MSU co-authored study: 10 insights to reduce vaccine hesitancy on social media

Young Anna Argyris, associate professor in the Michigan State University Department of Media and Information, is part of an international team studying the detrimental effects of vaccine misinformation on social media and interventions that can increase vaccine uptake behaviors.

People with Long COVID Have Distinct Hormonal and Immune Differences From Those Without This Condition

Research conducted at Mount Sinai and Yale confirms long COVID is a biological disease by showing blood biomarkers that can predict who has it

Dr. Marc Elieson discusses concerns about COVID-19 and kids going back to school

Marc Elieson, MD, at Baylor Scott & White Health, answers common patient questions and reacts to the latest medical research. The CDC says COVID cases will continue to increase this summer and when school resumes this fall. What is behind…

COVID-19 Vaccines: What Parents Need to Know Now

The coronavirus pandemic is no longer a national emergency, but the virus that causes COVID-19 isn’t gone—and neither is the risk of getting the disease. For parents, navigating when to get their child vaccinated and knowing how to best protect their child from COVID-19 can be complicated. We spoke to Michael Smit, MD, MSPH, Hospital Epidemiologist and Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, to get an update on the latest COVID-19 vaccine information and precautions.

UV disinfection in the treatment management of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants

The global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its new variants has created a need for effective disinfection technologies to protect against harmful pathogens. While vaccines offer some protection, their effectiveness against future variants is uncertain. Therefore, additional strategies are important during the pre-vaccine stage.

Hospital Understaffing and Poor Work Conditions Associated with Physician and Nurse Burnout and Intent to Leave

A unique collaborative study on hospital clinician wellbeing by teams at 60 of the nation’s best hospitals, defined by Magnet Hospital Recognition, was published today in JAMA Health Forum. The study found that physicians and nurses, even at hospitals known to be good places to work, experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want hospital management to make significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety. The solutions to high hospital clinician burnout and turnover, they say, are not resilience training for clinicians to better cope with adverse working conditions but organizational improvements that provide safe workloads and better work-life balance.

Study reveals novel action mechanism of corticosteroids in combating inflammation caused by COVID-19

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a class of corticosteroids called glucocorticoids (GCs) have become established as one of the main treatment options, especially for severe cases, thanks to their anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant action. Brazilian researchers recently discovered new ways in which these drugs influence the organism’s inflammatory response during an infection.

Occludin protein plays key role in spread of coronavirus throughout body’s cells

While the coronavirus continues to infect people around the world, researchers at the University of Missouri have identified a specific protein inside the human body that plays a critical role in how the virus spreads from cell to cell after infection — a discovery that will help better understand the COVID-19 disease and could lead to the development of new antiviral drugs in the future.

Study offers insights into how COVID variants escape immune system ‘killers’

Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus behind COVID-19 — have shown an uncanny knack for evading antibodies produced either by vaccines or exposure to earlier versions of the virus, leading to many breakthrough infections. However, in order to sicken people, these viral variants must also avoid “killer” T cells, immune cells that are unleashed when the immune system detects foreign pathogens.

Researchers find an antibody that targets omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants

A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominant variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, including Omicron, the most recent. Their discovery could lead to more potent vaccines and new antibody-based treatments.