South Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was one of ‘intervene first and ask questions later’. Now is the time for government to state clearly what its strategic endgame is.
Remdesivir is an experimental medicine that is showing promise in clinical trials for COVID-19.
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Gilead’s drug Remdesivir showed preliminary positive results in clinical trials. But what is this drug and how, exactly, does it work?
Community members wearing protective face masks as they queue for aid in Zandspruit informal settlement, north of Johannesburg.
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Wearing masks is being introduced in conjunction with maintaining a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres and following hygiene measures such as hand washing.
Visitors look at new anti-SARS outfits for medical workers on display Thursday Nov. 6, 2003 in Shanghai, China, as the country braced for a resurgence. The disease never made a comeback.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
COVID-19 and SARS are both deadly – but different. SARS symptoms were quick to appear, making it easier to contain. Because health officials were able to contain it, the virus died off.
Exercise has many benefits, including boosting defenses against complications that occur during SARS-CoV-2 infections.
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The health benefits of exercise for our mind and body are well documented. But did you know that exercise could lower the risks of the most dangerous COVID-19 complication?
Your body wants you to freak out about germs so you avoid them.
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Human psychology has evolved to avoid situations that could lead to infection. Behavioral choices now could have long-term effects on how people interact with others and the world.
The science is far from certain, but it appears at least a proportion of people who have had COVID-19 will be protected from another infection – at least initially.
Nic Geard, The University of Melbourne; Jodie McVernon, The University of Melbourne et Katherine Gibney, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Testing and isolating cases only after they develop symptoms might not be enough to prevent further outbreaks of COVID-19. Sentinel surveillance, by testing randomly in the community, can go further.
Testing in cells is an important and exciting first step.
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Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, identified nine existing drugs that show promise to treat COVID-19. The proteins they target haven’t been tried before.
A black swan event must meet three criteria: it must be an outlier, must have a major impact and must be declared predictable in hindsight.
(Buiobuione/Wikimedia)
The danger of treating COVID-19 as an astronomically rare and improbable event is that we will treat it as such and fail to prepare for the next pandemic. And there will be another pandemic.
Even if you’re feeling fine, you might be infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
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COVID-19 causes blood clots in some people. If these clots get into the lungs, brain or heart, they can cut off blood supply and oxygen, causing pulmonary embolisms, strokes or heart attacks.
What would Darwin consider the best adaptation to protect against the coronavirus?
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Who is most likely to survive an infection of the new coronavirus? Two immunologists explain that it is those who mount exactly the right immune response – not too weak, not too strong.
The steady rate of genetic changes lets researchers recreate how a virus has travelled.
nextstrain.org
Bert Ely, University of South Carolina et Taylor Carter, University of South Carolina
Every time the virus copies itself it makes mistakes, creating a trail that researchers can use to build a family tree with information about where it’s traveled, and when.
The government plans to monitor sewage for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. And while this holds promise to tracking future local outbreaks, there are also some sticky ethical questions to consider.
Wildlife markets, where live animals are sold and slaughtered, are an integral part of the global wildlife trade.
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Ecological systems are at breaking point and a global economic collapse is under way. It’s time to invest in risk mitigation to prevent another COVID-type disaster.
A woman with diabetes monitors her glycemia on the eighth day of a strict lockdown in France aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.
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What does high blood sugar have to do with vulnerability to COVID-19? And is there a role for the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine in lowering blood sugar in COVID-19 patients?
A recent study suggested the coronavirus could spread up to four metres. But the evidence isn’t strong enough to suggest we should change social distancing advice from 1.5 metres.
As many as 80% of those infected with coronavirus don’t show symptoms. The reasons why are likely to come down to how your immune system responds to the virus.
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