Tag Archives: Coronavirus insights

Rob Reddick, The Conversation Coronavirus vaccines are being administered. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first to finish the final stage of testing – known as phase 3 – and the full results have been published. Having assessed the data, countries are beginning to authorise this vaccine for public use and roll it out. Others are not too far behind. The …

Shutterstock/fizkes Tom Buchanan, University of Westminster When we come across false information on social media, it is only natural to feel the need to call it out or argue with it. But my research suggests this might do more harm than good. It might seem counterintuitive, but the best way to react to fake news – and reduce its impact …

Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, UCL The first people have begun to receive vaccines in the UK and US as part of mass vaccination campaigns to immunise people against COVID-19. Excitement is building – finally, the end of the coronavirus crisis is in sight. Since early December, elderly patients and health workers in 50 hospitals across the UK have been given the vaccine …

Manal Mohammed, University of Westminster The UK has become the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for widespread use. The government has ordered 40 million doses and the first batch of 800,000 doses is expected to be shipped from Belgium – where the vaccine is being made – in the next couple of days. It will be enough to …

Shutterstock/Lightspring Lisa Bortolotti, University of Birmingham and Anna Ichino, University of Milan There has been a proliferation of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 that either reject the existence of the virus altogether or question the official account of its origins, its mode of transmission, its effects and its remedies. Many of these theories are highly implausible and harmful and it has …

Marina Biryukova/Shutterstock Helen Wall, Edge Hill University; Alex Balani, Edge Hill University, and Derek Larkin, Edge Hill University While the world is eagerly waiting for COVID-19 vaccines to bring an end to the pandemic, wearing a mask to help prevent viral transmission has become more or less mandatory globally. Though many people embrace mask wearing and adhere to public health …

‘ Tracy Hussell, University of Manchester If we are ever to return to some semblance of normality, then the world’s population needs to be immune to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But with so many different vaccines in production, questions are undoubtedly going to be raised, such as can I still have a vaccine if I have been involved …

esfera/Shutterstock Laurence Roope, University of Oxford; Philip Clarke, University of Oxford, and Raymond Duch, University of Oxford Not long after Pfizer and BioNTech announced in a press release that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate has over 90% efficacy, British politicians began discussing an imminent roll-out – before Christmas, according to health minister Matt Hancock. On the other side of the English …

Syda Productions/Shutterstock Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia Full interim analysis of the safety and efficacy of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine – developed in partnership with AstraZeneca – has been published in the Lancet. This paper represents the most comprehensive set of results from any of the phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccines to date. These are still only interim …

dotshock/Shutterstock Steven Smith, Brunel University London In the global effort to overcome COVID-19, much scientific and medical attention has focused on the ability of our immune system to generate antibodies. Antibodies are one of our body’s main weapons against viruses, created to recognise specific proteins on a virus’s surface and initiate processes that ultimately neutralise and remove the virus. We …