The world is nearly four years into the COVID-19 pandemic, but how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages human lives, both in the short term and across a span of years, is still becoming clear. Earlier this month, a study in Lancet showed that 54% of those infected in the first months of the pandemic were still experiencing symptoms over three years later.
Comments closedTag: research
Topic: cancerView all posts for the topic: cancer
Cancer patients with COVID at higher risk of death, hospitalization amid Omicron
A study from Israel finds that adult solid-cancer patients had a higher risk of death and hospitalization after COVID-19 infection than infected patients without cancer during a period of Omicron variant predominance and that vaccination lowered that risk.
Comments closed
Topic: premature birthsView all posts for the topic: premature births
Study: Spike in premature births caused by COVID, halted by vaccines
COVID-19 caused an alarming surge in premature births, but vaccines were key to returning the early birth rate to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis of California birth records.
“The effect of maternal COVID infection from the onset of the pandemic into 2023 is large, increasing the risk of preterm births over that time by 1.2 percentage points,” says Jenna Nobles, a University of Wisconsin–Madison sociology professor. “To move the needle on preterm birth that much is akin to a disastrous environmental exposure, like weeks of breathing intense wildfire smoke.”
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Study: Air purifier use at daycare centres cut kids’ sick days by a third
Use of air purifiers at two daycare centres in Helsinki led to a reduction in illnesses and absences among children and staff, according to preliminary findings of a new study led by E3 Pandemic Response.
Air purifiers of various sizes and types were placed in two of the city’s daycare centres during cold and flu seasons.
The initial results from the first year of research are promising, according to researcher Enni Sanmark, from HUS Helsinki University Hospital.
“Children were clearly less sick in daycare centres where air purification devices were used — down by around 30 percent,” Sanmark explained.
Comments closedTopic: air pollutionView all posts for the topic: air pollution
Air Pollution Is Really Dangerous, Even More New Evidence Shows
PM2.5 particles are tiny enough to enter the bloodstream and lodge in the lungs, where they contribute to respiratory problems such as asthma. They also can prompt heart attacks and strokes. And they have been linked to diabetes, obesity and dementia and may exacerbate COVID.
Comments closed
Topic: cancerView all posts for the topic: cancer
Inside long COVID’s war on the body: Researchers are trying to find out whether the virus has the potential to cause cancer
Long COVID is no stranger to either patients or those immersed in studies of its effects. In the U.S., one in 7 adults–about 14% of the adult population–has experienced symptoms that lasted three months or longer after first contracting the virus. The worldwide estimate for long COVID is 65 million people.
What is less clear–because it’s still so early in the process–is the impact of some of SARS-CoV-2’s most dangerous characteristics on those hit by long COVID. But some researchers are warily watching for the worst: a potential connection to cancer.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
MRI study spotlights impact of long COVID on the brain
A new study comparing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of patients with long COVID, fully recovered COVID-19 survivors, and healthy controls shows microstructural changes in different brain regions in the long-COVID patients. The findings will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
UK primary care costs nearly 45% higher among long-COVID patients, analysis finds
Long-COVID diagnoses and long-term symptoms among nonhospitalized adults were tied to 43% and 44% increases in the costs of primary care, respectively, in the United Kingdom, according to a study published yesterday in BMC Primary Care.
Comments closedTopic: zoonosesView all posts for the topic: zoonoses
A Lot of Deer Carry COVID. Should That Worry People?
COVID hasn’t just colonized billions of humans. The virus has entered North America’s white-tailed deer populations, transforming one of the largest remaining wild mammal populations on Earth into another rapidly evolving reservoir for COVID.
Comments closedTopic: public health measuresView all posts for the topic: public health measures
Substantial decrease noted in severe respiratory illness during first 2 years of pandemic
Compared to the 3 years prior to the pandemic, children with medically complex conditions and otherwise healthy children saw decreases in severe non-COVID respiratory illnesses in 2020 and 2021, the authors of a study yesterday note in JAMA Network Open.
The cross-sectional study, based on 139,078 respiratory hospitalizations in Canada, shows that the mitigation efforts used during the first several months of COVID-19 likely prevented serious outcomes from respiratory illness complications, including hospitalizations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and death.
Comments closedTopic: United StatesView all posts for the topic: United States
COVID increased gender life expectancy gap in US
For more than 100 years, American women have outlived American men, largely due to differences in rates of cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. Now COVID-19 has widened the gendered life expectancy gap, according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Comments closedTopic: researchView all posts for the topic: research
How our memories of COVID-19 are biased — and why it matters
Our view of the effectiveness of past pandemic responses is influenced by our present vaccination status. Public inquiries and future research must take this factor into account.
Comments closedTopic: cognitive issuesView all posts for the topic: cognitive issues
Can’t Think, Can’t Remember: More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog
There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems — with remembering, concentrating or making decisions — than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows.
The increase started with the pandemic: The number of working-age adults reporting “serious difficulty” thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
What Tony Fauci Told Me About Long COVID and Other Postviral Illnesses
Too many people are suffering from long COVID and other postviral syndromes. Anthony Fauci says we need to step up funding and research now.
Comments closedTopic: researchView all posts for the topic: research
Study finds prenatal vaccination protects infants from COVID
Infants as old as 6 months were protected from COVID‑19 infections only when mothers were vaccinated prenatally, and not before pregnancy, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.
Comments closedTopic: COVID denialView all posts for the topic: COVID denial
We Interrupt This Mood of Denial to Update COVID’s Threat
Although many Canadians act as though the pandemic has ended, the airborne virus that causes COVID-19 continues to evolve at an amazing pace with devastating consequences for both individuals and the public at large.
Comments closed