Omicron relatives called BA.4 and BA.5 are behind a fresh wave of COVID-19 in South Africa, and could be signs of a more predictable future for SARS-CoV-2. Here we go again. Nearly six months after researchers in South Africa identified the Omicron coronavirus variant, two offshoots of the game-changing lineage are once again driving [...]
Early detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) is critical to stopping the spread of this contagious disease. The current diagnostic methods for COVID-19 are expensive and difficult to handle. Hence, there is a need for a quick, efficient, and user-friendly detection method. In an article recently published in Analytica Chimica Acta, the authors fabricated a [...]
WHO data suggests richer countries have so far received 87 per cent of doses globally. Waiving patents on COVID-19 vaccines would remove "a legal hurdle" to companies and developing countries producing the shots and fixing a global supply problem, says an advocate with Oxfam Canada. "It allows them to produce it without having to [...]
New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic (described as “excess mortality”) between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 was approximately 14.9 million (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million). “These sobering data not only point to the impact of [...]
Cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained between 50 and 70 years of age and is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points, say a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. The findings, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, emerge from the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource. [...]
Rhinostics, Inc., an innovator in sample collection technologies, today announced that it has received Health Canada approval for sale of its RHINOstic™ Automated Nasal Swab for medically supervised collection or self-collection for ages 18 and above. With this COVID-19 Medical Device Authorization for Importation or Sale, Rhinostics may immediately begin supplying the RHINOstic™ to [...]
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) on Friday said a large trial found that its COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid was not effective at preventing coronavirus infection in people living with someone infected with the virus. The trial enrolled 3,000 adults who were household contacts exposed to an individual who was experiencing symptoms and had recently tested [...]
We live in a world made and run by RNA, the equally important sibling of the genetic molecule DNA. In fact, evolutionary biologists hypothesize that RNA existed and self-replicated even before the appearance of DNA and the proteins encoded by it. Fast forward to modern day humans: science has revealed that less than 3% [...]
Unvaccinated people threaten the safety of the vaccinated even when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rates are high, according to a new modeling study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Many opponents of vaccine mandates have framed vaccine adoption as a matter of individual choice," writes Dr. David Fisman, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, with coauthors. [...]
In a paper recently printed in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, to imitate the photonic reaction of squid skin, researchers sequenced, recombinantly produced, and self-assembled reflective proteins from Sepioteuthis. lessioniana into spherical nanoparticles by combining reflectin B1 with a click chemistry ligand. Taking Inspiration from Cephalopods Cephalopods (cuttlefish, squids and octopuses) are natural camouflage masters. [...]
