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.

AI test provides Covid-19 screening results quicker than lateral flow tests

An Artificial Intelligence (AI) test performed by the bedside in 10 minutes quickly and safely triages patients coming to hospital for Covid-19, a University of Oxford-led study has shown.

15 Sep 2021

Vaccination of children before school reopening may control COVID-19 pandemic

A team has recently explored the impact of non-pharmaceutical control measures and vaccination on the COVID-19 pandemic during school reopening in England.

15 Sep 2021

Over half of states have rolled back public health powers in pandemic

Republican legislators in more than half of U.S. states, spurred on by voters angry about lockdowns and mask mandates, are taking away the powers state and local officials use to protect the public against infectious diseases.

15 Sep 2021

Biden releases a new plan to combat covid, but experts say there’s still a ways to go

On the campaign trail last year, Joe Biden promised that, if elected president, he would get covid-19 under control. Since assuming office in January, Biden has continued to pledge that his administration would do its best to get Americans vaccinated against covid and allow life to return to some semblance of normal.

15 Sep 2021

A sweet pill to swallow: oral nucleoside analog of Remdesivir improved SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis in mice

A new study focused on in vitro antiviral activity in various cell models and in vivo therapeutic efficacy of oral GS-621763 in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis.

15 Sep 2021

MinoTour: a real-time monitoring platform to analyze SARS-CoV-2 nanopore sequencing

A study published on the bioRxiv* preprint sever focused on ONT sequencers that can rapidly provide data on the SARS-CoV-2 virus sequence.

15 Sep 2021

Deep profiling of SARS-CoV-2 immune response amongst the mildly symptomatic

In a research paper recently uploaded to the medRxiv* preprint server by Capelle et al. (September 2nd, 2021), the immune response of mild and hospitalized COVID-19 patients is compared, finding that early T-cell response is a vital indicator of SARS-CoV-2 disease severity.

15 Sep 2021

New animated video explores how social media affects people with eating disorders

Researchers from Loughborough University have teamed up with UK charity Beat to create an animated video that explores how social media affects people with an eating disorder.

15 Sep 2021

Quantification of salivary IgG and IgA against SARS-CoV-2

Salivary antibody levels are many fold lower than found in blood serum, Immunoglobulin G (IgG) in the saliva is mainly sourced from leakage from the gingival surface and Immunoglobulin A (IgA) from mucosal membranes.

15 Sep 2021

Blocking a specific immune cell could reverse antibiotic-induced breast cancer growth

Leading scientists have identified a possible link between antibiotic use and the speed of breast cancer growth in mice, and identified a type of immune cell that could be targeted to reverse it.

15 Sep 2021

New automated approach to detecting SARS-CoV-2 variants with increased growth rates

Researchers in the United States have developed a new automated approach to detecting variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – that have increased growth rates over other lineages.

15 Sep 2021

Study highlights need to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S.

Researchers in the United States have warned that as of July 15th this year (2021), the level of population immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – may still have been insufficient to contain infection outbreaks and safely return to pre-pandemic social behavior.

15 Sep 2021