Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Staying positive and managing stress amid the coronavirus crisis

With all the news about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic circulating online, stress levels are rising. Most countries that are shaken by the virus outbreak have imposed lockdowns, in attempts to curb the disease spread.

19 Mar 2020

Was the novel coronavirus really sneaky in its spread to the U.S.? Experts say no

Unveiling a series of policies meant to mitigate the threat of COVID-19, President Donald Trump also sought to respond to criticism that his administration has been slow to deal with what is now a worldwide pandemic.

19 Mar 2020

Funeral homes, families ponder deaths in the age of COVID-19

As COVID-19 cases spread across the nation, disrupting daily routines for the living, growing numbers of U.S. businesses and families are changing how they deal with the dead.

19 Mar 2020

Italy reports 475 coronavirus deaths in just one day

Italy is grappling with the coronavirus disease pandemic, which has ravaged the country since February. In just a month, the number of cases has reached more than 35,000. Over the past 24 hours, Italy has reported 475 additional deaths, increasing the death toll to a staggering 2,978, a few numbers away from Hubei Province’s toll, the epicenter of the pandemic where the virus originated.

19 Mar 2020

High-throughput screening of AAV vector capsid libraries reveals unexpected insights

Researchers have used high-throughput screening of adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector capsid libraries to maximize the likelihood of obtaining AAV variants with desired properties.

18 Mar 2020

A view from the front lines of California’s COVID-19 battle

On Tuesday, Dr. Jeanne Noble devoted time between patient visits to hanging clear 2-gallon plastic bags at each of her colleagues' workstations.

18 Mar 2020

Social media giants join forces to tackle spread of fake coronavirus news

Social media giants such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, and YoutTube have, for the first time, joined hands to fight the spread of fake news on their platforms. They have issued a joint statement.

18 Mar 2020

How to disinfect your home when someone has COVID-19

The novel coronavirus has continued to infect hundreds of thousands of individuals. The associated disease COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization last week.

18 Mar 2020

UK puts emergency laws in place for coronavirus

The United Kingdom has announced emergency laws to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), giving the government more powers to protect public health, strengthen social care, support the public, and boost the NHS capacity.

18 Mar 2020

Researchers study how changing seasons will affect coronavirus spread

One of the biggest unknowns about the coronavirus is how changing seasons will affect its spread. Physicists from the University of Utah have received the university's first COVID-19-related grant to tackle the question.

18 Mar 2020

Take a deep breath: Making risk-based decisions in the coronavirus era

Just last week, it seemed OK to have lunch out or maybe meet up with friends for a game of pickup soccer.

18 Mar 2020

Strict measures to halt coronavirus spread will reduce deaths

Amid the coronavirus global pandemic, it is still unclear which government measures are useful in curbing the spread of the virus. Some countries had imposed lockdowns and community quarantines, while others took time to restrict population movement before they closed schools and nonessential businesses. Others are still allowing regular routines despite an increasing number of infections.

18 Mar 2020

Lessons learned from three Singapore COVID-19 clusters

A study published in the journal The Lancet in March 2020 reports on three clusters of COVID-19 that happened in Singapore in February 2020. The first was because of a tour group, the second a company conference, and the third a church gathering.

17 Mar 2020

Who should stay at home due to coronavirus?

COVID-19 is a spreading viral illness, mostly mild but fatal in the sick and elderly. At present, it has affected almost 200,000 people, with nearly 8,000 deaths worldwide. Governments around the world are formulating and executing new guidelines to control the spread of the virus. In the latest guidelines, pregnant women join the list of individuals who must stay away from all social contact for 12 weeks to limit the spread of the virus and deaths due to the illness.

17 Mar 2020

Ibuprofen could increase risk of coronavirus complications

The UK’s National Health Service says that people who have COVID-19 and are self-quarantined should rest and drink plenty of fluids. So far, so good. However, it goes on to advise that they take paracetamol or ibuprofen to keep down fever and pain.

17 Mar 2020

COVID-19 epidemic is the product of natural evolution, study finds

The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and has since caused a large scale COVID-19 epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries is the product of natural evolution, according to findings published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

17 Mar 2020

Is the Bay Area’s ‘unprecedented’ lockdown the first of many?

Life came to a grinding halt for millions of San Francisco Bay Area residents as the most stringent isolation orders in the country took effect Tuesday.

17 Mar 2020

Scientists develop single-step method to produce water-soluble fullerene compounds for medicine

Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology and the Institute for Problems of Chemical Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with researchers from the Catholic University of Leuven developed a single-step method to obtain water-soluble fullerene compounds with remarkable biological properties, such as the ability to effectively suppress the human immunodeficiency virus

17 Mar 2020

COVID-19 stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces

The virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University scientists The New England Journal of Medicine.

17 Mar 2020

As coronavirus testing gears up, specialized swabs running out

The two top makers of the highly specialized swabs used to test patients for the novel coronavirus are straining to keep up with the demand, even as both the Italian and U.S. governments are working with them to increase production, including at a key manufacturing site in the midst of Italy's outbreak.

17 Mar 2020