Month: December 2021

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The project’s Lyme map, with darker colors indicating the presence of reported Lyme cases in 2019Graphic: Curriero et al/PLOS-One It may be winter in the U.S., but it’s always a good time to refresh your innate fear of the creepy crawlies that make us sick. In a new paper this week, John Hopkins researchers have detailed the creation of their Lyme and tickborne disease dashboard. The project provides an easy-to-navigate map tracking the spread of tickborne germs throughout the U.S., along with lessons on why these ticks and the diseases they carry are becoming a more common problem over time. Mosquitoes may be the most dangerous disease-carrying animal worldwide, but in the U.S., the eight-legged tick now reigns supreme. Lyme disease is the most commonly reported ailment spread by an ...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that there's no plan to introduce new restrictions or a lockdown after the first U.S. case of the omicron COVID-19 variant was identified on Wednesday in San Francisco. “There’s more panic than information around this variant,” Newsom said at a press conference following the announcement of the case. “Doubling down on what we’re doing is the most important message. We can avoid shutting down our schools or businesses. None of us want to see that happen. I don’t want to see that happen. And I see no indication at this moment whatsoever that that’s in our immediate future.”  Newsom encouraged residents to get vaccines and boosters to prevent new restrictions. The sentiment was echoed in San Francis...

Older age, male sex, and other medical conditions not associated with heightened risk ….Unlike Asian ethnicity, obesity, overcrowding, socializing, and people-facing roles. People with allergic conditions such as hay fever, rhinitis, and atopic eczema, may have a lower risk of COVID-19 infection, especially if they also have asthma, finds a large, population-based study of UK adults, published online in the respiratory journal Thorax. And contrary to the findings of recent studies, older age, male sex, and other underlying conditions aren’t linked to a heightened risk of infection, the research indicates. But Asian ethnicity, obesity, household overcrowding, socializing indoors with other households, and holding down a people-facing role other than in health and social care...

In a new study published Wednesday in the Science Advances journal, researchers, including some at Cardiff University and Arizona State University, say they have found that a protein in the blood, “platelet factor 4,” can bind to a key element of the AstraZeneca vaccine, potentially triggering a reaction with antibodies attacking the protein. However, questions remain over whether the binding is a direct cause of the blood clots.