Tag Archives: coronavirus

Rift Valley Fever virus, 3D illustration. Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock George Warimwe, University of Oxford Professor George Warimwe should be a household name in Kenya. He’s a leading scientist who has created a life-saving vaccine against Rift Valley Fever. He is also leading policy-changing work on Yellow Fever vaccines. Warimwe has now been awarded the Royal Society Africa Prize for his work …

The omicron variant possesses numerous mutations in the spike protein, the knob-like protrusions (in red) that allow the virus to invade other cells. Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images Suresh V. Kuchipudi, Penn State A new variant named omicron (B.1.1.529) was reported by researchers in South Africa on Nov. 24, 2021, and designated a “variant of concern” by the …

Scientists find variants by sequencing samples from people that have tested positive for the virus. Lightspring/Shutterstock Prof. Wolfgang Preiser, Stellenbosch University; Cathrine Scheepers, University of the Witwatersrand; Jinal Bhiman, National Institute for Communicable Diseases; Marietjie Venter, University of Pretoria, and Tulio de Oliveira, University of KwaZulu-Natal Since early in the COVID pandemic, the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa …

oasisamuel/Shutterstock Michael Head, University of Southampton The pandemic has been rumbling on for two years and is probably going to rumble on for years to come. And despite recent excitement about new drugs to treat COVID, it’s still vaccines that will underpin each country’s route out of the pandemic. Immunisation has proven a highly effective way of stopping people from …

Nina Drozdowa/Shutterstock Alexander Edwards, University of Reading We’ve waited 20 months for a medicine to blunt the coronavirus, and now two have appeared. Earlier this month, the UK medicines regulator approved molnupiravir, the COVID antiviral developed by Merck and Ridgeback Therapeutics. Among adults with mild to moderate COVID who were at risk of developing serious disease, it cut the chances …

Shutterstock / Quality Stock Arts Francisco López-Muñoz, Universidad Camilo José Cela and Jose Antonio Guerra Guirao, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Desde el inicio de la pandemia de covid-19, las compañías farmacéuticas comenzaron una desesperada carrera por obtener un agente antiviral capaz de detener la replicación y transmisión del coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Además, han estudiado diferentes fármacos para el tratamiento sintomatológico de …

Roger Tisi, Anglia Ruskin University Social media is awash with bogus COVID treatments. First, there was hydroxychloroquine, then bleach, followed hard on the heels by ivermectin – a cattle dewormer. The latest on the scene is povidone-iodine, an antiseptic. Some people have claimed on social media that gargling with iodine can prevent the spread and severity of a COVID infection, …

Maximilian Kiener, University of Oxford On December 1 1955, in Alabama, Rosa Parks broke the law. But Parks was no ordinary criminal trying to take advantage of others. She merely refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person and was arrested for this reason alone. Parks is a hero because she stood up, or rather …

Antibodies (light blue) binding to the spike proteins (dark purple) on the outside of the coronavirus. Design_Cells/Shutterstock Rebecca Aicheler, Cardiff Metropolitan University A new treatment could soon help protect people from developing severe COVID. AstraZeneca has just released results from a phase 3 clinical trial – the final stage of testing before a drug is authorised – that suggest its …

The new findings, although preliminary, are raising concerns about the potential long-term effects of COVID-19. Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images Jessica Bernard, Texas A&M University With more than 18 months of the pandemic in the rearview mirror, researchers have been steadily gathering new and important insights into the effects of COVID-19 on the body and brain. These findings are raising …