Category: COVID
Vaccine Breakthrough Could Finally Bring COVID to Its Knees
(DailyBeast) With new COVID variants and subvariants evolving faster and faster, each chipping away at the effectiveness of the leading vaccines, the hunt is on for a new kind of vaccine—one that works equally well on current and future forms of the novel coronavirus. Now researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland think they’ve found a […]
Nov 21, 2022
Rare, convergent antibodies targeting the stem helix broadly neutralize diverse betacoronaviruses
(Cell Host and Microbe) Humanity has faced three recent outbreaks of novel betacoronaviruses, emphasizing the need to develop approaches that broadly target coronaviruses. Here, we identify 55 monoclonal antibodies from COVID-19 convalescent donors that bind diverse betacoronavirus spike proteins. Most antibodies targeted an S2 epitope that included the K814 residue and were non-neutralizing. However, 11 […]
Nov 21, 2022
Consequences of COVID Reinfection (Podcast)
(MedPageToday) THealthWatch is a weekly podcast from Texas Tech. In it, Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, and Rick Lange, MD, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, look at the top medical stories of the week.
Nov 21, 2022
As global COVID cases rise, multiple viruses stress health systems
(CIDRAP) Global COVID-19 cases showed a small rise last week, with infection increasing in three world regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its weekly update. In some countries in the Americas—one region where cases are rising—brisk flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity is also straining hospitals, prompting a warning today from the […]
Nov 17, 2022
(NBC News) The two coronavirus subvariants, BQ.1.1 and BQ.1, seem to be better at evading immune defenses and together make up 44% of new Covid cases. Two new omicron subvariants have overtaken BA.5 as the prevailing versions of the coronavirus in the U.S. BA.5 became dominant in July, then consistently accounted for the majority of new […]
Nov 17, 2022
Variant-specific symptoms of COVID-19 in a study of 1,542,510 adults in England
(Nature) Infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus is associated with a wide range of symptoms. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission −1 (REACT-1) study monitored the spread and clinical manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 among random samples of the population in England from 1 May 2020 to 31 March 2022. We show changing symptom profiles associated with the different variants […]
Nov 15, 2022
Omicron BA.2 tied to more symptoms and, rarely, brain swelling in kids
(CIDRAP) A UK study suggests that Omicron BA.2 is tied to more symptoms and greater disruption in daily activities than BA.1, and Taiwanese researchers describe fatal cerebral edema in six children hospitalized for BA.2. Imperial College London researchers tracked SARS-CoV-2 transmission and symptoms among 1,542,510 randomly selected English adults, including 17,448 COVID-19 patients, from May 1, 2020, […]
Nov 15, 2022
Covid Hospitalizations Are Rising in Kids Under 6 Months, CDC Director Walensky Says
(Bloomberg) Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising among babies under 6 months old, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging mothers to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of infection in those not yet eligible for shots, Director Rochelle Walensky said. “We’re seeing more and more of those younger babies getting hospitalized,” Walensky […]
Nov 15, 2022
‘I Didn’t Think COVID-19 Was Real’: Why 40% Misled During the Pandemic
(MedPageToday) Two in five Americans say they either misled others about their COVID-19 infection or vaccination status, or didn’t follow pandemic-related public health measures, a new study indicated. In a survey involving over 1,700 respondents, 41.6% suggested they either misrepresented and/or did not adhere to at least one of nine survey items, most commonly 24.3% […]
Nov 11, 2022
Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection
(Nature) First infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with increased risk of acute and postacute death and sequelae in various organ systems. Whether reinfection adds to risks incurred after first infection is unclear. Here we used the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ national healthcare database to build a cohort of […]
Nov 11, 2022