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What are the most effective COVID policies?

A new study on the effectiveness of COVID-19 containment strategies shows that `additional measures are needed to stop the pandemic's spread. These additional steps include stay at home orders, workplace closures for all except essential workers, and targeted school closures, which are likely to have a large effect on social and economic well-being.

3 Dec 2020

New antiviral drug completely suppresses SARS-CoV-2 transmission within 24 hours

Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection with a new antiviral drug, MK-4482/EIDD-2801 or Molnupiravir, completely suppresses virus transmission within 24 hours, researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University have discovered.

3 Dec 2020

Novel surveillance system can dynamically track direction, speed and acceleration of COVID-19 virus

A new COVID-19 global surveillance system has been developed which can dynamically track not just where the virus is now, but where it is going, how fast it will arrive and whether that speed is accelerating.

3 Dec 2020

Smoking may increase some people's risk of testing positive for COVID-19

Researchers in the United States have conducted a detailed analysis examining whether smoking increases or decreases the risk of testing positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

3 Dec 2020

Women with COVID-19 more likely to suffer acute stress during childbirth

Researchers in the United States and Israel have conducted a study showing that women who have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are twice as likely to experience acute clinical stress while giving birth, compared with women giving birth who do not have the illness.

3 Dec 2020

Understanding why some people are more vulnerable to COVID-19

What makes the elderly and people with underlying conditions more vulnerable to COVID-19? According to a new study led by McGill University researchers, clues can be found in the proteins involved in initiating infection, as the virus binds to host cells of different animals.

3 Dec 2020

Lessons from Italian neurosurgeons who fought on the frontline of COVID-19 pandemic's first wave

A report by neurosurgeons at the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy, highlights the strategies their unit had to take to help combat the viral illness, which has claimed the lives of more than 1.49 million people worldwide. The study was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery in December 2020.

3 Dec 2020

Can melatonin help prevent severe COVID-19?

A team of researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada has found that melatonin can be an adjuvant to augment the efficacy of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. They believe that the drug is a potential “silver bullet” to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

3 Dec 2020

Household composition and ethnicity may contribute to higher COVID-19 mortality: a UK case study

A new study by researchers in the UK found that older people living with relatives are at an increased risk of severe COVID-19 and death. They also revealed that living in a multi-generational household, where extended family members live, was tied to increased COVID-19 mortality.

3 Dec 2020

High seroprevalence of short-lived anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Paris

A recent study indicates a high seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among individuals working in a Paris-based institute.

3 Dec 2020

NYC hospital workers, knowing how bad it can get, brace for COVID 2nd wave

No single municipality in the country suffered more in the first wave of the pandemic than New York City, which saw more than 24,000 deaths, mainly in the spring. Medical staff in New York know precisely how difficult and dangerous overwhelmed hospitals can be and are braced warily as infections begin to rise again.

3 Dec 2020

Designed proteins assemble antibodies into modular nanocages

With cues from nature, designing functional molecules enables scientists to nanoengineer and customize for specific uses.

3 Dec 2020

Nanoparticles with neutralizing antibodies can inactivate SARS-CoV-2

Using nanoparticles conjugated with SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, researchers demonstrated that intense local heating could inactivate the virus.

3 Dec 2020

Long-range allosteric influences on SARS-COV-2-ACE2 stability and detachment

The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a novel beta-coronavirus which has numerous spike proteins on its membrane.

3 Dec 2020

N-Glycosylation sites may contribute to spike-mediated invasion by SARS-CoV-2

The sugar residues decorating the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 are essential to the viral-receptor binding.

3 Dec 2020

Guidelines for accurate amplicon-based sequencing of SARS-CoV-2

A new study describes much-needed guidelines for reliable viral sequencing, validated in a large group of clinical samples.

3 Dec 2020

School children with no malaria symptoms could be super-spreaders of the disease

School-age children with no malaria symptoms could serve as super-spreaders of the disease, an observation that could open a new chapter on malaria control, a meeting has heard. The new findings from a study that was conducted in Uganda were reported at the virtual annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene last month (18 November).

3 Dec 2020

COVID-19 mutation mapping identifies escape mutations against therapeutic antibodies

A new study maps all known mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, showing how each contributes to escape from individual antibodies.

3 Dec 2020

Scientists develop new bioinformatics pipeline to identify viruses in environmental samples

Researchers from the University of Helsinki have developed a novel bioinformatics pipeline called Lazy pipe for identifying viruses in host-associated or environmental samples.

3 Dec 2020

New initiative seeks to accelerate global collaborative research on COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care professionals and researchers have been confined mostly to using local and national datasets to study the impact of comorbidities, pre-existing medication use, demographics and various interventions on disease course.

3 Dec 2020