Latest healthcare news
Coronavirus Vaccine, Who is Going to Get It First?
An editorial in The Lancet dated December 4, 2020 looks at this important issue. There are now several COVID-19 vaccine candidates that seem to be at least 90% efficacious. This was clearly received with much enthusiasm and unquestionable relief. There is a challenge...
COVID-19: Which Rapid Test is the United Kingdom Pinning its Hopes On?
A recent article published in the British Medical Journal dated 7 October 2020 looked at this issue. Rapid diagnostic tests are integral to the government's Moonshot plan to carry out up to 10 million COVID-19 tests a day by early 2021. Jacqui Wise published her...
Viral Load Dynamics
Viral Load Dynamics, Duration of Viral Shedding, Infectiousness of the Various SARS Viruses Looking at SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. How Infectious Are They? This is a systematic review and meta-analysis published in The Lancet November 19 by Cevik and others....
Immunity and Immune Memory Having Contracted SARS-CoV-2 Infection
At last a study published in bioRxiv by Dan and others as a preprint looks at this important topic. Understanding immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 is critical for improving diagnostics and vaccines and assessing the likely future course of the pandemic. The author's...
SARS-CoV-2 at the Airport
The CDC in the United States looked at the risk assessment and management of COVID-19 among travellers arriving at designated US airports between January 17 and September 13, 2020. This was an article published on November 13 by Phillip Dollard and others. Research...
Vaccines and COVID-19
Pfizer-BioNTech announced last week that the efficacy portion of their COVID-19 vaccine trial had been completed. The vaccine prevented 95% of cases of the disease. Professor Stebbings in his daily report evaluated results and suggested that they looked a bit better...
An Interesting New Approach to the Treatment of Patients Admitted to Hospital with COVID-19
An article published November 12 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine by Monk and others looked at the efficacy and safety of inhaled nebulised interferon beta-1a for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. They did a randomised, double blind,...
Vaccines – What Factors will be Associated with the Likelihood of Adults Accepting COVID-19 Vaccination?
An interesting article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association open network by Sarah Kreps and others in November 2020 looked at this key point. They argued that widespread public uptake of the vaccine is crucial to stem the pandemic and examined...
Aerosol Transmission and Infection Risk of COVID-19 in Indoor Environments
An interesting article published by Lelieveld and others in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health looked at this vexing issue. Their results substantiated that airborne transmission in the indoor environment is an important factor. They...
Mental Health and COVID-19
An interesting article published in The Lancet by Taquet and others November 9, 2020 look at the adverse mental health consequences of COVID-19, including anxiety and depression to evaluate whether there was an increased psychiatric risk from infection. They studied...
