Category: COVID
Can Rapid COVID Tests Reveal More Than a Positive/Negative Result?
MedPageToday Experts agree that rapid antigen test kits can show degrees of infectiousness. At-home rapid COVID-19 tests can reveal more about viral load than a simple positive/negative result, according to experts. “By definition, the basic technology suggests that you somehow have to go from a negative ‘zero’ line to a dark line, and within that […]
Oct 11, 2023
Why you should wait a few days before taking an at-home COVID test if you’re sick
ABC News The best time to take an at-home COVID-19 test may be on the fourth day of having symptoms, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Researchers looked at nearly 350 people and found that viral load peaked a few days after symptoms started. “Viral load just refers to the amount of virus […]
Oct 3, 2023
About 250,000 courses of COVID pill Paxlovid being administered per week – Pfizer CEO
Reuters Pfizer Inc’s chief executive said on Tuesday that almost 250,000 courses of the drugmaker’s oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid were being administered per week as cases surged in the United States. Speaking at the Cantor Fitzgerald Annual Healthcare Conference, Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said the company is still uncertain about when Paxlovid, which is […]
Sep 27, 2023
Are Your Expired COVID Tests OK to Use? Find Out Here
C|Net Even if your COVID-19 test kits show they’ve expired, their shelf life could’ve been extended. With COVID-19 cases on the rise once again, you’re likely checking your at-home COVID-19 test kits to make sure they haven’t expired since you received them last year. However, even if your box shows they’re no longer good, it’s […]
Sep 26, 2023
Report highlights the skyrocket, peak of highly cited COVID-19 research studies
CIDRAP A new survey of highly cited COVID-19 research papers shows the scientific literature on the novel coronavirus rose at an astronomical pace, from just 14 studies in January and February 2020 to 1,292 studies in November to December 2021. The study is published in JAMA Network Open. The cross-sectional study surveyed global publications from January 2020 […]
Sep 19, 2023
USDA Grant Explores COVID Virus in Wildlife
wildlife.org Researchers will test 58 species to monitor the potential for spillback to humans A new U.S. Agriculture Department grant will fund researchers to test wildlife for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. The $4.5 million grant will allow researchers to collect samples from 58 species—chipmunks, squirrels, mice, moose (Alces alces), raccoons (Procyon […]
Sep 19, 2023
Covid is here to stay. How will we know when it stops being special?
Washington Post New coronavirus variants are making headlines. Photos of positive test results are popping up on social media feeds. Hospitalizations are increasing. Far from the start of a sensational new chapter in the pandemic, experts say this uptick is the new normal in a world with covid as an endemic disease.Now, withsome level of immunity nearly ubiquitous across […]
Sep 19, 2023
Cold virus may set the stage for Long COVID
NIH Many infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, resolve within days or weeks. But a significant number of people have symptoms that linger for weeks, months, or even years. This is called postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC)—commonly known as “Long COVID.” While several risk factors for PASC have been proposed, we still don’t […]
Sep 19, 2023
The New Yorker Call it the first wave of the endemic, a bona-fide covid bump. The statistics may be hard to parse—the United States stopped systematically collecting data on coronavirus cases months ago—but, almost certainly, growing numbers of Americans are coming down with covid. In recent weeks, Jill Biden went into isolation after testing positive, and John McEnroe […]
Sep 19, 2023
How common long COVID is may depend on how it’s defined
CIDRAP In Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Dutch scientists report that the definition of post-COVID condition (PCC, or long COVID) matters when estimating prevalence in a population. In people who had previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the prevalence of long-term symptoms varied from 26.9% to 64.1%, depending on which of six different definitions was used, while in those who […]
Sep 19, 2023