Author: Claudinne Miller
The COVID public health emergency ends this week. Here’s what’s changing
NPR On Jan. 31, 2020, with six confirmed cases of a new coronavirus in the U.S., a group of federal health officials gathered somberly at the lectern at the White House and declared a public health emergency. “Beginning at 5:00 p.m. EST Sunday, February the 2nd, the United States government will implement temporary measures to increase our […]
May 9, 2023
UNMC Will we have another COVID surge in the near future? Dr. Lawler reviews studies that indicate, again, the efficacy of NPIs, the chances of long COVID after reinfection, and what he thinks we can expect this summer.
May 9, 2023
CNN San Francisco International Airport has launched a program with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test wastewater from airplanes for traces of emerging coronavirus variants. Traces of the virus that causes Covid-19 can be detected in people’s feces when they are infected, even if they don’t have symptoms. The airport announced Tuesday that […]
May 9, 2023
Nutrition Science’s Most Preposterous Result
The Atlantic Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it. Last summer, I got a tip about a curious scientific finding. “I’m sorry, it cracks me up every time I think about this,” my tipster said. Back in 2018, a Harvard doctoral student named Andres Ardisson Korat […]
May 9, 2023
What’s in the RSV vaccine, its side effects and when you can get one
Washington Post The first vaccine to prevent the respiratory disease caused by RSV was approved this week by U.S. regulators for use in adults 60 and older. The shot, developed by pharmaceutical giant GSK, will be rolled out ahead of the fall and winter RSV season, when transmission peaks. Most people are infected by respiratory syncytial virus repeatedly over […]
May 9, 2023
End of covid emergency highlights U.S. weakness in tracking outbreaks
Washington Post When the covid public health emergency ends May 11, laboratories across the United States will no longer be required to report coronavirus test results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitals and state health departments, too, will report less comprehensive data, making it more difficult for the federal agency responsible for detecting and […]
May 9, 2023
NIH restarts bat virus grant suspended 3 years ago
Science Revised award to EcoHealth Alliance will no longer involve studies of hybrid coronaviruses. Three years after then-President Donald Trump pressured the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to suspend a research grant to a U.S. group studying bat coronaviruses with partners in China, the agency has restarted the award. The new 4-year grant is a […]
May 9, 2023
Could a frozen ancient virus thawed by climate change cause the next pandemic?
ABC News (Australia) Climate change threatens human life in many ways but one of the less obvious could be a rise in pandemics. A warming climate could release ancient pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, that have been frozen in permafrost in the polar regions for millennia, Jean-Michel Claverie tells ABC RN’s Future Tense. “We know for certain that bacteria […]
May 9, 2023
European Respiratory Journal Background COVID-19 is associated with a dysregulated immune response but it is unclear how immune dysfunction contributes to the chronic morbidity persisting in many COVID-19 patients during convalescence (long COVID). Methods We assessed phenotypical and functional changes of monocytes in COVID-19 patients during hospitalization and up to 9 months of convalescence following COVID-19, respiratory syncytial […]
May 9, 2023
The Long Covid Mystery Has a New Suspect
Wired Immune cells called monocytes are triggered to help clear infection—but in some cases they never switch off, leaving patients breathless for months. Wheezing after getting on the treadmill. Gulping down air while doing chores. Breathlessness is one of the many scary and frustrating symptoms that can linger in Covid patients months after their initial […]
May 9, 2023