Covid-19: Iceland’s plans for herd immunity

Many countries have scaled back their coronavirus restrictions, but Iceland is going further with a plan to let infections spread Health 11 March 2022 By Clare Wilson A person cycles in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 3 September 2020 REUTERS / Alamy Like some other countries, Iceland has scrapped its remaining covid-19 restrictions. Unlike other nations, however, … Read more

Bonobo infants find the arrival of a new sibling stressful

Cortisol levels in bonobo infants jumped fivefold when they got a younger sibling and stayed high for 7 months, suggesting they found it extremely stressful Life 4 March 2022 By Alice Klein A young bonobo and her mother Sean M. Lee/George Washington University Bonobo infants become highly stressed when they get a younger sibling and … Read more

Vaccinating Pregnant Women For COVID Seems to Give Future Protection to Their Babies

If a pregnant woman catches COVID, it’s very rare for the virus to be passed through the placenta to the fetus. But it’s long been known that a mother’s antibodies can cross the placental barrier to the baby and can also be transferred via breast milk after the baby is born. This is why it’s … Read more

How much more contagious could the coronavirus get?

The coronavirus is evolving to become more transmissible, and eventually it could even overtake measles, the most contagious virus we know of Health 26 January 2022 By Alice Klein An illustration of SARS-CoV-2 Gerd Altmann/Pixabay Over the past two years, we have witnessed evolution in action, with new variants of the coronavirus becoming increasingly contagious. … Read more

Western Australia: Is it time for the state to open up and let covid-19 in?

Western Australia, which has remained largely covid-free, has cancelled its border reopening due to omicron fears, but there may be little to gain by holding out longer Health 21 January 2022 By Alice Klein Women wearing face masks in Perth, Australia Matt Jelonek/Getty Images Western Australia, which has mostly dodged the coronavirus by sealing itself … Read more

COVID Quickly, Episode 21: Colds Build COVID Immunity, and the Omicron Vaccine Delay

Josh Fischman: Hi, and welcome to COVID, Quickly, a Scientific American podcast series. This is your fast-track update on the COVID pandemic. We bring you up to speed on the science behind the most urgent questions about the virus and the disease. We demystify the research, and help you understand what it really means. I’m … Read more

Puzzling Parkinson’s protein plays essential role in immunity | Science

Progress in treating Parkinson’s disease—a progressive neurological illness that causes tremors, muscle rigidity, and dementia—has been painfully slow, in large part because scientists still don’t fully understand the molecular events that kill select brain cells. What they do know is Parkinson’s leaves behind a telltale mark: clumps of the misfolded alpha synuclein (αS) protein in … Read more

Omicron: How do prior infections affect covid-19 risk from new variants?

Many people all over the world have now had one infection with covid-19 – how does that affect their future chance of a second round with the coronavirus? Health 8 December 2021 By Clare Wilson A healthcare worker does tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus Peter Kovalev/TASS via Getty Images For the past year, … Read more