Browsed by
Category: Science/mathematics

Beware overblown claims about new strains of the coronavirus

Beware overblown claims about new strains of the coronavirus

Ed Yong writes: As if the pandemic weren’t bad enough, on April 30, a team led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory released a paper that purportedly described “the emergence of a more transmissible form” of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. This new form, the team wrote, “began spreading in Europe in early February.” Whenever it appeared in a new place, including the U.S., it rapidly rose to dominance. Its success, the team suggested, is likely due to a single…

Read More Read More

General population probably won’t have vaccine until the second half of 2021 — ‘and that’s if everything works OK’

General population probably won’t have vaccine until the second half of 2021 — ‘and that’s if everything works OK’

STAT reports: The WHO has called for equitable sharing of Covid-19 vaccines, insisting they should be seen as a global resource. But there have been concerns from the earliest days of this pandemic that countries that are home to vaccine production facilities will nationalize any output to ensure domestic needs are met before vaccine can be exported for use elsewhere. Robin Robinson, who led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority from 2008 to 2016, said the agency has spent…

Read More Read More

Trump wants a coronavirus vaccine already and imagines Jared Kushner can deliver it at ‘warp speed’

Trump wants a coronavirus vaccine already and imagines Jared Kushner can deliver it at ‘warp speed’

The Daily Beast reports: Already under fire for his role atop a shadow task force aiding the administration’s response to the coronavirus, senior White House aide Jared Kushner is now being handed another critical job: helping get a vaccine for the disease developed in record time. President Donald Trump, who has said he believes a COVID-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year, is turning to his son-in-law to help streamline the effort, branded, “Operation Warp Speed.”…

Read More Read More

Rising fears that Trump will incite a global vaccine brawl

Rising fears that Trump will incite a global vaccine brawl

Politico reports: When global leaders gathered virtually last month at the behest of the World Health Organization to commit to distributing a future coronavirus vaccine in an internationally equitable way, the United States didn’t join in. On Monday, the European Union is hosting a gathering for countries to pledge funding for research into vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But once again the U.S. government isn’t expected to participate. The Trump administration’s apparent lack…

Read More Read More

Wuhan virologist identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves and warns more are out there

Wuhan virologist identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves and warns more are out there

Scientific American reports: Before SARS, the world had only an inkling of coronaviruses—so named because their spiky surface resembles a crown when seen under a microscope, says Linfa Wang, who directs the emerging infectious diseases program at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School. Coronaviruses were mostly known for causing common colds. “The SARS outbreak [in 2003] was a game changer,” Wang says. It was the first emergence of a deadly coronavirus with pandemic potential. The incident helped to jump-start a global search…

Read More Read More

Scientists say a now-dominant strain of the coronavirus appears to be more contagious than original

Scientists say a now-dominant strain of the coronavirus appears to be more contagious than original

The Los Angeles Times reports: Scientists have identified a new strain of the coronavirus that has become dominant worldwide and appears to be more contagious than the versions that spread in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The new strain appeared in February in Europe, migrated quickly to the East Coast of the United States and has been the dominant strain across the world since mid-March,…

Read More Read More

No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in or escaped from a Chinese lab, says Fauci

No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in or escaped from a Chinese lab, says Fauci

National Geographic reports: Anthony “Tony” Fauci has become the scientific face of America’s COVID-19 response, and he says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China. Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, shot down the discussion that has been raging among politicians and pundits, calling it “a circular argument” in a conversation Monday with National Geographic. “If you look at the evolution of the…

Read More Read More

Could ‘innate immunology’ protect us from the coronavirus?

Could ‘innate immunology’ protect us from the coronavirus?

Melinda Wenner Moyer writes: As the world waits for a coronavirus vaccine, tens of thousands of people could die. But some scientists believe a vaccine might already exist. Surprising new research in a niche area of immunology suggests that certain live vaccines that have been around for decades could, possibly, protect against the coronavirus. The theory is that these vaccines could make people less likely to experience serious symptoms — or even any symptoms — if they catch it. At…

Read More Read More

The months of magical thinking: As the coronavirus swept over China, some experts were in denial

The months of magical thinking: As the coronavirus swept over China, some experts were in denial

Helen Branswell writes: The response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and other countries has been hobbled by a host of factors, many involving political and regulatory officials. Resistance to social distancing measures, testing debacles, and longtime failures to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic all played a role. But a subtler, less-recognized factor contributed to the wasting of precious weeks in January and February, when preparations to try to stop the virus should have kicked immediately…

Read More Read More

Three potential futures for Covid-19: recurring small outbreaks, a monster wave, or a persistent crisis

Three potential futures for Covid-19: recurring small outbreaks, a monster wave, or a persistent crisis

Sharon Begley writes: As epidemiologists attempt to scope out what Covid-19 has in store for the U.S. this summer and beyond, they see several potential futures, differing by how often and how severely the no-longer-new coronavirus continues to wallop humankind. But while these scenarios diverge on key details — how much transmission will decrease over the summer, for instance, and how many people have already been infected (and possibly acquired immunity) — they almost unanimously foresee a world that, even…

Read More Read More

The coronavirus genome is like a shipping label that lets epidemiologists track where it’s been

The coronavirus genome is like a shipping label that lets epidemiologists track where it’s been

The steady rate of genetic changes lets researchers recreate how a virus has travelled. nextstrain.org, CC BY By Bert Ely, University of South Carolina and Taylor Carter, University of South Carolina Following the coronavirus’s spread through the population – and anticipating its next move – is an important part of the public health response to the new disease, especially since containment is our only defense so far. Just looking at an infected person doesn’t tell you where their version of…

Read More Read More

Expert report predicts up to two more years of coronavirus pandemic misery

Expert report predicts up to two more years of coronavirus pandemic misery

CNN reports: The new coronavirus is likely to keep spreading for at least another 18 months to two years—until 60% to 70% of the population has been infected, a team of longstanding pandemic experts predicted in a report released Thursday. They recommended that the US prepare for a worst-case scenario that includes a second big wave of coronavirus infections in the fall and winter. Even in a best-case scenario, people will continue to die from the virus, they predicted. “This…

Read More Read More

Should you get an antibody test?

Should you get an antibody test?

James Hamblin writes: The road to ending social distancing is less contentious than it may seem. Many priorities are clear: Invest in comprehensive testing for the coronavirus, in effectively treating the disease, and in vaccine development and production. Invest in research to understand transmission of the virus, and precisely how to prevent it. The fundamental mystery to solve is how people develop immunity, the key to which will be testing for antibodies in the blood. Identifying antibodies will help inform…

Read More Read More

How long will a coronavirus vaccine really take?

How long will a coronavirus vaccine really take?

The New York Times: A vaccine would be the ultimate weapon against the coronavirus and the best route back to normal life. Officials like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top infectious disease expert on the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, estimate a vaccine could arrive in at least 12 to 18 months. The grim truth behind this rosy forecast is that a vaccine probably won’t arrive any time soon. Clinical trials almost never succeed. We’ve never released a coronavirus vaccine…

Read More Read More

U.S. Covid-19 death toll is far higher than reported, CDC data suggests

U.S. Covid-19 death toll is far higher than reported, CDC data suggests

The New York Times reports: Total deaths in seven states that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are nearly 50 percent higher than normal for the five weeks from March 8 through April 11, according to new death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts of deaths from the coronavirus. The new data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent…

Read More Read More

Why Covid-19 patients should be going to hospitals sooner

Why Covid-19 patients should be going to hospitals sooner

  Dr. Richard Levitan, an airway specialist who has practiced emergency medicine for over 30 years, is well aware of the urgency of their work. When the virus began to overwhelm New York City at the end of March, he rushed from his home in New Hampshire to volunteer at Bellevue Hospital, where he trained. Dr. Levitan recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times detailing what he’s learned from treating COVID-19 patients at Bellevue. He also has co-founded…

Read More Read More