Author: Claudinne Miller
How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats
Quanta Enough pints of beer can have you falling off your bar stool or loudly reciting lyrics to early 2000s jams to total strangers, because alcohol can get past one of the strongest defenses in the body. If you’ve ever been drunk, high or drowsy from allergy medication, you’ve experienced what happens when some molecules […]
Jun 20, 2023

SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral fusogens cause neuronal and glial fusion that compromises neuronal activity
Science Numerous viruses use specialized surface molecules called fusogens to enter host cells. Many of these viruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), can infect the brain and are associated with severe neurological symptoms through poorly understood mechanisms. We show that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces fusion between neurons and between neurons and glia […]
Jun 14, 2023
Experts warn bird flu virus changing rapidly in largest ever outbreak
Japan Today The virus causing record cases of avian influenza in birds across the world is changing rapidly, experts have warned, as calls increase for countries to vaccinate their poultry. While emphasising that the risk to humans remains low, the experts who spoke to AFP said that the surging number of bird flu cases in […]
Jun 14, 2023

U.S. House bill would address pandemic preparedness
The Square Center Ensuring the United States works to solidify a rapid response to combat future pandemics is the focus of a new bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Disease X Act of 2023, bipartisan legislation introduced by Rep. Lori Trahan, D-MA, would work to ensure there is preparation and development of medical […]
Jun 14, 2023
BBC Podcast: The Hunt for COVID’s Origins
Introduction: Fever: The Hunt for COVID Origins Episode 1: Batshit Episode 2: A Question of Trust Episode 3: Uncertainty and Trump US President Donald Trump wades into the Covid origins debate. It’s April 2020 and at the podium of the White House’s press room, Donald Trump makes a geopolitically incendiary claim: he has a high […]
Jun 14, 2023

In pandemic’s wake, only 57% of doctors would choose medicine again
AMA Early in the pandemic, physician experiences were largely influenced by geography, specialty and personal COVID-19 experiences. But a year into the pandemic, the environment was different because physicians were facing staffing shortages, anti-science aggression, incivility and new dimensions of moral distress. All of this may have had an impact on professional fulfillment, which can […]
Jun 14, 2023
More than 50% of COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented with better global vaccine distribution, says study
Medical Express Better access to vaccines could have prevented more than 50% of COVID-19 deaths in 20 lower income countries, according to a new paper in Nature Communications co-authored by Northeastern professor Alessandro Vespignani. The estimation that “thousands and thousands” of lives were lost to vaccine inequity was a “punch in the stomach,” says Vespignani, director of […]
Jun 14, 2023
I Studied Five Countries’ Health Care Systems. We Need to Get More Creative With Ours.
NYT Opinion Although we just experienced a pandemic in which over one million Americans died, health care reform doesn’t seem to be a top political issue in the United States right now. That’s a mistake. The American health care system is broken. We are one of the few developed countries that does not have universal coverage. We […]
Jun 14, 2023
More than 11,000 animals have died from bird flu in Chile
cooperativa The authorities corroborated the death of 9,853 sea lions, 1,555 Humboldt penguins, 27 chungungos, 21 spiny porpoises, 14 Chilean dolphins and one mane. Senapesca made a balance this Monday on the advance of bird flu in Chile, detailing that a total of 11,471 specimens have died as a result of this influenza. Of this universe, the […]
Jun 14, 2023
Some Who Lost Sense Of Smell From Covid May Never Get It Fully Back
Boston Globe Millions of Americans stricken with COVID-19 in 2021 may not have fully recovered their senses of smell and taste after contracting the virus, according to a study from researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. The study, published recently in The Laryngoscope, a peer-reviewed medical journal, culled data from the CDC’s National Health Interview […]
Jun 14, 2023