Author: Claudinne Miller
Antibody drugs could target infectious diseases
(Washington Post) At a malaria research conference five years ago in Senegal, scientist Timothy Wells presented an overview of medicines on the horizon, ending with a few slides focused on an outlandish idea. Wells proposed that monoclonal antibody drugs — a class of high-price medicines that has transformed the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases — had […]
Jan 3, 2023
A Look Back at Science’s 2022 Breakthroughs
(NIH) Happy New Year! I hope everyone finished 2022 with plenty to celebrate, whether it was completing a degree or certification, earning a promotion, attaining a physical fitness goal, or publishing a hard-fought scientific discovery. If the latter, you are in good company. Last year produced some dazzling discoveries, and the news and editorial staff […]
Jan 3, 2023
Paralysis Tied to Virus in Kids Goes Off-Script, Baffling CDC
(MedPageToday) The CDC sounded the alarm on EV-D68 with a Health Alert Network Advisory in September announcing that cases were on the rise. Later that month, the agency reported surveillance dataopens in a new tab or window showing that rhinovirus, enterovirus, or both were detected in 26.4% of children and adolescents with acute respiratory illness seeking emergency […]
Jan 3, 2023
Cancer Patients Particularly Vulnerable to Lack of COVID Vax Response
(MedPageToday) Cancer patients vaccinated against COVID-19 had a significantly higher rate of negative antibody tests as compared with a vaccinated control population, greatly increasing the odds for breakthrough infection and hospitalization, a large British study showed. Among people who had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 4.68% of 4,249 tests for patients with cancer had […]
Jan 3, 2023
How the pandemic altered the restaurant industry forever
(Washington Post) Pandemic restaurant-going was like a series of twists on the old Yogi Berra quip about how nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded. First, restaurants stood cavernously empty by mandate as we pined for them. Then we got scared to be cheek-to-jowl with fellow customers. As patrons surged back, a dearth of […]
Jan 3, 2023
The Magic of mRNA Will Push Medical Advances for Everyone
(Wired) mRNA is one of the first molecules of life. While identified six decades ago as the carrier of the blueprint for proteins in living cells, its pharmaceutical potential was long underestimated. mRNA appeared unpromising—too unstable, too weak in potency, and too inflammatory. The successful development of the first mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 in 2020 was an […]
Dec 30, 2022
The Relationship Between Chronic Viral Infection and Long COVID
(NIH) In a small study supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), researchers found that chronic viral infections may influence the likelihood of someone developing Long COVID. They also found that different chronic infections were associated with the development of different Long COVID symptoms. Some viruses cause underlying chronic infections. These viruses […]
Dec 29, 2022
COVID Testing Company Missed Nearly All Positive Cases
(MedPageToday) Northshore Clinical Labs’ PCR test was ultimately found to have missed 96% of positive COVID-19 cases on a university campus in Nevada last year, but early concerns raised by state epidemiologists went unheeded as the company aggressively pursued government customers. When students from a Nevada school district began receiving conflicting test results from their […]
Dec 28, 2022
U.S. to impose new coronavirus testing requirements for travelers from China
(Washington Post) U.S. health officials Wednesday announced new testing requirements for travelers from China, a decision based in part on concerns about the lack of data coming out of that nation, which is lifting stringent zero-covid policies even as it reduces testing and reporting, making it harder for officials to identify new variants. The requirement […]
Dec 28, 2022
After years with little covid, videos show China is now getting hit hard
(Washington Post) [link to video here] Emergency departments are overflowing, with patients sleeping in hallways until they can be evaluatedor taken to a hospital room. In at least one hospital, half of doctors and nurses were absent because they had tested positive for covid. These and other alarming scenes in China’s medical facilities have been […]
Dec 27, 2022
