STAT
Merck’s experimental drug molnupiravir cuts COVID hospitalizations and deaths in half
A five-day course of molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, reduced both hospitalization and death compared to a placebo ...
‘COVID vaccines are wondrous weapons, but they aren’t impenetrable armor’
When Covid-19 vaccines were reported last fall to be roughly 95% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infections, the world rejoiced ...
‘Fatally, tragically flawed’: Why research and recommendations addressing the obesity epidemic are so wrong
For nearly a century, obesity research has been predicated on the belief that the cause of the disorder “is an ...
Viewpoint: Freedom not force? One physician’s strategy to engage the COVID vaccine reluctant
The anger I feel toward vaccine-hesitant people becomes a more complicated emotion when I witness them reckoning with their choices ...
Some people appear genetically immune to catching COVID — but scientists are still not sure why
[Molecular biology professor Mayana] Zatz’s work is part of a growing effort to identify factors that may make people resistant ...
Suddenly, we have more antidepressant alternatives than just conventional depression-treating drugs
Patient responses.... after years of unsuccessful treatment with standard drugs, are spurring a gradual — and, some would say, overdue ...
Could gene editing and gene drives alter bats to prevent future pandemics?
Amid the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, two researchers are proposing a drastic way to stop future pandemics: using a technology called ...
If you’ve received a COVID vaccine, how worried should you be about catching the Delta variant?
[Y]ou may have heard about Olympic athletes who are fully vaccinated getting positive Covid tests or people in Provincetown, Mass., ...
WHO restates opposition to gene-editing live human embryos but endorses other forms of genome modification
[July 12,] a World Health Organization advisory committee called on the world’s largest public health authority to stand by the ...
Viewpoint: Why the FDA’s decision to overrule its evaluatory panel and approve dementia-relief drug Aduhelm was a mistake
Like many people, I was shocked when the Food and Drug Administration ignored the advice of its neurological drugs advisory ...
In an unprecedented move hoping to quell criticism, FDA releases documents detailing messy internal debate over Biogen’s dementia drug Aduhelm
[A] series of documents [were released June 22] by the FDA to explain its decision to use a truncated pathway, ...
‘This was the first time nobody voted for approval of a drug’: Neurologist on FDA panel that negatively evaluated controversial Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab resigns after agency pushes through approval
Neurologist Joel Perlmutter of Washington University in St. Louis, a member of the FDA’s expert panel for nervous system therapies, ...
History documents hundreds of pandemics over the ages. Understanding how they ended could provide us a roadmap going forward
How did [pandemics of the past] end? The viruses didn’t go away; a descendent of the Spanish flu virus, the ...
‘Crisis of confidence’: What’s causing the panic around AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine?
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is facing a crisis of confidence, with one European country after another, as if seized by a ...
Vaccine clinical research trials skewed towards White Americans, marginalizing minorities, study finds
An analysis of the demographics of a decade’s worth of vaccine clinical trials has found that Black Americans, Latinos, American ...
COVID evolution: ‘What other variants might be out there?’
Tracking the subtle changes to the virus’ RNA is like global detective work, requiring health officials around the world to ...
Here is COVID good news: It’s jumpstarted biomedical innovation
As we look back at the past few months, I see three lessons that health care researchers can take from ...
Do asymptomatic carriers spread COVID? Widespread confusion in the early days of the outbreak crippled an effective response
Jan. 24 marks the one-year anniversary of a momentous but largely unnoticed event in the history of the Covid-19 pandemic: ...
Coronavirus treatment breakthrough? Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody drug shows promise in preventing COVID-19 spread
In November, the antibody bamlanivimab was authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration in treating patients with ...
‘Vaccine euphoria’: Why this may be the ‘end of the beginning’ not the ‘beginning of the end’
Exuberant headlines about vaccines — Now two! Millions more doses! — have grabbed attention, as have rightfully joyous social media photos ...
‘We never got it under control’: COVID modelers say case surge in US and Europe is more than just another wave
The consensus among major Covid-19 modelers is that we could see 20,000 to 25,000 deaths in just the next two ...
How should we prioritize a COVID vaccine for communities that have been hit hardest?
Frontline health workers, elderly people, and those with chronic conditions that make them especially vulnerable to Covid-19 are likely to ...
Why the US pandemic death rate might be 50 percent more than what is being reported
[E]xperts know that the official [COVID-19] death tally is going to be an undercount by some extent. Some people who ...
The COVID vaccine race champion appears to be mRNA technology used by Pfizer and Moderna. Here’s a primer
There are about a dozen experimental vaccines in late-stage clinical trials globally, but the ones being tested by Pfizer and Moderna are ...
Now there are two: Modern’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine 94.5% successful, joins Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration in targeting pandemic
The Moderna vaccine reduced the risk of Covid-19 infection by 94.5%. There were 95 cases of infection among patients who ...
People’s vaccine? Will the wealthiest countries control coronavirus drugs?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson characterized Britain’s exit from the European Union as “recaptured sovereignty.” These invocations of sovereign power reflect ...
What our COVID world might look like over the next year
Now — with health authorities saying it may not be until at least the end of 2021 before there’s a ...
Here’s when and how the biotechnology revolution first got lift off
Early in the morning of Tuesday, October 14, 1980, the phone rang at Paul Berg’s house in Stanford, Cal. The ...
