The coronavirus variant first found in the British region of Kent is a concern because it is mutating and so could undermine the protection given by vaccines against developing COVID-19, the head of the UK’s genetic surveillance programme said. What’s concerning about this is that the 1.1.7 variant that weContinue Reading
STAT News writes about the recent drop in new cases in the United States and the changes in the virus that could cause rapid growth again. What could also be happening, said infectious disease expert Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research Institute, is that the variants, which share some mutations, areContinue Reading
An international team of scientists led by the World Health Organization said Tuesday that the coronavirus “most likely” originated in animals before spreading to humans and dismissed a theory that the disease had been leaked by a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. In terms of understanding what happenedContinue Reading
The Atlantic reports on why hitting the threshold might actually be impossible. But vaccines can still help end the pandemic. While COVID-19 vaccines are very good—even unexpectedly good—at preventing disease, they are still unlikely to be good enough against transmission of the virus, which is key to herd immunity. On the whole, weContinue Reading
As millions of Americans struggle to recover from covid and millions more scramble for the protection offered by vaccines, U.S. health officials may be overlooking an unsettling subgroup of survivors: those who get infected more than once. Identifying how common reinfection is among people who contracted covid — as wellContinue Reading
Mathematical analysis suggests that preventing large gatherings could significantly reduce Covid-19 infection rates. There have been many documented cases of Covid-19 “super-spreading” events, in which one person infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects many other people. But how much of a role do these events play in the overall spread of theContinue Reading
A 71-year-old cancer patient who tested positive for the novel coronavirus but never showed symptoms remained infectious for 70 days, according to a case study. It started when she went to the emergency room for low back and lower extremity pain and underwent surgery, which then landed her at aContinue Reading
Precision shutdowns can slow emerging outbreaks while lessening the overall economic impact of the response. But they risk a backlash from those who are targeted, and may not be strong enough to keep a highly contagious virus under control. Several countries have used area-level lockdowns. In the U.S., New YorkContinue Reading
Harvard Health reports on new research that is suggesting that there may be long-term neurologic consequences in those who survive COVID infections, including more than seven million Americans and another 27 million people worldwide. Particularly troubling is increasing evidence that there may be mild — but very real — brainContinue Reading
Eli Lilly on Tuesday confirmed to the New York Times that a clinical trial for its antibody treatment for Covid-19 has been paused because of a “potential safety concern,” just one day after Johnson & Johnson halted its Covid-19 vaccine trial because a participant got sick. An independent data safetyContinue Reading
