With vaccine shortages looming, experts are debating whether it is important to receive two doses or whether it’s better to give one dose to more people and give a second when the supply is better.
There is now a third vaccine that prevents COVID-19 infections. It isn’t quite as effective as the other two vaccines but it has advantages that may make it the frontrunner.
Y-shaped proteins called antibodies are vital for attacking and destroying the virus.
Dr_Microbe/Getty Images
Some have suggested the US allow healthy people to return to normal life, catch the coronavirus and get the population to herd immunity. The science says this plan is doomed to fail from the start.
Are antibodies that attack a patient’s own organs contributing to severe forms of COVID-19? A new study suggests specific antibody tests that may reveal the answer.
Vaccines work by teaching your immune system about new viruses. Your immune cells are very clever – they will remember what they learnt, and protect you if you encounter that virus in the future.
Are patients with severe COVID-19 victims of their own immune response?
JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/Getty Images
Patients suffering from severe COVID-19 may be experiencing a rogue antibody response similar to that seen in autoimmune diseases. The findings offer new approaches for COVID-19 therapy.
Both President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
The president and first lady Melania Trump have both tested positive for the coronavirus. Here’s what the physicians and scientists know about the best treatments for the disease it causes.
This antibody adopts a Y-shape. The arms of the Y make up the part of the antibody that binds to the target.
ALFRED PASIEKA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Antibodies are great for neutralizing viruses. But they are big and bulky. Antibody engineers are now creating smaller synthetic antibody-like molecules that may be better for fighting COVID-19.
A lab technician holds a vial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate during testing at the Chula Vaccine Research Center, run by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand on May 25, 2020.
(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Will a vaccine for COVID-19 be safe? Animal testing, human clinical trials and post-approval surveillance give us good grounds to believe that a future approved vaccine will work and be safe.
Nanotechnology has an impressive record against viruses.
An artist’s impression of antibodies (red and blue) responding to an infection with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (purple).
KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images
If antibody levels drop dramatically after an infection, what does that mean for immunity? An expert explains how B and T cells contribute to immunity and why antibodies don’t tell the full story.
Reports describe a Hong Kong man who was reinfected with the coronavirus after returning from Europe. Does that mean he wasn’t immune after the first infection?
A nurse holds plasma donated by a man who recovered from COVID-19.
Guillermo Legaria /Getty Images South America
In the blood of COVID-19 survivors are antibodies that can defeat SARS-CoV-2. Researchers are testing whether these antibodies can be collected and injected into others to save them from the virus.
Experts are confident that there will be a vaccine next year.
PenWin /iStock / Getty Images Plus
As grim as things are with the pandemic raging in the US and the mounting death toll, there are many reasons to be optimistic there will be a vaccine by early next year.