Saturday, December 21

Tag: coronavirus

More Questions Answered – Will New Vaccines Be Better At Fighting Coronavirus Variants?
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COVID-19

More Questions Answered – Will New Vaccines Be Better At Fighting Coronavirus Variants?

The first three coronavirus vaccines earned Emergency Use Authorization more than a year ago. To date, no other vaccines have been put into use in the U.S – but that will soon change. More than 40 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials in the U.S., employing a number of different approaches to protecting people from the coronavirus. Vaibhav Upadhyay and Krishna Mallela have been studying the coronavirus spike protein since the outbreak of the pandemic and are developing COVID-19 therapeutics. Together, they explain what vaccines are in development and why some of the vaccines should be better than what’s available now. 1. Why are companies working on new vaccines? A major reason why new vaccines are important – and why the world is still dealing with COVID-19 – is the continued emergence ...
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Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant
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COVID-19

Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant

Scientists around the world have been racing to learn more about the new omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, first declared a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26, 2021 by the World Health Organization. Officials cautioned that it would take several weeks before they’d know whether the recently emerged coronavirus variant is more contagious and causes more or less serious COVID-19 than delta and other earlier variants, and whether current vaccines can ward it off. Peter Kasson is a virologist and biophysicist at the University of Virginia who studies how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 enter cells and what can be done to stop them. Here he explains what lab-based scientists are doing to help answer the outstanding questions about omicron. Does prior immunity protect against omicron? These are the key lab...
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What Researchers Know And What They Don’t Know About The New Coronavirus Variant – Will Omicron Be More Contagious Than Delta? A Virus Evolution Expert Explains
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COVID-19

What Researchers Know And What They Don’t Know About The New Coronavirus Variant – Will Omicron Be More Contagious Than Delta? A Virus Evolution Expert Explains

Suresh V. Kuchipudi, Penn State A new variant named omicron (B.1.1.529) was reported by researchers in South Africa on Nov. 24, 2021, and designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization two days later. Omicron is very unusual in that it is by far the most heavily mutated variant yet of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The omicron variant has 50 mutations overall, with 32 mutations on the spike protein alone. The spike protein – which forms protruding knobs on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – helps the virus adhere to cells so that it can gain entry. It is also the protein that all three vaccines currently available in the U.S. use to induce protective antibodies. For comparison, the delta variant has nine mutations. The larger number of mutations in the...
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What Is Genomic Surveillance And Why We Need More Of It To Track Coronavirus Variants And Help End The COVID-19 Pandemic
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COVID-19

What Is Genomic Surveillance And Why We Need More Of It To Track Coronavirus Variants And Help End The COVID-19 Pandemic

“You can’t fix what you don’t measure” is a maxim in the business world. And it holds true in the world of public health as well. Sequencing the genetic code of virus samples taken from COVID-19 patients reveals how SARS-CoV-2 is spreading and changing. Nate Langer/UPMC, CC BY-ND Early in the pandemic, the United States struggled to meet the demand to test people for SARS-CoV-2. That failure meant officials didn’t know the true number of people who had COVID-19. They were left to respond to the pandemic without knowing how quickly it was spreading and what interventions minimized risks. Now the U.S. faces a similar issue with a different type of test: genetic sequencing. Unlike a COVID-19 test that diagnoses infection, genetic sequencing decodes the genome of SARS-CoV-2 virus in samples ...
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Even If You’ve Already Had The Coronavirus – Why You Should Get A COVID-19 Vaccine
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COVID-19

Even If You’ve Already Had The Coronavirus – Why You Should Get A COVID-19 Vaccine

A few weeks ago, a message popped up in the corner of my screen. “What do you think about people who have recently had COVID–19 getting the vaccine?” A friend of mine was eligible for a COVID–19 vaccine, but she had recently gotten over an infection with SARS–CoV–2. More people are becoming eligible for vaccines each week – including millions of people who have already recovered from a coronavirus infection. Many are wondering whether they need the vaccine, especially people who have already been infected. I study immune responses to respiratory infections, so I get a lot of these types of questions. A person can develop immunity – the ability to resist infection – from being infected with a virus or from getting a vaccine. However, immune protection isn’t always equal. The strength of th...
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The Coronavirus Is Messing With Our Minds As Well As Our Bodies, A Year Into The Pandemic
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

The Coronavirus Is Messing With Our Minds As Well As Our Bodies, A Year Into The Pandemic

COVID-19 has hijacked people’s lives, families and work. And, it has hijacked their bodies and minds in ways that they may not even be aware of. As we see it, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a sort of zombie virus, turning people not into the undead but rather into the unsick. By interfering with our bodies’ normal immune response and blocking pain, the virus keeps the infected on their feet, spreading the virus. People typically think of zombies as the stuff of science fiction. But in the biological world, zombies are all over the place, from the Ophiocordyceps fungus that perpetuates itself by zombifying ants; to Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasite that completes its life cycle by leading rodents into the jaws of predators. Zombie viruses are also a real thing, i...
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It’s All A Matter Of Perspective – Support For Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package May Not Be As Broad As It Seems
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COVID-19, POLITICS

It’s All A Matter Of Perspective – Support For Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package May Not Be As Broad As It Seems

Congress is on the verge of spending US$1.9 trillion to provide additional coronavirus relief to Americans, including $1,400 direct payments and extended unemployment benefits. Opinion polls show the bill has strong support, even among Republican voters. CC BY-NC-ND But what if you were told that this spending level represents about $15,000 for every household in the U.S.? Would that make you less likely to support it even if you like its provisions? We are accounting professors who research how the presentation of financial information affects individual judgments. Our recent work suggests it would lessen most people’s support for the spending bill. Making sense of big numbers In the Spring 2020 issue of Behavioral Research in Accounting, we published a study investigating whether indiv...
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Questions Answered: Comparing Other Coronavirus Vaccines, How Does The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Measure Up
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COVID-19

Questions Answered: Comparing Other Coronavirus Vaccines, How Does The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Measure Up

On Tuesday, Feb. 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released the results of its trial of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. The FDA found the vaccine to be safe and effective and it is expected to grant emergency use authorization in the coming days. Maureen Ferran, a virologist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, explains how this new vaccine works and explores the differences between it and the already approved Moderna and Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines. 1. How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine work? The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is what’s called a viral vector vaccine. To create this vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson team took a harmless adenovirus – the viral vector – and replaced a small piece of its genetic instructions with coronavirus genes for the SAR...
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Despite Trillions In Coronavirus Aid Americans Still Need A Lifeline
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BUSINESS

Despite Trillions In Coronavirus Aid Americans Still Need A Lifeline

As Congress prepares another injection of COVID-19 aid for businesses and individuals, there’s been debate about whether it’s necessary on top of the US$3.5 trillion spent so far. President Joe Biden had initially hoped to get bipartisan support for his $1.9 trillion proposal, but the only counteroffer from Republicans was a $600 billion bill, with many in the GOP suggesting more money wasn’t needed. And some economists have expressed concern that giving Americans too much right now could overheat the economy. We are public opinion scholars at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In cooperation with our partners at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Public Radio, we conducted a survey in July and August of last year to try to understand how the first round of aid h...
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Here’s how to stay safe while buying groceries amid the coronavirus pandemic
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COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

Here’s how to stay safe while buying groceries amid the coronavirus pandemic

Wear a mask, but skip the gloves. Don’t sanitize the apples. And if you are older than 65, it’s probably best to still order your groceries online. As a food virologist, I hear a lot of questions from people about the coronavirus risks in grocery stores and how to stay safe while shopping for food amid the pandemic. Here are answers to some of the common questions. Can I touch the tomatoes? What you touch on the grocery shelves is less of a concern than who breathes on you and other surfaces you might come in contact with in a store. In fact, there is currently no evidence of the virus being transmitted by food or food packaging. You may have heard about studies showing that the virus can remain infectious for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 72 hours on plastic or stainless steel. ...
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