Author: Claudinne Miller
EU Moves Toward Requiring Covid Tests for Passengers From China
(Bloomberg) The European Union is moving toward an approach to the rampant Covid outbreak in China that may include masks and pre-flight testing requirements on flights from the country. EU health advisers agreed Tuesday on a draft opinion that includes masking recommendations and increased wastewater monitoring, while also suggesting a discussion on Covid testing, according […]
Jan 3, 2023
Do China’s COVID vaccines do the job?
(NPR) As COVID spreads rapidly through China, rumors circulate about the effectiveness and safety of the Chinese-manufactured vaccines. But what does the scientific data actually say about these shots? China is in the midst of a huge COVID surge. The country rolled back COVID restrictions last month. Now scientists estimate China could be facing more […]
Jan 3, 2023
China media plays down COVID severity as WHO seeks detail on variants
(Reuters) State media in China played down the severity of a surge of COVID-19 infections ahead of a briefing on Tuesday by its scientists to the World Health Organization, which was hoping for a “detailed discussion” on the evolution of the virus. China’s abrupt U-turn on COVID controls on Dec. 7, as well as the […]
Jan 3, 2023
Bodies Pile Up in China as Covid Surge Overwhelms Crematoriums
(Bloomberg) For five days the elderly Chinese lady’s corpse lay decomposing in the Shanghai house she shared with her family before a hearse finally arrived to take away her remains. “We’re lucky it’s the cold winter time,” a relative said last week at Shanghai’s Longhua Funeral Home, recounting the ordeal as the family waited their […]
Jan 3, 2023
Antibody drugs could target infectious diseases
(Washington Post) At a malaria research conference five years ago in Senegal, scientist Timothy Wells presented an overview of medicines on the horizon, ending with a few slides focused on an outlandish idea. Wells proposed that monoclonal antibody drugs — a class of high-price medicines that has transformed the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases — had […]
Jan 3, 2023
A Look Back at Science’s 2022 Breakthroughs
(NIH) Happy New Year! I hope everyone finished 2022 with plenty to celebrate, whether it was completing a degree or certification, earning a promotion, attaining a physical fitness goal, or publishing a hard-fought scientific discovery. If the latter, you are in good company. Last year produced some dazzling discoveries, and the news and editorial staff […]
Jan 3, 2023
Paralysis Tied to Virus in Kids Goes Off-Script, Baffling CDC
(MedPageToday) The CDC sounded the alarm on EV-D68 with a Health Alert Network Advisory in September announcing that cases were on the rise. Later that month, the agency reported surveillance dataopens in a new tab or window showing that rhinovirus, enterovirus, or both were detected in 26.4% of children and adolescents with acute respiratory illness seeking emergency […]
Jan 3, 2023
Cancer Patients Particularly Vulnerable to Lack of COVID Vax Response
(MedPageToday) Cancer patients vaccinated against COVID-19 had a significantly higher rate of negative antibody tests as compared with a vaccinated control population, greatly increasing the odds for breakthrough infection and hospitalization, a large British study showed. Among people who had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 4.68% of 4,249 tests for patients with cancer had […]
Jan 3, 2023
How the pandemic altered the restaurant industry forever
(Washington Post) Pandemic restaurant-going was like a series of twists on the old Yogi Berra quip about how nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded. First, restaurants stood cavernously empty by mandate as we pined for them. Then we got scared to be cheek-to-jowl with fellow customers. As patrons surged back, a dearth of […]
Jan 3, 2023
The Magic of mRNA Will Push Medical Advances for Everyone
(Wired) mRNA is one of the first molecules of life. While identified six decades ago as the carrier of the blueprint for proteins in living cells, its pharmaceutical potential was long underestimated. mRNA appeared unpromising—too unstable, too weak in potency, and too inflammatory. The successful development of the first mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 in 2020 was an […]
Dec 30, 2022