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.

Researchers design peptide inhibitors for potential COVID-19 treatments

Scientists across the globe are rushing to find inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

16 Apr 2020

Big brother wants to track your location and health data. And that’s not all bad.

A growing mix of health and technology experts are convinced that if the United States is to ever effectively track the coronavirus and slow its spread, then both self-reported and more surreptitiously gathered personal data — a mix of information about location, travel, symptoms and health conditions - must be gathered from millions of Americans.

16 Apr 2020

Caring for geriatric patients during COVID-19 pandemic requires vigilance

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic advances so does the uncertainty and evolution of the pandemic as it relates to nursing homes and long-term care facilities

16 Apr 2020

‘I wasn’t eating’: Senior twin sisters battle pandemic anxiety together

Ethel Sylvester dialed 911, trembling with fear. The 92-year-old felt hot. She thought turning off her thermostat could fix the problem. That didn't help.

16 Apr 2020

Octapharma USA supports new COVID-19 clinical trial

Octapharma USA is supporting a new investigator initiated clinical trial led by George Sakoulas, M.D. of Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California focused on treating the most critical patients at the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, those experiencing respiratory failure who become ventilator dependent.

16 Apr 2020

Public health precautions to lower airborne transmission of COVID-19 virus

Researchers are urging health authorities to immediately recognize the role of airborne transmission of COVID-19 virus droplets from an infected person beyond 1.5m in order to stem the disease’s spread.

16 Apr 2020

COPD lungs inundated by abnormal stem cells, research finds

Two internationally renowned stem cell experts have found an abundance of abnormal stem cells in the lungs of patients who suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, a leading cause of death worldwide.

16 Apr 2020

N.Y. leads the nation in COVID-19 tests, but the effort still lags behind demand

This jampacked city, with its high-rises, brownstones and cheek-by-jowl single-family homes, is a ripe environment for the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 11,000 residents. That density also complicates a key strategy for alleviating the epidemic: testing.

16 Apr 2020

Jails and prisons spring thousands to prevent coronavirus outbreaks

Terry Smith, a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran with PTSD, multiple health issues and a history of homelessness, spent nearly three years in San Francisco County Jail awaiting trial on a burglary charge. The final several weeks were served in the full flush of a burgeoning viral pandemic.

16 Apr 2020

Coronavirus nurses ask an Ebola veteran: Is it OK to be afraid?

Martha Phillips knows exactly how it feels to suddenly find oneself up close to — and unprotected from — a deadly virus.

16 Apr 2020

Horizon Discovery offers rapid access to CHOSOURCE platform for development of COVID-19 therapies

Horizon Discovery Group plc, a global leader in the application of gene editing and gene modulation for cell line engineering, today announced special commercial licensing terms to facilitate rapid access to its cGMP-compliant CHOSOURCE platform for the development or production of therapeutic proteins, diagnostic assay components or vaccines relating to COVID-19.

16 Apr 2020

FDA grants Emergency Use Authorization to Ortho’s COVID-19 total antibody test

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it granted Emergency Use Authorization to Ortho Clinical Diagnostics' total antibody assay for COVID-19—the VITROS Immunodiagnostic Products Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Reagent Pack and Calibrators.

From Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. 16 Apr 2020

Dynata launches free, interactive Global COVID-19 Symptom Map

Dynata, the world's largest first-party data and insights platform, today introduced a free, interactive Global COVID-19 Symptom Map that helps identify potential "hot spots" for COVID-19 cases using self-reported data of common symptom combinations associated with COVID-19.

16 Apr 2020

Regular exercise may reduce risk of deadly complication in patients with COVID-19

Regular exercise may reduce the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome, a major cause of death in patients with the COVID-19 virus, a top exercise researcher reports.

15 Apr 2020

Screening blood samples for COVID-19 using artificial intelligence

A promising new study published in the preprint online journal medRxiv in April 2020 shows the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for developing a patient classifier that can separate patients likely to be negative for COVID-19 from among a pool of suspected patients visiting an emergency room (ER).

15 Apr 2020

European Commission issues guidelines on coronavirus testing methodologies

Today, as part of the European Roadmap towards lifting coronavirus containment measures, the Commission is presenting guidelines on coronavirus testing methodologies.

15 Apr 2020

Remdesivir drug stops novel coronavirus from replicating

Scientists from the University of Alberta have published findings that the antiviral drug remdesivir prevents replication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by inhibiting RNA replication. The study, published in April 2020 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, follows on the heels of earlier reports from the same lab in February, showing the drug's effectiveness against the related Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.

15 Apr 2020

Depression, anxiety may be side effects of COVID-19 pandemic

Millions of Americans are being impacted by the psychological fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath, and large numbers may experience emotional distress and be at increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, according to a new article published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

15 Apr 2020

Anosmia (loss of smell) confirmed as a clinical feature of COVID-19

Earlier last month, the association of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists in the UK issued a public statement advising patients with a sudden loss of smell or taste to get tested for COVID-19. They cited not only their own observations but those from numerous other ENT consultants the world around. A review of multiple papers on the sinus and nasal symptoms and signs related to the diagnosis of COVID-19, published in April 2020, in the journal Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, reiterates this finding.

15 Apr 2020

Coronavirus able to survive near boiling point of water, study shows

A startling paper by a team of French scientists published in the preprint journal bioRxiv in April 2020 suggests that the novel coronavirus is capable of surviving at high temperatures. This could mean that laboratory technicians handling the virus are at danger of infection.

15 Apr 2020