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Mass protests against China’s COVID lockdowns

Protests simmered in Shanghai early on Sunday, as residents in several Chinese cities, many of them angered by a deadly fire in the country’s far west, pushed back against heavy COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic. www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-building-fire-that-killed-10-sparks-questions-on-zero-covid-policy-3556802 A fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of …

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Research in Thailand develops long shelf life COVID-19 vaccine

A team of researchers affiliated with several entities in Thailand, working with two colleagues from the US and two from Canada, has developed an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that can be safely refrigerated for up to three months before use. The team has named it ChulaCov19. In their paper published in the journal Nature Microbiology, the …

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Beijing locks down district of 3.5 million residents

Beijing told the 3.5m residents of its most populous district to stay at home from Monday, in a bid to contain rising COVID-19 infections. China’s capital reported 516 new infections as of 3pm on Sunday, as well as the death of an 87-year-old man, China’s first known COVID fatality since 26 May. The government recently …

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Large scale respiratory illness study reports interference between diseases

In one of the largest, longest, and most comprehensive studies of respiratory virus infections in humans, Murcia and colleagues used a PCR assay that can identify members of 11 viral families to probe nasal and throat samples from more than 36,000 individuals who sought care from the National Health Service in Glasgow over 9 years. …

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Triple threat of viral diseases threatens northern hemisphere this winter

Triple threat. Tripledemic. A viral perfect storm. These frightening phrases have dominated recent headlines as some health officials, clinicians, and scientists forecast that SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) could surge at the same time in northern hemisphere locales that have relaxed masking, social distancing, and other COVID-19 precautions. https://www.science.org/content/article/competition-between-respiratory-viruses-may-hold-tripledemic-winter? But a growing body …

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COVID-19 hits largest research outpost in Antarctica

McMurdo Station, the largest research outpost in Antarctica, is suffering from an unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19, with at least 64 active cases among its more than 900 residents, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) said on 7 November. The agency this week paused most flights to the continent for 2 weeks and recommended that all …

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Cruise liner becomes COVID-19 hotspot

The Majestic Princess cruise liner docked in Sydney recently with hundreds infected after departing from the same port two weeks earlier, Nine News reports. The ship had just finished a 12-day tour of New Zealand – having dropped anchor in ports around Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Bay of Islands, and Fiordland National Park. In a joint …

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WHO notes cautious optimism regarding COVID-19

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Wednesday that there has been a 90% drop in global COVID-19 deaths since February, which he called a “cause for optimism” but still urged “caution” amid the ongoing pandemic. “Just over 9,400 COVID-19 deaths were reported to WHO last week — almost 90% less than in …

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Pfizer set to test new COVID-19 pill on long-covid patients

Plans for the first test of whether Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill known as Paxlovid can alleviate Long Covid were unveiled last week, as organizers said they expect to begin recruiting 1700 volunteers in January 2023. Patient groups and researchers have long sought such a trial to study whether suppressing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus can reduce Long COVID’s debilitating …

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More than 300 Omicron variants in circulation globally

BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are among the more than 300 sub-lineages of the Omicron variant circulating globally, 95 percent of which are direct descendants of BA.5, according to the WHO. In early July, BA.5 became the dominant subvariant of the coronavirus circulating in the United States, but in October it started giving way to BQ.1 and …

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