Europe Is Locking Down a Second Time. But What Is Its Long-Term Plan?
Europe has surpassed the United States in cases per capita. “Europe is at the epicenter of this pandemic once again,” WHO’s regional director for Europe said on October 29.
Europe has surpassed the United States in cases per capita. “Europe is at the epicenter of this pandemic once again,” WHO’s regional director for Europe said on October 29.
One expert believes the virus may have burned through large, densely packed populations but will continue to spread in rural areas, at a lower rate, for many months: “We still have large numbers of people for the virus to go through.”
On 19 October, the Brazilian government organized a high-profile ceremony to announce what it billed as a new breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19. The one thing missing from the presentation? The evidence.
Both the EU and the U.S. approved Gilead Sciences drug remdesivir for use against the coronavirus in October, but the decisions baffled scientists who have closely watched the clinical trials unfold—and who have many questions about remdesivir's worth.
Akiko Iwasaki has produced high-profile papers in which she redirects her expertise in the immune system to questions such as why men are more likely to fare poorly if infected with coronavirus.
Certain COVID-19 vaccine candidates could increase susceptibility to HIV, warns a group of researchers who in 2007 learned that an experimental HIV vaccine had raised in some people the risk for infection with the AIDS virus.
“It's disappointing that none of the four (treatments) have come out and shown a difference in mortality, but it does show why you need big trials,” says Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a U.K. research-charity.
When prominent scientists pushed back against recommending face masks to help control the spread of COVID-19, and the U.K. government followed their lead, Trisha Greenhalgh was furious.
When Deborah Birx was named coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in February, she was widely praised as a voice of data-driven reason. But some of her actions have undermined the effectiveness of the CDC, according to a Science investigation.
Success in the push to find a COVID-19 vaccine at record-breaking speed could result in the first vaccine to cross the finish line might be only marginally effective.
A study of some of the sickest COVID-19 patients, such as those placed on ventilators, has identified gene variants that put people at greater risk of severe disease.
CRISPR gene-editing technology was used in developing the new coronavirus test. “It looks like they have a really rock-solid test,” says molecular biologist Max Wilson. “It’s really quite elegant.”