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.

Male fertility and androgen production may be impacted by COVID-19

An interesting new study has appeared online in the journal Hormones that discusses the effects of COVID-19 on the male and female gonads.

22 Mar 2021

What are the chief predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children?

A new study seeks to explore the factors associated with the diagnosis in children. The ability to rapidly diagnose COVID-19 in this age group is essential not only for monitoring progressive disease in individual children, but to avert further transmission chains.

22 Mar 2021

In America, Covid vaccine eligibility is a ‘crazy quilt’ of state rules

In North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, any adult who has smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime can now be vaccinated against Covid.

22 Mar 2021

Could nanoparticle vaccines offer broad protection against sarbecoviruses?

To understand the ability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-elicited antibodies to neutralize and protect against emerging variants (that are pathogenic) and other sarbecoviruses, a large team of researchers studied immunity by receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccines. They showed that a clinical-stage multivalent SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccine (SARS-CoV-2 RBD-NP) protected mice from the SARS-CoV-2-induced disease.

22 Mar 2021

Updated CDC guidelines support the use of hand dryers for hand hygiene

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated handwashing guidelines, standardizing language and updating visuals.

22 Mar 2021

Scarce medical resources should be allocated equally during public health crisis, say ethicists

During a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. hospitals need to allocate scarce medical resources in an equitable manner, according to clinicians and ethicists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

22 Mar 2021

Vaccine passports raise questions of equity, security, and privacy

Vaccine passports raise questions of equity, security, privacy, argues Crispin Maslog. China, where the COVID-19 pandemic began a long year ago, has now become the first country in the world to issue a vaccine passport to promote world economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel.

22 Mar 2021

Investments in life sciences can be appealing to many investors as vaccines are rolled out

The past twelve months have showcased the importance of medical developments like never before. Innovation in the life sciences sector has been headline news around the globe and all aspects of the healthcare system have been under the microscope.

22 Mar 2021

RADLogics AI-Powered COVID-19 solution reduces turnaround time

Moscow Center for Diagnostics & Telemedicine and RADLogics shared the results of a large-scale study (Moscow Experiment on the Computer Vision for the Analysis of Medical Images - mosmed.ai, NCT04489992) conducted by the Research and Practical Clinical Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine Technologies of the Moscow Health Care Department.

22 Mar 2021

Asymptomatic individuals the biggest problem in COVID battle

The researchers noted in a study published in the journal Science, that asymptomatic cases are those that do not manifest symptoms for the infection duration. In contrast, presymptomatic cases develop symptoms later in the course of infection.

21 Mar 2021

Clofazimine inhibits coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, study finds

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong found that Clofazimine, a lipophilic antimicrobial riminophenazine dye used in combination with agents like rifampicin and dapsone to treat leprosy, inhibits coronaviruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.

21 Mar 2021

People's politics, values shape COVID-19 risk perception and adoption of protective behaviors

People's politics and values are exerting a bigger influence on how much of a threat they feel from COVID-19 compared to objective indicators such as the number of confirmed cases.

21 Mar 2021

A review of the resilience of Chinese hospitals to the COVID-19 pandemic

A new review article, published on the medRxiv* preprint server, deals with several different aspects such as medical response capability, disaster health management, disaster preparedness, and health infrastructure safety, in China, by which they survived the COVID-19 crisis.

21 Mar 2021

Research suggests SARS-CoV-2 vaccine distribution strategy focusing on where virus spreads more easily

The United States is a few days from reaching President Biden's goal of vaccinating 100 million people 100 days since he took office. While the United States leads the world in both the number of COVID-19 cases at over 29.7 million and deaths reaching past 539,000, it has stepped up as a leader in vaccinating its population.

21 Mar 2021

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 offers less protection against South African SARS-CoV-2 variant

The results of a double-blind, randomized, multisite placebo-controlled trial that was conducted in South Africa show that Oxford’s ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine has no efficacy against the B.1.351 variant in preventing mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and shows reduced neutralization properties of developed antibodies. The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

21 Mar 2021

ESC Preventive Cardiology 2021 features the hottest science in prevention of heart disease

Stay tuned for the hottest science in the prevention of heart disease at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2021, an online scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology.

20 Mar 2021

Wildlife protection, surveillance of zoonosis are the key to preventing future pandemics

Understanding animal disease is essential if we want to prevent future pandemics, writes Keith Hamilton.

20 Mar 2021

FDA authorizes first machine learning-based COVID-19 non-diagnostic screening device

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first machine learning-based Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-diagnostic screening device that identifies certain biomarkers that are indicative of some types of conditions, such as hypercoagulation (a condition causing blood to clot more easily than normal).

20 Mar 2021

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare with masking, social distancing and hand-washing

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare - even among close school contacts of those who test positive for the virus - when schools heed public health precautions such as mandatory masking, social distancing and frequent hand-washing, according to results of a pilot study in Missouri aimed at identifying ways to keep elementary and secondary schools open and safe during the pandemic.

20 Mar 2021

Study: COVID-19 causes more severe disease and is more lethal than influenza

In a paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center assessed the relative impact of COVID-19 on patients hospitalized with the viral infection in March and April 2020, versus patients hospitalized with influenza during the last five flu seasons at the medical center.

19 Mar 2021

Pandemic News and Research

Further Reading

Male fertility and androgen production may be impacted by COVID-19

What are the chief predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children?

In America, Covid vaccine eligibility is a ‘crazy quilt’ of state rules

Could nanoparticle vaccines offer broad protection against sarbecoviruses?

Updated CDC guidelines support the use of hand dryers for hand hygiene

Scarce medical resources should be allocated equally during public health crisis, say ethicists

Vaccine passports raise questions of equity, security, and privacy

Investments in life sciences can be appealing to many investors as vaccines are rolled out

RADLogics AI-Powered COVID-19 solution reduces turnaround time

Asymptomatic individuals the biggest problem in COVID battle

Clofazimine inhibits coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, study finds

People's politics, values shape COVID-19 risk perception and adoption of protective behaviors

A review of the resilience of Chinese hospitals to the COVID-19 pandemic

Research suggests SARS-CoV-2 vaccine distribution strategy focusing on where virus spreads more easily

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 offers less protection against South African SARS-CoV-2 variant

ESC Preventive Cardiology 2021 features the hottest science in prevention of heart disease

Wildlife protection, surveillance of zoonosis are the key to preventing future pandemics

FDA authorizes first machine learning-based COVID-19 non-diagnostic screening device

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare with masking, social distancing and hand-washing

Study: COVID-19 causes more severe disease and is more lethal than influenza

Achieving and maintaining ISO 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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