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.

Many cancer patients are experiencing loneliness and social isolation during COVID-19 pandemic

Loneliness and social isolation, which can have negative effects on health and longevity, are being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half of surveyed adults with cancer have been experiencing loneliness in recent months, according to a study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

6 May 2021

Experts and the public have underestimated the true extent of COVID-19 pandemic

Who made more accurate predictions about the course of the COVID-19 pandemic - experts or the public? A study from the University of Cambridge has found that experts such as epidemiologists and statisticians made far more accurate predictions than the public, but both groups substantially underestimated the true extent of the pandemic.

6 May 2021

FDA outlines inspectional activities during COVID-19 pandemic

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a new report titled, "Resiliency Roadmap for FDA Inspectional Oversight," outlining the agency's inspectional activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and its detailed plan to move toward a more consistent state of operations, including the FDA's priorities related to this work going forward.

6 May 2021

Researchers identify potent small molecule TMPRSS2 inhibitor against SARS-CoV-2

A team of scientists from the USA and Canada has recently identified and characterized a novel small-molecule compound inhibitor of cellular serine protease TMPRSS2, which shows significant antiviral potency against emerging variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

5 May 2021

Novel pipeline identifies millions of molecular targets in SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in the United States have developed a novel pipeline for high-throughput, automated annotation of the genes, proteins and functional domains in the genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

5 May 2021

Majority of Black Canadians show severe depressive symptoms, study finds

The first mental health study of Black communities in Canada has found the majority of Black Canadians display severe depressive symptoms - women, even more so - with racial discrimination confirming the appearance of these signs for nearly all.

5 May 2021

Repurposing an existing, cheap drug into long-acting injectable therapy to treat Covid-19

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have shown the potential of repurposing an existing and cheap drug into a long-acting injectable therapy that could be used to treat Covid-19.

5 May 2021

New service enables patients to recover safely at home, avoid hospitalization

A new service piloted at Penn Medicine allowed a proportion of patients to avoid hospitalization by providing them with greater support after visiting the emergency department.

5 May 2021

Robust passive and active immunity found in infants born to COVID-19 positive mothers

A new study provides evidence that babies born to mothers who were COVID-19 positive two or more months before delivery are protected by maternal antibodies, besides mounting a robust immune response in case they contract the infection in the perinatal period.

5 May 2021

Pregnancy may increase the risk of COVID-19 severity

Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy has been a subject of much controversy. In order to help answer the question as to whether this infection causes significant harm in pregnancy, a new study, released as a medRxiv* preprint, reports on the disease outcomes of this infection in pregnant women.

5 May 2021

Women’s views on COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy: A UK-based study

A new study, recently released as a preprint on the medRxiv* server, describes COVID-19 vaccine willingness among pregnant women in the UK.

5 May 2021

Heart disease risk factors emerge at a young age in Black women

Young Black women show a high prevalence of obesity, elevated blood pressure and other lifestyle-related factors that may put them on a trajectory to develop heart disease at a young age, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 70th Annual Scientific Session.

5 May 2021