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Category: Health

Hundreds of people volunteer to be infected with coronavirus in ‘human challenge’ vaccine study

Hundreds of people volunteer to be infected with coronavirus in ‘human challenge’ vaccine study

Nature reports: Momentum is building to speed the development of coronavirus vaccines by intentionally infecting healthy, young volunteers with the virus. A grass-roots effort has attracted nearly 1,500 potential volunteers for the controversial approach, known as a human-challenge trial. The idea is also gaining traction with US politicians. The effort, called 1Day Sooner, is not affiliated with groups or companies developing or funding coronavirus vaccines. But co-founder Josh Morrison hopes to show that there is broad support for human-challenge trials,…

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The attributes that make SARS-CoV-2 the perfect pathogen

The attributes that make SARS-CoV-2 the perfect pathogen

David Shaywitz writes: Who bears responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic? While a detailed forensic accounting will ultimately reveal the contribution of people and institutions to the current crisis, we must take care not to lose sight of the most important culprit: the unique character of the virus itself. To a first approximation, a virus can be defined by two parameters: R0 (“R-naught”) is the basic reproduction number, which measures how transmissible the virus is. Meaning: If you’re a typical patient…

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Checking blood for coronavirus antibodies – 3 questions answered about serological tests and immunity

Checking blood for coronavirus antibodies – 3 questions answered about serological tests and immunity

Testing blood provides answers about who has been infected. Sean Gallup/Getty Images News via Getty Images By Aubree Gordon, University of Michigan and Daniel Stadlbauer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Coronavirus testing in the United States is moving into a new phase as scientists begin looking into people’s blood for signs they’ve been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This technique is called serological testing. Virologist Daniel Stadlbauer helped develop a serological test to detect SARS-CoV-2…

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Group guiding British government on coronavirus is shrouded in secrecy — updated

Group guiding British government on coronavirus is shrouded in secrecy — updated

The New York Times reports: As the British government comes under mounting criticism for its response to the coronavirus — one that has left Britain vying with Italy and Spain as the worst hit countries in Europe — Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his aides have defended themselves by saying they are “guided by the science.” The trouble is, nobody knows what the science is. The government’s influential Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies — known by its soothing acronym, SAGE…

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Navy recommends reinstating fired captain who sounded alarm on coronavirus outbreak

Navy recommends reinstating fired captain who sounded alarm on coronavirus outbreak

Politico reports: Top Navy officials are recommending that Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, be reinstated to his position, according to a senior defense official with knowledge of the decision. The unprecedented decision, which still must be approved by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, would be a stunning rebuke to former acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who fired Crozier over his handling of the outbreak and later resigned over remarks he made to…

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The scientific advances we need to stop COVID-19

The scientific advances we need to stop COVID-19

Bill Gates writes: The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus. The damage to health, wealth, and well-being has already been enormous. This is like a world war, except in this case, we’re all on the same side. Everyone can work together to learn about the disease and develop tools to fight it. I see global innovation as the key to limiting the damage. This includes innovations in testing, treatments, vaccines, and policies to limit the spread while…

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Covid-19’s ‘silent’ and deadly attack on the lungs

Covid-19’s ‘silent’ and deadly attack on the lungs

Dr Richard Levitan writes: We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call “silent hypoxia” — “silent” because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs in which the air sacs fill with fluid or pus. Normally, patients develop chest discomfort, pain with breathing and other breathing problems. But when Covid pneumonia first strikes, patients don’t feel short of breath, even as their oxygen levels fall. And…

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New data on antiviral remdesivir does not show benefit for coronavirus patients

New data on antiviral remdesivir does not show benefit for coronavirus patients

STAT reports: The antiviral medicine remdesivir from Gilead Sciences failed to speed the improvement of patients with Covid-19 or prevent them from dying, according to results from a long-awaited clinical trial conducted in China. Gilead, however, said the data suggest a “potential benefit.” A summary of the study results was inadvertently posted to the website of the World Health Organization and seen by STAT on Thursday, but then removed. “A draft document was provided by the authors to WHO and…

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Hidden outbreaks spread through U.S. cities far earlier than we knew, estimates say

Hidden outbreaks spread through U.S. cities far earlier than we knew, estimates say

The New York Times reports: By the time New York City confirmed its first case of the coronavirus on March 1, thousands of infections were already silently spreading through the city, a hidden explosion of a disease that many still viewed as a remote threat as the city awaited the first signs of spring. Hidden outbreaks were also spreading almost completely undetected in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, long before testing showed that each city had a major problem,…

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WHO warns that few people around the world have developed antibodies to Covid-19

WHO warns that few people around the world have developed antibodies to Covid-19

The Guardian reports: Only a tiny proportion of the global population – maybe as few as 2% or 3% – appear to have antibodies in the blood showing they have been infected with Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization, a finding that bodes ill for hopes that herd immunity will ease the exit from lockdown. “Easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country,” said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a media briefing in…

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Elderly voters dying from Covid-19 could cost Trump in November, study suggests

Elderly voters dying from Covid-19 could cost Trump in November, study suggests

Politico reports: Mass casualties from the coronavirus could upend the political landscape in battleground states and shift contests away from President Donald Trump, according to a new analysis. Academic researchers writing in a little-noticed public administration journal — Administrative Theory & Praxis — conclude that when considering nothing other than the tens of thousands of deaths projected from the virus, demographic shifts alone could be enough to swing crucial states to Joe Biden in the fall. “The pandemic is going…

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Few Americans trust Trump’s info on Covid-19 pandemic

Few Americans trust Trump’s info on Covid-19 pandemic

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump has made himself the daily spokesman for the nation’s coronavirus response. Yet few Americans regularly look to or trust Trump as a source of information on the pandemic, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 28% of Americans say they’re regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the…

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Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to Covid-19 deaths, study finds

Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to Covid-19 deaths, study finds

The Guardian reports: High levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research. The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted. The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away…

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Mysterious blood-clotting complication is killing many coronavirus patients

Mysterious blood-clotting complication is killing many coronavirus patients

The Washington Post reports: Craig Coopersmith was up early that morning as usual and typed his daily inquiry into his phone. “Good morning, Team Covid,” he wrote, asking for updates from the ICU team leaders working across 10 hospitals in the Emory University health system in Atlanta. One doctor replied that one of his patients had a strange blood problem. Despite being put on anticoagulants, the patient was still developing clots. A second said she’d seen something similar. And a…

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Vaccine expert ousted because he challenged Trump: ‘science — not politics … has to lead the way’

Vaccine expert ousted because he challenged Trump: ‘science — not politics … has to lead the way’

The New York Times reports: The doctor who led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine said on Wednesday that he was removed from his post after he pressed for a rigorous vetting of a coronavirus treatment embraced by President Trump. The doctor said that science, not “politics and cronyism,” must lead the way. Dr. Rick Bright was abruptly dismissed this week as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development…

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Former Labradoodle breeder, with little public health experience, was chosen to lead U.S. pandemic task force

Former Labradoodle breeder, with little public health experience, was chosen to lead U.S. pandemic task force

Reuters reports: “We developed a diagnostic test at the CDC, so we can confirm if somebody has this,” Azar said. “We will be spreading that diagnostic around the country so that we are able to do rapid testing on site.” While coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was “potentially serious,” Azar assured viewers in America, it “was one for which we have a playbook.” Azar’s initial comments misfired on two fronts. Like many U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump on down, he…

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