With the peak of COVID-19 cases occurring between 3.5 to four weeks after controlled interventions were put into place in China, US researchers are urging the public to ramp up social distancing efforts and increase testing immediately.
A phase 1 trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19 has begun in Seattle. The study will enroll 45 healthy people aged 18 to 55, over approximately 6 weeks. The first participant received the investigational vaccine today. Adults in the Seattle area may join the study.
Johns Hopkins University researchers propose using antibodies from the plasma or serum of those who have recovered from COVID-19 to help boost the immunity of newly infected patients and for those at risk of contracting the disease. Researchers say the antibodies may bind to and neutralize SARS-CoV-2. The technique has been proven successful in prior outbreaks, including the SARS epidemic and the 1918 flu pandemic.
Researchers have sequenced their first two genomes of COVID-19 from samples of patients in the UK. The genomes have been published on an international viral sequence database. The sequences will provide critical information to track the spread and evolution of the virus in the UK and worldwide.
The time between cases in a chain of transmission of COVID-19 is less than one week, and more than 10% of patients are infected by someone who has the virus but is not yet symptomatic.
MIT researchers are working on a range of projects to help diagnose and slow the transmission of COVID-19. Researchers report they are developing a paper-based COVI-19 test that can deliver results within less than 30 minutes. They are currently submitting to the FDA for emergency use authorization, which would grant temporary approval for using the test on patient samples during public health emergencies. Another research team report they have developed an experimental RNA vaccine that is ready to test.
A team of Canadian researchers has isolated SARS-CoV-2, the viral agent responsible for COVID-19. Isolating the virus will help researchers worldwide to develop better diagnostic tests, treatments, and vaccines for the pandemic virus. It will also help researchers to better understand the virus biology, evolution, and viral shedding.
Study provides first potential targets for effective immune responses against COVID-19. The findings provide essential information for vaccine design against SARS-CoV-2.
A new Lancet study describes the first locally-transmitted case of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, in the USA from a woman who recently traveled to China and transmitted the infection to her husband.
People who rate themselves as highly knowledgeable about new viral infection threats could also be more likely to believe they don't know enough.
Researchers report the median time from exposure to symptoms for the COVID-19 virus is 5.1 days. 97.5% of people who develop symptoms of coronavirus will do so within 11.5 days of exposure. For every 10,000 people quarantined for 14 days, an estimated 101 would develop symptoms after release.
A clinically proven drug known to block an enzyme essential for the viral entry of Coronavirus into the lungs blocks the COVID 19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The drug, Camostat mesilate, is a drug approved in Japan to treat pancreatic inflammation. Results suggest this drug may also protect against COVID 19. Researchers call for further clinical trials.
