Coronavirus News and Research

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First antiviral treatment for COVID-19 receives FDA approval

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the antiviral drug Veklury (remdesivir) for use in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds) for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.

22 Oct 2020

Recovered COVID-19 patients exhibit cognitive deficits

Researchers in the UK and the United States have reported concerning findings showing that patients who had recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exhibited significant cognitive deficits.

22 Oct 2020

New model could help identify people at risk for long COVID

Researchers in the UK, United States, and Sweden have presented new findings that could help identify individuals at risk of "long COVID" – a protracted course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms last for more than 28 days.

22 Oct 2020

Study reveals factors that account for reduced death rates from COVID-19

Fewer New Yorkers are dying from the coronavirus than health experts had anticipated, a new study shows. Regional death rates have dropped from the highs seen at the start of the outbreak, partially due to a shift in the population contracting the disease toward those who are more resilient.

22 Oct 2020

Study shows how genome sequencing can track mutations in SARS-CoV-2 virus

A study published in Cell Reports shows how next generation genetic sequencing can track mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which can in effect help with transmission tracing, diagnostic testing accuracy and vaccine effectiveness.

22 Oct 2020

Web-based analytics can help predict and respond to COVID-19 hot spots

Web-based analytics have demonstrated their value in predicting the spread of infectious disease, and a new study from Mayo Clinic indicates the value of analyzing Google web searches for keywords related to COVID-19.

22 Oct 2020

Researchers use molecular dynamics simulations to identify secrets of SARS-CoV-2 virus

The virus wreaking havoc on our lives is an efficient infection machine. Comprised of only 29 proteins (compared to our 400,000), with a genome 1/200,000 the size of ours, SARS-CoV-2 is expertly evolved to trick our cells to contribute its machinery to assist in its propagation.

22 Oct 2020

Studies examine impact of COVID-19 on neonatal intensive care units

Two studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) found the prevalence of COVID-19 in NICU infants is low, yet many hospitals at the start of the pandemic put in place strict parental visitation policies and scaled back NICU services such as lactation support and therapy.

22 Oct 2020

Study sheds light on working principles of various advanced biosensing technologies

The COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly the most challenging global health burden since the 2nd World War. The pandemic has raised social awareness on the importance of effective and timely diagnosis that may help minimize the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19.

22 Oct 2020

Non-pharmaceutical interventions can reduce spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus

Non-pharmaceutical interventions such as voluntary shelter-in-place, quarantines, and other steps taken to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus can reduce the peak number of infections, daily infection rates, cumulative infections, and overall deaths, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE has found.

22 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 mutations dictate severity of COVID-19 disease

A recent study by researchers from Semmelweis University and Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary, published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020, shows the relationship of specific mutations on the disease's outcome.

22 Oct 2020

COVID-19 containment measures affecting other seasonal respiratory viruses

A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in October 2020 indicates that so far, the containment measures put in place to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have effectively prevented the transmission of many other respiratory viruses.

21 Oct 2020

Brain metabolic changes associated with loss of smell in COVID-19

A recent study detailed in a preprint paper published in medRxiv, researchers from Belgium, discuss how they investigated possible central nervous system (CNS) involvement in COVID-19 patients with a sudden loss of smell using a hybrid positron emission tomography (PET)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system (PET-MR).

21 Oct 2020

Study shows how fear encourages physical distancing during pandemic

Welcome to shopping during the coronavirus pandemic: customers clad in masks, slathered with sanitizer and surrounded by signage urging them to avoid close contact.

21 Oct 2020

Dietary supplement represents an innovative strategy to help in the fight against SARS-CoV-2

SPIN (SPermidin and eugenol INtegrator for contrasting incidence of coronavirus in EU population) is a European project powered by EIT Food that is currently developing a dietary supplement supporting the function of the immune system in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 infections in population at high risk.

21 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 mutations possibly making virus less virulent

In their bioRxiv* preprint paper, the researchers focus on mapping the clade-specific mutations' effects on the protein structures' conformation and stability. They identified the mutations in the set of seven proteins - orf8, nsp2, nsp4, nsp6, nucleocapsid protein (N), and Spike protein (S).

21 Oct 2020

"Immunological imprinting" could influence antibody response to COVID-19

Researchers in the United States and Spain have shown that prior exposure to seasonal coronaviruses may influence antibody responses to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

21 Oct 2020

Trump says he saved 2 million lives from COVID. Really?

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to have saved 2 million lives from COVID-19 through his actions to combat the disease.

21 Oct 2020

More than 2.5 million person-years of life lost in US due to COVID-19

In a recently published study, researcher Stephen Elledge from Harvard Medical School has described converting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) death toll from individual deaths to “person-years” lost in order to provide a more accurate picture of the pandemic’s toll on the population.

21 Oct 2020