Free Republic

Prior infection by a parasitic hookworm has been shown to protect mice from severe SARS-CoV-2 disease, offering a potential explanation as to why certain human populations seemed to fare better during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study looked at hookworm infection in the lungs of mice, as their immune system and cell biology closely mirrors our own. The collaboration found that the mice infected with hookworm were less likely to develop severe COVID symptoms and recovered from the infection much more quickly than their counterparts, even after the worms were cleared from the body. Looking more closely at...

Among the weird findings: Pulling a tick off the wrong way can lead to meat allergy. An Australian doctor found the link while studying rising cases of the allergy among people who live on Sydney's tick-prone northern beaches. "I now tell everybody I see who lives anywhere near ticks to use `Aerostart' (spray-on engine cleaner) or another high-alcohol substance," said Dr Sheryl van Nunen. "Stun the tick before you scrape it out and it can't inject what it injects." The first US case of "cannabinoid hyperemesis" was recorded in the medical literature. The syndrome was first described in 2004 in...