Health News

How COVID-19 vaccines prime T cells to fight new coronavirus variants

Some SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern can evade neutralizing antibodies in vaccinated individuals, raising concerns about the ability of vaccines to protect against them. COVID-19 vaccines also result in a T cell response that facilitates recovery from the disease. A recent study investigating variants of concern in individuals immunized with the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines […]

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COVID-19 deaths: CDC may underestimate risk for people of color

The way in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report COVID-19 deaths may lead to an underestimation of racial and ethnic disparities, according to a new study. The authors say that the CDC use a statistical method called “weighting” that discounts the impact of the uneven geographical distribution of COVID-19 deaths in […]

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Can zinc levels predict COVID-19 severity?

A recent study examined the links between zinc levels in people hospitalized with COVID-19 and both disease progression and outcome. The study found that participants with low zinc levels had a 21% mortality rate compared with 5% in those with healthy zinc levels. The time to clinical recovery was approximately three times less in those […]

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How do stay-at-home mandates impact mental health?

A new study suggests that although people may find stay-at-home mandates mentally and emotionally taxing to begin with, these ill effects begin to fade as individuals establish new routines. In May, experts at the United Nations warned that a mental health crisis could be looming due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New research now suggests that […]

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What is the protective value of different face masks?

Researchers have assessed how effective various medical and consumer-grade masks are at protecting the wearer from exposure to particles similar in size to SARS-CoV-2. In a new study, scientists have analyzed how effective consumer-grade masks, medical masks, and modified medical masks are at protecting the wearer from particles of a similar size to SARS-CoV-2. The […]

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What explains Africa’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

In this opinion piece, Prof. Agnes Binagwaho, M.D., MPEd, Ph.D. — vice-chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity in Kigali, Rwanda — and her research associate Kedest Mathewos explain why African countries fared much better than their Western counterparts in the fight against COVID-19. In 2019, the Global Health Security Index ranked countries according […]

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COVID-19: Cellphone data reveals ‘superspreader’ venues

A model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests that a small number of venue types, such as restaurants, hotels, and religious venues, account for the majority of infections. The model also helps explain why infections disproportionately affect people living in deprived areas. Almost a year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, there remains […]

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COVID-19's impact on dengue transmission

A recent study has demonstrated that physical distancing measures resulted in a significant increase in reported cases of dengue in Thailand but unchanged rates in Malaysia and Singapore. Dengue is transmitted to humans through the bite of certain species of Aedes mosquitos that carry one of the virus’s four serotypes: dengue viruses 1–4. These mosquitos […]

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COVID-19: Seaweed extract may be more effective than remdesivir

New research concludes that extracts from seaweed could be more effective than remdesivir, the current leading SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drug. The authors published their research as a correspondence piece in the journal Cell Discovery. It lays the groundwork for future studies to corroborate the findings in humans. SARS-CoV-2, like all viruses, reproduces by attaching to a […]