Category: COVID
(PLoS Biology) Although ACE2 is the primary receptor for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, a systematic assessment of host factors that regulate binding to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has not been described. Here, we use whole-genome CRISPR activation to identify host factors controlling cellular interactions with SARS-CoV-2. Our top hit was a TLR-related cell […]
Feb 17, 2023
How Deadly Was China’s Covid Wave?
(New York Times) Two months after China ended “zero Covid,” rough estimates suggest that between 1 and 1.5 million people died — far more than the official count. After China relaxed the world’s most stringent Covid-19 restrictions in December, the virus exploded. Hints of the surge were everywhere: Hospitals turned away patients. Crematories were overwhelmed with […]
Feb 16, 2023
Lancet Preprint Background: Previous studies have found a correlation between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and changes in brain structure and cognitive impairment, but it remains unclear whether COVID-19 causes structural changes to the brain and which specific brain regions may be affected. Herein, we conduct a Mendelian randomization (MR) study to determine this causal relationship […]
Feb 16, 2023
Covid-19 Is Now Harder to Stop and Easier to Survive
(Washington Post) To figure out what’s going on with Covid-19, a good place to start is in the sewers. Since early in the pandemic, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has been testing inflows to its Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Boston Harbor for the virus. The readings provide a remarkably detailed picture of the course […]
Feb 16, 2023
What Not to Ask Me About My Long COVID
(Atlantic) Before I got long COVID, I tuned out virtually all stories about it. They were tedious because I was tired of the pandemic, because we are all tired of the pandemic, because it is as familiar as rain and honestly just as dreary; I can hardly believe we once called the coronavirus novel. Today, I still tune […]
Feb 15, 2023
COVID Rebound Can Happen Even without Paxlovid
(Scientific American) Concerns about Paxlovid rebound are preventing some doctors from prescribing the lifesaving drug and some high-risk patients from taking it. Paxlovid gets a bad rap over concerns about COVID “rebound.” That’s the primary takeaway from a series of papers showing that whether or not people take the antiviral medication, many have symptoms that […]
Feb 14, 2023
Long COVID Now Looks like a Neurological Disease, Helping Doctors to Focus Treatments
(Scientific American) The causes of long COVID, which disables millions, may come together in the brain and nervous system. Tara Ghormley has always been an overachiever. She finished at the top of her class in high school, graduated summa cum laude from college and earned top honors in veterinary school. She went on to complete […]
Feb 14, 2023
(Atlantic) In the early spring of 2020, the condition we now call long COVID didn’t have a name, much less a large community of patient advocates. For the most part, clinicians dismissed its symptoms, and researchers focused on SARS-CoV-2 infections’ short-term effects. Now, as the pandemic approaches the end of its third winter in the […]
Feb 14, 2023
For Older Americans, the Pandemic Is Not Over
(New York Times) Seniors are increasingly left to protect themselves as the rest of the country abandons precautions: “Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others.” In early December, Aldo Caretti developed a cough and, despite all his precautions, came up positive for Covid on a home test. It took his family a […]
Feb 14, 2023
Emergence and spread of two SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest in Nigeria
Identifying the dissemination patterns and impacts of a virus of economic or health importance during a pandemic is crucial, as it informs the public on policies for containment in order to reduce the spread of the virus. In this study, we integrated genomic and travel data to investigate the emergence and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 […]
Feb 13, 2023