How new vaccines can help with our antibiotic dependence

How new vaccines can help with our antibiotic dependence: Antibiotics are antimicrobial drugs used to kill bacteria. Along with vaccines, antibiotics often top lists of the most important medical discoveries, with both interventions having a tremendous impact on illness and deaths from communicable diseases.¹

However, the usefulness of antibiotics to medicine is under threat. A national campaign in the UK called ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’ is trying to prevent antibiotic misuse and overuse by making the point that antibiotics are useless for many illnesses that they are asked for (for example, viral infections such as cold or flu) and contribute to the 5,000 deaths a year in England from untreatable illnesses.

Still it is poorer countries across the world that are likely to take the biggest toll from antibiotic-resistant infections. 

Comment s'organise le crime pendant la pandémie ?

Comment s'organise le crime pendant la pandémie ?: Il est certains secteurs qui, avec la crise, font preuve d'une grande ingéniosité pour survivre - voire prospérer. La criminalité fait partie de ceux-là.

Outdoor air was not infectious and safe for the public

SARS-CoV-2 concentrations and virus-laden aerosol size distributions in outdoor air in north and south of Italy: Outdoor air was not infectious and safe for the public excluding crowded sites.

The story of mRNA

The story of mRNA: From a loose idea to a tool that may help curb Covid: But what the companies share may be bigger than their differences: Both are banking on a genetic technology that has long held huge promise but has so far run into biological roadblocks. It is called synthetic messenger RNA, an ingenious variation on the natural substance that directs protein production in cells throughout the body. Its prospects have swung billions of dollars on the stock market, made and imperiled scientific careers, and fueled hopes that it could be a breakthrough that allows society to return to normalcy after months living in fear.

SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV viral load dynamics, duration of viral shedding, and infectiousness

SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV viral load dynamics, duration of viral shedding, and infectiousness: a systematic review and meta-analysis: Although SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding in respiratory and stool samples can be prolonged, duration of viable virus is relatively short-lived. SARS-CoV-2 titres in the upper respiratory tract peak in the first week of illness. Early case finding and isolation, and public education on the spectrum of illness and period of infectiousness are key to the effective containment of SARS-CoV-2.

The Value of a Cure: An Asset Pricing Perspective

The Value of a Cure: An Asset Pricing Perspective: We provide an estimate of the value of a cure using the joint behavior of stock prices and a vaccine progress indicator during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our indicator is based on the chronology of stage-by-stage progress of individual vaccines and related news. We construct a general equilibrium regime-switching model of repeated pandemics and stages of vaccine progress wherein the representative agent withdraws labor and alters consumption endogenously to mitigate health risk. The value of a cure in the resulting asset-pricing framework is intimately linked to the relative labor supply across states. The observed stock market response to vaccine progress serves to identify this quantity, allowing us to use the model to estimate the economy-wide welfare gain that would be attributable to a cure. In our estimation, and with standard preference parameters, the value of the ability to end the pandemic is worth 5-15% of total wealth. This value rises substantially when there is uncertainty about the frequency and duration of pandemics. Agents place almost as much value on the ability to resolve the uncertainty as they do on the value of the cure itself. This effect is stronger – not weaker – when agents have a preference for later resolution of uncertainty. The policy implication is that understanding the fundamental biological and social determinants of future pandemics may be as important as resolving the immediate crisis.

So When Exactly Will a COVID Vaccine Be Ready?

So When Exactly Will a COVID Vaccine Be Ready? Vaccine development is a typically lengthy process: Under normal circumstances, it can take anywhere between a decade and 15 years to get one approved and on the market, ready for distribution. But when epidemiologists began to raise the alarm in January over a new worrying virus that was ravaging a sprawling Chinese capital, it became evident that we were not facing normal circumstances, and drug companies responded accordingly. Now, less than a year after embarking on the frenzied race to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, it appears likely that not just one, but multiple vaccines may be ready before the end of the year.

So what happens once we’re widely inoculated?

Well, here’s the deflating news: A vaccine is “not going to be a light switch” back to normalcy, Fauci said during a recent appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, elaborating that we’ll likely be wearing masks and social distancing even after the vaccine is widely distributed. “I would recommend to people to not abandon all public-health measures just because you have been vaccinated,” Fauci said, because, even if you get vaccinated and the efficacy rate of the vaccine ends up being 95 percent, there is still a chance — albeit small — that you could get the virus. Also, Fauci has noted in the past, we have to account for those who don’t get vaccinated, either because they lack access or the means to pay for inoculations or because they’re skeptical.

David Ho, a virologist at Columbia University who’s developing monoclonal antibody therapies, echoed Fauci’s estimation, saying we’ll be continuing our precautionary measures for most of next year.