Enlarge / A health worker vaccinates a child against malaria in Ndhiwa, western Kenya. (credit: BRIAN ONGORO / Getty Images) The incredible success of the COVID vaccines has been a triumph of biotechnology. But that triumph has in some ways obscured the amount of luck involved. We’ve been trying for decades to produce vaccines against […]
Enlarge / Illustration of antibodies (red and blue) responding to an infection with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (purple). (credit: Getty Images) From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of researchers’ nagging questions involved trying to understand what constitutes immunity to future infections. People who had been infected by the virus produced varying amounts of […]
Enlarge / False color image of viruses attached to a cell’s surface. (credit: NIAID) While the SARS-CoV-2 virus is new to humans, coronaviruses in general aren’t. There have been earlier members of this group of viruses that have raised pandemic fears, while another group regularly circulates widely in humans, causing symptoms of the common cold. […]
Enlarge / The structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. (credit: University of Arkansas) Over the summer, you could almost hear a sigh of relief rising from the portion of the research community that was tracking the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Viruses, especially those new to their hosts, often pick up mutations that help them […]
Enlarge / The immune response involves a lot of moving parts. (credit: BSIP/Getty Images) There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how exactly the immune system responds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But what’s become clear is that re-infections are still very rare, despite an ever-growing population of people who were exposed in the early days […]
Enlarge / SOUTH TANGERANG, INDONESIA – JANUARY 7, 2021: A patient recovered from COVID-19 donate plasma at Indonesia Red Cross Transfusion Center in South Tangerang. (credit: Barcroft Media / Getty Images) It’s clear that the immune system can mount a robust response to SARS-CoV-2, as the vaccine trials have made clear. Beyond that, though, there […]
Enlarge / Oxford University is associated with the hospital that ran this study, as well as a vaccine that is currently undergoing clinical trials. (credit: Gallo Images) The two authorizations issued by the FDA for COVID-19 vaccines come because of clear data that they limit infections by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and ensure that any ensuing […]