Public Health News and Research

RSS

Indiana school goes extra mile to help vulnerable kids weather pandemic

After Covid-19 forced Olivia Goulding's Indiana middle school to switch back to remote learning late last year, the math teacher lost contact with many of her students.

23 Mar 2021

New review of post-acute COVID-19

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of millions of people around the world but has also left hundreds with lingering symptoms or completely new symptoms weeks after recovery.

23 Mar 2021

Simple SARS-CoV-2 mutations allow escape from the majority of polyclonal antibodies

The group identified a single class of antibodies that target a particular epitope on the RBD of SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that the human polyclonal response to SARS-CoV-2 infection is dominated by a worryingly narrow range of antibodies that target an epitope undergoing rapid mutation.

22 Mar 2021

B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variant significantly more dangerous

Now, researchers at the University of Exeter, the NHS Foundation Trust, report a significant increase in mortality risk due to the B.1.1.7 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant.

22 Mar 2021

Iron-binder DFX improves the effect of new TB antimicrobial, research shows

Although Tuberculosis, or TB, killed nearly as many people as COVID-19 (approx. 1.8 million) in 2020, it did not receive as much media and public attention.

22 Mar 2021

Crisis standard of care guidelines may not exacerbate racial inequities

There are two simultaneously occurring pandemics in the U.S.: Racism and COVID-19. "These mutualistic pandemics have thrown into stark focus the separate and unequal systems through which people access health care," explained corresponding author Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.

22 Mar 2021

FDA warns two companies for illegal marketing of unapproved CBD products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to two companies for selling products labeled as containing cannabidiol (CBD) in ways that violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).

22 Mar 2021

AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine protects against symptomatic disease

Results from a large clinical trial in the United States and South America indicate that AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, is well-tolerated and protects against symptomatic COVID-19 disease, including severe disease or hospitalization.

22 Mar 2021

Researchers develop new method for measuring immunity to coronavirus

Igor Stagljar made his career building molecular tools to combat cancer. But when the pandemic hit last March, he aimed his expertise at a new adversary, SARS-CoV-2.

22 Mar 2021

Even a single session of moderate aerobic exercise can make cells to burn more calories

In a recent study testing the effects of exercise on overall metabolism, researchers at Oregon State University found that even a single session of moderate aerobic exercise makes a difference in the cells of otherwise sedentary people.

22 Mar 2021

The hype has faded, but don’t count out convalescent plasma in Covid battle

Six months after it was controversially hailed by Trump administration officials as a "breakthrough" therapy to fight the worst effects of Covid-19, convalescent plasma appears to be on the ropes.

22 Mar 2021

Some dream — others scheme — to find a vaccine before spring break

Hawaii, Florida, Seattle and the South of France are on the minds of New York City college students. Those are some of the destinations that undergrads mentioned when asked where they'd go for spring break, if they weren't grounded by Covid-19.

22 Mar 2021

In America, Covid vaccine eligibility is a ‘crazy quilt’ of state rules

In North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, any adult who has smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime can now be vaccinated against Covid.

22 Mar 2021

Scarce medical resources should be allocated equally during public health crisis, say ethicists

During a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. hospitals need to allocate scarce medical resources in an equitable manner, according to clinicians and ethicists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

22 Mar 2021

RADLogics AI-Powered COVID-19 solution reduces turnaround time

Moscow Center for Diagnostics & Telemedicine and RADLogics shared the results of a large-scale study (Moscow Experiment on the Computer Vision for the Analysis of Medical Images - mosmed.ai, NCT04489992) conducted by the Research and Practical Clinical Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine Technologies of the Moscow Health Care Department.

22 Mar 2021

Asymptomatic individuals the biggest problem in COVID battle

The researchers noted in a study published in the journal Science, that asymptomatic cases are those that do not manifest symptoms for the infection duration. In contrast, presymptomatic cases develop symptoms later in the course of infection.

21 Mar 2021

Clofazimine inhibits coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, study finds

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong found that Clofazimine, a lipophilic antimicrobial riminophenazine dye used in combination with agents like rifampicin and dapsone to treat leprosy, inhibits coronaviruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.

21 Mar 2021

People's politics, values shape COVID-19 risk perception and adoption of protective behaviors

People's politics and values are exerting a bigger influence on how much of a threat they feel from COVID-19 compared to objective indicators such as the number of confirmed cases.

21 Mar 2021

A review of the resilience of Chinese hospitals to the COVID-19 pandemic

A new review article, published on the medRxiv* preprint server, deals with several different aspects such as medical response capability, disaster health management, disaster preparedness, and health infrastructure safety, in China, by which they survived the COVID-19 crisis.

21 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