COVID-19 (Page 31)

Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock For nearly two years, millions of members of the public have been submitting daily health reports to the ZOE COVID Study, helping us to track the pandemic as it unfolds. In particular, the 480 million reports submitted via the study’s app have shown that as the virus has evolved, so too have the symptoms it causes. Back in 2020, it quickly became clear that the original and alpha versions of the coronavirus caused three very common symptoms – cough, fever and loss of smell – as well as at least 20 others. These included fatigue, headaches, shortness of breath, muscle pains and gastrointestinal problems, as well as more unusual phenomena such as skin rashes and “COVID tongue”. WhenContinue Reading

Kamil Macniak/Shutterstock As soon as omicron was first identified in Botswana and South Africa, two key questions arose: whether this new variant was more infectious than earlier ones, and whether it caused more or less severe disease. It’s clear from how rapidly the variant has spread and how quickly cases have increased that it is more infectious. But the question of whether omicron has less harmful effects than previous variants – whether it is less “virulent” – is somewhat more complex. Early results from South Africa (which are still awaiting review) suggested that patients with omicron were less likely to be admitted to hospital than before. And research found that even when admitted, people were less likely to require oxygen,Continue Reading

i viewfinder/Shutterstock If you have a cold, don’t ask your doctor for antibiotics – that’s the golden rule. They’re for bacterial infections, not viral ones. We’re told not only that they won’t work, but that by using antibiotics when they aren’t needed, we’re helping bacteria become resistant to them. Yet in a recent study conducted in an Egyptian hospital, we showed that treating moderate-to-severe COVID patients with either one of two antibiotics (ceftazidime or cefepime, in combination with a steroid) resulted in similar recovery times compared to patients given standard treatment. This standard treatment, authorised by the Egyptian government and approved by the World Health Organization, was made up of at least seven different medications, suggesting that treating COVID withContinue Reading

Jacob Lund/Shutterstock We are in a crisis now – and omicron has made it harder to imagine the pandemic ending. But it will not last forever. When the COVID outbreak is over, what do we want the world to look like? In the early stages of the pandemic – from March to July 2020 – a rapid return to normal was on everyone’s lips, reflecting the hope that the virus might be quickly brought under control. Since then, alternative slogans such as “build back better” have also become prominent, promising a brighter, more equitable, more sustainable future based on significant or even radical change. Returning to how things were, or moving on to something new – these are very differentContinue Reading