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People infected with the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 early in the pandemic produced a consistent antibody response, making two main groups of antibodies to bind to the spike protein on the virus's outer surface. However, those antibodies don't bind well to newer variants, a new study found. "Antibody response is quite relevant to everything from understanding natural infection and how we recover from infection to vaccine design. The body has the capability to produce diverse antibody responses—it's estimated we could make a trillion different antibodies. So when you see people are making quite similar antibodies to...

Adenovirus remained infectious after crossing species barrier. A class of virus has for the first time been shown to jump from animals to humans — and then to infect other humans. The virus is described in PLoS Pathogens today1. The team that discovered it might also have found the first human to be infected: the primary carer for a colony of titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus) that suffered an outbreak. The culprit is an adenovirus, one of a class of viruses that cause a range of illnesses in humans, including pneumonia. But this particular strain has never been seen before. It...

Sean Brian Townsend is an independent researcher in the field of information and computer security, a member and the spokesman of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance. He explains how Kaspersky Lab and the FSB hacked and leaked the secret NSA tools under the guise of The Shadow Brokers hacker group. These leaks became the origin of WannaCry, NotPetya, and BadRabbit ransomware attacks. The editors of InformNapalm may not share the opinions of the authors in the [opinion] section, and does not alter the original style of the articles. Antivirus software – myths and reality The activities of antivirus (AV) companies are...

Two Canadian government scientists escorted from the National Microbiology Laboratory amidst an RCMP investigation and internal review have been let go from the Public Health Agency of Canada, CBC News has learned. "The two scientists are no longer employed by the Public Health Agency of Canada as of Jan. 20, 2021," Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations for Health Canada and PHAC, confirmed in an email late Friday. "We cannot disclose additional information, nor comment further, for reasons of confidentiality." Sources say members of the lab's special pathogens unit were called to a meeting on Thursday and told that Dr....

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding the development of technology to package oral vaccines for delivery using pollen. The exterior of pollen grains are shells made of a non-allergenic, naturally durable polymer. The interior of the shell can be emptied, which eliminates any allergy-producing material, and then filled with vaccine, according to GlobalBiodefense.com. The shell’s durability also gives it a substantial advantage over traditional oral tablets because it serves to protect the vaccine while it is in the body. Stomach acids, for example, often limit a medication’s absorption. A pollen shell would protect the vaccine until it reaches...

White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that "the chance of creating an effective vaccine for COVID is not great. Respiratory viruses are notoriously difficult to combat. They mutate at a high rate and their transmission through the air cannot be effectively countered. As we have seen from work on flu vaccines, the typical odds of getting the flu after being vaccinated is about 50%. Ironically, the odds of getting the flu without being vaccinated are also about 50%." Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn confirmed Fauci's assessment, saying that "a vaccine with a 50-50 chance of...

Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, we have seen various versions of face masks people use to protect themselves against the virus, be it store-bought or homemade. But just how effective are these masks? To find out, a Japanese chemistry professor compared three different types of face masks in a science experiment: a surgical mask, a homemade paper towel mask and a homemade cloth mask. Dr Tomoaki Okuda, an associate professor of applied chemistry at Keio University, measured how well the three masks could block airborne particles using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS). To put it simply, the hose...

Newly resurfaced footage of then-President George W. Bush urgently warning of the risks posed by pandemics in 2005 -- "If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare," Bush said at the National Institutes of Health -- has drawn belated praise from his detractors, and raised new questions as to the state of the federal government's disaster preparedness since his administration. In particular, a USA Today fact-check recently confirmed that the Obama administration had allowed the N95 mask stockpile to deplete following a series of crises, and apparently ignored calls for experts to renew...

Facts are irrelevant to Dems. It’s all about emotion-based manipulation…Demagoguery The new rising star of the Democratic part Ocasio-Cortez shows that the Democratic party has no future because every day we hear something that doesn’t make a sense just like the rest of her party, they are all the same a living proof of Demagoguery! Ocasio-Cortez today claimed that COVID-19 discriminates against minorities She tweeted: “COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities,” tweeted the Democrat lawmaker. “Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions. Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID...

BEIJING -- China has opened its first bio-safety level four laboratory, capable of conducting experiments with highly pathogenic microorganisms, according to the national health authority on Thursday. Wuhan national bio-safety level four lab of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Wuhan P4 lab) is part of Sino-French cooperation in prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases, said the Department of Health Science, Technology and Education with the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Level four is the highest bio-safety level, used for diagnostic work and research on easily transmitted pathogens which can cause fatal disease, including Ebola virus. The Wuhan P4...

Between 2011 and 2018, WHO tracked 1,483 epidemics worldwide, including Ebola and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the report said. These epidemics and pandemics devastated many of their host countries -- the West Africa Ebola outbreak resulted in a loss of $53 billion in economic and social cost. These huge economic costs translate to severe real-life consequences -- lost jobs, forced displacement, inaccessible healthcare, and greater mortality. While disease, epidemics, and pandemics have always existed, greater population density and the ability to travel anywhere in the world within 36 hours means disease can spread rapidly through a country and then...

There are many who argue that President Obama has (repeatedly) broken his promise to bring transparency and openness to the White House. In literal terms, however, Obama may not have actually broken that specific promise ,.. it’s just that people may not have understood what Obama meant by transparency and openness. ..Here’s a case in point: First Dot: Several months ago, the union world was shocked when Andy Stern, the ignominious president of the Service Employees International Union abruptly “quit” as leader of the Purple Hand. Surprise and speculation swelled. Was it the Blago Trial? Is he sick?Second Dot: Then,...

In the 1950s and '60s as scientists began to obtain high resolution images of viruses, they discovered the detailed structure of the capsid—an outer protective layer composed of multiple copies of the same protein—which protects the virus' genetic material. The majority of viruses have capsids that are typically quasi-spherical and display icosahedral symmetry—like a 20-sided dice for instance. The capsid shell is what protects them, and as scientists discovered their structure, they proposed that capsids could have different sizes and hold different amounts of genome, and therefore could infect hosts differently. [M]any viruses have essentially been misclassified for 60 years,...

An explosion occurred at the Vector State Virology Research Center near Novosibirsk . This research center has one of the most comprehensive collections of dangerous viruses in the world. According to Rospotrebnadzor, on the fifth floor of a six-story laboratory building, a gas bottle exploded during repair work, after which a fire broke out on an area of 30 square meters. The fire is eliminated. One worker suffered. With burns of the second and third degree, he was taken to the hospital. In Rospotrebnadzor emphasized that in the room where the explosion occurred, there were no biohazardous substances. At the...

Health authorities have uncovered an alarming surge in resistance to crucial HIV drugs. Surveys by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that, in the past 4 years, 12 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas have surpassed acceptable levels of drug resistance against two drugs that constitute the backbone of HIV treatment: efavirenz and nevirapine. People living with HIV are routinely treated with a cocktail of drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, but the virus can mutate into a resistant form.

Tests show that dormant herpes viruses reactivate in more than half the astronauts who travel on the Space Shuttle and International Space station, according to new NASA research - a phenomenon the space agency says could pose problems for deep space missions. ..."In keeping with this, we find that astronaut's immune cells - particularly those that normally suppress and eliminate viruses - become less effective during spaceflight and sometimes for up to 60 days after."

"NASA astronauts endure weeks or even months exposed to microgravity and cosmic radiation—not to mention the extreme G forces of take-off and re-entry," says senior author Dr. Satish K. Mehta of KBR Wyle at the Johnson Space Center. "This physical challenge is compounded by more familiar stressors like social separation, confinement and an altered sleep-wake cycle." "During spaceflight there is a rise in secretion of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which are known to suppress the immune system. In keeping with this, we find that astronaut's immune cells—particularly those that normally suppress and eliminate viruses—become less effective during spaceflight...

One whole endogenous retrovirus genome -- and bits of 17 others -- were spotted in a study of 2,500 human genomes... Nineteen new pieces of DNA -- left by viruses that first infected our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago -- have just been found, lurking between our own genes. And one stretch of newfound DNA, found in about 50 of the 2,500 people studied, contains an intact, full genetic recipe for an entire virus, say the scientists who published their findings today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Whether or not it can replicate, or...

US researchers claim to have developed a single test that is able to identify past exposure to every known human virus infection, using a drop of blood.The technique decodes the infection history imprinted in our immune response. The scientists hope that the test will eventually provide important insight into how viruses contribute to development of a range of diseases. The work was published in the journal Science. During a virus infection, your immune system generates antibodies designed to fight the virus. Each antibody recognises a tiny fragment of the virus and their interaction is very specific - they fit like...

Plan for lethal-virus laboratories leaves Smalltown USA in uproar By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles 29 June 2003 A network of high-security laboratories for storing and investigating some of the most lethal viruses known to mankind is being built across the US, leaving communities in uproar. They not only fear the risk of the viruses escaping, but also contend that the programme, part of the $6bn (£3.5bn) Project BioShield, is a stunning case of overkill. For none of the germs to be studied is related to bioweaponry. In the tiny town of Hamilton, Montana, campaigners worry that they will become...