Immunology

From Bats To Humans: What Role Did Stray Dogs Play In Wuhan's SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic?

Science is often easy in hindsight and two years from now we will likely know the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 from bats to humans. For now, it is mostly speculation. An intermediate animal host may have been snakes or pangolins, but the real common ancestor of ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2020 - 11:19am

Why Bones Of Diabetics Are So Fragile

A person with Type 2 diabetes is three times more likely to break a bone than a nondiabetic. Since the number of people with diabetes is increasing rapidly in the United States, skeletal fragility in patients with Type 2 diabetes is a growing, but little- ...

Article - The Conversation - May 11 2020 - 8:47am

New Flu? Coronavirus Might Become Cause Of A Seasonal Illness

The flu kills over 600,000 people each year and in 2020 another virus exploded in public health circles for the third time in 17 years; coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 disease, has killed nearly 400,000, and given the risk factors it is ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 2 2020 - 4:29pm

Mosquito Diseases Kill Tens Of Millions Per Year Worldwide But American Parents Worry More About Ticks

A few species of mosquitoes are nothing but carriers of disease, so pesticides were used to wipe them out in much of North America. Worldwide they remain a public health problem and while some ecologists claim a mythical (and scientifically debunked) ' ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 16 2020 - 4:28pm

Though Claims Of Projected Deaths Were Wildly Exaggerated, Sweden Would've Saved Some Lives With A Lockdown

Sweden did not lock down during COVID-19 and while aggressive epidemiological models promoted by bloggers wildly overstated the deaths that would occur, by an order of magnitude, it did produce more per capita deaths and greater healthcare demand than seen ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2020 - 3:09pm

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Children Don't Transmit COVID-19, Schools Should Reopen This Year

The American Academy of Pediatrics is a rather reflexive group much of the time, so it seems bold for Pediatrics, the in-house journal for an organization that tried to argue kids should not be allowed to even walk to school until they are age 10, to take ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 10 2020 - 11:56am

SARS-CoV-2 Is Not Transmitted By Mosquitoes

In some good news for 2020, it is confirmed that SARS-CoV-2, the 2019 form of coronavirus that has led to worldwide COVID-19 disease, is not transmitted by mosquitoes, so ecologically useless disease vectors like Aedes aegypti, that carry so many other dis ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2020 - 5:44pm

The SARS-CoV-2 Envelope Protein Is Close Enough To SARS That FDA-Approved Drugs May Work

A protein in the viruses causing COVID-19 and SARS is almost identical, which means existing FDA-approved drugs, already tested in mice infected with SARS, could improve the outcomes for COVID-19 patients experiencing severe respiratory symptoms. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 27 2020 - 1:09pm

Symptomatic Case Fatality Ratio- A Better Way To Know True COVID-19 Mortality?

Reliable estimates of the mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infection are essential to understanding the COVID-19 epidemic and develop public health interventions, but we don't have them. If you realistically think that China, where the disease originated, on ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 29 2020 - 2:01pm

Ad26.COV2.S: Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine Successful In Rhesus Macaques

Johnson  &  Johnson's Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine raised neutralizing antibodies and robustly protected rhesus macaques against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2020 - 2:15pm