A search for the ‘missing link’ in the chain of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has uncovered two close cousins of the new coronavirus in shipments of pangolins being smuggled into China. It’s important to note that the discovery by researchers from across Hong Kong and China falls well short of identifying these precious mammals as the source
COVID Near You was built by a group of tech volunteers to help the public easily report COVID-19 symptoms or testing activity. Using these reports, the tracker maps this information to provide local and national views of the illness. The site is a sister tool of Flu Near You, a brainchild of Ending Pandemics and Boston Children’s
Clinical and design considerations will be published online; goal is to support rapid scale-up of device production to alleviate hospital shortages. One of the most pressing shortages facing hospitals during the Covid-19 emergency is a lack of ventilators. These machines can keep patients breathing when they no longer can on their own, and they can
Two teams of infectious disease researchers in Italy say they have further analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 genome from samples acquired locally to generate early data that reveal a level of genetic variability suggesting the rapidly spreading virus’s genome is stable. The findings, developed using a new next-generation sequencing (NGS) research assay from Thermo Fisher Scientific, increase
Wuhan researchers have published a non peer-reviewed anedoctical clinical paper on a pilot study using convalescent plasma in 10 critical Covid-19 patients In this study, ten severe patients confirmed by real-time viral RNA test were enrolled prospectively. One dose of 200 mL convalescent plasma (CP) derived from recently recovered donors with the neutralizing antibody titers
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow plasma donations from survivors of the novel coronavirus to treat coronavirus patients in the absence of an approved vaccine. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced yesterday that the state health department would begin the treatment, known as convalescent plasma, for the sickest coronavirus patients, echoing an approach
New world-leading research by The University of Western Australia has confirmed that social distancing measures such as working from home, self-isolation, and community contact reduction are highly effective in reducing the number of cases of COVID-19. Researchers used computer modelling to evaluate a range of social distancing measures to determine for the first time which
Google is discussing sharing aggregated and anonymised location data from its apps to show whether people are practising social distancing to combat the Covid-19 diffusion. Travel app Citymapper showed that people in London are still moving far more (39%) than their counterparts in other major European cities (Milan 4% and Madrid 5%). Source New Scientist
IBM, in collaboration with the DOE, launched the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. The Consortium will help aggregate computing capabilities from some of the most powerful and advanced computers in the world to help researchers everywhere better understand COVID-19, its treatments and potential cures. The consortium bring together an unprecedented amount of supercomputing power—16 systems with
The proliferation of fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic has been labelled a dangerous “infodemic“. Fake news spreads faster and more easily today through the internet, social media and instant messaging. These messages may contain useless, incorrect or even harmful information and advice, which can hamper the public health response and add to social disorder
