SARS-CoV-2 is known to infect cells of the respiratory tract. A deeper understanding of which cells support the infection, and to what extent, could lead to insights into disease progression and severity. Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine sought to understand which cells in the airway the virus infects, and how it gets into [...]
Thankfully, the rate of increase of COVID cases is slowing. Nonetheless, as of early June, according to the CDC, more than twenty thousand new COVID cases are still occurring daily across the U.S. and the death rate is more than 1,000 per day. As an essential workforce that collects and manages the garbage generated by each [...]
JUPITER, FL — A tiny genetic mutation in the SARS coronavirus 2 variant circulating throughout Europe and the United States significantly increases the virus’ ability to infect cells, lab experiments performed at Scripps Research show. “Viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used,” says [...]
Research in context Evidence before this study We searched PubMed, bioRxiv, and medRxiv for articles that reported on shedding of infectious virus in COVID-19 patients using the search terms (“coronavirus” OR “SARS” OR “SARS-CoV-2” OR “COVID-19”) AND (“shedding” OR “infectivity” OR “infectious” OR “virus culture”) with no language or time restrictions. A detailed study on [...]
Although the idea that asymptomatic transmission is common in COVID-19 has been accepted by many experts and institutions — including the CDC — a recent statement by an employee of WHO has led many to question its prevalence. During a virtual press conference, Maria D. Van Kerkhove, PhD, an infectious disease epidemiologist and COVID-19 technical lead with WHO, was [...]
Abstract Immunosuppression and immunomodulation are valuable therapeutic approaches for managing neuroimmunological diseases. In times of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, clinicians must deal with the question of whether immunotherapy should currently be initiated or discontinued in neurological patients. Uncertainty exists especially because different national medical associations publish different recommendations on the extent to which immunotherapies [...]
The verdicts are now coming in. In Mark Honigsbaum's updated edition of The Pandemic Century, he has included a new chapter on COVID-19. As a historian of epidemics, he offers his judgments about how countries have responded to what he calls “China's Chernobyl moment”. His critique is sharp. For decades, we have known that the world [...]
Researchers call for a response to current and future pandemics to reduce unintended harm upon other patients needing early diagnosis and intervention. A new research letter reveals fewer people have been admitted to stroke centers in Michigan and northwest Ohio since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, and even fewer patients have received the life-saving procedure, [...]
The World Health Organization moved Tuesday to clarify its position on whether people without symptoms are widely spreading the new coronavirus, saying much remains unknown about asymptomatic transmission. A comment by a WHO official on Monday — calling such asymptomatic transmissions “very rare” — touched off a furious scientific debate over the unresolved question and attracted [...]
Abstract During the rapid rise in COVID-19 illnesses and deaths globally, and notwithstanding recommended precautions, questions are voiced about routes of transmission for this pandemic disease. Inhaling small airborne droplets is probable as a third route of infection, in addition to more widely recognized transmission via larger respiratory droplets and direct contact with infected people [...]
