Sarah L Caddy, Clinical Research Fellow in Viral Immunology and Veterinary Surgeon, University of Cambridge and Meng Wang, Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellow, University of Cambridge – 17 March 2021 The emergence of “variants of concern” has raised questions about our long-term immunity to the coronavirus. Will the antibodies we make after being infected […]

The first substantial peer-reviewed clinical trial of the drug against Covid-19 finds no evidence that it is a wonder medicine     A study in Columbia of 398 people with mild Covid-19 symptoms found that ivermectin offered no statistically significant benefit over placebo. This is the first peer-reviewed large clinical trial of the drug against […]

 The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is effective against the strain of SARS-CoV-2 that is dominant in South Africa.  For the first time, a detailed analysis of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been published — in a briefing document for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is the Covid-19 vaccine that is […]

Damage to the body’s organs is not caused by the virus itself but by the immune system’s response to the virus Rebecca Aicheler, Senior Lecturer in Immunology, Cardiff Metropolitan University 25 January 2021 Why most people who get COVID have mild symptoms or none at all while some become severely ill is still a mystery […]

By Nathan Geffen, GroundUp – 29 January 2021 The obsessive pressure being put on the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to approve ivermectin is extraordinary and dangerous. There are circumstances when early – or even illegal – access to drugs is justified. In the early 2000s I worked with the TAC to import […]

“To produce an mRNA vaccine, scientists produce a synthetic version of the mRNA that a virus uses to build its infectious proteins. This mRNA is delivered into the human body, whose cells read it as instructions to build that viral protein, and therefore create some of the virus’s molecules themselves. These proteins are solitary, so […]

There are many who do not buy into this ‘good news’ – MORE   Simon Kolstoe, Senior Lecturer in Evidence-Based Healthcare and University Ethics Advisor, University of Portsmouth – 16 November 2020 It is very exciting to hear another positive story about vaccine trial results – a good vaccine is the most likely way of […]

Harry Al-Wassiti, Bioengineer and Research Fellow, Monash University; Colin Pouton, Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology, Monash University, and Kylie Quinn, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University – 10 November 2020 German biotech company BioNTech and US pharmaceutical Pfizer announced on Monday promising early results from their phase 3 clinical trial for […]

It is unlikely that any techniques used to genetically engineer the virus would not leave a genetic signature, like specific identifiable pieces of DNA code. Polly Hayes, Lecturer in Parasitology and Medical Microbiology, University of Westminster – 13 July 2020 One of the conspiracy theories that have plagued attempts to keep people informed during the […]

Will the virus evolve to become more or less lethal? Claire Crossan, Research Fellow, Virology, Glasgow Caledonian University – 23 June 2020 An important milestone in the fight against COVID-19 came in early January 2020, when the entire viral genome of the novel coronavirus that causes the disease was sequenced for the first time. Since […]