Overwhelmed U.S. Hospital Systems: A Look Into The Future
A new study conducted via the U.S. Premier Healthcare Database revealed nearly one in every four COVID-19 deaths may be attributed to hospital strain related to case overload. The results exposed staggering mortality rates suggesting that, despite improvements in COVID-19 survival between March and …
An Argument For Covid-19 Booster Shots To Protect The Vulnerable
On Monday, amid reports that the highly infectious Delta variant is causing surges in new Covid-19 infections in states with low vaccination rates and countries with vaccine shortages, Pfizer announced plans to seek emergency authorization as early as next month for booster shots that would complement its …
Can We End the Pandemic?
The emergence of dangerous new coronavirus variants is threatening the progress that we have made with the help of COVID-19 vaccines. It is now clear that our pharmaceutical research efforts and public-health interventions will need to be redoubled – and without any …
How Covid-19 Impacts The Digestive System
In late January 2020—when Covid-19, then known as 2019-nCoV, had yet to penetrate most national borders—a research paper was published in The Lancet medical journal detailing the symptoms of a cohort of 41 patients hospitalized in Wuhan, China. The study, though tiny in scale, went on …
HBO Doc ‘The Last Cruise’ Gives Insight Into Nightmarish Covid-19 Outbreak
In the first few minutes of The Last Cruise, a new HBO documentary directed by Hannah Olson, the skies are clear, the waters blue, and aboard the Diamond Princess, aerobics classes involving hundreds are in full swing. The date is January 20, 2020, and …
Persistence Of Covid-19 Antibodies Varies Widely From Person To Person
One of the greatest unsolved mysteries of Covid-19 is why the neutralizing antibodies our bodies generate in response to the virus tend to dwindle in number so quickly. A small minority of studies, including one completed in Iceland last summer, have observed …
New Study Predicts Immune Protection May Vary For Different Covid-19 Vaccines
After more than a year of lockdowns, isolation, and great loss of human life, the slow but steady rollout of Covid-19 vaccines has given us all a much-needed glimmer of hope. As of March 22, the total number of doses administered worldwide …
Preventing Fecal-Oral And Fecal-Aerosol Transmission Of Covid-19
Last year, I conducted an interview with a friend who traveled to Shanghai and was forced to quarantine in a hotel for 11 days under the supervision of local health authorities. He was brought hot meals, subjected to temperature checks twice daily, …
Variants: Forewarned Is Forearmed— For Those Who Listen
We now know the adaptive power of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Newly described Covid-19 variants isolated in the United Kingdom, South African, Brazil, the United States, and Nigeria appear to be more transmissible, resist neutralization. and may be more virulent. Now turn back the …
Why Patterns In Covid-19 Variation Might Resemble Seasonal Flu
We’ve learned that some variants of SARS-CoV-2 are more transmissible. Equally troubling is the possibility that future variants — or ones currently circulating off our radar — will in some way compromise our natural immune response, complicating our ability to treat critically …