A coronavirus strain isolated in India carried a mutation that could upend vaccine development around the globe, according to researchers from Australia and Taiwan. The non-peer reviewed study said the change had occurred in part of the spike protein that allows the virus to bind with certain human cells. This structure targets cells containing [...]
Ivermectin shows promise as potential COVID-19 therapy. Summary: An FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug called Ivermectin appears to inhibit and eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in lab-grown cell cultures within 48 hours. Ivermectin shows promise as potential COVID-19 therapy. However, researchers stress the need for further testing and clinical trials in humans to confirm the effectiveness of the drug [...]
Coronavirus hits the old and those with other health problems hardest, but fit, youthful people are dying too, and experts are trying to understand why: It remains one of the biggest puzzles of the Covid-19 pandemic. The disease generally causes serious problems only in older people or those with underlying health problems. But occasionally it strikes [...]
he past few weeks have revealed the worst and the best in human responses to the coronavirus crisis – from the supermarket hoarders clearing the shelves to the neighbourhood groups organising help for elderly and vulnerable people. When it comes to the pharmaceutical companies, how should we judge their response? They, after all, hold [...]
An Oxford-based firm that uses artificial intelligence to develop new medicines has teamed up with a UK national science facility to screen more than 15,000 drugs for their effectiveness as a treatment for Covid-19. Exscientia, a spinoff company from the University of Dundee that is now based in Oxford science park, said it had [...]
New research has shed light on a crucial biological mechanism that may have helped the coronavirus to infect humans and spread rapidly around the world. A detailed analysis of the virus’s structure shows that the club-like “spikes” that it uses to establish infections latch on to human cells about four times more strongly than [...]
How does the COVID-19 pandemic compare to other infamous viral infections that have plagued us in modern times? It’s a question that’s been asked repeatedly in social media circles in recent weeks as people struggle to gain a better understanding of what we are facing. Recently, I received an answer that was terrifying. The [...]
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. Since the outbreak began in late 2019, researchers have been racing to learn more about SARS-CoV-2, which is a strain from a family of viruses known as coronavirus for their crown-like shape. [...]
Michael Osterholm is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology. He is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological [...]
With the new coronavirus spreading from person to person (possibly including from people without symptoms), reaching four continents, and traveling faster than SARS, driving it out of existence is looking increasingly unlikely. It’s still possible that quarantines and travel bans will first halt the outbreak and then eradicate the microbe, and the world will [...]
