“Dame la dureza de la verdad, pero no me engañes con una mentira”. Así de tajante demuestra María del Monte (Sevilla, 64 años) lo importante que es para ella la transparencia y la sinceridad. Por eso, en el segundo párrafo del libro que acaba de publicar, Si el corazón se equivoca, se le perdona (HarperCollins), advierte de que su contenido “no va de su vida”, o al menos, de esa vida que ha asomado en la prensa y los programas del corazón más allá de su trayectoria profesional. “Eso no me interesa, la vida tiene más profundidad como para quedarse en esa capa de superficie”, zanja durante una mañana soleada que desafía los malos augurios de lluvia. La primera incursión de la sevillana en el mundo editorial es una generosa inmersión en sus inquietudes, sus motivaciones, sus zozobras y sus anhelos, que destapa describiendo de una manera franca y natural cómo se ha ido guiando en los ámbitos que para ella son más importantes: su familia, amigos, parejas, seres queridos y ausentes, sus orígenes y tradiciones, y ella misma. “Lo más bonito que me han dicho del libro, y que era mi único objetivo, es que leerlo era como charlar conmigo”, explica sonriente.

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A woman in her 70s holds a sign against the World Health Organization (WHO) in the rain outside the World Health Summit in Berlin, one of the main international forums on global health. The image catches the eye of Gevorg Tamamyan, an Armenian physician and candidate to lead the agency. “When I was a child, the WHO meant trust. Why has that trust become so fragile?” he asks hours later during the first debate among several of the seven contenders to succeed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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If the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated anything, it is that unexpected, entirely unforeseen and unpredictable events can drastically affect public health and even put humanity at risk. Danger can emerge at any time and from anywhere, but the scientific community has identified a handful of threats with particularly severe potential consequences for human survival.

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The death of a worker at a plague research laboratory in Irkutsk, Russia, has triggered a public health emergency in the region. Authorities have imposed restrictions on hospital access and about 200 contacts are under surveillance. But much remains unknown. Firstly, whether the researcher died as a result of an infection acquired at her workplace — a claim denied by authorities but circulating on Telegram channels and in local media. This is what is known (and not known) so far.

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A comprehensive atlas of the 18 main respiratory viruses circulating in Catalonia, produced for the first time in Spain by researchers from that northeastern region, reveals that the coronavirus that caused the Covid-16 pandemic — SARS-CoV-2 — “is currently not a winter virus. In recent years, it has shown clear peaks during the spring and summer, which is different from what was initially expected.”

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