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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1716

Mar 19, 2020

Swiss hospitals face collapse in 10 days if virus keeps spreading

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government, health

ZURICH (Reuters) — Switzerland’s health care system could collapse by the end of the month if the new coronavirus keeps spreading at current rates, a government official warned on Tuesday.

Swiss authorities estimated that 2,650 people had tested positive for the coronavirus and said 19 people had died, while predicting cases will likely soar in the weeks ahead.

Exact figures were unavailable. Daniel Koch, head of the Federal Office of Health’s communicable diseases division, said the rapid rise had outstripped the state’s ability to record new cases in real time.

Mar 19, 2020

COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, evolution

I know some have speculated that the Coronavirus was engineered:

An analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.


The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and has since caused a large scale COVID-19 epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries is the product of natural evolution, according to findings published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

Continue reading “COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin” »

Mar 19, 2020

Antibiotics weaken flu defenses in the lung

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, sustainability

Hmm… are people with reduced lung capacity after recovering from the coronavirus more susceptible to getting the flu? Or does taking antibiotics increase one’s risk getting the coronavirus since it attacks the respiratory system?


Antibiotics can leave the lung vulnerable to flu viruses, leading to significantly worse infections and symptoms, finds a new study in mice led by the Francis Crick Institute.

The research, published in Cell Reports, discovered that signals from gut bacteria help to maintain a first line of defence in the lining of the lung. When mice with healthy gut bacteria were infected with the flu, around 80% of them survived. However, only a third survived if they were given antibiotics before being infected.

“We found that antibiotics can wipe out early flu resistance, adding further evidence that they should not be taken or prescribed lightly,” explains Dr Andreas Wack, who led the research at the Francis Crick Institute. “Inappropriate use not only promotes antibiotic resistance and kills helpful gut bacteria, but may also leave us more vulnerable to viruses. This could be relevant not only in humans but also livestock animals, as many farms around the world use antibiotics prophylactically. Further research in these environments is urgently needed to see whether this makes them more susceptible to viral infections.”

Mar 19, 2020

Making Sense with Sam Harris #191 — Early Thoughts On a Pandemic (with Amesh Adalja)

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government, health, security, terrorism

Sam Harris discusses the coronavirus withAmesh Adalja.


In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Amesh Adalja about the spreading coronavirus pandemic. They discuss the contagiousness of the virus and the severity of the resultant illness, the mortality rate and risk factors, vectors of transmission, how long coronavirus can live on surfaces, the importance of social distancing, possible anti-viral treatments, the timeline for a vaccine, the importance of pandemic preparedness, and other topics.

Continue reading “Making Sense with Sam Harris #191 — Early Thoughts On a Pandemic (with Amesh Adalja)” »

Mar 19, 2020

Spanish football coach Francisco Garcia dies of coronavirus, aged 21

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Francisco Garcia, a youth team coach at Malaga-based club Atletico Portada Alta, had an unknown pre-existing health condition that resulted in him being more vulnerable to the virus than usual for an individual of his age, though he was only informed of having cancer after going to hospital with symptoms of coronavirus.

Mar 19, 2020

Surgeon General urges US citizens to donate blood to help during coronavirus crisis

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Donating blood is one of the most effective ways Americans can help during the coronavirus crisis, the United States Surgeon General said.

Speaking during a White House coronavirus task force briefing Thursday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams urged healthy individuals, especially millennials and Gen Z, to visit their local blood centers.

“Donated blood is an essential part of caring for patients, and one donation can save up to three lives,” Adams said.

Mar 19, 2020

NIH study provides genetic insights into osteosarcoma in children

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

A study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, offers new insight into genetic alterations associated with osteosarcoma, the most common cancerous bone tumor of children and adolescents. The researchers found that more people with osteosarcoma carry harmful, or likely harmful, variants in known cancer-susceptibility genes than people without osteosarcoma. This finding has implications for genetic testing of children with osteosarcoma, as well as their families.

The study was published March 19, 2020, in JAMA Oncology.

“With this study, we wanted to find out how many people with osteosarcoma may have been at high risk for it because of their genetics,” said Lisa Mirabello, Ph.D., of NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), who led the research. “We not only learned that at least a quarter of the people in the study with osteosarcoma had a variant in a gene known to predispose someone to cancer, we also uncovered variants that had never before been associated with this cancer.”

Mar 19, 2020

“Living materials” study hints at a future with bioelectronic medicine

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

“Construction worker” cells can build synthetic structures in the body, scientists report.

Mar 19, 2020

This Austin Company Just Announced the First At-Home COVID-19 Test

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, food, government

On Thursday, March 18, Austin-based Everlywell announced that it will begin selling home tests for COVID-19 beginning Monday, March 23. The business already offers dozens of at-home testing kits for anything from cholesterol levels to fertility to food sensitivities, but it is the first U.S. company to announce an at-home COVID-19 test. Everlywell has an initial supply of 30,000 COVID-19 tests and is working with multiple laboratories to scale that number to 250,000 tests weekly.

The test can be requested online for people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. To access a test, consumers can go to everlywell.com and complete a screening questionnaire. According to the website, the test is shipped to customers with everything needed to collect a sample at home and safely ship that sample to a CLIA-certified lab partner. (All of Everywell’s laboratory partners conducting COVID-19 testing are complying with the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 symptoms.) The samples will then be shipped to partner labs overnight, and secure digital results will be available online within 48 hours of the lab receiving the sample. Free telehealth consultations with an independent, board-certified physician will also be available to those with positive results. The test is $135, at no profit to Everlywell, and is covered by participating HSA and FSA providers. The brand has reached out to government officials to see if the test can be made available for free.

Mar 19, 2020

What quarantine is like for an astronaut

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, space

People around the world are currently isolating themselves or in a formal quarantine to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. But for decades, astronauts have been quarantined to ensure that they were virus-free and ready to fly (or, in the case of Apollo, to make sure they didn’t bring home any “moon bugs.”)

This quarantine period “ensures that they aren’t sick or incubating an illness when they get to the space station,” NASA spokesperson Brandi Dean told Space.com.