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Researchers in Shanghai found low levels of coronavirus antibodies in some people who had recently recovered from Covid-19. Photo: DPA

Scientists in Shanghai say some recovered patients show no signs of the neutralising proteins

Early-stage findings could have implications for vaccine development and herd immunity, they say

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - medRxiv - Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in a COVID-19 recovered patient cohort and their implications - April 6, 2020

scmp.com - by Stephen Chen - April 7, 2020

Researchers in Shanghai hope to determine whether some recovered coronavirus patients have a higher risk of reinfection after finding surprisingly low levels of Covid-19 antibodies in a number of people discharged from hospital.

A team from Fudan University analysed blood samples from 175 patients discharged from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre and found that nearly a third had unexpectedly low levels of antibodies.

In just ten minutes, Gauthier used extra tubing to multiply the number of patients that could be ventilated.

themindunleashed.com - by Elias Marat - March 23, 2020

As health care facilities across the globe continue to grapple with a general shortage of supplies to help them with the devastating coronavirus pandemic, one doctor in Canada has managed to use a bit of creativity, ingenuity, and an idea inspired by YouTube to help future patients.

Dr. Alain Gaithier, an anesthetist at the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital in Ontario, was worried about the possibility that his rural hospital’s one ventilator would hardly be able to carry the load that the CoViD-19 outbreak could entail.

So Gauthier, who has a Ph. D. in respiratory mechanics, borrowed an idea conceived by American doctors Greg Neyman and Charlene Babcock in 2006 to double the capacity of a single ventilator.

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President Donald Trump at a Monday news conference on the Covid-19 pandemic.  Doug Mills / The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Sheri Fink - March 17, 2020

Sweeping new federal recommendations announced on Monday for Americans to sharply limit their activities appeared to draw on a dire scientific report warning that, without action by the government and individuals to slow the spread of coronavirus and suppress new cases, 2.2 million people in the United States could die.

To curb the epidemic, there would need to be dramatic restrictions on work, school and social gatherings for periods of time until a vaccine was available, which could take 18 months, according to the report, compiled by British researchers. They cautioned that such steps carried enormous costs that could also affect people’s health, but concluded they were “the only viable strategy at the current time.”

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Blood group patterns of more than 2,000 patients with the coronavirus in Wuhan and Shenzhen were compared to local healthy populations. Photo: Shutterstock

scmp.com - by Stephen Chen - March 17, 2020

People with blood type A may be more vulnerable to infection by the new coronavirus, while those with type O seem more resistant, according to a preliminary study of patients in China who contracted the disease known as Covid-19.

Medical researchers in China took blood group patterns of more than 2,000 patients infected with the virus in Wuhan and Shenzhen and compared them to local healthy populations. They found that blood type A patients showed a higher rate of infection and they tended to develop more severe symptoms.

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