covid-19

With the pandemic that has affected now about 53 million patients across the world, U.S. positive cases are surging every day. The drugmaker Moderna announced a 94.5% affective coronavirus vaccine. Both Pfizer and Moderna are preparing to apply to the FDA for authorization to begin distributing…

In Madrid, Spain, Covid-19 patients are overwhelmingly filling hospitals and health care centers, which is leading to healthcare professionals increasingly unable to detect serious illnesses such as cancer cases. There have been more than 50 lawsuits filed by one association that helps patients…

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic before masks were mandated, researchers in Denmark conducted a study to determine mask effectiveness. They gathered 6,000 participants and recommended some to wear masks and the others to be the control with no masks. The study did not find a strong indication that…

John Yang volunteered to participate in the phase 3 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial. The Moderna vaccine has been 94.5% effective and is waiting FDA approval. Yang chose to take part in the trial because he is considered high risk and would rather have the vaccine sooner rather than later. He…

Following the announcement of Pfizer's vaccine success last week, Moderna has announced its preliminary results. While Pfizer had a 90% effective vaccine, Moderna's vaccine had 94.5% efficacy. These vaccines are the first to be made of mRNA, and based on their data, suggest incredible potential for…

U.S. cases hit a daily record of 68,767 over a 7-day average on Sunday. On the same day, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows stated that the U.S. was no longer going to control the pandemic but instead focus on a vaccine or therapeutic to manage the pandemic. This comes after Washington’s…

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris say that they will move the pandemic response in an entirely different direction than President Trump. Biden is expected to announce the leaders that will serve on his coronavirus task force. The number one promise on Biden’s plan is…

Amongst some devastating COVID-19 related news this past week—including record daily cases and 1,000+ daily coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S.—there is hope for an end to the pandemic. Pfizer and BioNTech have been developing a vaccine and conducting Phase 3 clinical trials in hopes of…

As the new President-elect, Joe Biden has named thirteen health experts into his Covid-19 Advisory Board. He calls for a stronger and more coordinated handling of the pandemic; a response much different from President Trump's criticisms of leading infectious disease expert Dr. Fauci. With more than…

Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company based in New York, have collaborated with the German drugmaker BioNTech to announce that an early analysis of clinical trials has suggested the robust effectiveness of their new vaccine. Pfizer plans to gain approval for emergency authorization of the vaccine later…

England, along with other European nations, has re-enacted a national lockdown in order to curb the spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the UK. With worries about the second wave of the pandemic being worse than the first, restrictions will close restaurants, bars, and non-essential businesses…

Minks found in Denmark have contracted the coronavirus and transferred a mutated variant back to humans. The Danish government has decided to kill millions of minks as a precaution. The mink is currently the only known animal case to cause this mutation and retransmission. The mutation did not…

Scientists are becoming more aware of the deadly effects of the coronavirus on the vascular system. For serious COVID-19 infections, the virus can alter the endothelial cells which are inside blood vessels. People who died from COVID-19 have more blood clots and damage to the endothelial cells than…

Scientists from Columbia, Cornell, and the Netherlands may have developed a useful tool against COVID-19. The nasal spray uses a lipoprotein to prevent the COVID-19 virus from fusing with the cell. So far, the study has found that ferrets are protected. The spray could be useful since it is cheaper…