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.

Sino Biological Partners with Nanommune Inc. to Develop and Market a Novel Coronavirus Multiplex Serological Assay

Sino Biological, Inc. today announced a co-development agreement with Nanommune Inc., an Irvine, California based biotechnology company specializing in the development and application of multiplex array technology.

From Sino Biological Inc. 21 Apr 2020

‘It hurts our soul’: Nursing home workers struggle with thankless position

In the months before county health officials ordered the evacuation of COVID-19-plagued Magnolia Rehabilitation & Nursing Center, the facility's employees complained of bounced checks.

21 Apr 2020

A new biosensor to quickly and reliably detect novel coronavirus

Jing Wang and his team at Empa and ETH Zurich usually work on measuring, analyzing and reducing airborne pollutants such as aerosols and artificially produced nanoparticles.

21 Apr 2020

Study finds NCCN Guidelines for Patients listed among the most trustworthy online resources

A recently-published study from researchers in Australia and South Africa found the NCCN Guidelines for Patients to be among the most trustworthy resources for patients and caregivers seeking information online about prostate cancer.

21 Apr 2020

Machine learning helps researchers to distinguish a rare subtype of kidney cancer

Putting together research for publication can be a challenging and time-consuming process, heightened even further because of the current COVID-19 situation, during which non-essential labs have been hibernated and many researchers are now working separately and remotely, instead of collaborating within the same space.

21 Apr 2020

The inside story of how the Bay Area got ahead of the COVID-19 crisis

Sunday was supposed to be a rare day off for Dr. Tomás Aragón after weeks of working around-the-clock.

21 Apr 2020

San Francisco quick to fight COVID-19, slow to help homeless

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has won nationwide praise for taking drastic early measures against COVID-19 that seem to have spared San Francisco the catastrophic fate of New York and other cities.

21 Apr 2020

A switch to Medicaid managed care worries some Illinois foster families

Rebecca and Bruce Austin in central Illinois have six kids — ranging in age from 4 to 22.

21 Apr 2020

How Hong Kong reduced COVID-19 transmission

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, many countries across the globe have imposed lockdowns in an attempt to reduce the spread of the virus. Still, some countries have not opted for lockdowns, and community quarantines, and still are doing well. Hong Kong, for one, appears to have averted a major COVID-19 outbreak despite not imposing lockdown.

21 Apr 2020

Australia may beat the novel coronavirus, modeling shows

Many countries are now in lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, now called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus has sickened 2.47 million people worldwide, triggering many preventive measures. Now, it appears that preventive measures taken in Australia are containing the virus, according to a new modeling.

21 Apr 2020

Scientists use genomics and bioinformatics to analyze blueprint of novel coronavirus

Australian researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have found a new way to decode the genome of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 disease. This approach could help in drug and vaccine development. Their work titled, "Supporting pandemic response using genomics and bioinformatics: a case study on the emergent SARS-CoV-2 outbreak," is published in the latest issue of the journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases.

21 Apr 2020

Role of ACE/ARB inhibitors in the treatment of COVID-19

A new opinion piece published in the journal Circulation Research in April 2020 defends the use of antihypertensive drugs called ACE inhibitors and ARBs in patients with pandemic viral pneumonia called COVID-19.

20 Apr 2020

University of Utah invests $1.3 million in multidisciplinary COVID-19 research projects

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe, University of Utah scientists are at the forefront of efforts to learn more about how to lasso the virus that causes it and understand its potential long-term social, economic, and psychological effects.

20 Apr 2020

ACE2 receptor expression by SARS-CoV-2 across different animal species

A new report published on the preprint server bioRxiv in April 2020 reports that several species of animals can be infected with relative ease by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is the causative agent of the currently raging COVID-19 pandemic. This casts much light on the possible natural hosts and routes of transmission of this virus.

20 Apr 2020

Mutations in novel coronavirus make it more dangerous

A new report published on the preprint server medRxiv in April 2020 reveals that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 shows the presence of new mutations acquired within infected human cases, which significantly increase its ability to cause human disease.

20 Apr 2020

ACE2-TMPRSS2 profiling indicates tissue vulnerability to SARS-CoV-2 infection

A new study published in April 2020 on the preprint server bioRxiv reports that the different levels of susceptibility of various organs to viral attack by the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the huge pandemic of COVID-19 sweeping around the world can be predicted from the level of expression of two molecules, the ACE2 receptor, and the TMPRSS2 protein.

20 Apr 2020

Do ACE inhibitors increase SARS-CoV-2 binding to ACE2?

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced clinicians and academicians to intensive research to find evidence for many conventional therapies. A new round-up editorial published in the journal Cardiovascular Research in April 2020 summarizes the current clinical grounds for and against the use of the commonly used angiotensin axis inhibitors in patients with COVID-19.

20 Apr 2020

COVID-19: Gender-based violence during global emergencies

Gender-based violence has been shown to increase during global emergencies. In a paper just published by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, researchers report that according to early evidence it is the same for the COVID-19 pandemic.

20 Apr 2020

Antibody detection for COVID-19 - promise and risks

Recently, several research groups emphasized how the pervasive screening for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies may prove pivotal in determining infection seroprevalence in a given population defining previous exposure, screening health care workers, but also identifying highly reactive individuals that may act as donors for the therapeutic use of their convalescent serum.

20 Apr 2020

Cost-effective plastic canopy system protects health workers at risk of airborne coronavirus infection

Researchers have designed a cost-effective, constant flow plastic canopy system that can help to protect healthcare workers who are at risk of airborne coronavirus infection while delivering non-invasive ventilation or oxygen via high flow nasal canula, according to a research letter published in the European Respiratory Journal.

20 Apr 2020