Some viruses go extinct, while others stick around. The virus that causes COVID-19 seems likely to remain with us for the long term.
In February 2021, a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.
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The research community is taking a closer look at the lab-leak hypothesis for the origin of COVID-19, prompting discussion about the risks and benefits of engineering viruses.
A swarm of bats flies out of a cave near Phnom Sampeau, Cambodia.
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A bat virus discovered a decade ago in Cambodia indicates that pangolin trafficking remains a credible explanation for the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Transmission electron micrograph of particles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus at the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is one ten-thousandth of a millimeter in diameter. How can such a microscopic organism have such an immense impact on global health?
A worker inspects vials of a SARS CoV-2 vaccine for COVID-19 produced by SinoVac at its factory in Beijing on Sept. 24, 2020.
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Our first exposure to a pathogen, either naturally or via vaccination, can affect how our immune system responds in the future to the same or similar pathogens.
COVID-19 has not been as devastating in South Africa as initially feared.
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Some insights into previous outbreaks of human coronaviruses may be useful in explaining the comparatively ‘low’ numbers of COVID-19 infections and mortality in people with HIV in South Africa.
Many people are reporting persistent symptoms like headaches and shortness of breath after two months or more since being infected.
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.
Geoffrey McKillop (front) with his partner Nicola Dallet McConaghie as they left the hospital where he was discharged after surviving coronavirus.
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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.
The best-known example of a zoonotic pandemic is HIV/AIDS, which originated from chimpanzees.
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Zoologists have known for decades that some of the most devastating viral infections originate from animals. Their data and research can be used in efforts to prevent pandemics.
Researchers have been trying to understand a possible link between blood pressure medications and COVID-19.
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The use of antihypertension medication during the coronavirus pandemic has been a subject of hot debate but people should be cautious about simple conclusions.
The Egyptian pipistrelle bat is one of seven bat species associated with spreading the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
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Bats have been the reservoir for recent disease outbreaks, including SARS and the current COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s human activity that allows the virus to cross over.
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.
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.
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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.
This Sunda pangolin found throughout Southeast Asia is currently considered to be critically endangered.
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When a new virus emerges and triggers a pandemic, it is important to trace its origins. Knowing more about how the virus jumped species in the first place can help curb future zoonotic diseases.
In the most severe cases, COVID-19 patients need oxygen pumped directly into their airways, or even be hooked up to a machine that does the job of their heart and lungs.
An employee in Nantong, China, checks the production of chloroquine phosphate, an old drug for the treatment of malaria.
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A medicinal chemist addresses questions about chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: what it is, whether it is effective against COVID-19 and whether it can treat and/or prevent this disease.
Stray cows rest on a New Delhi street during a one-day civil curfew to combat coronavirus. Cattle may have been central to a coronavirus outbreak in 1890.
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