The new president of the United States has been referred to as having grief as a superpower. U.S. citizens have expectations about their president as “comforter-in-chief,” something at which President Biden’s predecessor failed miserably. As we surpass the grim milestone of 20,000 deaths in Canada to COVID-19, I am left wondering who is demonstrating leadership […]
Will we EVER outwit this mutating virus? As several new Covid strains are emerging, concerns grow about how well vaccines will work The UK variant. The South African strain. The Brazilian lineage. Coronavirus mutations are suddenly big news. Up to 74 per cent more infectious than earlier versions of the virus, the UK and South […]
When the coronavirus pandemic was first declared, there was only hope—and a big rush on science’s part—for a vaccine that might work. Now, it seems hard to keep them straight. In less than a year, we have gone from learning about the virus to administering shots to more than 4 million people—and we still don’t […]
In these first lumbering weeks of the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history, Dr. Julie Vaishampayan has had a battlefront view of a daunting logistical operation. Vaishampayan is the health officer in Stanislaus County, an almond-growing mecca in California’s Central Valley that has recorded about 40,000 cases of covid-19 and lost 700 people to the […]
Why do we do things that are bad for us—or not do things that are good for us—even in light of overwhelming evidence? As someone with a long career in pharmacy, I have witnessed some pretty dramatic shifts in public health behavior. But I won’t sugarcoat it. It generally takes years—or even decades—of dragging people, […]
The first people have begun to receive vaccines in the UK and US as part of mass vaccination campaigns to immunize people against COVID-19. Excitement is building—finally, the end of the coronavirus crisis is in sight. Since early December, elderly patients and health workers in 50 hospitals across the UK have been given the vaccine […]
With COVID-19 rates spiking in November, and talks of more shutdowns happening in December, the world is impatiently waiting for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. Since the beginning of the virus, researchers have been working on developing a vaccine, but May 15, 2020 marked the beginning of Operation Warp Speed (OWS)—our nation’s ambitious attempt […]
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Barry Bloom, Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Research Professor of Public Health, offers context about the news that two experimental vaccines appear to confer a high level of protection from the coronavirus. Q&A: Barry Bloom CHAN SCHOOL: Within the space of a week, we’ve heard about not […]
Newly released research suggests that levels of antibodies against the coronavirus have declined across the UK population since testing began. Having randomly sampled 365,000 people across the country, the React2 study—which is yet to be peer reviewed—estimates that 6% of the UK population had antibodies against the virus in late June, but that this had […]
Athletes understand that there are two very different approaches that can be taken when training their bodies. For example, lifting heavy weights is a great way to achieve maximum strength. In contrast, low-load high-repetition training is ideal for developing the stamina required for endurance sports. Remarkably, our immune system can be trained in a somewhat […]
