Pandemic News and Research

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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.

Wildlife protection, surveillance of zoonosis are the key to preventing future pandemics

Understanding animal disease is essential if we want to prevent future pandemics, writes Keith Hamilton.

20 Mar 2021

FDA authorizes first machine learning-based COVID-19 non-diagnostic screening device

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first machine learning-based Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-diagnostic screening device that identifies certain biomarkers that are indicative of some types of conditions, such as hypercoagulation (a condition causing blood to clot more easily than normal).

20 Mar 2021

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare with masking, social distancing and hand-washing

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare - even among close school contacts of those who test positive for the virus - when schools heed public health precautions such as mandatory masking, social distancing and frequent hand-washing, according to results of a pilot study in Missouri aimed at identifying ways to keep elementary and secondary schools open and safe during the pandemic.

20 Mar 2021

Study: COVID-19 causes more severe disease and is more lethal than influenza

In a paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center assessed the relative impact of COVID-19 on patients hospitalized with the viral infection in March and April 2020, versus patients hospitalized with influenza during the last five flu seasons at the medical center.

19 Mar 2021

COVID-19 patients have higher risk of stroke, finds study

New research found patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had a higher risk of stroke, compared with patients who had similar infectious conditions such as influenza and sepsis in prior studies.

19 Mar 2021

Blue Shield spent years cultivating a relationship with Newsom. It got the state vaccine contract.

Gavin Newsom was just making a name for himself as mayor of San Francisco in 2005 when Blue Shield of California wrote him its first major check.

19 Mar 2021

How effective has rapid COVID-19 vaccination been in Israel?

Despite high vaccination rates, analysis shows a definite positive impact, but patience is needed to see the real-world impacts in Israel, a pattern that may hold true in other countries also.

19 Mar 2021

SARS-CoV-2 spike stimulates hyperinflammation via Toll-like receptor 2

A new study, released on the bioRxiv* preprint server, describes the mechanism of inflammation in severe COVID-19, besides revealing a potential new therapeutic target to modulate the severity of COVID-19.

19 Mar 2021

DNA spike-ins increase reliability of amplicon-based sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genomes

In the interests of cost-effectiveness and rapidity, amplicon-based sequencing of the viral genome has been used to provide a sensitive means of genomic surveillance. A new preprint, which was released on the bioRxiv* server, shows how this can be tweaked to make it a reliable source of genomic data by reducing the known potential for contamination.

19 Mar 2021

Covid-inspired Montana health insurance proposal wouldn’t kick in for 2 years

For employees of small businesses in Montana suddenly laid off during the covid-19 pandemic, maintaining health insurance coverage could be a struggle.

19 Mar 2021

The case for donating US Covid vaccines overseas

A Senate committee grilled federal officials about the shortage of vaccines to protect Americans against a pandemic virus. Two months later, the U.S. public had lost interest in the virus, and millions of vaccines were sitting in warehouses — although poor countries still needed them.

19 Mar 2021

New variant may not have changed COVID-19 pandemic course in UK, says study

A new study examines the effect of the new "Kent variant" of SARS-CoV-2 on the epidemic course within the UK.

19 Mar 2021

Researchers explore nanotechnology’s potential to deliver synergistic therapeutics for COVID-19

A team of scientists reviewed the nanoencapsulation approaches of synergistic compounds (Lectins, Caffeine, Cocoa, Flavonoids, Quercetin) and the role of nanotechnology in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

19 Mar 2021

Study examines efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine across demographic groups

A new study examines data from Israel's vaccination campaign to assess the efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine across different demographics.

19 Mar 2021

Researchers investigate the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on residents of long-term care homes

Long-term care homes have been at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, with 70 percent of COVID-19 deaths having occurred in long-term care or nursing homes.

19 Mar 2021

New autonomous technology helps track the daily patterns of isolated older relatives

Researchers are developing new autonomous technologies that can help people check that isolated elderly family members are okay.

19 Mar 2021

Study reveals how SARS-CoV-2 spread in Wuhan before the lockdown

Using molecular dating tools and epidemiological simulations, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues at the University of Arizona and Illumina, Inc., estimate that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was likely circulating undetected for at most two months before the first human cases of COVID-19 were described in Wuhan, China in late-December 2019.

19 Mar 2021

N-terminal domain antibodies play a key role in COVID immunity

Scientists are learning that a lesser-studied region on the pandemic coronavirus is recognized by COVID-19 infection-fighting antibodies. These antibodies were identified in blood samples from previously infected patients, and were found to potently prevent the virus from infecting cells.

19 Mar 2021

Study shows COVID-19 denial depends on people's trust in governments, social institutions

An international team of scholars studied how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Europeans' stress levels and their trust in their national governments and the healthcare systems.

19 Mar 2021

Online learning platform about COVID-19 pandemic aids frontline workers, educates the public

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced medical students out of classrooms and clinical rotations this time last year, the state of Georgia's only public medical school had to quickly rethink its traditional curriculum.

19 Mar 2021

Pandemic News and Research

Further Reading

Wildlife protection, surveillance of zoonosis are the key to preventing future pandemics

FDA authorizes first machine learning-based COVID-19 non-diagnostic screening device

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare with masking, social distancing and hand-washing

Study: COVID-19 causes more severe disease and is more lethal than influenza

COVID-19 patients have higher risk of stroke, finds study

Blue Shield spent years cultivating a relationship with Newsom. It got the state vaccine contract.

How effective has rapid COVID-19 vaccination been in Israel?

SARS-CoV-2 spike stimulates hyperinflammation via Toll-like receptor 2

DNA spike-ins increase reliability of amplicon-based sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genomes

Covid-inspired Montana health insurance proposal wouldn’t kick in for 2 years

The case for donating US Covid vaccines overseas

New variant may not have changed COVID-19 pandemic course in UK, says study

Researchers explore nanotechnology’s potential to deliver synergistic therapeutics for COVID-19

Study examines efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine across demographic groups

Researchers investigate the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on residents of long-term care homes

New autonomous technology helps track the daily patterns of isolated older relatives

Study reveals how SARS-CoV-2 spread in Wuhan before the lockdown

N-terminal domain antibodies play a key role in COVID immunity

Study shows COVID-19 denial depends on people's trust in governments, social institutions

Online learning platform about COVID-19 pandemic aids frontline workers, educates the public

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

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