Vaccines Helped to Control COVID-19. But the Global Rollout Is Still Broken
As successful as the COVID-19 vaccines have been in curbing the pandemic, their benefits haven’t been enjoyed equally by people around the globe. Throughout the pandemic—and even now—vaccine development and distribution has been undeniably lopsided, skewed in favor of developed countries with the resources to create, test, manufacture, and distribute shots when the need arises. In the third year of pandemic, while nearly 70% of people worldwide have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, in low-income countries, only 24% have.
In its latest report on the global vaccine market, which includes an asse...
Source: TIME: Health - November 21, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Latest Cochrane Review finds high certainty evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective than traditional nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT) in helping people quit smoking
A Cochrane review has found the strongest evidence yet that e-cigarettes, also known as ‘vapes’, help people to quit smoking better than traditional nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches and chewing gums.New evidence published today in the Cochrane Library finds high certainty evidence that people are more likely to stop smoking for at least six months using nicotine e-cigarettes, or ‘vapes’, than using nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches and gums. Evidence also suggested that nicotine e-cigarettes led to higher quit rates than e-cigarettes without nicotine, or no stop smoking intervention, b...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - November 17, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Muriah Umoquit Source Type: news
Vapes are twice as good as NRT at helping smokers quit, landmark review concludes
Oxford University researchers found smokers using electronic cigarettes are up to twice as likely to give up the habit for six months. Cancer experts said they 'welcome' the findings. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - November 17, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Key cause of type 2 diabetes confirmed: Chemicals produced to break down sugar worsens condition
Oxford University researchers found glucose metabolites - the chemicals released when sugar is broke down - rather than glucose itself is behind type 2 diabetes progression (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - November 14, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Could having lots of friends give us a healthier gut?
A team from the University of Oxford collected a total of 50 uncontaminated stool samples from rhesus macaques - a species of monkey - living on an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - November 11, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
New data buoy hopes for promising malaria vaccine —but questions remain
A new vaccine against malaria showed promising preliminary results in a large trial in four African countries, boosting hopes that an additional tool may soon be available to help control the deadly disease. The vaccine, named R21/Matrix-M and developed by researchers at the University of Oxford,
produced similarly impressive results in a small trial
last year
, but the current study posed a stiffer test of its protection.
Initial data from the trial, reported yesterday at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting in Seattle, suggest the vaccine had an efficacy higher than 70% in...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 3, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Magic mushrooms for depression 'on the NHS in a DECADE'
Oxford University researchers found that those given the highest dose of the psychedelic drug psilocybin saw the severity of their depression fall and were most likely to go into remission. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - November 2, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Antibody weapon against malaria shows promise in Africa
A new way to prevent malaria that showed promise in 9 U.S. volunteers deliberately exposed to parasite-laden mosquitoes last year has now shown its mettle in a real-world situation in Africa. A study published today in the
New England Journal of Medicine
showed that
a single dose
of lab-produced monoclonal antibodies can protect recipients from infection for up to 6 months during Mali’s intense malaria season.
Monoclonal antibodies are expensive to produce and can be cumbersome to administer if they are infused straight into the bloodstream. That makes some researchers skeptical that the new one...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 1, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Covid-19: XBB unlikely to cause severe illness in India, say experts
"It's a sub-variant of Omicron that gets around pre-existing immunity rather well," said Virologist Shahid Jameel of the University of Oxford. (Source: The Economic Times)
Source: The Economic Times - November 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
“ Why Aren ’ t We All Bacteria? ” Siddhartha Mukherjee Explores the Power of Cells
It’s hard to miss what appears to be dry cleaning hanging on the wall of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s apartment in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. The apartment is a sunny, stylish, open space, filled with modern furniture, decorated with sculpture and paintings—and then, in perhaps the most conspicuous spot on the living room, is a brown felt suit with very long pants, draped over a plain wooden hanger. It looks entirely out of place—but it’s not.
The suit is the handiwork of German artist Joseph Bueys, who created the improbable bit of fabric art as a tribute to the nomadic Tatars who,...
Source: TIME: Science - October 31, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Magazine Science Source Type: news
‘ Why Aren ’ t We All Bacteria? ’ Siddhartha Mukherjee Explores the Power of Cells
It’s hard to miss what appears to be dry cleaning hanging on the wall of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s apartment in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. The apartment is a sunny, stylish, open space, filled with modern furniture, decorated with sculpture and paintings—and then, in perhaps the most conspicuous spot on the living room, is a brown felt suit with very long pants, draped over a plain wooden hanger. It looks entirely out of place—but it’s not.
The suit is the handiwork of German artist Joseph Bueys, who created the improbable bit of fabric art as a tribute to the nomadic Tatars who,...
Source: TIME: Science - October 31, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Magazine Science Source Type: news
Small wonder: big DNA advances loom at university startup Oxford Nanopore
Company spun out of Oxford University makes DNA and RNA sequencing devices to identify viruses and variantsNot far from Didcot, once a halfway stop between London and Bristol on the Great Western Railway celebrated for Isambard Kingdom Brunel ’s engineering, innovation has returned witha hi-tech factory manufacturing DNA and RNA sequencing machines.Oxford Nanopore, a spinout from Oxford University, produces devices used to identify viruses and spot variants in the genetic makeup of humans, animals and plants. Its sequencers have been used to track Covid-19 variants globally and are now being trialled on intensive care pa...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - October 31, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Julia Kollewe Tags: Manufacturing sector University of Oxford Science Coronavirus Infectious diseases Higher education UK news Business Medical research Biotechnology industry 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
Pooled Risk for Thrombocytopenia Increased After ChAdOx1-S Vaccine
THURSDAY, Oct. 27, 2022 -- The risk for thrombocytopenia is increased after receipt of the ChAdOx1-S vaccine compared with BNT162b2, according to a study published online Oct. 26 in The BMJ.
Xintong Li, from the University of Oxford in the United... (Source: Drugs.com - Pharma News)
Source: Drugs.com - Pharma News - October 27, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Merck locates frozen batch of undisclosed Ebola vaccine, will donate for testing in Uganda ’s outbreak
In a revelation that may help Uganda combat its outbreak of Ebola, the pharmaceutical giant Merck has acknowledged to
Science—
after repeated inquiries
—
that it has up to 100,000 doses of an experimental vaccine for the deadly viral disease in its freezers in Pennsylvania and will donate them. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ugandan government are discussing if and how these doses can be incorporated into one or more clinical trials of
other
candidate Ebola vaccines that could launch as soon as next month.
The Merck vaccine targets Sudan ebolavirus, the pathogen currentl...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 23, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
