“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”
— William Wilberforce
Health authorities in China have begun using anal swabs to test patients for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that can cause COVID-19.1 While COVID-19 outbreaks continue to increase in China as the Lunar New Year approaches, more than a million residents in Beijing have been administered anal swabs to test for the virus. Although anal swabs have […]
Story Highlights Minority populations including Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in the U.S., with evidence indicating they have a higher risk of being infected and/or are at an increased risk of serious disease and death from the infection. Many agencies, public figures and states are advocating that such at-risk […]
Thirty-two residents have died in The Commons on St. Anthony, a nursing home in Auburn, Cayuga county, New York during a COVID-19 outbreak that started at the end of December 2020. On Jan. 5, 2021, there were 130 residents, who tested positive for COVID-19 and, as of Jan. 11, there were 104 active coronavirus cases […]
Story Highlights A highly transmissible new strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been identified in South Africa and has now spread to at least eight other countries including the U.K., Switzerland, Finland, Japan, Australia, Zambia, France and South Korea. The mutations of the new strain represent significant changes to key structures involved […]
An International Consortium of Scientists in Life Sciences (ICSLS) have submitted a retraction request to the European public health journal Eurosurveillance of a well-cited article published in January 2020,1 2 which contained the first protocol for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. The test has been used by the […]
Opinion | From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clarion call has been to test, test and test some more. However, right from the start, serious questions arose about the tests being used to diagnose this infection, and questions have only multiplied since then. Positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have been […]
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has suspended testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at Boston based laboratory on Aug. 8, 2020 after the laboratory reported almost 400 false positive tests.1 Orig3n Laboratory Currently Under State Investigation Orig3n Laboratory, a genetics and biotechnology company was suspended after state health officials became aware of an unusually […]
Story Highlights Rapid decline of neutralizing antibodies following COVID-19 infection in some people have led to concerns that immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus Is temporary. However, several recent studies have shown a presence of virus-specific T-cells that remain, including among patients with mild or asymptomatic infections. Long-lasting immunity after recovery from COVID-19 infection may be […]
A team of South Korean infectious disease researchers has concluded there is no evidence that people can be reinfected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The researchers, led by Oh Myoung-don, MD, head of Seoul National University Hospital’s division of infectious diseases, believe that reports of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and subsequently tested positive again […]
Story Highlights An international group of geneticists has compared DNA of patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19 infection with that of healthy volunteers and found six gene clusters that may provide insight into the wide range of responses to the virus. Results showed that patients with Type A blood appeared to have a greater susceptibility for […]