Health Officials Are Now Tracking COVID-19 Variants at Airports
Travelers are both the conduit and the canary in the coal mine for new COVID-19 variants, and U.S. health officials are trying to use those realities to keep ahead of variants coming into the country.
At four U.S. airports—John F. Kennedy in New York, Newark in New Jersey, San Francisco International, and Atlanta Hartsfield—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is partnering with private companies XpressCheck and Concentric by Ginkgo to test incoming passengers for COVID-19. (Washington Dulles is expected to join the program in November.) The testing gives the CDC a heads up on which variants are...
Source: TIME: Health - November 3, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
Chewing to curb COVID
Penn Medicine will conduct a new clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a chewing gum designed by School of Dental Medicine researchers to trap SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva. Chewing gum tablets containing plant material laced with the ACE2 protein are being evaluated in a clinical trial to see if they are safe and effective in trapping SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva. (Image: Kevin Monko/Penn Dental Medicine) A recently launched clinical trial at Penn Medicine will evaluate a new chewing gum designed by School of Dental Medicine researchers to trap SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva, potentially blocking transmission of COVID-...
Source: Dental Technology Blog - November 2, 2022 Category: Dentistry Source Type: news
RSV Cases Are Rising in Kids and Babies. What Parents Should Know
On top of continued concerns about COVID-19 and the anticipated wave of flu cases this fall and winter, health experts are also confronting another infectious disease: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
RSV typically strikes during the colder months, when people gather indoors and are more likely to spread disease through close contact and respiratory droplets. It’s particularly common among infants and young children, as well as the elderly, who are more vulnerable to infections because of their less developed or weakened immune systems.
After years of having no vaccines against the virus, scientists are moving quic...
Source: TIME: Health - November 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Public Health Source Type: news
How to Stay Safe from COVID-19 During the 2022 Holiday Season
After COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, many families said “good riddance” to Zoom and resumed in-person holiday gatherings—and with increasing numbers of people embracing pre-pandemic lifestyles, it’s safe to assume that will be the norm this year in the U.S. But the virus still infects tens of thousands of Americans each day, and experts fear another winter surge may be coming, just in time for the holidays.
If you’re planning to travel or gather with loved ones this holiday season, follow these expert recommendations to maximize your chances of staying safe and healthy.
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Source: TIME: Health - October 31, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Why the U.S. Doesn ’t Have a Nasal Vaccine for COVID-19
The U.S. led the world in quickly developing COVID-19 vaccines—one of the few bright spots in the country’s otherwise criticized response. But while injectable vaccines are effective in protecting people from getting sick with COVID-19, they are less able to block infection. In order to put the pandemic behind us, the world will need a way to stop infections and spread of the virus. That’s where a different type of vaccine, one that works at the places where the virus gets into the body, will likely prove useful.
Here, though, the U.S. is losing its edge. In September, India approved a nasal COVID-19 vacc...
Source: TIME: Health - October 31, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
A New Lab-Made COVID-19 Virus Puts Gain-of-Function Research Under the Microscope
On October 14, a team of scientists at Boston University released a pre-print study reporting that they had created a version of SARS-CoV-2 combining two features of different, existing strains that boosted its virulence and transmissibility. Scientists and the public raised questions about the work, which refocused attention on such experiments, and prompted the U.S. government to investigate whether the research followed protocols for these kinds of studies.
The concerns surround what is known as gain-of-function studies, in which viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens are created in the lab—either intentionally or ...
Source: TIME: Science - October 27, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
To thwart the next pandemic, ‘swientists’ hunt for flu viruses at U.S. hog shows
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Source: ScienceNOW - October 27, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
The Troubling Trends Pointing to a Severe Flu and RSV Season
Flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season has just begun in the northern hemisphere, and the consensus among experts is that the 2022-2023 season is shaping up to be more severe than in the past few (relatively mild) years. It might even be worse than seasons before COVID-19.
Health data company IQVIA has been analyzing data from insurance claims filed by doctors’ offices, hospitals, and urgent care centers in the country for three decades, and focused on case trends over the previous year. The team found that diagnoses of flu are already tracking at record highs. Even before flu season began, back in spring 2...
Source: TIME: Health - October 25, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park and Charts by Emily Barone Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Southern California braces for difficult flu season as cases rise after COVID lull
After a pandemic-induced lull, influenza is being detected at increased levels for this time of year in Southern California. (Source: L.A. Times - Health)
Source: L.A. Times - Health - October 24, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin II Source Type: news
U.S. weighs crackdown on experiments that could make viruses more dangerous
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Source: ScienceNOW - October 19, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
[Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR] Roche records solid results for the first nine months of 2022
Group salesup 2%[1] at constant exchange rates (CER) and 1% in Swiss francs; as expected, significantly lower COVID-19-related sales in both divisions in the third quarterSales in the Pharmaceuticals Divisionat the previous year ’s level with significantly lower sales of COVID-19-related products (Ronapreve and Actemra/RoActemra) and losses to biosimilars, offset by strong growth of newer medicinesSales in the Diagnostics Divisionrise 6%; base business remains strong; as expected, demand for COVID-19 tests sharply down in third quarterHighlights in the third quarter:EU approval forVabysmo (severe eye diseases)US approval...
Source: Roche Investor Update - October 18, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
[Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR] Roche records solid results for the first nine months of 2022
Basel, 18 October 2022Group salesup 2%1 at constant exchange rates (CER) and 1% in Swiss francs; as expected, significantly lower COVID-19-related sales in both divisions in the third quarterSales in the Pharmaceuticals Divisionat the previous year ’s level with significantly lower sales of COVID-19-related products (Ronapreve and Actemra/RoActemra) and losses to biosimilars, offset by strong growth of newer medicinesSales in the Diagnostics Divisionrise 6%; base business remains strong; as expected, demand for COVID-19 tests sharply down in third quarterHighlights in the third quarter:EU approval forVabysmo (severe eye ...
Source: Roche Media News - October 18, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Flu Is Coming. Or Is It?
(MedPage Today) -- No one needs to be reminded of the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our lives. But one could argue that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had one benefit: It sent influenza viruses (and some others) packing. Global influenza... (Source: MedPage Today Infectious Disease)
Source: MedPage Today Infectious Disease - October 16, 2022 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
We May Be in for Yet Another COVID-19 Surge This Fall and Winter
Fall and winter have always been peak seasons for respiratory viruses. As the weather cools in many parts of the U.S., people are forced into indoor environments where viruses can spread more easily. Holiday gatherings and travel can also become breeding grounds for disease.
That’s one reason why experts are worried that COVID-19 case counts may rise in the U.S. in the coming weeks. But there’s also another. To help forecast COVID-19 rates for the U.S., experts often look to Europe—and the data there aren’t promising. More than 1.5 million COVID-19 diagnoses were reported across Europe during the we...
Source: TIME: Health - October 11, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
What Happens If I Get COVID-19 and the Flu at the Same Time?
So far, COVID-19 has come with one small silver lining for health: cases of influenza have dropped dramatically. During the first flu season during the pandemic, lockdowns kept people indoors and away from one another, limiting the virus’ ability to spread. And once people began mingling more during the next flu seasons, widespread use of masks blocked influenza’s chances of infecting large numbers of people.
But that could change this flu season, as mask mandates have disappeared and more people are interacting in close quarters in school, workplaces, sports events, public transport, and more. Health experts a...
Source: TIME: Health - October 11, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
