Category: COVID
San Francisco: Mutated viral variant found in US for first time in traveler
SFGate A mutated strain of the COVID-19 virus, first detected in the U.S. in a traveler to SFO, is increasingly appearing across the country. A March 19 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detailed the rise of the COVID-19 BA.3.2 variant. This mutated version of the COVID-19 virus contains genetic changes on a key protein […]
Mar 25, 2026
Why we don’t talk about COVID anymore
Axios Six years ago this week, COVID-19 dominated daily life. Schools closed, headlines tracked cases, and Ohio reported its first deaths and postponed a primary election. Why it matters: Today, the pandemic that killed over 1 million Americans and reshaped society has largely faded from public conversation. Driving the news: Associate professor Marian Moser Jones and other researchers have interviewed over […]
Mar 18, 2026
COVID probably killed 150,000 more people in its first two years than official U.S. tolls show
Scientific American We have severely undercounted the number of COVID deaths, scientists say. COVID may have killed significantly more people in the U.S. in the first two years of the pandemic than official records indicate, with as many as one overlooked death for every five recorded ones. That brings the total to nearly one million deaths just in 2020 and […]
Mar 18, 2026
Recent pandemic viruses, including SAR-CoV-2, spread directly to people without adaptation, researchers say
CIDRAP Contrary to prevailing belief, an evolutionary analysis finds no evidence that most viruses with epidemic or pandemic potential that jumped from animals to people were shaped by selection in a lab or prolonged evolution in an intermediate host—challenging claims that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was engineered in a lab. A University of California (UC) […]
Mar 11, 2026
Severe COVID-19 and flu can facilitate lung cancer months or years later
Medical Express Severe COVID-19 and influenza infections prime the lungs for cancer and can accelerate the disease’s development, but vaccination heads off those harmful effects, new research from UVA Health’s Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research and UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center indicates. UVA School of Medicine researcher Jie Sun, Ph.D., and colleagues found that […]
Mar 11, 2026
The Mystery of Losing Your Taste From Long COVID May Finally Have an Answer
Discover Learn how researchers may have finally uncovered why some people experience long-lasting taste loss after COVID-19. A common symptom that many experienced during a COVID-19 infection was a loss of taste. While most affected individuals regained their sense of taste within a few weeks, some experienced a persistent loss over several months. If a […]
Mar 11, 2026
Long COVID — Here’s What To Know And The Challenges Ahead
Forbes Despite entering the sixth year since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus has not disappeared and the long-term consequences of infection continue to cast a shadow. Long COVID, or post-COVID-19 condition, represents a complex health condition that has affected at least 20 million Americans, according to Yale Medicine. Here’s what to know about […]
Mar 4, 2026
The Mystery of Losing Your Taste From Long COVID May Finally Have an Answer
Discover Magazine Learn how researchers may have finally uncovered why some people experience long-lasting taste loss after COVID-19. A common symptom that many experienced during a COVID-19 infection was a loss of taste. While most affected individuals regained their sense of taste within a few weeks, some experienced a persistent loss over several months. If […]
Mar 4, 2026
COVID’s origins: what we do and don’t know
Nature Researchers summarize key insights from the world’s first comprehensive investigation into how a pandemic started. We are 23 of the 27 original members of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) for the World Health Organization (WHO). After nearly 3.5 years of deliberations, we concluded our independent assessment of the […]
Feb 25, 2026
How Covid Quietly Rewires the Brain
Bloomberg Researchers keep discovering more about the long-term neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2. Doctors call it Ondine’s curse—a catastrophic failure of the brain stem in which breathing no longer happens automatically, especially during sleep. It’s extremely rare, typically seen only in infants with genetic mutations or adults after severe trauma, and for a long time it wasn’t […]
Feb 25, 2026