Deborah Williamson, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; Allen Cheng, Monash University, and Sharon Lewin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Saliva testing is less sensitive than a nasal swab. But in the midst of a public health crisis, in some cases a test with slightly reduced sensitivity may be better than no test at all.
Screening multiple samples with a single test gets more people diagnosed using fewer supplies. Two health policy researchers explain how it works and how it could help the US.
We are slowly figuring out which drugs and therapies are effective against the new coronavirus.
Anton Petrus / Getty Images
During the last six months, news reports have mentioned dozens of drugs that may be effective against the new coronavirus. Here we lay out the evidence and reveal which ones are proven to work. Or not.
The U.S. as a whole is facing a huge surge in coronavirus cases, but the differences between states like New York and Florida are striking.
Kena Betancur/1207979953 via Getty Images
The recent spike in new coronavirus cases in the US is not due to a second wave, but simply the virus moving into new populations or surging in places that opened up too soon.
If a return to the office is on the cards, both employers and employees have a role to play in minimising the risk of COVID-19 spread.
SARS-CoV-2 turns on a cellular switch to build the tubes in this photo – called filopodia – that might help viral particles – the little spheres – spread more easily.
Dr Elizabeth Fischer, NIAID NIH / Bouhaddou et al. Elsevier 2020
Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Kinases are cellular control switches. When they malfunction, they can cause cancer. The coronavirus hijacks these kinases to replicate, and cancer drugs that target them could fight COVID-19.
Hospital and nursing staff wear face masks and observes social distancing guidelines at an event in the U.K.
Ben Birchall /Getty Images
A simple computer model shows that safety measures can significantly impact both the exponential spread of COVID-19 and mortality rates.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beijing on November 6, 2019. Also present is Élisabeth Borne, Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition (left).
Ludovic Marin/AFP
China’s attempts to promote its actions and model of governance while discrediting the EU are not a short-term response to the pandemic, but part of a long-term strategy to build its international power.
Ongoing testing, say the authors, is critical to bringing back amateur sports.
Getty Images / Erik Isakson
Our experts offer safer ways to bring back amateur sports.
Geoffrey McKillop (front) with his partner Nicola Dallet McConaghie as they left the hospital where he was discharged after surviving coronavirus.
Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images
Is it possible that people who recover from COVID-19 will be plagued with long term side effects from the infection? An infectious disease physician reviews the evidence so far.
Today smallpox can only be found in deep freeze inside a few highly secured laboratories, like this one at the CDC in 1980.
CDC
The smallpox virus appears to have been with humanity for millennia before a global vaccination drive wiped it out. Current genome research suggests how smallpox spread and where it came from.
Doctors reported the first cases of MIS-C in April. Learning more about how SARS-CoV-2 affects children is essential to the safe reopening of communities.
(Pexels/August de Richelieu)
A rare new disease syndrome appears to be caused by an overactive immune response in children, often hitting weeks after exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Screening for symptoms can catch some cases of COVID-19, but about people who are infected but not showing any symptoms?
AP Photo/John Raoux
Monica Gandhi, University of California, San Francisco
There is a lot of confusion and concern around asymptomatic spread of SARS-C0V-2. An infectious disease expert explains how many people are asymptomatic and how they can spread the virus.
The body has many natural defenses against viruses and other pathogens. One antiviral molecule produced in the body is nitric oxide and it is created when we breathe in through the nose.
Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic at Camp Funston in Kansas around 1918.
National Museum of Health and Medicine
A century ago, the influenza pandemic killed about 50 million people. Today we are battling the coronavirus pandemic. Are we any better off? Two social scientists share five reasons we have to be optimistic.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand