"Connecting Communities for COVID19 News" 29th Dec 2020
Isolation Tips
Two million elderly facing Christmas alone to get 'greatest gift' of someone to chat to
Elizabeth is just one of the two million older people who will be spending Christmas alone this year. The pensioner has been housebound because of the pandemic – but a new phone service set up by Age UK is helping to spread some festive cheer. The charity estimates that more than half of elderly people won’t see their friends or family this Christmas.
So with that in mind, I joined their team of trained volunteers for a day to see how the phone service is helping to combat loneliness among the over-60s. Elizabeth was first on their list of people to call and it was easy to imagine her face lighting up at the sound of a friendly voice. In a chat with volunteer Clare, she says: “It’s been a difficult week but I feel so much better today.
Hygiene Helpers
Fauci: Up to 90% of population needs vaccine for herd immunity
"We all have to be honest and humble, nobody really knows for sure, but I think 70-85% for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Fauci had previously told The New York Times it could take up to 90% of the US population to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus. He clarified that the range he states are a "guesstimate," and that the goal was for 70 to 85 percent of the population to be vaccinated. This month, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized both Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use which have been rolled out across the country.
Community Activities
Pre-K teacher goes viral after sharing virtual-classroom dance parties: ‘It’s about bringing that joy factor’
There’s been no shortage of praiseworthy teachers throughout the pandemic, and among them is a pre-K teacher who went viral this week after sharing footage of his virtual classroom’s dance sessions — a unique “joy factor” strategy that he uses to keep students engaged. Azel Prather has been teaching early childhood education for the last five years and has spent the last two at the KIPP DC Arts & Technology Academy, a public charter school. “I want them to learn and they want to have fun, so let me meet them where they're at,” he says regarding his innovative classroom dance breaks.
Elite Boarding Schools Offer Students a Unique Covid-19 Bubble
Many high schools are struggling with whether to allow students to learn in the classroom as Covid-19 infections surge across the U.S. But not the nation’s boarding schools. These schools have been mostly able to offer in-person learning with relatively few incidents, using a variety of intensive virus-mitigation strategies, according to Peter Upham, executive director of The Association of Boarding Schools. About a third of the nation’s more than 260 academic boarding schools have had Covid-19 cases, Upham said, but very few schools have seen outbreaks of more than just a couple students.
The perverse political effects of Covid-19
The PRC’s success in largely suppressing the disease stands in marked contrast with the terrible toll that Covid-19 has taken on the west. But politics moves in unexpected ways. Paradoxically, there is a strong case to be made that both the US and the EU may also end up being politically strengthened by Covid-19.
Ukrainians flock to local ski resort, with many European resorts shut to curb coronavirus spread
Ukraine’s biggest ski resort Bukovel in the Carpathian mountains is fully booked until the end of year as Ukrainians have sped to it instead of other foreign resorts that have been shut due to coronavirus-linked restrictions across Europe. Bukovel’s management said the resort had already been booked at 80% capacity through January. Unlike some European countries, Ukraine did not tighten restrictions on the movement of its residents within the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus over the Christmas and New Year season.
Sydney told to watch its famous New Year's Eve fireworks from home
Sydney, one of the world’s first major cities to welcome each New Year with a public countdown featuring a fireworks display over its well-known Opera House, has banned large gatherings that night amid an outbreak of the coronavirus. A mid-December resurgence of COVID-19 in the city’s northern beach suburbs has grown to 125 cases after five new infections were recorded on Monday. About a quarter of million of people there must stay in strict lockdown until Jan. 9. That has led to further restrictions of the already toned-down plans for the New Year’s Eve. New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian banned most people from coming to Sydney’s downtown that night and limited outdoor gatherings to 50 people.
Scarred by 2020, Gen Z looks to a COVID-free future
Lives that had been focussed on school, university, sports or even going to K-pop concerts vanished overnight for members of Gen Z as the global pandemic struck. While a lot was heard about older people at risk from COVID-19, this younger generation - born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s - also saw their worlds turned upside down in 2020. Reuters profiled 10 young people around the world to learn how their lives had been affected by the coronavirus. Shut up in bedrooms - many forced to live with their parents - some went from being students, athletes and workers to caring for sick relatives and doing whatever they could to earn money to support families. One teen even became a mother
Cramped housing has helped fuel spread of Covid in England – study
Overcrowded housing has helped to spread Covid-19 in England and may have increased the number of deaths, according to research by the Health Foundation. People living in cramped conditions have been more exposed to the coronavirus and were less able to reduce their risk of infection because their homes were so small, the thinktank found. Overcrowding was a key reason why poorer people and those from ethnic minority backgrounds in particular had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, it said.
Old and vulnerable people 'aren't getting their Covid jabs' with spare vaccines offered to healthy volunteers
Concerns are growing that some older and vulnerable people are not taking up the Pfizer vaccine. At one health centre in South London, The Mail on Sunday has learned that 75 doses of the vaccine were left over as uptake had been so low. Managers were left scrambling to find other patients to vaccinate and even offered a jab to healthy volunteers working there. Experts suggested that elderly people may be struggling with transport or are nervous about venturing outdoors.
Wealthy Britons 'offering private doctors £2,000 to jump Covid vaccine queue and get jabs early'
Rich people are offering huge sums of money to skip the queue for the coronavirus vaccines. The jabs can currently only be obtained through the NHS, but several private British doctors say they have been bombarded with requests from wealthy individuals offering to pay to have theirs ahead of time. Dr Roshan Ravindran, owner of Klnik, a private clinic in Wilmslow, Cheshire, claimed some clients had offered £2,000 for injections.
In Christmas message curbed by Covid, pope calls on nations to share vaccines
Pope Francis in his Christmas message on Friday said political and business leaders must not allow market forces and patent laws to take priority over making Covid 19 vaccines available to all, condemning nationalism and “the virus of radical individualism”.
Working Remotely
Dreading or dreaming of a return to the office in 2021
The US is deep in the bleakest period of the pandemic, with thousands of Americans dying each day. That reality is not lost on affluent remote workers, who are quick to express gratitude for their own good fortune. They feel guilty complaining about Zoom fatigue and social isolation when they are working in relative safety and comfort. Yet with the approval of two coronavirus vaccines, many of these remote employees find themselves imagining the new shape of their work lives in a post-pandemic America. Some glimpse a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel; others see an oncoming train. In June, PwC surveyed 120 U.S. company executives and 1,200 office workers to see how they felt about that future. About a third said they hoped to work from home full time. About 9 percent wanted to work from home hardly at all. The majority preferred a hybrid workplace
Remote working app to be launched by Government
In Ireland, a new remote working app is to be launched by the Government, to allow people to see what spaces are available near them. Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys says this is down to a major change in how people are operating. She said her department is currently mapping out all the co-working spaces, digital hubs and others which will then be integrated into an app. "People will be able to see where I can go and work from a local centre".
88% of civil servants as 'effective' working remotely
In Ireland, a new report reveals that 88% of civil servants feel as effective working remotely as they are during normal working arrangements. A total of 26,822 civil servants took part in the Civil Service Employee Engagement Survey 2020 Covid-19 Remote Working Report. The survey also shows that three-quarters of civil servants indicated they would like to continue to access remote working in the future if given the choice.
In 2021 We Need To Focus On Remote Work Creativity
Work From Home—and remote or hybrid work more generally—is here to stay, and we are just beginning to feel its implications. One of those implications that we need to consider in 2021 is how knowledge workers can be more creative when working remotely. More specifically, we need to change the conversation around remote work to be less about productivity and more about how remote work can boost creativity. Mindsets need to shift. The convergence of two massive trends impacting the workplace—remote work and the increasing use of AI—means that creativity should be where we focus our efforts
This Is the Future Of Remote Work In 2021
The world witnessed a historic shift in the 2020 job market due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While some companies used to offer remote work as a perk, it has now become the norm for most businesses. By 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month. While 2020 may be considered the year of remote work, it is just the beginning as we see the trend continuing in 2021. The percentage of workers permanently working from home is expected to double in 2021, according to a survey from Enterprise Technology Research
Virtual Classrooms
Virtual learning may stick around in some form after pandemic
Enrollment in public schools in the US has gone down during the pandemic. According to data obtained by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press, enrollment dipped by about 2% since last year. Experts say several factors are to blame. Many students struggled to attend classes online, so they have been expelled from school for missing too many days. Also, kindergarten isn't required in some states. Surprisingly though, remote learning is more popular among parents than originally thought, according to a Pew survey.
Black, Latina and immigrant mothers are losing jobs as COVID-19 child care crisis grows
Since March, Black and Latina moms have stopped working, either voluntarily or due to layoffs, at higher rates than white moms. Many are single moms who need childcare but can’t access it during the pandemic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, single moms had higher rates of unemployment than their childless counterparts in the second and third quarters of 2020. During the pandemic, mothers were more likely than fathers to reduce hours and leave the workforce altogether to take care of kids who are home.
Tamil Nadu: New lessons as classrooms go virtual
In India, from kindergartens to universities, traditional classrooms have made way for digital learning. Changes that would have taken five to ten years happened in months. Students stayed home but attended classes, completed assignments and wrote tests: unthinkable at the beginning of the year. Education experts say hybrid learning -- a mix of online and traditional -- will be the way going forward for all educational institutions. There are huge gains from the pandemic experience as institutions start producing video content for students
Public Policies
EU's Borrell accuses Russia of spreading COVID-19 disinformation to sell its vaccine
The European Union’s top diplomat said on Monday that Russian public media had spread false information on European and American COVID-19 vaccines in countries where it wants to sell its own shot against the coronavirus. “Western vaccine developers are openly mocked on multi-lingual Russian state-controlled media, which has in some cases led to absurd claims that vaccines will turn people into monkeys,” Josep Borrell said in a blog post. “Such narratives are apparently directed at countries where Russia wants to sell its own vaccine, Sputnik V,” Borrell added, noting that these moves threatened public health amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Philippines troops, ministers get COVID-19 vaccine before approval
Some Philippine soldiers and cabinet ministers have already received COVID-19 vaccine injections, officials said on Monday, despite an absence of regulatory approval that the country's health ministry said was vital to ensure safety.
Panama to extend lockdowns in effort to curb coronavirus
Panama will extend lockdowns in two provinces, including the capital, from Jan. 4 - 14 in an effort to contain a jump in coronavirus cases in the heavily populated areas, the health minister said on Sunday. With 231,357 registered COVID-19 cases and 3,840 deaths, Panama is the Central American nation that has accumulated the highest number of infections. Under the lockdown measures, which authorities last week said would go into effect nationwide from Dec. 31 - Jan. 4, residents may only leave their homes for essential services such as medical appointments and grocery shopping, Health Minister Luis Sucre said.
Teachers and key workers 'will be added to priority list when Oxford vaccine is approved' but SAGE expert warns even a million jabs a week WON'T curb Covid crisis by February
Teachers and key workers will be added to the vaccine priority list when the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab is finally approved as the government bids to accelerate its roll-out plans, reports say. With approval for the Oxford Covid vaccine set to come as early as today, ministers are believed to be planning to overhaul the current order, which currently focuses on the elderly, vulnerable and care home employees as well as NHS staff. But Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust who advises Number 10's advisory panel SAGE, warned even if Britain hits one million coronavirus vaccinations a week, it will not curb the pandemic by February.
“Believe in science:” EU kicks off COVID-19 vaccine campaign
Doctors, nurses and the elderly rolled up their sleeves across the European Union to receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine Sunday in a symbolic show of unity and moment of hope for a continent confronting its worst health care crisis in a century. Weeks after the U.S., Canada and Britain began inoculations with the same vaccine, the 27-nation bloc staged a coordinated rollout aimed at projecting a unified message that the shot was safe and Europe’s best chance to emerge from the pandemic. For health care workers who have been battling the virus with only masks and shields to protect themselves, the vaccines represented an emotional relief as the virus continues to kill. But it was also a public chance for them to urge Europe’s 450 million people to get the shots amid continued vaccine and virus skepticism.
100million doses of Oxford coronavirus vaccine 'to be approved this week'
The groundbreaking Oxford vaccine is expected to be approved for use within days – giving Britain a massive New Year boost in the fight against coronavirus. There is growing optimism within the Government that the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will give the green light to roll out the vaccine before the end of this week. Britain has pre-ordered 100 million doses of the drug, which has been developed by Oxford University with the help of the pharma giant AstraZeneca.
In Hungary, politicization of vaccine hangs over immunization efforts
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has spent months boasting that Hungary was working harder than other EU countries to secure vaccines against the coronavirus, even jumping the gun to start vaccinating a day earlier than other member states. That move — disregarding the European Commission's plan for a coordinated bloc-wide rollout of the jab on December 27 — will likely be seen as an attempt to undermine the EU's vaccination strategy. It comes after Orbán complained that European regulators were taking too long to approve the vaccine and claimed that Hungary would be the first country in Europe to use Russian and Chinese shots. But months later, Hungary has no Russian or Chinese vaccine and Orbán's critics say he might have undermined confidence in getting vaccinated at all.
Millions face eviction, poverty as unemployment benefits expire with COVID-19 relief bill in limbo
Jo Marie Hernandez doesn’t know how she and her 4-year-old daughter will survive after her unemployment aid lapsed this weekend. Hernandez, who lives in Olean, New York, is on the brink of losing her home in days after she lost her job as a customer service associate at a gas station in the spring. Enduring prolonged unemployment, she's struggled to make ends meet and has nothing left in savings to keep her afloat. “I only have $100 left to my name. My whole world is shattered,” says Hernandez, 32, who was forced to put her car up for sale. “We can’t wait a few weeks for help. We’re starving and will be out on the street soon.”
NY health network faces criminal investigation over COVID-19 vaccine
New York State Health officials said on Saturday they are investigating a Brooklyn-based healthcare provider on suspicion it violated state guidelines for distribution of COVID-19 vaccine. ParCare Community Health Network “may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public - contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to frontline healthcare workers, as well as nursing home residents and staffers,” state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a statement.
Covid-19 pandemic will not be the last: WHO chief
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to learn the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1.75 million people and nearly 80 million cases have been recorded. The coronavirus crisis will not be the last pandemic, and attempts to improve human health are "doomed" without tackling climate change and animal welfare, the World Health Organization's chief said. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also condemned the "dangerously short-sighted" cycle of throwing cash at outbreaks but doing nothing to prepare for the next one, in a video message marking Sunday's first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.
Philippines eyes more COVID curbs to halt new variants
The Philippines approved measures on Saturday to slow the spread of new, more infectious coronavirus variants, as President Rodrigo Duterte warned of a second lockdown should cases spike before the country gets its first vaccines in May. Countries around the world have in recent days closed their borders to flights from Britain and South Africa, where more infectious variants have been detected. Duterte extended an existing a ban on flights from Britain by two weeks to mid-January, and said the Philippines would impose travel curbs on countries with local community transmission of the UK variant.
UK imposes more lockdowns as mutated COVID variant causes record cases
The British government said huge swathes of England would be placed under its strictest COVID-19 restrictions as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country, pushing the number of cases to a record level. Britain reported almost 40,000 new infections as the mutated variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible than the original, causes the number of cases and hospital admissions to soar.
Israel imposing third national COVID-19 lockdown
Israel will impose a third national lockdown to fight surging COVID-19 infections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, as the country pursues a vaccination campaign. The restrictions will come into effect on Sunday evening and last for 14 days, pending final cabinet approval, a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. They include the closure of shops, limited public transport, a partial shutdown of schools and a one-kilometre (two-thirds of a mile) restriction on travel from home, except for commuting to workplaces that remain open, and to purchase essential goods. Such measures will cost Israel’s economy about three billion shekels ($932.6 million) a week, the Finance Ministry said.
Turkey Signs Accord With BioNTech for Coronavirus Vaccine
Turkey signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc. partner BioNTech SE for 4.5 million of doses their coronavirus vaccine, with an option to raise it to 30 million. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Friday that an initial 550,000 doses will arrive by the year end or in early January, state news agency Anadolu reported.
U.S. will require negative COVID-19 tests for all UK passengers - CDC
The U.S. government will require all airline passengers arriving from the United Kingdom to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of departure starting Monday amid concerns about a new coronavirus variant that may be more transmissible. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Thursday that all airline passengers arriving from the UK must test negative in order to fly to the United States. The decision was a turnaround after the Trump administration told U.S. airlines on Tuesday it was not planning to require any testing for arriving UK passengers. The CDC said an order would be signed on Friday and is effective Monday.
Maintaining Services
Hospital Covid admissions are set to surge PAST first wave peak amid fears NHS is being 'overwhelmed' by highly infectious new strain - with ministers to decide in days if ...
The number of patients in hospital with the virus is likely to exceed the peak in the spring, with 21,286 coronavirus patients being treated on December 22. In comparison, the figure on April 12 was 21,
UK faces Covid third wave unless vaccination target is doubled, ministers warned
Britain must vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak, a new study claims. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) paper has issued ministers with the stark warning coming as hospital admissions surpassed the peak of the first wave of the pandemic. Around 200,000 people are being inoculated each week, which is expected to raise to one million by the middle of January, according to the Daily Telegraph. "The most stringent intervention scenario with tier 4 England-wide and schools closed during January and 2 million individuals vaccinated per week, is the only scenario we considered which reduces peak ICU burden below the levels seen during the first wave," the study said.
Covid-19: Hospitals under pressure as coronavirus cases rise
England's "very high" Covid infection level is a "growing concern" as the NHS struggles to cope with rising patient numbers, a health official has said. On Monday, a record 41,385 Covid cases and 357 deaths were reported in the UK. NHS England said the number of people being treated for the virus in hospital is now 20,426, which is higher than the previous peak of about 19,000 in April. BBC health editor Hugh Pym said Monday's figure included some infections where reporting was delayed, but that officials did not deny there had been a significant increase in infections.
'The beginning of the end': Europe rolls out vaccines to see off pandemic
Europe launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. “Thank God,” 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to have a vaccine at her care home in Guadalajara, near the capital Madrid. “Let’s see if we can make this virus go away.” In Italy, the first country in Europe to record significant numbers of infections, 29-year-old nurse Claudia Alivernini was one of three medical staff at the head of the queue for the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Health officials brace for a surge in US Covid-19 cases after the holidays
With Christmas in the rear view mirror, public health experts are bracing for yet another surge in Covid-19 cases, similar to those seen after other US holidays in recent months. "We've just seen these amplification events, and that's what's happened at the end of this year in the US," said Erin Bromage, an associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
"We had Thanksgiving, we had Labor Day, we had Halloween, and each one of these events brought lots of people together and just gave the virus more fuel to move through the population," Bromage said. "Christmas is going to do a similar thing."
Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Begins Arriving at Strained Hospitals Across the U.S.
Just one week after the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine were administered in the United States, a new batch of vaccines fanned out across the country on Monday, an urgently needed expansion of a vaccination effort that is expected to reach vulnerable populations and rural areas where hospitals are strained as soon as this week. The vaccine, from Moderna, comes as the virus continues to spread virtually unabated: hospitalizations are over 115,000 for the first time, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Parts of California are down to their last I.C.U. beds and almost one-fifth of U.S. hospitals with intensive care units reported that at least 95 percent of their I.C.U. beds were full in the week ending Dec. 17. Nationwide, 78 percent of I.C.U. beds were full on average.
Healthcare Innovations
Healthcare workers have 7 times the risk of severe COVID-19
A new study in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine examines the risks that “essential” and “nonessential” British workers will develop severe COVID-19. It suggests that healthcare workers are seven times more likely to develop severe cases of COVID-19 than people with “nonessential” roles.
The breakthrough medicines that could change the course of Covid
It remains one of the most dramatically successful outcomes in the battle against Covid-19. A cheap treatment for inflammation was found to save lives of seriously ill patients while a trio of much-touted therapies were shown to have no effect. It is now estimated that the discovery of the effectiveness of the drug dexamethasone has saved around 650,000 lives across the world, according to Professor Martin Landray, a founder of the Recovery programme – the world’s largest randomised Covid-19 drugs trial – which revealed the medicine’s anti-Covid properties last summer
Global report: AstraZeneca chief believes Covid vaccine will work on variant strain
The head of the firm behind the Oxford Covid vaccine has said researchers believe the jab will be effective against the variant strain of the virus that was first found in the UK. AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told the Sunday Times more tests were needed to be sure, but hailed the discovery of what he called a “winning formula” to improve the vaccine’s efficacy. As Spain, Sweden and Canada joined the growing list of countries to have reported cases of the more contagious variant, Soirot said: “So far, we think the vaccine should remain effective. But we can’t be sure, so we’re going to test that.”
Ten reasons we got Covid-19 vaccines so quickly without 'cutting corners'
Long before the Covid-19 crisis, there was an awareness that a pandemic of some sort was likely in the coming years and plans had already been made to tackle it. Governments, international agencies and foundations had been pooling resources. The international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched in 2017, and when Covid-19 arrived they were ready. In addition, several companies and academic institutions, notably including BioNTech, Moderna and the University of Oxford, had also been working on new technologies capable of generating vaccines from the genetic codes of infectious pathogens and cancers, and testing them for several years
New drug could offer 'instant immunity' against Covid-19
A new drug which could offer instant immunity against Covid-19 is being trialled by British scientists, it has been reported. The antibody therapy has been developed by University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and AstraZeneca - the pharmaceutical company that has, along with Oxford University, created a vaccine that is expected to be approved for use next week. But unlike a vaccine, the new drug would be given to someone who has been exposed to the virus, preventing them from going on to develop it.
Oxford Covid vaccine may become the first to get Indian regulator's nod for emergency use
The process of granting emergency use approval for Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' may take time as its phase 3 trials are still underway, while Pfizer is yet to make a presentation, say official sources.
UK scientists trial drug to prevent infection that leads to Covid
British scientists are trialling a new drug that could prevent someone who has been exposed to coronavirus from going on to develop the disease Covid-19, which experts say could save many lives. The antibody therapy would confer instant immunity against the disease and could be given as an emergency treatment to hospital inpatients and care home residents to help contain outbreaks.
Brazil says Sinovac vaccine over 50% effective but delays full results
Brazilian researchers said on Wednesday the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech is more than 50% effective based on trial data, but again withheld full results at the company's request, raising questions about transparency. Brazil is the first country to complete a late-stage trial of the vaccine, called CoronaVac, but a release of the results, first set for early December, has now been delayed three times. The latest delay is a blow to Beijing, which has been racing to catch up with Western drugmakers, and will add to criticism that Chinese vaccine makers have lacked transparency.
Coronavirus Variant Is Indeed More Transmissible, New Study Suggests
A team of British scientists released a worrying study on Wednesday of the new coronavirus variant sweeping the United Kingdom. They warned that the variant is so contagious that new control measures, including closing down schools and universities, might be necessary. Even that may not be enough, they noted, saying, “It may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine rollout.” Nicholas Davies, the lead author of the study, said that the model should also serve as a warning to other countries where the variant may have already spread.
Asthma-style inhaler filled with powerful LLAMA antibodies could be used to treat patients with severe COVID-19
Camelids including llamas, camels and alpacas create nanobodies
These are smaller and easier to engineer by experts than human antibodies
Researchers found an nanobody called NIH-CoVnb-112 which binds to viral spike
They write nanoodies 'have therapeutic, preventative, and diagnostic potential'
