House Hearing Grapples With COVID Origin and ‘Lab-Leak’ Theory
Experts fielded questions about the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a “lab leak” in Wuhan, China, during a hearing of a subcommittee for the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology, on Wednesday. Two microbiologists explored a range of theories, with neither ready to scrap the possibility of a “lab-associated mechanism.” One of […]
Protein ‘big bang’ reveals molecular makeup for medicine and bioengineering
Proteins have been quietly taking over our lives since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We’ve been living at the whim of the virus’s so-called “spike” protein, which has mutated dozens of times to create increasingly deadly variants. But the truth is, we have always been ruled by proteins. At the cellular level, they’re responsible for pretty […]
Big Jump in Monthly Average Hospital Admission for Alcoholic Hepatitis Post-Pandemic
Surges in alcohol purchases and use during the pandemic drove up hospital admissions for alcoholic hepatitis, and there may be a negative impact on alcoholic liver disease in the future, researchers from Canada reported. An average of 69.5 patients with alcoholic hepatitis required hospitalization in the period after April 2020 — the initial lockdown time […]
A New Report Shows Just How Hard 2020 Was On Moms
Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has loosened its grip a bit on the United States, it is easy to forget just how devastating the past year was for millions of mothers in this country — and elsewhere. But a new report from the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank, estimates that around the […]
HHS Secretary Supports Telehealth Expansion, Emphasizes Need for Equity
Should telehealth expansions be made permanent after the COVID-19 pandemic? And if they do become law, how can equity be ensured? HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Jack Resneck Jr., MD, president-elect of the American Medical Association (AMA), weighed in on these and other questions during an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday. Over 43 […]
Virus that causes COVID-19 can find alternate route to infect cells: COVID-19 drugs, vaccines still effective against mutating virus
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists identified how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, gets inside cells to cause infection. All current COVID-19 vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics were designed to disrupt this route into cells, which requires a receptor called ACE2. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that […]