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.

Mutated European strain of coronavirus more contagious but less potent

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over as it actively spreads across the globe. The infection toll has reached a staggering 10.84 million people since it emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan City, China. The virus that has left the city has now spread to 188 countries and territories and has mutated, becoming more infectious.

3 Jul 2020

Effectiveness of NPI's in COVID-19 - conclusions are predictable, NPI's work

Now, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* looks at how the effects of these NPIs can be quantified in order to keep the public health response to COVID-19 at an adequate level. While NPIs are known to reduce the peak of the infections, in general, the researchers wanted to quantify different components separately.

2 Jul 2020

Researchers find possible cause for SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells in uninfected individuals

The current pandemic of COVID-19 is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) -2, leading to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and death in a sizable minority of cases. However, the most significant number are asymptomatic or have only mild infection from which they rapidly recover.

2 Jul 2020

New drug discovery shows promise in fighting acute respiratory illnesses

A collaboration between the University of Toronto's Faculty of Dentistry and the National Jewish Health in Denver -- the top-ranked respiratory research hospital in the U.S. -- has yielded a new drug discovery that could be useful to combat inflammation of all varieties and shows promise in fighting acute respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19.

2 Jul 2020

New COVID-19 Kidney / Transplant Listening & Resource Center launched

The Transplant Research and Education Center, housed at the Terasaki Research Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), launched the COVID-19 Kidney / Transplant Listening & Resource Center on June 17, 2020.

2 Jul 2020

Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shows promise - virus neutralizing antibodies achieved

In a recent medRxiv* paper, a research group from the U.S. and Germany showed a robust immunogenic response and a promising safety profile of the novel BNT162b1 RNA-based vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) – actively encouraging its accelerated clinical development and potential rapid production.

2 Jul 2020

New platform prioritizes synergistic drug combinations against SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in the U.S. have used a new web-based platform to help identify synergistic and antagonistic drug combinations and their underlying mechanisms of action in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

2 Jul 2020

Tele-med.ai: New information resource launched by Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine

Russia celebrates Medical Worker Day on the third Sunday of June. This year, most holidays are being held online, and the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine celebrated its professional holiday online too.

2 Jul 2020

Survey reveals significant mental health impact during COVID-19 pandemic

The findings of a nationwide survey assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emotional wellbeing of U.S. adults show 90 percent of survey respondents reported experiencing emotional distress related to the pandemic.

2 Jul 2020

Coronavirus shares common characteristics with global heating and species extinction, argue researchers

The dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic share "striking similarities" with the twin environmental crises of global heating and species extinction, argue a team of scientists and policy experts from the UK and US.

2 Jul 2020

Researchers investigate decision-making processes implemented by Swiss government during COVID-19 crisis

At the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Switzerland declared a four-month-long state of emergency, the country's longest since the Second World War.

2 Jul 2020

Researchers identify mosquito species that could transmit malaria

During collections for a study to map the distribution of mosquito species in Finland, Anopheles daciae, a species previously not known to occur in Finland was found from several locations in the south of the country.

2 Jul 2020

Researchers outline checklist for implementing COVID-19 communication strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unique challenges for public health practitioners and health communicators that warrant an expansion of existing health communication principles to take into consideration.

2 Jul 2020

Passive stretching can improve blood flow, prevent stroke and diabetes

New research published today in The Journal of Physiology shows that 12 weeks of easy-to-administer passive stretching helps improve blood flow by making it easier for your arteries to dilate and decreasing their stiffness.

2 Jul 2020

Structure of the full SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome in infected cells

The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by a single-stranded RNA virus, thought to have jumped across species barriers to infect humans, has spread rapidly across the globe infecting over 10 million individuals. The virus, now known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is the causative agent of COVID-19 disease. COVID-19 disease is a respiratory illness where symptoms can range from very mild to severe and include fever, coughing, a sore throat, and shortness of breath.

2 Jul 2020

Novavax SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate shows promise in animal models

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in June 2020 shows that a candidate spike protein vaccine can induce neutralizing antibodies, antiviral T cell responses, and protection against infection.

2 Jul 2020

Repurposed drug for acute lung injury in COVID-19

Now, a new study addresses the possible use of an FDA-approved monoclonal antibody, called fostamatinib, a spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor (SYK), to reduce the levels of mucin-1, a molecule associated with acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). People who have severe COVID-19 disease may develop ARDS.

2 Jul 2020

Coronavirus immunity is higher than previously thought, study finds

Now, a team of researchers at the Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden has found that the number of people immune to COVID-10 may be higher than previously thought, and that antibody testing may no longer be the appropriate tool to trace it.

1 Jul 2020

Scientists find coronavirus' Achilles' heel

A team of scientists at the University of California San Francisco has found out how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) invades proteins in the cells that serve as master regulators of key cellular processes.

1 Jul 2020

Which facemasks work best at stopping coronavirus?

A new study shows how wearing masks can prevent the spread of droplet borne infections and is an excellent preventive measure to stop the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The study titled, "Visualizing the effectiveness of face masks in obstructing respiratory jets," is published in the latest issue of the journal Physics of Fluids.

1 Jul 2020