Latest healthcare news
The Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine
COVID-19 Vaccines - Have we got the capacity to develop a vaccine at rapid speed? An interesting article by Nicole Lurie and others in the New England Journal of Medicine May 21, 2020 looks at the possibility of developing a COVID-19 vaccine at pandemic speed....
Will COVID bring Solidarity?
After COVID-19 is an Alternative Society Possible? This comes from an interesting editorial by Richard Horton published May 30 in The Lancet. He asks how do we make sense of this pandemic? He quotes the first interpretations from Slavoj Žižek a prolific...
Lockdown – Which is Safer a Coffee or the Gym?
Lockdown Easing - Is It Safer to Visit a Coffee Shop or a Gym? The New York times looked into this and using anonymised mobile phone location data from April 2019 they measured how crowded businesses get. They found: Fast-food restaurants tended to be small and...
Coronavirus and Sneezing
COVID-19 and a Sneeze How far can human sneeze droplets be ejected? This was measured by Lydia Bourouiba and written in the New England Journal of Medicine in August 2016. She videoed the human sneeze and measured the emission of a sneeze cloud produced by...
COVID-19 and Vitamin D
Vitamin D and COVID-19 As we are now just coming out of the lockdown and have been banished to our homes. What might this lack of sunlight affect? An article in The Lancet looked at whether being deficient in vitamin D resulted in a poorer outcome if...
Who is effected by Coronavirus
COVID-19 and Who It Effects Severely Although some of those patients who are severely affected by Coronavirus are of an increased age and people with pre-existing health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, this is not always the case. ...
COVID-19 and Border Controls
Why Are Travel Restrictions Imposed and What Is The Evidence Behind Them During This COVID-19 Crisis? This is a fundamental question and requires an evidence based answer, particularly when trade is vital to our economy. An article by Kelly Leigh and others in The...
COVID-19 and Anti-hypertensive Drugs
COVID-19 and the Use of Antihypertensive Drugs Known As the ACE2 Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers Known As Arbs This has become a highly contentious topic during this COVID-19 pandemic. Initially there existed no evidence...
Coronavirus and Chinese Medicine
COVID-19 came from China; Can We Use Chinese Herbal Medicines to Treat COVID-19? An interesting correspondence from The Lancet expands further on this. Chinese officials announced at a press conference on April 14, 2020 that three patent herbal drugs had been...
Risk Factors for Coronavirus
So What Are The Risk Factors and Identifying Demographics for Testing Positive to SARS-CoV-2? A study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases by the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre looked at patients who were...
