COVID-19 Archives

SARS-CoV-2 in water: A surveillance tool for infected populations

Written by

ARS-CoV-2 in environmental waters and its elimination in sewage treatment plants.

The presence of land-derived bacteria in the marine environment is an indicator of wastewater contamination and of human health at a population level. However, the survival of human viral pathogens in the marine environment and their use as indicators is poorly understood. Dr Helena Galvão of the University of Algarve, Portugal, investigated the survival of SARS-CoV-2 in environmental waters and […]

Resilience, scepticism, and mRNA: The story of Katalin Karikó

Written by

Katalin Karikó mRNA vaccines for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the world’s governments and health organisations with a vaccination challenge on a scale it had never experienced before. Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines were critical in the production and distribution of affordable vaccines across the globe. Katalin Karikó’s 40 years of research into mRNA was the cornerstone of what made this possible. In this interview, we find […]

Who will care for the mental healthcare professionals? A wake-up call from the Netherlands

Written by

Mental healthcare workers are trained to deal with mental health problems, but that doesn’t mean they are immune themselves.

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons; one is that mental healthcare workers are not immune to the ravages of mental health problems. The pandemic put them under considerable stress in ways unimaginable before; many are still feeling it. Dr Anneloes van den Broek and Dr Lars de Vroege, senior researchers and clinical psychologists in mental healthcare in the Netherlands, […]

Children’s cognitive development: The impact of the pandemic

Written by

children’s cognitive development over the lockdown period

The World Economic Forum estimates that globally, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.5 billion pupils were unable to attend school due to lockdowns designed to stop the spread of the disease. Government containment policies were essential to help save lives, but the wider impact of those policies is now the focus of academic research. A new Austrian […]

Pathbreaking method leads to optimised mRNA production

Written by

Dr Sekirnik and his team at Sartorius BIA Separations optimised a crucial step in the mRNA production process, resulting in higher yield at lower cost.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed mRNA at the centre of biopharmaceutical research, as mRNA is now being developed for cancer therapy, protein replacement therapy, and infectious diseases. That is why, worldwide, the need to produce mRNA on a large scale has increased dramatically. The currently used method is quite costly, limiting the scale-up of mRNA production. Dr Rok Sekirnik and colleagues […]

Sloppy science, shortcuts, and COVID-19

Written by

Lissack investigates the phenomenon of slodderwetenschap or sloppy science, particularly its proliferation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to one of the most public incidences of a phenomenon known as sloppy science (originally slodderwetenschap in Dutch). Shortcuts and simplifications were made during scientific research, which led to the public declaration of incorrect statements or ‘truthies’. Professor Michael Lissack, from the College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University in China, and Brenden Meagher […]

Using patient datasets to track COVID-19 prevalence

Written by

Hou and colleagues accessed existing patient data collected by the Maui Medical Group (MMG) clinics.

Obtaining an accurate picture of COVID-19 cases has provided a major challenge throughout the pandemic. Changes in testing methods and skewed selection of higher-risk groups may bias the results. Dr Amy Hou, Dr Genevieve Pang, and Dr Lorrin Pang at the Hawaii State Department of Health, Maui District Health Office, US, propose a novel way to estimate local prevalence of […]

Nanomedicine for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and other viruses

Written by

Thomas J Webster develops nanomaterials for novel nanomedicine treatments of viruses such as COVID-19

While many viral infections can be prevented through vaccination, it can take a long time for vaccinations to be developed for new diseases and many people object to themselves or children taking vaccines. There is a high need for quicker, readily available alternative treatments. Serial entrepreneur Professor Thomas J Webster thinks this could be achieved using nanomaterials. Webster’s research has […]

COVID toe: A dermatological manifestation of COVID-19

Written by

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, different strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have resulted in a variety of clinical symptoms. As well as the more common respiratory symptoms, doctors also began to notice possible skin manifestations of the disease, which appeared similar to chilblain-type lesions. Dr Kazuhiro Komura of the Department of Dermatology, Kanazawa Red Cross Hospital, Japan, has explored the link […]

Post-pandemic suicide trends in Japan

Written by

Professor Masahito Fushimi researches the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in Japan, warning other medical health professionals that suicide rates among women may rise in the future

While health authorities have measured the impact of COVID-19 in terms of infections and deaths, less attention has been given to the mental illness the pandemic has left in its wake. One leading researcher in suicide prevention, Professor Masahito Fushimi, a psychiatrist at the Akita University Health Centre in Akita, Japan, has uncovered a worrying trend in suicidal behaviour sparked […]