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Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins reportedly pressured a group of scientists to abandon a paper they were authoring on the origins of COVID-19 and the possibility that COVID-19 was “genetically manipulated” and could have leaked from the Wuhan Insitute of Virology (WIV). “Neither Drs. Fauci or Collins edited our Proximal Origins paper in any way. The major feedback we got from the Feb 1 teleconference was: 1. Don’t try to write a paper at all — it’s unnecessary or 2. If you do write it don’t mention a lab origin as that will just...

Researchers in the United States have unveiled the structure of the "spike protein" of 2019-nCoV—the virus behind the current coronavirus disease outbreak. Despite the fact that researchers have already pieced together the virus's genetic sequence, the World Health Organisation has warned that a vaccine is still 18 months away. But knowing the structure of the virus's spike protein gives us crucial information about exactly how the virus infects host cells. This could be a vital piece of the puzzle in making the hoped-for vaccine a reality. What is a spike protein? A viral spike protein is like a key that...

The field of genomic epidemiology focuses on using the genetic sequences of pathogens to understand patterns of transmission and spread. Viruses mutate very quickly and accumulate changes during the process of transmission from one infected individual to another. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which is responsible for the emerging COVID-19 pandemic mutates at an average of about two mutations per month. After someone is exposed they will generally incubate the virus for ~5 days before symptoms develop and transmission occurs. Other research has shown that the "serial interval" of SARS-CoV-2 is ~7 days. You can think of a transmission chain as...

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took four days to test a woman with the first confirmed case of coronavirus where the origin of the disease is unknown because she hadn't traveled abroad or been exposed to an infected patient as experts warn the deadly virus could spread quickly in the US like it did in Italy. The woman, who is a resident of Solano County, which is about 35 miles outside of Sacramento, was admitted into UC Davis Medical Center on February 19. But questions are now being asked over the CDC's handling of the case after...

Picture the following sacred but unhygienic scene: Pilgrims from a dozen countries converge on one small city. They stay in cramped hotels, using communal toilets and eating meals together. For their main ritual, they converge on the tomb of a woman, the sister of a holy man, and as they get closer, they feel with rising intensity grief over her death and the deaths of her kin. The grief is a commandment: Each tear, according to one tradition, will be transformed in the afterlife into a pearl, and an angel will compensate them for their tears with a bucket of...

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases plan to conduct a clinical trial of Gilead’s experimental drug for the novel coronavirus as deaths from the outbreak lurched toward 3,000. The drug, remdesivir, has been tested on 761 patients suffering from COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak. China’s Intellectual Property Administration said Tuesday it would release results of the trial April 27. Remdesivir was used in the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. Moderna Inc. (MRNA) Monday shipped a drug – mRNA-1273 – to the National Institute of Allergy...

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.

Study enrolling hospitalized adults with COVID-19 in Nebraska A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha. The trial regulatory sponsor is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. This is the first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19, the respiratory disease first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The first trial participant...

It's not a matter of if the novel coronavirus will spread throughout the United States, but when, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine expert Nancy Messonnier. "Disruption to everyday life might be severe," Messonnier, who is the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters Tuesday. Messonnier said she told her children over breakfast that they will need to begin preparing for an escalated outbreak. Parents and caregivers, she said, should ask officials at their children's schools about plans for school dismissals, closures, and teleschool in case the virus spreads in their school districts....

The Coronavirus epidemic affecting Iran has spread even to the government as Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi has announced that he has tested positive for the disease. In addition, Iranian MP Mahmud Sadagi also announced that he had contracted the Coronavirus. In a self-published video, Deputy Health Minister Harirchi said he had contracted the virus. Iranian media reported that the infection occurred after he was apparently exposed to direct contact with local citizens who were hospitalized on suspicion of being infected with the Coronavirus. Following the infection, Harirchi was found in solitary confinement at Tehran Hospital. The suspicion that...

Iran's deputy health minister and an MP have both tested positive for the new coronavirus, as it struggles to contain an outbreak that has killed 16. The country is one of three hot-spots outside China causing concern that the virus could be becoming a pandemic. The deputy minister, Iraj Harirchi, had on Monday denied covering up the scale of the outbreak. He appeared to be in discomfort as he spoke to reporters. Iran has reported 95 cases, but the actual number is thought to be higher. The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said the sudden increase...

4.8% fatality rate. Analysis of 50,404 patients “According to Meta-analysis, among the clinical characteristics of patients with 2019-nCoV infection, the incidence of fever is 90.9% , the incidence of cough is 70.8%, and the incidence of muscle soreness or fatigue is 41%. The incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was 14.8%, the incidence of abnormal chest CT was 95.6%, the proportion of severe cases in all infected cases was 21.3%, and the mortality rate of patients with 2019-nCoV infection was 4.8%.” https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.18.20024539v1

Iran's health ministry announced three more deaths from coronavirus to 8 in total, the second highest in the world after China. The number of those infected was also raised from 28 to 43 people. While most of the deaths are from the central province of Qom, four victims died in the capital city, Tehran. Iran’s Ministry of Health also announced the closure of universities, higher educational institutions and schools in several cities and provinces to reduce the spread of Covid-19 virus. Universities and colleges will be closed until the end of the Iranian week, February 29 in Tehran, Alborz Qazvin...

The number of people in Italy infected with the new virus from China more than quadrupled Friday due to an emerging cluster of cases in the country’s north that prompted officials to order schools, restaurants and businesses to close. Many of the 14 new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and brought the country’s total to 17. The cluster was located in a handful of tiny towns southeast of Milan in the Lombardy region, said Lombardy regional health chief Giulio Gallera. “This was foreseeable even if we hoped it wouldn’t have happened,” Gallera said. The...

Iran has officially the second largest number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) death toll after China with four confirmed deaths. Earlier reports said two patients died in Qom on Thursday, but officials did not say where did the new two deaths occured. Meanwhile, Tehran has confirmed 13 more patients including 7 in Qom, 4 in Tehran and 2 in Rasht are positively diagnosed with Coronavirus, Kianush Jahanpur, head of public relations and information center of Iran's Ministry of Health said in a tweet Friday afternoon February 21. Most of the new cases include people living in Qom and those who have visited...

Daegu (AFP) -- South Korea confirmed 52 more cases of novel coronavirus on Friday as the number of infections linked to a religious sect in Daegu spiked, making it the worst-infected country outside China. (Please see full article, at the link)

Another case of the coronavirus has been diagnosed in British Columbia. The provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says a woman in her 30s has been diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning this week from Iran. The woman lives in the Fraser Health region. “Our continued view is that the risk to B.C. is low, we are acting with vigilance,” she said. Henry said staff were surprised by a new case linked to Iran, which only recently reported it had five cases of COVID-19 and two deaths. “That could be an indicator that there’s more widespread transmission. This is what we...

Iran said on February 20 that three more people have tested positive for a new coronavirus in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom, where two people the previous day had died of the illness caused by the virus. The IRNA state news agency reported that all schools and universities, including religious Shi’ite seminaries, were closed in the holy Iranian city, located about 140 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran. Amid fears of the virus spreading, neighboring Iraq banned border crossings by Iranian nationals after already suspending flights to Iran. The country’s Health Ministry said the same day that there were...

The article published on 3 February criticised the country's response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese foreign ministry said it had asked the newspaper to apologise several times but it had declined. The newspaper said the journalists - who had not written the opinion piece - were given five days to leave China. China's decision came a day after the US State Department tightened rules on Chinese state media organisations operating in the US, classifying them as foreign missions. It told five outlets including state-run Xinhua news agency and the China Global Television Network that they had to submit...

A Kobe University doctor touched off a furor with a firsthand account of a virus-stricken cruise ship in which he said the protections against infection were so weak he was scared he would get sick himself. Kentaro Iwata, who made the allegations in widely circulated YouTube videos after spending Tuesday aboard the Diamond Princess, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the crew should be removed as soon as possible because of the danger of catching the novel coronavirus on the ship.