Tag: covid-19

Science

COVID antiviral pills work against Omicron—when people can get them

 Emma  0 136 

Last week, Pfizer reported that a trio of lab experiments suggest that its COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid, will hold up well against the Omicron variant.  The antiviral was authorized in December for people at high risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19. Unfortunately, despite these promising developments, Paxlovid and other COVID-19 treatments are still in short supply across the country. Half of the 20 million Paxlovid treatment courses purchased by the US aren’t expected to be delivered until June, and the…

Science

Can cannabis protect people from COVID? Buzzy studies can’t say.

 Amy  0 129 

Another study has been published linking cannabis with protective effects against COVID-19, two weeks after similarly buzzy-but-limited research indicated hemp might ward off the virus, too. But once again these results are preliminary and without evidence in living human subjects. They do not mean that smoking marijuana will protect you against SARS-CoV-2 infection.  A large team of researchers conducted experiments on human lung cells and on live mice to see how different cannabis compounds affected the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2. They…

Science

‘Preliminary research’ on COVID has been surprisingly solid

 sykes  0 124 

Before the COVID pandemic, peer-review was the beating heart of scientific publishing. In order for studies to enter the body of scientific knowledge, the expectation was that researchers would submit them to academic journals, which would send the papers out to other experts for edits and revisions before publishing. But it’s a process that wasn’t well-suited to the urgency of the COVID pandemic, when early research could save lives. Peer-review often takes months, and it asks for huge amounts of…

Science

This new recycling system could keep COVID PPE out of landfills

 admin  0 86 

The waste from COVID-19 personal protective equipment is a gigantic problem. As of late last year, estimates put the amount of COVID-related plastic waste at about 8 million tons, with around 25,000 tons of that trickling into the ocean. A lot of that has to do with the fact that recycling PPE—from plastics to reusable cloth masks—is a bit of a mystery. For normal folks, that means our used necessary protective items end up in the landfill.  This obviously puts…

Science

A COVID vaccine for young US children may be closer than ever

 Naomi  0 97 

Members of the last age group to be authorized for COVID-19 vaccinations may soon get their due, and earlier than anticipated. Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to request emergency use authorization for their mRNA vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration as early as today, which would permit children between 6 months and 5 years of age to be vaccinated in a two-dose regimen.  The companies announced last fall that preliminary analyses of clinical trials of two vaccine doses in…

Science

Why the FDA paused monoclonal antibody treatments

 Ingle  0 102 

On Monday evening, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would limit the use of two monoclonal antibody COVID-19 treatments, made by pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly. Those treatments had been successful at keeping symptomatic patients out of the hospital in earlier waves, but did not work against Omicron, the agency said. A third, less common monoclonal treatment, called sotrovimab, can still be used. The FDA’s decision, based on lab studies of the treatments, mirrors the practices of…

Science

What to do with your old cloth masks

 Emma  0 99 

Every week it feels like something changes when it comes to COVID, be it a new variant, a new spike, a new magic “cure,” or a new shot we all need. But recently, the news hasn’t just been about what’s new. Just last week, the CDC announced that reusable cloth masks aren’t as safe as respirator masks in certain situations. One study showed that fabric coverings can sometimes net as low as 5 percent of aerosolized particles.  For people trying…

Science

Why healthy, vaccinated people should still care about Omicron

 admin  0 87 

Since mid-December, the highly contagious Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has dominated the latest surge in COVID-19 cases across the US. However, growing evidence is painting a picture of a variant that is less virulent than earlier versions of the virus, particularly among vaccinated people. Although Omicron is often described as mild, this variant still poses a very real danger, particularly for people whose age or medical conditions put them at higher risk of becoming very sick with COVID-19. …

Science

Inside the lab using bones to study COVID and hearing loss

 Amy  0 87 

Elizabeth Landau is a science journalist and communicator living in Washington, D.C. She has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Quanta Magazine, Smithsonian, and Wired, among other publications. Find her on Twitter at @lizlandau. This story originally featured on Undark. In a narrow medical school hallway, Matt Stewart opened a large cabinet to reveal dozens of shelves stacked with wooden boxes and trays, some at least 100 years old. Stewart, tall and silver-haired, pulled out one of…

Science

How to make Thanksgiving COVID-safe with boosters and rapid tests

 sykes  0 190 

For many families, this will be the first Thanksgiving they’ve been able to celebrate together in two years. Booster shots and vaccines for kids five and older mean that many of the most vulnerable relatives are better protected. But COVID is still circulating, and you might be wondering what you need to do to make sure your family is safe while getting together. Just how cautious you need to be depends on your risk tolerance, and your family and community.…

Science

Which COVID-19 booster should I get?

 Ingle  0 189 

Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved COVID-19 booster shots for anyone over the age of 18. That decision capped off a chaotic week for booster eligibility, as multiple states offered boosters to anyone who wanted them in hopes of stopping a winter surge. As things stand now, the CDC says that anyone who is over 50 should get a booster. Same goes for residents of nursing homes or other congregate settings, and anyone who received…

Science

How much does vitamin D protect us from diseases like COVID?

 Amy  0 110 

“What is this nonsense?” Erica Rice, a social worker from California, remembers thinking while she watched the rambling video her aunt had shared on Facebook. A middle-aged woman in Hunstville, Alabama, stood on her porch telling viewers they needed to get outside and lay in the sun to prevent “the COVID.”  It was April 2020, early in the pandemic—before masks became like a second skin—and Rice assumed the minutes-long clip was just one of the many virus-conspiracy theories plaguing the…