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The CDC now urges public indoor masking after a worrisome study on the Delta variant — undermining the vaccine effort. We finally know what drove the CDC to revise its guidance days ago without explanation to recommend that fully vaccinated individuals wear masks in public indoor settings in areas of the country with high or substantial COVID-19 transmission. The Washington Post released a July 29 CDC slide presentation, and the CDC confirmed that one of the unpublished studies cited was pivotal in its decision. The slides largely just confirm what was already known: The Delta variant is more contagious than...

Dr. Leana Wen — “New data suggests that fully vaccinated individuals are not just contracting COVID, but could be carrying higher levels of virus than previously understood, facilitating spread.” New data suggests that fully vaccinated individuals are not just contracting COVID, but could be carrying higher levels of virus than previously understood, facilitating spread, my NBC News colleagues are reporting. New indoor masking guidance expected today. — Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) July 27, 2021 👀 🚨 👀 “CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said recent studies had shown that those vaccinated individuals who do become infected with Covid have just as much viral...

COVID-19 survivors who become reinfected may be less likely to spread the disease or experience severe symptoms, a new study claims. The patients had lower viral loads during their second bouts of the illness than during their initial infection, according to research from the UK’s Office for National Statistics. Scientists looked at around 200 people who contracted the virus again more than 90 days after their first positive test or after four consecutive negative tests. Most people who were reinfected also produced “significantly lower” so-called cycle threshold results in their tests during the first episode of illness, researchers said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is now saying that “new data” shows breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals can spread as much virus as an unvaccinated person.The CDC has now changed course yet again and is now calling for fully vaccinated Americans to wear masks indoors in places with “substantial or high” transmission — including “universal masking” in schools.“In rare occasions, some vaccinated people infected with a delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to others,” Walensky said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “This new science is worrisome, and unfortunately warrants...

Researchers affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania have found that the drug diABZI was highly effective at preventing severe COVID-19 symptoms in mice that were infected with multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, as described in their paper published in Science Immunology on May 18. The researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 hides to avoid the activation of interferons, which are proteins that signal the presence of a virus, in the respiratory tract's epithelial cells. This results in a delayed immune response, which allows the virus to infect the respiratory tract. The researchers sought out to look into additional immune pathways. They looked at diABZI,...

Up to 90 percent of people tested for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada in July carried barely any traces of the virus and it could be because today's tests are 'too sensitive', experts say. Health experts say PCR testing - the most widely used diagnostic test for COVID-19 in the US - are too sensitive and need to be adjusted to rule out people who have insignificant amounts of the virus in their systems because they're likely not contagious. Today the PCR test, which provides a yes or no answer if a patient is infected, doesn't say how...

An Italian infectious disease expert said that the CCP virus is losing its virulence and could disappear on its own without needing a vaccine. Professor Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Italy, said that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, is losing its ability to infect people and the mortality rate is decreasing. “The clinical impression I have is that the virus is changing in severity,” Bassetti told The Telegraph, adding that in March and early April, the patterns of virulence were very different from what...

A study on COVID-19 patients in China links high viral load to worse symptoms Viral load is the amount of a virus inside someone's body during infection As well as reducing the risk of coronavirus spreading social distancing could make people's symptoms milder if they do get the illness, scientists say. It can do this by reducing a patient's viral load - the number of particles of the virus they are first infected with. Having a high viral load gives an infection a 'jump start' and raises the risk of a patient's immune system becoming overloaded in its battle against...

Bloomberg - link and title only.

<p>Muslim burial practices are being blamed for the spread of Ebola.</p> <p>Remains of Secretary General of The Nigeria Supreme General for Islamic Affairs and Seriki of Egbaland, Alhaji Lateeef Adegbite at his burial in 2012.</p> <p>Islam requires family members to personally wash the corpses of loved ones from head to toe. This practise is putting more Africans at risk to catch the disease that is spread by body fluids.</p>

The deadly Ebola virus could be mutating to become even more contagious, a leading U.S scientist has warned. The disease has killed nearly 4,000 people, infecting in excess of 8,000 - the majority in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Communities lie in ruins, thousands of children have been orphaned, millions face starvation but the virus continues its unprecedented pace, invading and destroying vast swathes of these countries.

<p>We know what it is it. It is the SARS virus. But, to which virus family it belongs, we don't know yet," he added.</p> <p>Some researchers believe it is a new type of paramyxovirus, but studies from other labs suggest it may belong to another virus family.</p>

MANILA, Oct. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- There is no evidence to suggest that SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is an airborne virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday in a report. The report, summarizing international research on SARS, concluded that at all outbreak sites, the main route of transmission was direct contact, via the eyes, nose and mouth, with infectious respiratory droplets, the WHO regional office for the Western Pacific said in a statement. "The finding that each patient infected on average three others is consistent with a disease spread by direct contact with virus-laden droplets rather than with airborne...