The coronavirus vaccine was developed faster than any vaccine in history. It took just 332 days from the first sequencing of the virus genome to the first vaccines given to the public.
The new rapid test is available without a prescription, but only 20 million are set to be sold by the middle of next year.
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Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
A new over-the-counter COVID-19 test has been authorized by the FDA. Though it can be used to test people with and without symptoms, moderate cost and limited production mean it isn’t a game-changer.
Although monetary incentives work, there are potential drawbacks.
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Millions of Americans say they won’t get the vaccine. Will money change their minds? And is luring them with cash the right approach?
Tony Potts, a 69-year-old retiree, removes his face mask for a temperature check just before receiving his first injection in a phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial sponsored by Moderna. Potts is one of 30,000 participants in the Moderna trial.
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The vaccines that will first be used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will have gone through a special approval process with the FDA. but just what is this expedited process?
Popular pain medicines sold over the counter could be bad for a developing fetus. A pharmacologist explains why, and why the FDA is warning pregnant women to avoid these drugs.
How much longer must society wait for a vaccine?
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Yelena Ionova, University of California, San Francisco
There are ingredients in your pills other than the one designed to treat your ailments. Those unnamed ingredients can alter how you respond to a medicine or even make you sick.
Easy, fast coronavirus testing is critical to controlling the virus.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The new BinaxNOW antigen test is quick, easy, accurate and cheap. It could solve the US testing problem, but the emergency use authorization only allows people with COVID-19 symptoms to get tested.
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, right, and President Trump at a Coronavirus Task Force meeting March 19, 2020.
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The rushed emergency approval for a treatment that might help COVID-19 patients has raised questions: Is the FDA abandoning its own guidelines?
Ordinary food coloring suspended in tiny droplets in the air can generate oxygen free radicals that collide with airborne virus particles.
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Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Testing large numbers of people regularly would reduce the spread of the coronavirus in the US. Laboratory testing is slow and expensive, but rapid screening tests could be the answer.
Corporate boards with women on them are more likely to recall dangerous products.
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The FDA has sped up its approval process for coronavirus treatments, creating a new division to expedite the regulatory process. But is safety being sidelined for speed?
Ticks can carry bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
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Drugs and vaccines to fight the coronavirus are already in clinical trials. It is important to understand the difference between each step in this process as efforts to fight COVID-19 continue.
Professor and Director of Quantitative Biosciences Institute & Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco