Author: Shannon Becker
An early lesson from the Uganda Ebola vaccine trial: Shots must be ready to go before the next outbreak strikes
(STAT) A clinical trial of vaccines targeting the Ebola Sudan virus is starting this week in Uganda, with first doses going into arms potentially on Tuesday. Already, though, this effort has taught the World Health Organization and partners two important lessons. They’ve learned they can get clinical trials to test countermeasures for rare but dangerous […]
Dec 13, 2022
US Says Scientists Make Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Energy
(Bloomberg) Scientists in California have made a key breakthrough in nuclear fusion, a technology with the potential to transform the global energy landscape. Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco were able produce a fusion reaction that generated more energy than it consumed, according to a person familiar with the research […]
Dec 13, 2022
BA.2 and BA.5 omicron differ immunologically from both BA.1 omicron and pre-omicron variants
(Nature) Several studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 omicron is an immune escape variant. Meanwhile, however, omicron BA.2 and BA.5 became dominant in many countries and replaced BA.1. As both have several mutations compared to BA.1, we analyzed whether BA.2 and BA.5 show further immune escape relative to BA.1. Here, we characterized neutralization profiles against […]
Dec 13, 2022
Book About ‘War on Ivermectin’ Distributed By Major Publishing House
(MedPageToday) Pierre Kory, MD, one of the most vocal proponents of ivermectin for COVID-19, has the support of Simon & Schuster, with the leading publishing house slated to distribute his upcoming book, which claims the widely discredited drug “saved millions.” Slated for release in February 2023, The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine That Saved Millions and […]
Dec 13, 2022
China’s Rapid Covid Reversal Sparks Whiplash as Cases Surge
(Bloomberg) Covid is rapidly spreading through Chinese households and offices after the country’s pandemic rules were unexpectedly unwound last week, sparking confusion on the ground as ill-prepared hospitals struggle to deal with a surge in cases.
Dec 12, 2022
Omicron subvariants that more easily dodge immunity are causing more than 70% of U.S. infections
(CNBC) The BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 Covid subvariants are now responsible for 68% of new cases, while the XBB subvariant is causing 4.7% of new infections. Covid infections and hospitalizations are rising after Thanksgiving, with Christmas and the New Year holidays still around the corner. These subvariants are resistant to key antibody treatments, and studies indicate […]
Dec 12, 2022
It’s Still Worth Fighting Anti-Covid Vaccine Misinformation
(Bloomberg) Medical misinformation has never contributed to as many deaths as in the last 18 months. Recently released statistics show thousands of “excess” deaths concentrated among the US states and counties with the lowest uptake of Covid-19 vaccines — though the vaccines were free and available to everyone. Uptake has been suppressed in those areas because a significant […]
Dec 12, 2022
The childhood diseases making a post-lockdown comeback
(BBC) RSV, Strep A, the flu: a range of familiar bugs are worrying doctors and parents with strange new patterns. What’s behind the outbreaks? As child after child gasping for air was admitted to the hospital, Rabia Agha gritted her teeth. In her role as director of the paediatric infectious diseases division at Maimonides Children’s […]
Dec 12, 2022
Severe COVID-19 is associated with molecular signatures of aging in the human brain
(Nature Aging) As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and aging are both accompanied by cognitive decline, we hypothesized that COVID-19 might lead to molecular signatures similar to aging. We performed whole-transcriptome analysis of the frontal cortex, a critical area for cognitive function, in individuals with COVID-19, age-matched and sex-matched uninfected controls, and uninfected individuals with intensive […]
Dec 12, 2022
Severe COVID Looks Scarily Like Old Age in The Human Brain, Study Finds
(ScienceAlert) Severe COVID-19 looks scarily like old age in the human brain, according to a postmortem analysis of 54 healthy and infected individuals. The authors of the study say their research is the first to link COVID-19 to molecular signatures of brain aging. Researchers also compared their results to an uninfected individual with Alzheimer’s disease and another group of […]
Dec 12, 2022