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SA companies, institutions, do U-turn on COVID and vaccine mandates
An increasing number of South African companies and institutions are relaxing or dropping their COVID-19 restrictions, with Standard Bank and Old Mutual being among...
New BA.2.75 Omicron subvariant – and what we know so far
Even as BA.4 and BA.5 continue to climb the charts, crowding out earlier Omicron subvariants, scientists are warning about an even newer strain: BA.2.75....
Lessons from the pandemic: vaccines prevent deaths, and ‘listen to scientists’
As South Africa last week joined the ranks of a growing number of countries which have dropped all COVID-19 restrictions, bringing to an end...
Scientists probe link between COVID symptoms, blood clots
Studies has suggested that fewer than a third of patients who have ongoing COVID symptoms after being hospitalised with the disease feel fully recovered...
Babies’ protection with mothers' COVID jab dips during Omicron – CDC study
Babies younger than six-months-old whose mothers received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine had a lower risk of hospitalisation with the virus, but protection dropped considerably...
FDA panel recommends COVID baby, toddler jab
An advisory committee has recommended that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) give emergency use authorisation (EUA) to both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA...
Milestone delays in babies exposed to COVID in womb – US cohort study
Lags in basic milestones of infancy – rolling over, reaching for objects or babbling – have been observed in babies whose mothers caught COVID-19...
Unvaccinated heart failure patients three times likelier to die from COVID – US study
Heart failure patients unvaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, are three times more likely to die if infected with the virus, compared...
How race, money and where you live affect who survives COVID
When COVID-19 hit South Africa, it was clear it was a disease that showed no prejudice in who was targeted for infection, with the...
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine holds up against Omicron – Discovery analysis
Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine provided strong protection against hospitalisation during SA’s fifth wave of coronavirus infections, suggesting the shot held up against the Omicron sub-lineages...
Nearly everyone in SA has COVID antibodies – SANBS study
The latest COVID seroprevalence survey shows that nearly every adult in South Africa has some antibodies, either from being vaccinated or having had COVID....
Vaccines safe for pregnant women, Wits study confirms
A local study has found there are no major safety concerns regarding the use of mainly the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women.
News24 reports...
Super-antibody UT28K 'active against variants' – Japan study
Recent research from Japan describes a neutralising antibody against COVID-19 that the study team says is active against Omicron as well as several other...
Long COVID impacts heart, lung and kidney – Scottish study
The condition called long COVID, say some experts, could result in a generation affected by disability.
Damage to the lungs and kidneys is common in...
Pfizer and Moderna fare better against variants of concern – Dutch research
A recent Dutch comparison of four COVID-19 vaccinations shows that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines – Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – perform better against the World...
Omicron infection improves immunity more than boosters – 2 US studies
People who are vaccinated and then get infected with Omicron may be primed to overcome a broad range of coronavirus variants, early research, not...
Stillborn baby risk higher for unjabbed mothers – UK meta-analysis
Despite a study showing that the COVID-19 vaccine reduces stillbirths by 15%, figures show that most pregnant women admitted to British hospitals with the...
Newer COVID variants less likely to affect smell and taste – US study
Omicron and other more recent variants of the coronavirus are less likely to have loss of smell and taste as indicators of infection in...
4th jab can give higher immunity than initial booster – Cov-Boost trial
A fourth dose of a COVIF vaccine can ramp up the body’s immune defences beyond the peak achieved after a third dose, research suggests.
A...
Unjabbed patients face variants risk; obesity weakens vaccine protection – Recent studies
A summary of some recent studies on COVID-19 include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be...
Cognitive problems from severe COVID similar to 20 years of ageing – UK study
Cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained between 50 and 70 years of age, and the equivalent to...
Vital signs, not comorbidities, more accurate predictors of death, severe illness for COVID patients
Vital signs and lab results at the time of hospital admission – not comorbidities and demographics – are the most accurate predictors of disease...
Raised levels of PTSD in family of ICU COVID patients – US cohort study
A US study has found that having a relative with COVID-19 in the ICU is associated with a high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder...
Only ‘marginal benefits’ from second COVID booster – Israeli study
Administering a second COVID-19 vaccine booster offers little benefit for healthy healthcare professionals, according to a study at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Aviv.
In...
COVID death rate three times higher than for flu in hospital patients– Spanish study
Adults hospitalised early in the pandemic with COVID-19 were at more than triple the risk of death than those with influenza, despite the flu...
FDA authorises breath test to detect COVID-19 in three minutes
A breath test that can pick up COVID-19 infections in patients in less than three minutes has been granted emergency use authorisation by the...
Sisonke study: 10 lessons learnt for vaccination scale-up during epidemics
Ten lessons drawn from the groundbreaking Sisonke study – a multicentre, open-label, single-arm phase 3B vaccine implementation study of healthcare workers (HCW) in South...
Boosters up to 68% effective against hospitalisation following Omicron reinfection – CDC study
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with Epic Research, which shares data to advance medicine and public health, to determine...
Fourth COVID jab gives 76% added protection against death – Israeli study
Compared with a third vaccine dose, a fourth Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 shot lowered the risk of infection, symptomatic infection, hospitalisation, severe illness, and death from...
Young women’s mental health worst hit by COVID – UCT and MRC
COVID-19 restrictions led to increased experiences of stress and anxiety among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa, found a study by the...
COVID-19 link to 5x higher risk of thrombotic events – Swedish cohort study
A large Swedish study has linked COVID-19 with greater risk for various of thrombotic events in the months after infection, that of deep vein...
Outpatient convalescent plasma halves COVID-19 hospitalisation – US multicentre study
Early outpatient administration of high-titre SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma reduced hospitalisations by more than 50%, according to a US nationwide multicentre study.
The research, led by...
WHO study finds 800m people in Africa had COVID-19
More than two-thirds of Africans have been infected by COVID-19 since the pandemic started – 97 times more than reported confirmed cases, according to...
Second Pfizer booster only protects short-term against Omicron – Large Israeli study
A second booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides additional short-term protection against Omicron infections and severe illness among older adults, according to a...
COVID doubles perinatal risk in pregnancy – Large Kaiser study
Unvaccinated pregnant women infected with coronavirus have more than twice the risk of having dangerous sepsis or other severe medical problems, than those who...
Largest yet Ivermectin trial fails to show benefit in COVID outpatients
Early treatment with Ivermectin did not result in a lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital due to progression of COVID-19 or of...
Molnupiravir demonstrates benefits against COVID – 3 studies at ECCMID conference
Three new studies to be presented at the upcoming European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) conference at the end of the...
Over-stimulated immune system may drive post-COVID cognitive changes – Small US study
An over-stimulated immune system – possibly triggered by ongoing vascular injury and repair – may be behind persistent post-COVID cognitive changes, according to preliminary work...
COVID-19 with flu substantially increases risk of severe illness and death
Hospitalised adults with COVID-19 and flu at the same time are at substantially greater risk of severe disease and death compared with patients who...
Positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines: A cross-country analysis
A study led by South African researchers has shed light on the growing reluctance in many parts of the world to be vaccinated, with...