CORONAVIRUS NEWS

Molnupiravir (taken as an 800mg dose twice daily for five days) does not reduce hospital admissions or deaths in vaccinated adults with COVID-19 infection who are at higher risk of mortality, according to the results of a randomised controlled trial, published in The Lancet journal. However, the patients treated at home with molnupiravir recovered quicker compared to the control group.

Among those who have recovered from a coronavirus infection, vaccinated people have a halved risk of becoming infected a second time or contracting COVID-19 again with severe symptoms compared to those who are not vaccinated.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published its latest COVID-19 variant technical briefing. It contains epidemiological data and updated analysis of COVID-19 variants currently circulating in the UK.

Research led by The University of Queensland has found COVID-19 activates the same inflammatory response in the brain as Parkinson’s disease.

The risk of developing myocarditis — or inflammation of the heart muscle — is seven times higher with a COVID-19 infection than with the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recent study by Penn State College of Medicine scientists.

If a woman contracts COVID-19 during her pregnancy, the infection, even if it’s mild, damages the placenta’s immune response to further infections, a UW Medicine-led study has found.

A McMaster University-led study has found that most people infected with the SARS-CoV2 virus recover within 12 months, irrespective of the severity.

COVID-19 infection increases the risk of potentially life-threatening blood clots for at least 49 weeks, according to a new study of health records of 48 million unvaccinated adults from the first wave of the pandemic.

Existing health disparities amongst ethnic minorities with diabetes have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study published in the journal Diabetes Care has reported.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have investigated how antiviral proteins called interferons interact with SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19.

Twenty different COVID-19 variants were effectively identified and neutralised after a third booster, according to the new study for which the University of Surrey provided the crucial antigenic map of variants of concern.

Patients who contract COVID-19 face a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, particularly in the three months following infection, according to a new study by Emma Rezel-Potts, Martin Gulliford, and colleagues of King’s College London, United Kingdom, publishing July 19th in the open access journal, PLOS Medicine.

Investigators at Cedars-Sinai have proposed a theory for how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infects the body. Their hypothesis, published in Frontiers in Immunology, could explain why some people still have symptoms long after the initial infection.

Some public venues may need better ventilation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 following growing evidence of the potential for ‘long distance’ airborne transmission of the disease, suggests research published by The BMJ.

Cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained between 50 and 70 years of age and is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points, say a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

Researchers from the University of Florida Gainesville showed last December that hospitalised patients who seemingly recovered from severe COVID-19 run more than double the risk of dying within the next year, compared to people who experienced only mild or moderate symptoms and who had not been hospitalised, or who never caught the illness.

The NHS is rolling out a cutting-edge, life-saving COVID treatment, which is proven to save lives when given to the most seriously ill COVID patients in hospital.

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have combined evidence from 110 previous COVID-19 studies and found that unvaccinated individuals who contract the virus when they already have high blood pressure, diabetes or major heart damage are up to nine times more likely to suffer serious outcomes, including death, lung failure, admission to intensive care and kidney problems.

An online breathing and wellbeing programme helps improve quality of life and breathlessness for people recovering from COVID-19, according to a new study.

Yale researchers have identified a particular immune response pathway that leads to severe illness and death in people infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.