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.

Relaxation of social and physical distancing measures may result in profound mortality

Even as the world struggles to live and make a living, faced with the dual threat of a rapidly spreading viral illness and economic slowdown, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in May 2020 says that relaxing non-pharmacological interventions will allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus to become endemic.

13 May 2020

Lessons for COVID-19 from 2009 H1N1

The world has experienced many outbreaks of viral diseases. Over the past two decades, we have also seen the emergence of zoonotic human respiratory coronaviruses with pandemic potential.

13 May 2020

Low albumin levels could predict poor outcome in COVID-19

A Spanish study has revealed that COVID-19 patients who have a low level of albumin have a poorer outcome compared to those with normal levels of blood albumin. The study titled, “Low albumin levels are associated with poorer outcomes in a case series of COVID-19 patients in Spain: a retrospective cohort study,” was released prior to peer-review on the open-access preprint server site Medrxiv*.

13 May 2020

Study shows 19 out of 25 COVID-19 patients improved with convalescent plasma treatment

The country's first convalescent plasma transfusion trial results have been published and show 19 out of 25 patients improved with the treatment, and 11 were discharged from the hospital.

13 May 2020

Leave packages unopened and untouched for 72 hours to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Researchers have advised that people need to leave their parcels and packages unopened and untouched for 72 hours to help stop the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 disease. The virus, as is evident from the raging pandemic across the world, is highly infectious and could survive on surfaces for up to 72 hours.

13 May 2020

COVID-19 lockdown exit strategies: deliverance or disaster?

A new study by researchers at the University of Cambridge, Universidad de Sevilla, and the University of Massachusetts, published on the preprint server medRxiv in May 2020, shows that it is essential to choose a restrictive exit strategy while easing COVID-19 lockdowns, because failure to do so may lead to catastrophic results.

13 May 2020

Researchers identify CoV Mac1 proteins as a potential SARS-CoV-2 drug target

A recent study by researchers at the University of Kansas and published on the preprint server bioRxiv* reveals that Mac1 protein implicated in the infection process of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a strikingly similar structure and activity in all coronaviruses – suggesting that possible future treatments targeting this protein may exert broad antiviral activity.

13 May 2020

U of A researchers and Tonix Pharmaceuticals join forces to develop, test COVID-19 vaccine

University of Alberta researchers launched a joint effort with U.S.-based Tonix Pharmaceuticals to develop and test a vaccine against COVID-19.

13 May 2020

Should school closures related to COVID-19 be continued long-term?

Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, many countries have introduced restrictive measures to curb the circulation and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

13 May 2020

Simpler ventilator design receives FDA's Emergency Use Authorization

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that the Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM) is safe for use in the United States under the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization, which helps support public health during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

13 May 2020

UCI Health to initiate clinical trial of a drug to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients

UCI Health will initiate a clinical study of a drug to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients who face a high mortality rate because of acute inflammation that fills their lungs with fluid, a grave condition that even mechanical ventilation cannot improve.

13 May 2020

WPI receives NSF Grant to study how coronavirus pandemic impacts student learning

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researchers with expertise in fields ranging from psychology to architectural engineering will use a $199,999 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how the novel coronavirus global pandemic is affecting stress in college students and their ability to learn in remote settings.

13 May 2020

Research explores how COVID-19 is spreading and mutating in the environment

A multi-disciplinary team of experts in virology and computer modeling has quickly assembled at San Diego State University to learn more about how the new coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads in the environment and how its trajectory can be better predicted.

13 May 2020

Non-invasive ventilation mask could reduce aerosolization when treating COVID-19 patients

Led by Lawson Health Research Institute, London Health Sciences Centre, University Health Network and General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, researchers have designed a non-invasive ventilation mask that could significantly reduce aerosolization - the production of airborne respiratory droplets that may contain viruses or bacteria - when treating patients with COVID-19.

13 May 2020

Internet-delivered CBT just as effective as face-to-face treatment for health anxiety

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have compared two ways of delivering cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, to treat people with health anxiety, a condition that may increase in the wake of COVID-19.

13 May 2020

Study on airborne virus transmission in buildings launched

As society prepares to reopen indoor spaces and ease back into some sense of normalcy during the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is launching a study of the risk of airborne transmission of viruses within buildings and how to mitigate those risks.

13 May 2020

Experts review symptoms, diagnosis, and current treatment of COVID-19

The ongoing economic and social impact of the pandemic is staggering, but despite a daily flood of news on the disease, few laypeople know that paradoxically, COVID-19 mostly kills through an overreaction of the immune system, whose function is precisely to fight infections.

13 May 2020