Month: August 2020

She recommended that people living in communities where cases are surging consider wearing a mask at home if they live with someone who is especially vulnerable because of age or underlying medical conditions. “What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread,” Dr. Birx said, adding that rural areas have not been spared. “So everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune.” She emphasized the significance of asymptomatic transmission. “If you have an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to really consider wearing a mask at home, assuming that you’re positive if you have individuals in your household with co-morbidities,” she said. Both she and Adm. Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Huma...

Robert Livingston, his wife and his 8-month-old daughter all tested positive for COVID-19 last month. MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — On July 19, Robert Livingston woke up with a fever and back pain. He didn't have any shortness of breath but still drove to the hospital for a COVID-19 test. His results came back positive. Shortly after, his wife and their eight-month-old daughter tested positive too. "My wife is four months pregnant so it was really scary at first. She started having really bad headaches and throwing up," Livingston said. "A couple of days later, our eight-month-old started getting horribly congested." ...

COVID-19 Research: Anti-viral Strategy With Double Effect In the case of an infection, the SARS-CoV-2 virus must overcome various defense mechanisms of the human body, including its non-specific or innate immune defense. During this process, infected body cells release messenger substances known as type 1 interferons. These attract natural killer cells, which kill the infected cells. One of the reasons the SARS-CoV-2 virus is so successful — and thus dangerous — is that it can suppress the non-specific immune response. In addition, it lets the human cell produce the viral protein PLpro (papain-like protease). PLpro has two functions: It plays a role in the maturation and release of new viral particles, and it suppresses the development of type 1 interferons. The German and Dutch ...

Several residents of the King Solmon senior living facility in Bnei Brak were diagnosed with coronavirus over the weekend, the Health Ministry reported. After one asymptomatic patient was found positive, all residents were screened. In total nine people have the virus - all patients in the same ward. These nine patients are among the country’s now 72,315 who have been diagnosed with the novel virus. On Saturday, there were 625 people infected, according to a Monday report by the Health Ministry. Less than 8,000 people were screened. There were 340 people in serious condition Sunday morning, including 96 who were intubated. Some 531 people have died.  For the first time since the start of the "second wave" the infection rate has fallen below threshold 1 - each contag...