covid 19 News and Research

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Goblet cells are prime target for SARS-CoV-2, study finds

A recent study reports that in the airway of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a type of airway epithelial cell – called a goblet cell – presents a prime target for the virus and plays a vital role in promoting viral replication in this tissue.

16 Nov 2020

Google searches for COVID-19 symptoms can anticipate case numbers

Google searches may come to the aid in predicting the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we need to identify, manage, and, if possible, contain new outbreaks.

16 Nov 2020

Xylitol and grapefruit seed extract nasal spray could help COVID-19 patients

United States based researchers have published a report exploring the potential role of Xylitol and Grapefruit seed extract (in the form of a nasal spray) in treating COVID-19.

16 Nov 2020

Individuals with high BMI and LDL cholesterol are at increased risk of COVID-19

A new study led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London uses a novel approach to investigate the effects of cardiovascular risk factors on the risk of COVID-19 infection.

16 Nov 2020

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine nearly 95% effective

US company Moderna have just released their early phase 3 clinical trial results for their COVID-19 vaccine which is nearly 95% effective.

16 Nov 2020

Researchers explain why COVID-19 infects older people and spares younger children

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and their colleagues have determined a key factor as to why COVID-19 appears to infect and sicken adults and older people preferentially while seeming to spare younger children.

16 Nov 2020

Royal Government of Cambodia commits to eliminating the deadliest strain of malaria

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) today committed to eliminating Plasmodium falciparum within the next few months, and to maintaining zero cases by 2023, through the launch of an innovative and targeted approach for the ‘last mile’ of malaria elimination in the country.

16 Nov 2020

Red states’ case against ACA hinges on whether they were actually harmed by the lawc

Attorneys for GOP-controlled states seeking to kill the Affordable Care Act told the Supreme Court last week that at least some of the 12 million people who newly enrolled in Medicaid signed up only because of the law's requirement that people have insurance coverage — although a tax penalty no longer exists.

16 Nov 2020

Long-term care workers, grieving and under siege, brace for COVID’s next round

In the middle of the night, Stefania Silvestri lies in bed remembering her elderly patients' cries.

16 Nov 2020

Homeless shelters grapple with COVID safety as cold creeps in

Ben Barnes has slept in abandoned buildings, hallways and alleys. For the past year or so, he's been staying at the city's largest homeless shelter, Pacific Garden Mission, in the shadows of the famous skyline.

16 Nov 2020

Study sheds new light on the immune system response to COVID-19

A team of immunology experts from research organizations in Belgium and the UK has come together to apply their pioneering research methods to put individuals' COVID-19 responses under the microscope.

16 Nov 2020

Antiviral immune response is suppressed in COVID-19 patients compared to flu patients

Rather than life-threatening hyperinflammation, most adults with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 have a suppressed viral immune response when compared to adults with another viral respiratory infection, influenza. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led research that suggests most COVID-19 patients are not candidates for treatment with steroids such as dexamethasone.

16 Nov 2020

Study investigates best practices for mechanical ventilation in people with acute respiratory failure

It's a decision being made thousands of times over inside hospitals all around the country: is it time to place a patient struggling to breathe on a ventilator?

16 Nov 2020

Study: High-dose blood thinners have no additional benefit in COVID-19 patients

While COVID-19 infected patients should be treated with standard anticoagulation therapies, such as blood thinning medication, a new study by researchers at the George Washington University (GW) shows that anticoagulating patients at higher doses, without traditional medical indications to do so, may be ineffective and even harmful.

16 Nov 2020

Baricitinib drug can reduce mortality in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19

The rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib can block viral entry and reduce mortality in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, according to translational research by an international team coordinated by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

16 Nov 2020

Difference in antibody evolution could predict COVID-19 outcomes

For COVID-19, the difference between surviving and not surviving severe disease may be due to the quality, not the quantity, of the patients' antibody development and response, suggests a new Cell paper published by Galit Alter, PhD, a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.

16 Nov 2020