Until now, access to the vaccines has been limited. But that’s expected to change.
A woman wears a face mask as she walks by the sculpture ‘The Illuminated Crowd’ on a street in Montréal. Vulnerable people may benefit from measures like face masks even after the COVID-19 pandemic.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Decreases in respiratory infections during the pandemic suggest there may be a continued role for the selective, non-mandated use of measures like masks and social distancing even post-COVID-19.
The delay in finding definitive answers to how novel infectious diseases come about is not unusual. Look at what happened to our search for Ebola virus.
Around 20% of patients may experience severe illness from the Lassa fever virus.
Kateryna Kon/ Shutterstock
Given the small number of people that have been affected, the threat to the wider community is low.
White-tailed deer are one of the few wild species that scientists have found to be infected with the coronavirus – at least so far.
Andrew C/WikimediaCommons
Scientists have been testing captive and wild animals for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. Only a few wild species are known to carry the virus, but many more have been shown to be susceptible.
Some strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) have been associated with cancers, especially cervical cancer.
Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Masks definitely catch some of the virus laden aerosols and droplets - and that will reduce transmission between people and the number of cases of COVID-19.
How can nations prevent more pandemics like COVID-19? One priority is reducing the risk of diseases’ jumping from animals to humans. And that means understanding how human actions fuel that risk.
Experts estimate that close to 90% of the U.S. population must be vaccinated to reach herd immunity for COVID-19.
David McNew/AFP via Getty Images
Vaccination campaigns like the ones that eventually eliminated polio and measles in the United States required decades of education and awareness in order to achieve herd immunity in the U.S. population.
Fruit bats are the main animal host of the nipah virus.
BTS-BotrosTravelSolutions / Pixabay
As winter approaches, every family has a favourite cold remedy, but experts say few work.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and play a potential role in the evolution of life.
NANOCLUSTERING/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Ivan Erill, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Viruses have gotten a bad rap for the many illnesses and pandemics they’ve caused. But viruses are also genetic innovators – and possibly the pioneers of using DNA as the genetic blueprint of life.
Some institutions publish information about their mishaps, while others do not.
Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images
A centralized reporting system for laboratory incidents involving dangerous pathogens in biological research does not exist in the US or internationally.
Evolution explains why the Delta variant spreads faster than the original Wuhan strain. It explains what we might see with future variants. And it suggests how we might step up public health measures.
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity