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Alternative to opioids found in trio of old antibiotics. Monoclonal antibodies can prevent COVID-19—but successful vaccines complicate their future. Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Monoclonal antibodies can prevent COVID-19—but successful vaccines complicate their future

A study in U.S. nursing homes has shown for the first time that monoclonal antibodies, mass-produced in a laboratory, can protect people from developing symptomatic COVID-19. Their manufacturer, Eli Lilly, hopes these antibodies will provide an additional way to protect people at risk of serious disease from the pandemic coronavirus.

Old drugs prove their worth against Covid-19 as search continues for life-saving therapies. Covid Denier Struggling To Protest State’s Incoherent, Constantly Changing Coronavirus Policies. Even After Getting Vaccinated, You Could Still Infect Others. WATCH: The Future of Vaccines. Feds ‘very concerned’ about serious side effect in AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine trial. The Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to follow British regulators in resuming a coronavirus vaccine trial that was halted when a participant suffered spinal cord damage, even as the National Institutes of Health has launched an investigation of the case.

Feds ‘very concerned’ about serious side effect in AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine trial

“The highest levels of NIH are very concerned,” said Dr. Avindra Nath, intramural clinical director and a leader of viral research at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, an NIH division. In a first, a person’s immune system fought HIV — and won. Some rare people may essentially be able to cure themselves of HIV infections.

In a first, a person’s immune system fought HIV — and won

Twice, people infected with HIV have had levels of the virus in their bodies drop to undetectable levels after bone marrow transplants, never to return (SN: 3/5/19). Now it appears that a person may have cleared functional HIV with no outside help. If true, it would be the first known instance of a spontaneous cure. Analysis of more than 1.5 billion cells taken from a patient known as EC2 showed no functional HIV copies in any of them, researchers report August 26 in Nature. The person still had some nonfunctional copies of the virus. A second person, EC1, had just one functional copy of HIV in more than 1 billion blood cells analyzed. Sign Up For the Latest from Science News Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your inbox. Sweden developed herd immunity after refusing to lock down, some health experts claim, but others point to its high fatality rate.

Leading Swedish health experts claim the country has a falling coronavirus infection rate because it was one of the few that didn’t go into lockdown and has rejected the need for masks.

Sweden developed herd immunity after refusing to lock down, some health experts claim, but others point to its high fatality rate

Arne Elofsson, a professor in biometrics at Stockholm University, thinks the population has developed a form of immunity: “Strict rules do not work as people seem to break them. Sweden is doing fine.” Scientists Just Released a DIY Coronavirus Vaccine Under a Creative Commons License. Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures - Volume 26, Number 5—May 2020.

Influenza pandemics occur at irregular intervals when new strains of influenza A virus spread in humans (1).

Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures - Volume 26, Number 5—May 2020

Influenza pandemics cause considerable health and social impact that exceeds that of typical seasonal (interpandemic) influenza epidemics. One of the characteristics of influenza pandemics is the high incidence of infections in all age groups because of the lack of population immunity. Although influenza vaccines are the cornerstone of seasonal influenza control, specific vaccines for a novel pandemic strain are not expected to be available for the first 5–6 months of the next pandemic.

Antiviral drugs will be available in some locations to treat more severe infections but are unlikely to be available in the quantities that might be required to control transmission in the general community. How a Potential Treatment for the Coronavirus Turned Up in a Scientist’s Freezer. In 1998, when the Dutch scientist Berend Bosch decided to make the study of coronaviruses his life’s work, the level of attention they garnered among medical researchers was such that the Ph.D. program he joined was in a department of veterinary science.

How a Potential Treatment for the Coronavirus Turned Up in a Scientist’s Freezer

Coronaviruses that could cause severe infections were circulating among animals, but the types that people could contract seldom caused anything worse than the common cold. “For human health, it wasn’t that important,” Bosch said. That started to change around the time he was completing his doctorate, at Utrecht University. The 'Wall' That Keeps Flesh-Eating Worms Out of America. The Florida Keys are a place where deer stand next to children at school-bus stops.

The 'Wall' That Keeps Flesh-Eating Worms Out of America

They lounge on lawns. They eat snacks right out of people’s hands. So when the deer began acting strangely in the summer of 2016, the people of the Keys noticed. Bucks started swinging their heads erratically, as if trying to shake something loose. Then wounds opened on their heads—big, gaping wounds that exposed white slabs of bone. That something, lab tests would later confirm, was the New World screwworm, a parasite supposed to have been eradicated from the United States half a century ago. Why COVID-19 is both startlingly unique and painfully familiar. For Abby Knowles, a headache and fatigue was just the start.

Why COVID-19 is both startlingly unique and painfully familiar

She soon felt like she had a tight band across her chest, making it difficult to breathe. She developed pain in her upper body, which led doctors to check if she was having a heart attack (she wasn’t). Her blood pressure began to oscillate — too low, too high — leaving her lightheaded and nauseous. Gym's Eerie 'Ultraviolet' Cleaning Solution Could Spread All Over Australia. Orwell once wrote: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.”

Gym's Eerie 'Ultraviolet' Cleaning Solution Could Spread All Over Australia

While Australia’s latest batch of hygiene rules may not be quite so hard on your nose, they still – the petulant among us would argue – fall under the same category of Boring Bureaucratic Evil. Fortunately, the change we’re here to discuss today goes beyond taking of names and registering of phone numbers. Enter: Sydney-based boutique gym, SOMA Collection, which has become the first Australian gym to introduce Coronavirus killing technology – Surfacide – to its cleaning routine. The archaeological record reveals something strange about diseases throughout history. The previous pandemics to which people often compare COVID-19 – the influenza pandemic of 1918, the Black Death bubonic plague (1342-1353), the Justinian plague (541-542) – don’t seem that long ago to archaeologists.

The archaeological record reveals something strange about diseases throughout history

We’re used to thinking about people who lived many centuries or even millennia ago. Evidence found directly on skeletons shows that infectious diseases have been with us since our beginnings as a species. Bioarchaeologists like us analyze skeletons to reveal more about how infectious diseases originated and spread in ancient times. How to build social bubbles to lower your risk of Covid-19. As communities around the world are starting to open up, many people are hoping to spend time with friends and loved ones they haven’t seen for months of lockdown.

There’s no way to eliminate the risk of spreading Covid-19 during those visits. But to help decide who it’s safer to spend time with, an Oxford sociologist asks you to consider the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The American film star is so prolific, the idea goes, that every working actor is always just six degrees of separation—or fewer! How Fast Can a Vaccine Be Made?: An Animated Introduction. From Ted-Ed comes a video that answers a timely question: How fast can a vaccine be made? They write: "When a new pathogen emerges, our bodies and healthcare systems are left vulnerable. And when this pathogen causes the outbreak of a pandemic, there’s an urgent need for a vaccine to create widespread immunity with minimal loss of life. So how quickly can we develop vaccines when we need them most? Dan Kwartler describes the three phases of vaccine development.

" Exploratory research, clinical testing, and manufacturing. Major study finds steroid reduces deaths in patients with severe Covid-19. A cheap, readily available steroid drug reduced deaths by a third in patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in a large study, the first time a therapy has been shown to possibly improve the odds of survival with the condition in the sickest patients. Full data from the study have not been published or subjected to scientific scrutiny. But outside experts on Tuesday immediately embraced the top-line results. The drug, dexamethasone, is widely available and is used to treat conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and some cancers. In a statement, Patrick Vallance, the U.K. government’s chief scientific adviser, called the result “tremendous news” and “a ground-breaking development in our fight against the disease.”

Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the U.S. The Indigestion Drug That Treats COVID-19. Llama antibodies could help fight coronavirus, study finds. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Success Stories: The Countries That Are Flattening the Coronavirus Curve. The United States is now an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with epidemiological models publicized on Tuesday suggesting the disease could infect millions of Americans in the coming months, killing between 100,000 and 240,000.

Hospitals in the state of New York, where there are more than 75,000 confirmed cases, are already overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of critical medical equipment such as ventilators and protective gear. The grim projections indicate that the virus has not reached its peak and that the situation will get worse. New Mexico got aggressive start on testing for virus.

People arrive at a testing facility across the street from Lovelace Medical Center, 601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Firm Reports Early Success in Covid-19 Antibody Treatment. A COVID-19 Treatment Might Already Exist in Old Drugs. Scientifically Advances Clean - Home. Herd immunity. Copper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn’t It Everywhere? Media Silent After Australian Researchers Announce 'Coronavirus Cure' Using Already Existing Drugs. Save The mainstream media, which is focused on promoting the development of experimental vaccines to stop the spread of coronavirus, is virtually silent about a team of Australian researchers who say they’ve found a cure for the novel coronavirus and hope to have patients enrolled in a nationwide trial by the end of the month: University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research director Professor David Paterson told news.com.au today they have seen two drugs used to treat other conditions wipe out the virus in test tubes.

NM lab intros green, clean, detoxing machine. Public works employees use NeoSan’s compound to clean an oil stain off a street in San Francisco. US Scientists announce ‘breakthrough’ atomic map of coronavirus. US scientists announced Wednesday they had created the first 3D atomic scale map of the part of the novel coronavirus that attaches to and infects human cells, a critical step toward developing vaccine and treatments. It came as the death toll from the COVID-19 virus jumped past 2,000, almost all of them in mainland China where 74,185 cases of infection have been confirmed since it first emerged in late December. New test quickly detects algae-bloom toxins in urine. Japan Just Imported Ebola to Prep for Possible Olympic Outbreak. 'We are dropping like flies.' Ex-fighter pilots push for earlier cancer screenings.

Dr. Pimple Popper Season 2 Episode 5 Recap. Device uses magnetic fields to increase muscle strength. Dentists Could Use Viruses to Treat Tooth Decay. New "Trojan horse" antibiotic offers hope in battle against superbugs. Deadly Cashew Nut Oil Is Poised to Take On Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs. FDA just approved the first drug to prevent migraines. Here’s the story of its discovery—and its limitations. Common class of drugs linked to dementia even when taken 20 years before diagnosis.

How platypus milk could help battle the global superbug threat. Re-Thinking Alzheimer’s Research by Looking to Our Ancestors. Naval Special Warfare Trainees Face Tiny Enemy: Bacteria. A Boy Scrapes His Elbow. One Week Later, Docs Find a Sea Snail in the Wound. Scientists believe they may have discovered the disease that wiped out 80 percent of Aztecs. DNA vaccine promises permanent, universal protection against the flu. New technique stops bacteria teaching each other how to become antibiotic resistant.

Dyslexia: scientists claim cause of condition may lie in the eyes. Researchers Forced To Scrap Another Sleep Study After Participants Murdered In Dreams By Serial Killer. Superbug superweapon: Identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 30 minutes. FDA Rents Party House Upstate To Test New Drug. Fire ant venom might contain treatment for psoriasis. Scientists identify part of the brain that makes schizophrenia sufferers hear 'voices' While America Ignores A Disease Bigger Than Zika, Its Victims Remain Invisible. Old vaccines can protect against a range of other diseases. Time to pop an anti-ageing pill. This Technology Could Stop the World’s Deadliest Animal – Mother Jones.

An Ancient Cure for Alzheimer’s? - The New York Times. 50-year-old flu virus model revamped, revealing pandemic prediction possibilities. Could Vitamin C Be the Cure for Deadly Infections? The Next Plague Is Around the Corner. Electrified graphene becomes a bacterial bug zapper. A radical view for age of superbugs: Don't fight infections. Live with them. Jet-spray pill provides painless oral alternative to the needle. A Woman Just Died From an Infection No U.S. Antibiotics Could Beat. Brazilian berry extract stops a superbug in its tracks. Decline of the dentist's drill? Drug helps rotten teeth regenerate, trial shows.

Brain implant enables paralyzed woman to communicate by thought. Snake venoms’ deadly secret unlocked: study. Cranberries crush bacteria's communication networks. Theconversation. FDA-approved drugs show promise for rapid and robust hair regrowth. Theconversation. What the world has learned about Zika so far. Scientists 'find cancer's Achilles heel' Bats' 24/7 immunity holds clues to tackling infectious disease. Natural clay found to kill deadly bacteria. Tiny Quantum Dots May Spell Doom For Deadly Superbug Infections. How Thalidomide Went From Medical Disaster to Miraculous Cancer Treatment. Edge.org. In the hunt for new antibiotics, the genius of simplicity. The end of migraines is close: A new drug could stop debilitating headaches before they start. Nanomesh dressings may draw bacteria from chronic wounds. New vaccine method could protect against all types of influenza. All Natural Sleep Aid by Sleep Shepherd.

Mentally ill might spray away some of their troubles. Theconversation. Gates, Google Join $120 Million Funding for Genome Editing Firm. Scientists Target New Painkillers From Spider Venom. Anglo-Saxon antibiotics are just the start – it’s time to start bioprospecting in the past. Anglo Saxon remedy kills hospital superbug MRSA - health - 30 March 2015. Dentists could soon be fixing your teeth with cement. DARPA thinks it has a solution to Ebola (and all other infectious diseases) Could laser light and nanoparticles replace chemotherapy? Blood. Needle-free Ebola vaccine provides four-month protection in monkeys. How A Tilt Toward Safety Stopped A Scientist's Virus Research.

Xenon could provide protection for the brain after a blow to the head.