Category: Science and Tech
Palantir’s Plan to Decipher the Mysteries of Long Covid
Wired Magazine he tech giant is helping researchers and clinicians decipher vast amounts of data generated by people with persistent symptoms. AT LEAST 65 million people are still suffering from long Covid, the mysterious cocktail of symptoms that persist in some patients more than 12 weeks after an initial infection. Researchers are still working to understand this […]
Apr 4, 2023
Bats Shrug Off Viruses and Rarely Get Cancer. We’re Trying to Learn From Them.
WSJ To many people, bats are a terrifying menace, vampirish carriers of dangerous viruses—including, likely, an ancestor to Covid-19. But to researchers and biotech investors, they are a miracle mammal that could help prevent pandemics and reveal blockbuster treatments for deadly human diseases or to slow aging. Bats are infected with viruses that kill humans but don’t usually […]
Apr 4, 2023
Can you catch a hidden virus from a dog kiss or a cat cuddle?
NPR “Get ready for a silly question,” one reader wrote in response to our series on “hidden viruses” that jump from animals to people. “I love my pups very much – and I think they love me too because I get lots of kisses. Is that bad from a spillover virus perspective – for me […]
Mar 14, 2023
Metformin found to reduce Long Covid in clinical trial
Inside Medicine A study posted on a preprint server operated by the medical journal The Lancet reports that Long Covid diagnoses were found to be lower in patients who received metformin (an inexpensive diabetes drug) compared to those who received placebo. The study has not yet been peer reviewed. Still, the findings are promising. Around 10.6% (1 in 9) […]
Mar 7, 2023
Lion infected with covid-19 probably passed it on to two zoo workers
New Scientist A lion at Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana, tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus after it started coughing and became breathless. Zoo workers who had cared for the lion later caught the infection. A lion that was infected with the coronavirus probably passed it on to two zoo employees, researchers have said […]
Mar 7, 2023
Paxlovid slashed severe outcomes for at-risk patients after Omicron surge, study finds
(MSN) Canadians at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 who took the antiviral medication Paxlovid significantly reduced their likelihood of being hospitalized or killed by the virus after the Omicron surge, according to new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study, which looked at data from thousands of Ontarians, wanted to measure the effectiveness […]
Feb 14, 2023
The Global Governance of Emerging Zoonotic Diseases
(Council on Foreign Relations) Challenges and Proposed Reforms Zoonotic diseases, naturally transmissible between humans and animals, have posed a growing public health threat for decades. However, existing institutional arrangements have fallen short. The wide-ranging, large-scale, and costly effects of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the value of addressing those weaknesses in global governance. Introduction: The Increasing […]
Feb 14, 2023
What Happened to the Monoclonal Antibodies for COVID-19?
(MedPageToday) Losing focus on monoclonals means neglecting those who need them most: the immunocompromised. Hello, it’s Jeremy Faust, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today. Thanks for joining us. Today, I’m going to cover an article I wrote in Inside Medicine called, “Data Snapshot: The rise and fall of monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19opens in a new tab or window.” Six monoclonal […]
Feb 13, 2023
Technologies Spearheading Infectious Disease Research
(Genetic Engineering and Biotech News) Infectious diseases, believed to be a thing of the past only a few decades ago owing to the discovery of antibiotics, have resurfaced as an area of active research with the rampant spread of antimicrobial resistance and evolving viruses. Caused by pathogens ranging in size from viruses to worms that […]
Feb 13, 2023
Will mink-to-mink H5N1 flu on a farm in Spain spread ferret-to-ferret in a lab?
(ISDA) Last week, Aguero et al. reported in the journal Eurosurveillance that in October 2022, H5N1 avian influenza (clade 2.3.4.4b) caused mink-to-mink infections and some deaths (peak of 4.3%) on a farm with more than 51,000 mink in Galicia in northwest Spain. Although H5N1 “avian flu” has infected limited numbers of mammalian species, this is the first reported outbreak […]
Feb 8, 2023