Latest healthcare news
America appears to be Ahead of us in What You Are Allowed to do Following Full Vaccination
The CDC in America has published guidelines for what you can and cannot do when you have been fully vaccinated. Here in the United Kingdom we must abide by the guidelines as set out by the Government and Public Health England. It is, however, interesting to...
Body Mass Index and the Risk of Severe COVID-19 Requiring Hospitalisation, ITU Admission and Invassive Mechanical Ventilation
The CDC in their weekly morbidity and mortality report March 12th 2021 looked at this issue. They found that individuals with a BMI near the threshold between healthy weight and overweight generally had the lowest risk for hospitalisations, ICU admission and...
Does having been vaccinated by other non COVID-19 vaccines protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection?
An interesting article published by Pawlowski and others in Scientific Reports published 26th February 2021 investigated this issue. Conventionally, vaccinations are intended to train the adaptive immune system by generating an antigen specific immune...
Can COVID-19 Affect Fertility?
The BMJ clears this controversial topic up for us in its news published 19th February. New expert guidance dictates that there is absolutely no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can affect the fertility of women or men. The guidance published by the...
What is the New Norm going to be following the COVID Pandemic and what is the Roadmap to the Ending of Lockdown in England?
The government has set out their roadmap for ending lockdown in a 60 plus page document. The document, however, warns that vaccines on their own may not be enough to prevent a significant proportion of people being infected whilst the restrictions are...
Long-haul COVID, How Can We Learn from other Infection Triggered Illnesses?
Aucott and Redman discuss this in their letter in The Lancet published March 5th 2021. 115 million people worldwide have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with extensive implications for morbidity and mortality. Description...
COVID News Round Up
Matt Hancock announced at the press conference on Friday 5th March that there was no evidence of onward transmission of the Brazil Coronavirus variant of concern. He informed that the mystery person infected with it had been found. Apparently, officials had been...
What is the Impact of the Vaccine Rollout on the Second Wave and Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in England?
A preprint published in MedRxiv by Ward and others on 26th February 2021 reviews this. The vaccination programme which began in England in December 2020 gave priority to administering the first dose to the largest number of older individuals, health care and care home...
How Long is One Infectious for Following COVID-19 Infection?
An interesting article published by Owusu in the Journal of Infectious Diseases 27th February 2021 looked at this issue. They collected serial nasopharyngeal specimens at various time points from 109 individuals with PCR confirmed COVID-19. They...
How Will Coronavirus Evolve?
An interesting article published in the Scientific American by William Haseltine looks at this issue. With declining rates of new infections and the rollout of vaccines, some are beginning to speak of an end to COVID-19. But that rhetoric in Haseltine's...
