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COVID-19 outbreak in Mauritius dominated by new SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.318

Underlining the key role of genomic surveillance in keeping tabs on the spread of SARS-CoV-2, a new medRxiv* preprint shows how a new variant called B.1.1.318 rose to dominance in the small island country of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean.

18 Jun 2021

The hard realities of a ‘no jab, no job’ mandate for health care workers

Christopher Richmond keeps a running tab on how many workers at the ManorCare skilled nursing facility he manages in western Pennsylvania have rolled up their sleeves for a covid-19 vaccine.

18 Jun 2021

UofSC researcher to examine the effectiveness of Medicaid-covered alcohol use disorder treatment

Christina Andrews, associate professor of health services policy and management at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health and an expert on addiction treatment will lead a study funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to examine the effectiveness of Medicaid-covered alcohol use disorder treatment.

18 Jun 2021

New computational model simulates the spread and impact of COVID-19 virus

The emergence and rapid spread of novel Covid-19 coronavirus in early 2020 spurred numerous accelerated efforts to develop a vaccine. At the time it was not clear how effective these vaccines needed to be to slow or stop the pandemic.

18 Jun 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 virus and its vaccines pose unique challenges

Iranian researchers recently provided a review of the attempts made to develop safe SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The researchers outlined potential challenges and concerns, including disease enhancement, virus mutation, and public acceptability. Their work is published in the journal Immunological Investigations.

18 Jun 2021

Study finds new clues to explain how Alzheimer’s disease spreads in the brain

Case Western Reserve University researchers studying prions - misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases - have identified for the first time surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the brain.

18 Jun 2021

Research may lead to rapid, accurate, point-of-care testing for COVID

A team of scientists headed by SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research) at Osaka University demonstrated that single virus particles passing through a nanopore could be accurately identified using machine learning.

17 Jun 2021

Study shows the benefit of natural spaces for mental health during lockdown

A study carried out by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Instituto de Saúde Pública of the University of Porto, concludes that exposure to natural spaces during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 was beneficial for the mental health of Spanish and Portuguese citizens.

17 Jun 2021

PET/CT images can be used to measure biomarker levels, predict lung cancer outcomes

Tests that analyze biomarkers are used during cancer management to guide treatment and provide information about patient prognosis.

17 Jun 2021

Burden of asymptomatic pertussis in infants is greater than previously thought

New study challenges long-standing assumptions about disease severity in infants, and suggests that standard qPCR interpretations underestimate the true burden of other highly contagious diseases, such as COVID-19 and influenza.

17 Jun 2021

Pandemic swells Medicaid enrollment to record 80 million people

The pandemic-caused recession and a federal requirement that states keep Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled until the national emergency ends swelled the pool of people in the program by more than 9 million over the past year, according to a report released Thursday.

17 Jun 2021

Neighborhood disadvantage related to increased COVID-19 infections and mortality

New York City neighborhoods that had higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage experienced more COVID-19 infections and deaths, according to Mount Sinai scientists who created a neighborhood-level COVID-19 inequity index.

17 Jun 2021

What impacts public compliance with COVID-19 restrictions?

New research by scientists at Switzerland's Institute for Environmental Decisions reports that risk perception and public acceptance of NPIs depends on both worldview and levels of social trust. The study also found that, paradoxically, when the number of cases decreased in the period between the first and second waves, public willingness to comply with these measures fell.

17 Jun 2021

A 'key clinical role' for community pharmacies in COVID-19 vaccination campaigns

Community pharmacies represent credible services across the UK, which could be key to COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

17 Jun 2021

Marine plastic pollution among the top marine-related threats of public concern

In a survey, researchers found that the impacts of marine plastic pollution on human health is now ranked amid the top health-related concerns.

17 Jun 2021

It’s about to get tougher for transgender people in Montana to amend birth certificates

Kyndra Nevin recalls with dread having to ask a Montana judge to sign an order documenting that she'd had gender-confirmation surgery so she could change the gender on her birth certificate to female.

17 Jun 2021

Not all experts are ready to vaccinate kids against Covid

Lucien Wiggins, 12, arrived at Tufts Children's Hospital by ambulance June 7 with chest pains, dizziness and high levels of a protein in his blood that indicated inflammation of his heart. The symptoms had begun a day earlier, the morning after his second vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA shot.

17 Jun 2021

Antibody combination REGEN-COV prevents symptomatic disease following SARS-CoV-2 infection

Researchers in the United States have demonstrated the effectiveness of early treatment with REGEN-COV™ at preventing symptomatic disease among people infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

17 Jun 2021

Study suggests a more resilient approach to control COVID-19 spread

New research shows the UK's COVID-19 management decisions were based on an outdated pandemic modelling structure and suggests a more resilient approach would have been more effective.

17 Jun 2021

New transparent material can capture respiratory droplets effectively from air

Although plexiglass barriers are seemingly everywhere these days -- between grocery store lanes, around restaurant tables and towering above office cubicles -- they are an imperfect solution to blocking virus transmission.

17 Jun 2021