management into occupational safety and health systems, supported by social dialogue between governments, employers, and workers.

Also read: Why Women Feel More Fatigued In Extreme Heat: Doctors Explain

Further, the report introduced the psychosocial working environment as the elements of work and workplace interactions related to how jobs are designed, how work is organized and managed, and the broader policies, practices, and procedures that govern work. These elements, both individually and in combination, affect workers’ health and well-being, as well as organizational performance.

“While many psychosocial risks are not new, major transformations in the world of work, including digitalization, artificial intelligence, remote work, and new employment arrangements, are reshaping the psychosocial working environment. These changes may intensify existing risks or create new ones if not properly addressed,” the ILO noted.

It added that the changes can also “offer opportunities for improved work organization and greater flexibility, highlighting the need for proactive action”.

By addressing these risks proactively, the report said that countries and enterprises can create healthier workplaces that benefit both workers and organizations while strengthening productivity and economic resilience.

Almost 50 years after being eradicated, the vaccine-preventable diphtheria is causing infections in Australia.

The country’s health officials have reported outbreaks of diphtheria in the Northern Territory (NT) and Western Australia (WA).

As per the latest NT CDC report on April 22, 17 cases of respiratory diphtheria have been notified since 23 March 2026, and 60 cases of cutaneous diphtheria, which affects the skin, have been reported since May 2025.

As per figures published on WA’s notifiable disease dashboard in April, 34 cases have been reported in the state so far this year, including 29 in the Kimberley, two each in the Goldfields and Pilbara regions, as well as one case registered in metro Perth.

In the region, diphtheria cases have more than tripled since December 2025. The cases range in age profile, from 0–4 years to a resident aged 70–74.

Five of the initial reported cases were cutaneous, while two were respiratory, the first such cases to be notified in the state for more than 50 years.

"Clinicians are advised to be vigilant for patients presenting with clinically suspicious skin sores, infected wounds, or upper respiratory illness in or from the Kimberley, and potentially the Pilbara or Goldfields regions," the alert reads. Cases have also been found in Queensland (2) and South Australia (1) this year.

In response to the rising cases, the government has launched a contact tracing system, and at-risk people are being supported to get booster vaccinations, a State Government spokesperson told the ABC. One patient reportedly had a life-threatening case and was flown to Perth for treatment.

What Is Diphtheria? Why The Infection Is Rising in Australia After Five Decades

As per the WHO, Diphtheria is a disease caused by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacterium that affects the upper respiratory tract and, less often, the skin. It also produces a toxin that damages the heart and the nerves. While it is a vaccine-preventable disease, multiple doses are needed to produce and sustain immunity.

Diphtheria has remained a leading cause of childhood death globally. But vaccination has long prevented mortality among children.

Those who are not immunized remain at risk. WHO also mentions that diphtheria can be fatal in 30 per cent of cases, with young children at higher risk of dying if they are unvaccinated and are not receiving proper treatment.

In 2023, an estimated 84 per cent of children worldwide received the recommended 3 doses of diphtheria-containing vaccine during infancy, leaving 16 per cent with no or incomplete coverage.

According to Australia’s Department of Health, between 1926 and 1935, more than 4,000 Australians died from diphtheria. Vaccination started in Australia in the 1930s, and the disease has rarely been seen since the 1950s. But vaccine coverage has waned since the COVID pandemic, leading to a rising number of cases.

Read: Indigenous Td Vaccine Rollout In India To Boost Immunity In Children, Adults, Say Experts

Diphtheria: Signs And Symptoms

Within 2 to 5 days after exposure to the bacteria. The symptoms include

• a sore throat,
• fever,
• swollen neck glands,
• weakness.

Severe cases happen as a result of the diphtheria toxin and its effects.

Diphtheria: How the Disease Is Treated

It is usually treated with diphtheria antitoxin as well as antibiotics. Antitoxin neutralizes the circulating toxin in the blood. Antibiotics stop bacterial replication and thereby toxin production, speed up getting rid of the bacteria, and prevent transmission to others.

Also read: UK Parliament Bans Smoking For People Born After 2008: Know All About It

How To Prevent Diphtheria

Diphtheria can be prevented by vaccines and routine immunization. The vaccine is given most often combined with vaccines for diseases such as tetanus, pertussis, Hemophilus influenzae, hepatitis B, and inactivated polio.

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study that shows the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to a media report.

The findings revealed that the COVID vaccine reduced emergency department visits and halved hospitalizations among healthy adults last winter.

The study, previously delayed by the head of the federal agency Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, was ultimately rejected for publication in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, The Washington Post reported, citing officials familiar with the decision.

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The CDC initially delayed the publication based on concerns about "the observational method used in the study to calculate vaccine effectiveness".

Now, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, was quoted as saying that “the MMWR’s editorial assessment identified concerns regarding the methodological approach to estimating vaccine effectiveness and the manuscript was not accepted for publication”.

What Is This Concerning?

According to current and former officials that The Post spoke to, the information about the vaccine’s benefits is being downplayed because it conflicts with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of the vaccine. He once referred to COVID-19 shots as the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Notably, the CDC study had cleared the agency’s scientific-review process, which includes dozens of scientists, The Post reported. Stopping an MMWR report at that stage is highly unusual, former CDC officials were quoted as saying.

“I cannot recall CDC stopping an MMWR report in the publication phase after scientific clearance and editorial review. On rare occasions, we shifted the timing slightly to better align communications plans with competing or reinforcing pieces,” said Michael Iademarco, who was the director of the CDC center with oversight of the MMWR from 2014 to 2022.

The agency has to apply the “highest standards of scientific rigor” to the information it publishes, a CDC official said in response to a query from CIDRAP News.

“Responsible science requires careful review. Taking time to ensure analyses are methodologically sound and clearly communicated is always preferable to risking error,” the official added.

The rejected study used a methodology that has long been used by the CDC to evaluate vaccine effectiveness for respiratory viruses, including influenza.

Importantly, a study about flu vaccine effectiveness conducted using the same methodology was published in the MMWR a week earlier. Similarly, another study using the same methodology was conducted to gauge COVID vaccine effectiveness in children. It was published in MMWR in December.

Also read: A Year After RFK JR Promised To Make America Healthy Again, What Actually Happened?

The Post quoted an HHS official as saying that Bhattacharya met with scientific staff and that the study's authors did not want to adjust their methodology.

The cancellation of the report appears to be “cherry picking based on the bias of the director and others at HHS who don’t fully understand the importance of the methods used to assess the added benefit of vaccines in preventing poor outcomes,” Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in an email to CIDRAP News.

HHS under Robert F Kennedy Jr

Robert F Kennedy Jr took charge of America's health as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2025.

Read: Who is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Controversial Nominee for U.S. Health Secretary?

No area defined Kennedy’s first year more than vaccines. He clearly did state during election debates that he is not against vaccine but planned to reshape a system he said had failed many families for decades.

However, in the first year, he fired members of a CDC advisory panel, replaced them, sometimes with skeptics, and cut the list of routinely recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11.

Several vaccines, including flu and hepatitis A, were removed from routine recommendations. He also directed the CDC to stop recommending the vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children.

Within days of Kennedy’s swearing-in, thousands of employees across CDC (including the Director), FDA and NIH were fired in a sweeping reorganization aimed at shrinking the department by about 20,000 workers.

Meanwhile, measles deaths returned after a decade. It puts the country at risk of losing its measles elimination status this year.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said the gap in trust over vaccines has worsened during the past year “due to false statements about safety and efficacy of vaccines for preventable diseases like measles”, US News reported.

But as per Kennedy, the US has done better at controlling the measles outbreak “than any country in the world.”

He also deflected responsibility for the situation, noting that “it started before I came to office” and saying most children infected with measles are over 5 years old, “meaning their decision not to vaccinate predated my appointment.”

“We have a global pandemic,” Kennedy said. “It has nothing to do with me.”