Some health products haven’t been tested for the benefits that they claim to produce. Blue-light blocking lenses are promoted as helping sleep cycles, but there is no evidence to support this.
The head lice drug ivermectin is being touted as a coronavirus killer. But studies suggest it would need to be taken in mega-doses far higher than those currently used, with unknown side-effects.
Could intentionally infecting volunteers in COVID-19 trials speed up a vaccine?
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Ofer Raban, University of Oregon and Yuval Dor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Conventional trials to test coronavirus vaccines are paradoxically slowed down by actions to curb the disease’s spread. Human challenge trials are more controversial, but could speed up the process.
On Aug. 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that a coronavirus vaccine developed in the country has been registered for use.
Russian Health Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
As Russia fast tracks a coronavirus vaccine, scientists worry about skipped safety checks – and the potential fallout for trust in vaccines if something ends up going wrong.
As antimicrobial resistance increases, the options for treating serious infections dwindle. Doctors need reliable information about which treatments to try out.
Further tests are needed but a trial showed that, when compared against placebo treatment, those given the drug had a 79% lower risk of developing severe disease.
The race is on to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Australian researchers are leading several major clinical trials that might help bring an end to the deadly disease.
Researchers are central to any country’s science preparedness, especially in the face of pandemics.
Menna Hossam/picture alliance via Getty Images
Sam Kinyanjui, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme and Sharon Fonn, University of the Witwatersrand
Investments are starting to help grow the African continent’s science preparedness.
A man with ALS uses a head-mounted laser pointer to communicate with his wife, by pointing to letters and words on a communication board.
Fezcat via Wikipedia.com
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a crippling, progressive neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure. Now it seems that a diabetes drug may help some cases.
Vaccinologists have not focused their research on tailoring vaccines to induce robust immune responses in the elderly.
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Immunosenescence — the decline of immune system function with age — means that vaccines are not as effective in older adults, the demographic most susceptible to many diseases, including COVID-19.
A vaccine that’s 70% effective might not be good enough if too few people are willing to be vaccinated, new research shows.
A volunteer receives an injection from a medical worker during the country’s first human clinical trial for a potential vaccine against COVID-19 in Soweto, South Africa.
Felix Dlangamandla/Beeld/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Severe scrutiny of two major papers, including one about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, is part of science’s normal process of self-correction.
Breathing in through the nose is an integral part of meditation and delivers virus-fighting gases to the lungs.
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The body has many natural defenses against viruses and other pathogens. One antiviral molecule produced in the body is nitric oxide and it is created when we breathe in through the nose.
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney