Month: December 2021

Dr. Eric Topol told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Tuesday he believes existing Covid vaccines will offer adequate protection against serve disease for people who get infected by the newly detected omicron variant. In an interview on "Mad Money," the individualized medicine expert also stressed the importance of receiving a Covid booster shot, imploring eligible Americans to get the additional vaccine dose. "There's lots of reasons for optimism that this is not some horrible situation that we're in. The vaccines should hold up against severe disease, especially with people who are boosted," said Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. There's yet to be a confirmed case in the U.S. of the highly mutated coronavirus variant that was first detec...

Their findings were published this week in the journal Nature Cancer. Professor Kang said: "In the two papers we are publishing back-to-back today, we identify a compound, show it is effective against cancer, and show that it is very, very effective when combined with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. "Even though metastatic cancers are scary, by figuring out how they work - figuring out their dependency on certain key pathways like MTDF - we can attack them and make them susceptible to treatment." The expert's research has primarily focused over the years on cancer metastasis. Metastasis is cancer's ability to spread from one part of the body to another, making the disease much more likely to kill.

Metro hospitals are treating a record number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators according to Tuesday's report from the Douglas County Health Department. Fifty-seven patients were on ventilators as of Tuesday's report. That's the highest ever recorded in the metro since the pandemic began. The previous record of 56 was reported on Dec. 7, 2020. There are currently 274 people hospitalized with the virus including 10 children. 93 adults are receiving ICU-level care. ICU beds are 91% occupied with just 28 staffed beds left available in the six-county metro. Pediatric ICU beds are 90% full with just 13 staffed beds open. Transmission in Douglas County remains high. For those vaccinated, you're encouraged to get a booster as soon as your eligibility window opens up. If you're not vaccina...

CHARLOTTESVILLE — A new vaccine that could provide protection against existing and future strains of the COVID-19 coronavirus, other coronaviruses, and cost about $1 a dose has shown promising results in early animal testing, according to scientists at University of Virginia Medical Center and Virginia Polytechnic University.  Vaccines created by UVA Health’s Dr. Steven L. Zeichner and Virginia Tech’s Dr. Xiang-Jin Meng prevented pigs from being becoming ill with a pig model coronavirus, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). The vaccine was developed using an innovative approach that Zeichner says might one day open the door to a universal vaccine for coronaviruses, including coronaviruses that previously threatened pandemics or perhaps even coronaviruses that cause some cases of the co...