COVID-19 (Page 34)

junpinzon / Shutterstock Public health measures to combat COVID, such as lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing, have made many people anxious. In many countries, including the UK, studies found that rates of anxiety and depression rose following the onset of the pandemic. Coping with anxiety can be a challenge even in the calmest of times, so it’s no surprise that the pandemic affected the mental health of so many people. One antidote to newfound anxiety may be found in the many COVID memes that have proliferated on the internet during the pandemic. Positive humour has been found to be an effective coping mechanism for anxiety, and this may also be applicable to pandemic-related anxiety. Humour helps people reassess negative situationsContinue Reading

To go ahead this year, Christmas celebrations may need to be more low key than they would usually be. PorporLing/Shutterstock This autumn the UK has had between 30,000 and 50,000 new COVID cases each day, and globally cases are rising again after months of steady decline – so much so that many countries are reintroducing measures to curb the virus. Austria is back in lockdown, with other European countries considering similar measures. So like last year, this promises to be a winter of discontent. In Northern Ireland the government is again recommending people work from home, while England’s winter plan notes that mask wearing, working from home and vaccine passports could be introduced. The government has refused to rule outContinue Reading

Studio Romantic/Shutterstock Older people may be more vulnerable to COVID, but in the UK it’s the young that are now driving the pandemic. Last month, school-age children in Britain were 15 times more likely than people over 80 to have the coronavirus. Leaving young people unvaccinated partly explains why cases have been so high in this group. This is why many countries are now offering COVID jabs to children. In the UK, all 12 to 15-year-olds are being offered a first vaccine dose. Some countries – such as the US and Israel – are offering COVID vaccines to children aged five and over. Of course, with younger children, it’s their parents that decide whether they get the jab – andContinue Reading

Emerald Robinson, the White House correspondent for the conservative news network Newsmax, recently tweeted that Moderna’s COVID vaccine contains luciferase “so that you can be tracked”. “Read the last book of the New Testament to see how this ends,” she added. This claim, which was later deleted, echoes claims previously made on Facebook such as: “MODERNA VACCINE CONTAINS ‘LUCIFERIN’ IN A 66.6 SOLUTION. YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP”. Luciferase and luciferin, when used together, are useful tools in the early prototyping of drugs and vaccines. However, neither are in the COVID vaccines that have been safely administered to more than half of the world’s population. Luciferase is an enzyme that causes luciferin, an organic compound, to release light, andContinue Reading

oasisamuel/Shutterstock The pandemic has been rumbling on for two years and is probably going to rumble on for years to come. And despite recent excitement about new drugs to treat COVID, it’s still vaccines that will underpin each country’s route out of the pandemic. Immunisation has proven a highly effective way of stopping people from developing severe COVID. Vaccines can be given to large numbers of people to offer long-term protection in a way that other treatments, such as antiviral drugs, can’t. Vaccines also reduce the risk of getting infected and passing the virus on. Many different vaccines are now available globally, with billions of doses administered. Yet because they’ve been unequally bought up, with richer countries capturing the lion’sContinue Reading

Shutterstock Not brushing your teeth will get you in trouble with the dentist – but since the arrival of the pandemic, it could lead to bigger problems too. There’s growing evidence that poor oral health raises the risk posed by COVID. Research shows that people with poor oral health can end up with more severe symptoms if they catch the coronavirus. COVID patients who also have gum disease are 3.5 times as likely to be admitted to intensive care compared to those without. They’re also 4.5 times as likely to need to be put on a ventilator and nine times as likely to die from COVID. This may seem shocking, but the fact that there’s a link between oral healthContinue Reading