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Lowering COVID-19 death risk with antibody-rich convalescent plasma — Mayo study
Administration of antibody-rich convalescent plasma to adult patients hospitalised with COVID-19 who did not require mechanical ventilation was linked to a lower risk of...
Fact File: Making sense of the Ivermectin controversy
Fanned by despair and social media, there has been a massive movement, both locally and internationally, for the immediate repurposing of anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin...
Metformin may reduce mortality risk 3x in patients with COVID-19 and diabetes
Use of the diabetes drug metformin – before a diagnosis of COVID-19 – is associated with a threefold decrease in mortality in COVID-19 patients...
72% in BAME communities 'unlikely' to vaccinate — UK Household Longitudinal Study
Advisers from the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have raised fresh concerns over COVID vaccine uptake among black, Asian and minority ethnic...
Suicide rates rise sharply in COVID-19's second wave — Japan Health ministry data
Suicide rates in Japan have risen sharply in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell...
Why COVID-19 pneumonia lasts longer, causes more damage than typical pneumonia
Bacteria or viruses like influenza that cause pneumonia can spread across large regions of the lung over the course of hours. In the modern...
New York Times: Double-layered cloth and the latest CDC Brief on masking
Laying out the science behind mask-wearing Linsey Marr, an expert in virus transmission at Virginia Tech says in a report in The New York...
Catching up to ‘Long COVID’ — Diagnostic and treatment information, at last
‘Long COVID’ – a version of COVID-19 that results in continued illness of a significant number of people for many months after the initial...
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine neutralises SARS-COV-2 with rapid transmission mutation
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have announced results from an in vitro study conducted by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)...
REMAP-CAP trial: UK to roll out tocilizumab and sarilumab for ICU patients
Patients across the UK who are admitted to intensive care units due to COVID-19 are set to receive a treatment that can reduce the...
First clinical efficacy data on ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine — UK, Brazil and South Africa
Researchers have reported on the first clinical efficacy results of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in a pooled analysis of phase 2/3 trials in the UK and...
Early convalescent plasma may lower risk and progression of COVID in seniors — Argentine trial
Plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients with high levels of antibodies appeared to delay or stop progression of illness in mildly ill older adults infected...
CDC reports more allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, but cases remain few
Twenty-nine people in the US have developed anaphylaxis after being vaccinated against COVID-19 since the vaccine rollout began, health officials have reported, with cases...
COVID-19 immunity likely to be long lasting — studies
Two studies have demonstrated that COVID-19 immune responses last as long as 8 months, although the authors focus on different reasons. A third, study...
Trio of studies demonstrate low risk of in-person COVID transmission in schools
A trio of studies demonstrate low risk of COVID-19 infection and spread in schools, including limited in-school COVID-19 transmission in North Carolina, few cases...
Large study finds higher burden of acute brain dysfunction for COVID-19 ICU patients
COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care in the early months of the pandemic were subject to a significantly higher burden of delirium and coma...
Patients report loss of smell in 86% of mild COVID-19 cases — European hospital study
A reduced sense of smell, or olfactory dysfunction, is one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19. A recent study has examined the symptom's...
Hospital air frequently contaminated with COVID-19 but of low viability
A study of hospital air contamination has found that 17.4% of air samples from environments near COVID-19 patients were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, the...
New British COVID-19 variant raises R number and affects more under-20s
The new SARS-CoV-2 variant is growing rapidly, is more transmissible than other variants, and affecting a greater proportion of under 20s. The new variant...
ACTIV-4 anticoagulation prophylaxis trial 'paused' over safety concerns
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) ACTIV-4 Trial of blood thinners has paused enrolment of critically ill COVID-19 patients, reports MedicalBrief.
There are three...
Exotics hog the headlines but it's an old workhorse that has done the COVID-19 job
One year on, US hospital doctors say the best and most reliable drug for COVID-19 is cheap, familiar, and has all the glamour of...
Baricitinib plus remdesivir promising in severe COVID-19 — NIH clinical trial
The combination of baricitinib, an anti-inflammatory drug, and remdesivir, an antiviral, reduced time to recovery for people hospitalised with COVID-19, according to clinical trial...
COVID-19 and vitamin D: 'Insufficient evidence’ as a treatment — NICE Guideline
There is currently insufficient evidence to support taking vitamin D solely to prevent or treat COVID-19, according to new guidance, according to a rapid...
Storm Chaser: AstraZeneca's antibody therapy trial recruits its first participants
British researchers have opened a new vaccine research centre with two clinical trials testing a long-acting antibody combination treatment to protect against COVID-19, reports...
Using dogs to detect COVID-19 through sweat samples — French proof-of-concept study
A French study provides evidence that detection dogs may be able to discriminate between sweat samples from symptomatic COVID-19 individuals and those from asymptomatic...
Lower mortality for hospitalised COVID-19 patients taking Ivermectin – ICON study
In hospitalised patients with COVID-19, Ivermectin was associated with lower mortality compared to treatment without the antiparasitic drug, a US hospital study has found.
Researchers...
FDA finding: Moderna vaccine 'highly protective' against COVID-19
The coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna is highly protective, according to new data released this week, reports The New York Times, setting the stage...
UV-emitting LED lights found to kill a coronavirus — Israeli proof of concept study
The coronavirus can be killed efficiently, quickly, and cheaply using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs), according to a study from Tel Aviv University (TAU). The...
Outrage over COVID-19 vaccine inequities: Rich world hogs supplies and patents
Despite the COVID-19 global mantra of ‘No one is safe until we are all safe’, the world's wealthy nations have not only hogged vaccine...
Solidarity trial: 4 repurposed antivirals have little or no effect on hospitalised COVID-19 patients
Repurposed antiviral drugs - remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon - to treat COVID-19 appear to have little or no effect on patients hospitalised for...
5-day course of ivermectin may reduce duration of COVID-19
Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic agent, was found to be an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 replication in the laboratory and a Bangladesh study found that it...
South Africa's lockdown was based on 'crude and exaggerated' evidence
South Africa’s strict lockdown over five weeks had devastating societal consequences but did not achieve its COVID-19 objectives, writes Seán Mfundza Muller of the University...
Anticoagulants do not seem to protect against severe COVID-19 — Karolinska Institutet
DOAC (direct oral anticoagulant) pills are used in the treatment of atrial fibrillation by preventing blood clots but although blood clots are thought to...
Female reproductive steroids may protect against COVID-19
Female reproductive hormones may play a role in the sex bias that has been observed in COVID-19, according to an article in Trends in...
UK statisticians: 'Spiking' of COVID-19 saliva tests is distorting claimed accuracy
Saliva tests for COVID-19, which are being introduced for NHS workers as part of the government’s mass testing programme, pick up only 13% of...
Convalescent plasma flops for severe COVID-19
Researchers in Argentina have found that neither clinical status nor overall mortality was improved in COVID-19 patients with severe pneumonia treated with convalescent plasma...
Danish Mask Study: Why both proponents and opponents of masking hate it
The Danish Mask Study has caused a furore, writes MedicalBrief. It has been seized upon by those militantly opposed to wearing masks as proof...
Update on the RECOVERY trial – Aspirin added
Aspirin is the latest drug to be added to the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial, the chair of the trial told British...
AstraZeneca seeks WHO emergency approval for its up to 90% effective vaccine
AstraZeneca said Monday, 23 November, that trials showed its coronavirus vaccine AZD1222 was up to 90% effective and that it would immediately apply for...
A week of grim global COVID-19 milestones — except in Africa
The past week saw the United States hit more than 12m COVID-19 infections, with a quarter of a million dead, while Europe was caught...