Author: Claudinne Miller
The Virus That Won’t Go Away
Bloomberg As the pandemic drags us into a fourth year, two key questions are on researchers’ minds: What’s driving the proliferation of immune-evasive variants, and what’s causes the persistent symptoms plaguing some 140 million Covid survivors worldwide? Answers to both have been informed by two different and somewhat unsavory lines of inquiry. In the spring of […]
Mar 7, 2023
World’s Failure to Wipe Out Covid Bodes Badly for Next Pandemic
(Bloomberg) Virus elimination has fallen from grace, leaving experts divided on how best to contain infectious diseases. For much of the past century, a strategy known as elimination was the gold standard for dealing with deadly new viruses. But China’s abrupt reversal of its Covid Zero policy, which took it to an extreme, has cast doubts over […]
Feb 21, 2023
Bird flu kills sea lions and thousands of pelicans in Peru’s protected areas
(Reuters) Bird flu has killed tens of thousands of birds, mostly pelicans, and at least 716 sea lions in protected areas across Peru, the authorities said, as the H5N1 strain spreads throughout the region. Peru recorded its first case of the virus in November in birds in the north of the country. Since then it […]
Feb 21, 2023
COVID-19 Immunity: Catching a Disease to Prevent a Disease?
(Infection Control Today) Catching COVID-19 to prevent a more severe case is not a good strategy, says Kevin Kavanagh, MD. I had to stop and read the Seattle Times news article “UW study: Catching COVID gives protection from its worst effects.” The title appears to advocate catching a dangerous virus so you will not have to worry […]
Feb 21, 2023
Three in five long COVID patients have organ damage a year after infection
(The Conversation) The latest data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that more than 1.2 million people in the UK report living with long COVID for 12 months or more. Several studies have confirmed that symptoms can persist in people with long COVID for more than a year after infection. And long COVID can occur regardless of whether or not […]
Feb 21, 2023
Unprecedented avian flu outbreak continues to wreak havoc in Canadian flocks and around the world
(Globe and Mail) An unprecedented avian flu outbreakthat has wreaked havoc on flocks around the world has forced the cull of millions of birds in Canada, with the federal government paying out tens of millions of dollars in compensation. There have been about 7.2 million domestic birds affected by H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, […]
Feb 21, 2023
Develop vaccines for all animal influenza strain, says incoming WHO chief scientist
(Reuters) Governments should invest in vaccines for all strains of influenza virus that exist in the animal kingdom as an insurance policy in case of an outbreak in humans, the incoming chief scientist at the World Health Organization said on Monday. Countries ranging from the United States and Britain to France and Japan have suffered […]
Feb 21, 2023
COVID-19 vaccination linked to fewer cardiac events
(Journal of the American College of Cardiology) Analyzing the most extensive datasets in the United States, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have revealed that vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular issues among people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. […]
Feb 21, 2023
What is Long COVID? The Physical and Psychological Symptoms and Management
(UCSF) This expertise is provided by Lauri Pasch, PhD, a UCSF psychologist who has worked with and studied the psychological experiences of many COVID-19 patients, and Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MA, a pulmonologist and founder and medical director of the UCSF OPTIMAL Clinic, a specialized clinic for COVID-19 patients who have been hospitalized or have persistent symptoms. What […]
Feb 21, 2023
Case studies expose deadly risk of mpox to people with untreated HIV
(Science) Analysis of hundreds of mpox patients suggests it is “a different disease” in those with compromised immune systems In June 2022, a young man in his 30s severely sick with mpox, the viral disease formerly known as monkeypox, was admitted to the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition hospital in Mexico […]
Feb 21, 2023