With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the world entered a phase of social restrictions which limited routine social and economic activities covering a wide spectrum, accompanied by a soaring and often overwhelming disease and death toll. A new study, released on […]
A team of researchers based in Stockholm, Sweden, has demonstrated that individuals exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have antibodies for the disease up to nine months after acquiring the disease, even if they displayed only mild symptoms. Study: Persisting Salivary IgG against SARS-CoV-2 at 9 Months After Mild COVID-19: A Complementary […]
A team of scientists from Brazil recently explored the abilities of the UK, South African, and Brazilian variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to evade host CD8+ T cell responses induced by natural infection or vaccination. The findings reveal reduced antigenic coverage for the P.2 Brazilian lineage, indicating its ability to evade […]
The vast majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 clear the virus, but those with compromised immunity—such as individuals receiving immune-suppressive drugs for autoimmune diseases—can become chronically infected. As a result, their weakened immune defenses continue to attack the virus without being able to eradicate it fully. This physiological tug-of-war between human host and pathogen offers […]
A team of researchers in the UK – namely, Ben Ansell (Oxford), Martin W. Bauer (LSE), Jane Gingrich (Oxford), and Jack Stilgoe (UCL) – recently conducted a two-wave survey on the hesitancy of individuals to receive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Study: Coping With Covid: Two-Wave Survey (a study of vaccine hesitancy statistics in the […]
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to ravage worldwide, infecting over 118.15 million people. Caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the infection has claimed 2.62 million lives globally. More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, scientists and health experts have developed safe and effective vaccines, including the BNT162b2 by […]
As new variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continue to emerge, fueling the continued spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a new study offers encouragement. Released as a preprint on the bioRxiv* server, the study reports the protection offered by antibodies elicited by natural infection against the newer variants […]
A large team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across the U.K. has found that most SARS-CoV-2 variants rarely persist through secondary transmissions. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group the RNA sequencing of nearly 1,400 nasal swabs from patients between March and June of last year, and what they […]
Researchers in the United States say the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant – P.1 – that has recently emerged in Brazil shows a worrying level of resistance to neutralization by antibodies. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is the agent responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that poses an ongoing threat to mankind […]
New York has the first case of a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant called B.1.526, picked up by genomic surveillance research from Columbia University. The findings come after reports of other variants have been reported worldwide — B.1.1.7 in the United Kingdom, B.1.351 in South Africa, and P.1/P.2 in Brazil. If […]
