Pandemic News and Research

RSS

A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Changes in trajectory of long COVID symptoms before vaccination

A new preprint describes the results of a study examining this aspect of the disease.

14 Dec 2021

Assay for the identification of SARS-CoV-2 Spike reactive T and B cells

An interesting new paper presents a new assay for B and T lymphocytes in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2.

14 Dec 2021

Evaluating the exclusion of unvaccinated people in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

New study results suggest that the numbers needed to exclude model and baseline infection risk could be key indicators of the drawbacks and benefits of vaccine mandates and vaccine passports.

14 Dec 2021

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in children compared to adults

The current study aimed to explore the rate and risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfections in children.

14 Dec 2021

New mRNA vaccine platform provides stronger protection against SARS-CoV-2 delta variant

A group of researchers from various institutions developed a nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine that encodes the SARS-CoV-2 N protein (mRNA-N) and is formulated in lipid nanoparticles for this investigation (LNP).

14 Dec 2021

Mental health burden experienced in Sweden during COVID-19 pandemic

A new study aimed to determine the mental health burden of adults in Sweden through the data collected in the Omtanke2020 Study between 9th June 2020 and 8th June 2021.

14 Dec 2021

SARS-CoV-2 transmission through indoor aerosols

A recent review published in the International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health presents the science behind the person-to-person transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in an indoor environment.

14 Dec 2021

Trial in sub-Saharan Africa evaluates the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine in people living with HIV

A highly anticipated clinical trial in eight sub-Saharan countries is the first to specifically evaluate the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine in people living with HIV, including those with poorly controlled infections.

13 Dec 2021

Omicron variant may strike double vaccinated

Largely, scientists are skeptical that the Omicron variant can infect vaccinated individuals. However, a new study published on the medRxiv* preprint server has conducted neutralization assays using an Omicron isolate obtained from patients residing in the United Kingdom.

13 Dec 2021

Determination of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination using T cell receptor repertoire

A new study published on the bioRxiv preprint server has hypothesized that T cell receptors (TCR) repertoire can measure the response to vaccines, as it would identify the TCR of clones that respond to the vaccination.

13 Dec 2021

Hotel-based protective housing minimizes COVID-19 rates in vulnerable homeless population

Persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) who were at high risk of severe COVID-19 were 2.5 times less likely to contract SARS-CoV-2 if they were provided with individual hotel rooms and medical and social support compared to citywide rates in homeless shelters, according to new research from the University of Chicago Medicine, Lawndale Christian Health Center, and the Chicago Department of Public Health.

13 Dec 2021

CRISPR-Cas enzyme-based diagnostics to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection

A recent review in the journal Life provided a detailed description of CRISPR-Cas-based diagnostic techniques to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, but also emphasized the potential use of this technology towards developing effective molecular diagnostic platforms for any future pandemic.

13 Dec 2021

A model-based evaluation on the effectiveness of social distancing in COVID

Researchers utilize a mathematical model-based analysis to assess how social distancing measures contained the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced mortality.

13 Dec 2021

Music interventions can provide 'psychological first aid' to stressed patients during lockdown

A violinist playing a soothing melody tailored to a patient's particular medical condition and personal musical preferences in the hospital can provide "psychological first aid," reports a new Northwestern Medicine study about neurological patients who received tele-music therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

13 Dec 2021

New England research on population immunity and SARS-CoV-2

A new study discusses a model-based reconstruction of SARS-CoV-2 attack rate and population-immunity curves for three New England states.

13 Dec 2021

Digital interventions may help meet the growing demand for psychological treatment

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on mental health across the globe. Depression is predicted to be the leading cause of lost life years due to illness by 2030.

13 Dec 2021

Iota-carrageenan inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs

Scientists have recently reported the efficacy of carrageenan against both the SARS-CoV-2 original strain as well as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs.

13 Dec 2021

Novel assay using finger-prick samples provides COVID-19 vaccine efficacy data

Researchers estimate vaccine efficacy over a period post-vaccination using quantitative antibody assay on finger-prick blood samples.

13 Dec 2021

Calling the global community to tackle current infodemic related to COVID-19

Please join us by signing the Call for Action - a global movement to promote access to health information and to mitigate harm from health misinformation among online and offline communities.

13 Dec 2021

Surgery rates in U.S. hospitals bounced back to normal after initial COVID-19 shutdown

Stanford Medicine researchers found that after the March 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, nonurgent surgery rates dropped, but within months they bounced back and remained at pre-pandemic levels, even as coronavirus infections peaked during the fall and winter of 2020.

13 Dec 2021

Pandemic News and Research

Further Reading

Changes in trajectory of long COVID symptoms before vaccination

Assay for the identification of SARS-CoV-2 Spike reactive T and B cells

Evaluating the exclusion of unvaccinated people in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in children compared to adults

New mRNA vaccine platform provides stronger protection against SARS-CoV-2 delta variant

Mental health burden experienced in Sweden during COVID-19 pandemic

SARS-CoV-2 transmission through indoor aerosols

Trial in sub-Saharan Africa evaluates the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine in people living with HIV

Omicron variant may strike double vaccinated

Determination of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination using T cell receptor repertoire

Hotel-based protective housing minimizes COVID-19 rates in vulnerable homeless population

CRISPR-Cas enzyme-based diagnostics to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection

A model-based evaluation on the effectiveness of social distancing in COVID

Music interventions can provide 'psychological first aid' to stressed patients during lockdown

New England research on population immunity and SARS-CoV-2

Digital interventions may help meet the growing demand for psychological treatment

Iota-carrageenan inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs

Novel assay using finger-prick samples provides COVID-19 vaccine efficacy data

Calling the global community to tackle current infodemic related to COVID-19

Surgery rates in U.S. hospitals bounced back to normal after initial COVID-19 shutdown

Best practices - optimize qPCR processes for pathogen detection eBook

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Latest News